USO Canteen FReeper Style Welcome Warriors Veterans of Foreign Wars September 17,2002

Good morning, Snow! Good morning, EVERYBODY!

Today's FEEBLE attempt at humor:

Womens Motto

"Men are like fine wine. They all start out
like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on
them and keep them in the dark until
they mature into something with which
you'd like to have dinner with."

Men's Motto

"Women are like fine wine. They all start
out fresh, fruity and intoxicating to the
mind and then turn full-bodied with age
until they go all sour and vinegary and
give you a headache."

GOOD MORNING, SASSY!

Today's classic warship, CSS Stonewall

Stonewall class ironclad ram
Displacement. 900
Lenght. 171' 10"
Beam. 32' 8"
Draft. 14' 4"
Speed. 10 k.
Armament. 1 300-pdr., 2 70-pdr.

STONEWALL, a powerful armored seagoing ram, was built by L. Arman at Bordeaux, France, in 1863-64 for the Confederate States Government; however, the French authorities refused to permit her delivery, following strong protests by American Ministers Dayton and Bigelow. The vessel was eventually sold to Denmark, via a Swedish intermediary, for use in the Schleswig-Holstein War. Because she failed to reach Copenhagen before the sudden termination of the war, the Danes refused acceptance, and title to the ram, now known as SPHINX, was returned to her builder who then sold her to the Confederates.

In December 1864 Capt. T. J. Page, CSN, took command, renamed the vessel STONEWALL, and in January 1865 sailed from Copenhagen for Quiberon Bay, France, to receive supplies. In this period she was called STAERKODDER and OLINDE to allay suspicion of her actual ownership and mission. STONEWALL was assigned the considerable tasks of dispersing the Federal blockading fleet off Wilmington, N.C., intercepting Northern commerce between California and Northern ports, attacking New England coastal cities, and destroying the Yankee fishing fleet on the Newfoundland Banks.

Unable to replenish fully in French waters, STONEWALL sailed for Madeira, but ran into a severe storm and had to put in to Ferrol, Spain, for coal and repairs. While she was there USS NIAGARA and USS SACRAMENTO arrived at Coruna, only 9 miles distant. On 24 March STONEWALL steamed out of Ferrol and prepared for battle; however when the Federals, believing her gun power to be too great, declined to close she bore away for Lisbon to coal before crossing the Atlantic.

She reached Nassau, New Providence, on 6 May 1865 and went from there to Havana where Page learned of the war's end. STONEWALL was turned over to the Captain General of Cuba in return for money needed to pay off her crew. In July 1865 the Cuban authorities voluntarily delivered her to the United States Government. She was laid up at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., for the next two years, and then sold to Japan.

She was delivered to the Japanese Shogun's government in April 1868, then reverted to American ownership and in 1869 was turned over to the forces backing the Japanese Emperor. Under the name Kôtetsu, she took part in the the civil war then raging in Japan and played an important role in the naval battle of Hakodate in June 1869. In 1871, after the victory of the Imperial cause, she was renamed Azuma. The ship remained a part of Japan's combat fleet until January 1888, when she was reduced to harbor service as an accomodation hulk.

Mornin' everyone.

Love the thread Bunny. Excellent job.

See you later.

Please accept my condolances on your loss and my thanks for you dad's service.

Antietam

Rebel lines hold after six assaults

The fighting at Antietam is most ferocious in the morning when Union soldiers begin to assault the Confederates in Miller's Cornfield.

For 3 1/2 hours, the battle lines will shift back and forth through the North Woods, the East Woods, the West Woods and the Cornfield. All are north of where the Visitors Center is today.

When Union Major Gen. Joseph Hooker first begins to march forward, the Confederates bombard his troops with artillery placed half a mile away on Nicodemus Heights. The Union soldiers are frightened by the cannonballs that come whizzing by them at 700 and 800 mph.

"The attack will be savage as Hooker's men move forward against the Confederates posted behind those rail fences west of the Hagerstown Pike, in the north edge of the West Woods," said Edwin C. Bearss, the former chief historian for the National Park Service.

Fighting in the 30-acre cornfield is intense. The battle lines are less than 250 yards apart and soldiers shoot at each other as fast as they can load their rifles.

One Texas regiment would lose 186 of its 226 soldiers, including two companies that were wiped out to the last man.

"One of the Texas officers in charge of the Fourth Texas was a berserker," Bearss said. "He would strip himself to the waist and he would carry an ax, a double-headed ax, into battle in lieu of a sword."

Union batteries, searching for Confederates concealing themselves in the cornfield, begin raking the field with cannon fire, spewing out canisters of iron and lead balls like huge shotguns.

The battle smoke at times becomes so thick, that nothing of the opposing lines can be seen but their flags. Incredibly, soldiers have to hold their fire because they can't see their targets.

Hooker's attack drove deep into Jackson's Confederate lines, but Jackson's desperate counterattack at 7 a.m. drives the federals back beyond the Cornfield and into the East Woods.

"There's terrible fighting and then savage fighting in which General Hooker will say that the corn stalks are cut off as close to the ground as if cut with a scythe," Bearss said.

By 7:30 a.m., the troops are spent and shattered. Some 5,600 soldiers on both sides are dead or wounded -- almost the same number of American troops killed during the D-Day invasion of World War II.

But this is only the beginning.

For the next 90 minutes, the federals continue to attack -- a total of six different assaults this morning. But the thrusts aren't coordinated. The battered Confederate lines are stretched, but they hold.

One of the Union thrusts is a corps of 7,200 fresh Union troops led by Major Gen. Joseph Mansfield.

As Mansfield's troops move forward toward the East Woods, two Confederate brigades move up on a ridge in front of him and prepare to fire

"Suddenly, Mansfield's men come under fire," Bearss said. "Mansfiled raises a question: 'Are they friend or foe?'

"Mansfiled rides a little out in front to investigate. And as he approaches a fence, there is a shot. And this man, who is commanding troops in battle for the first time in more than 30 years in the army, is mortally wounded."

Mansfield, who was eating breakfast when a trigger-happy Hooker began his first advance, becomes one of six generals to be mortally wounded during the day-long battle

Ambush in the West Woods

By 9 a.m., the action has shifted to the West Woods. It's disaster for the Union forces.

They try a sixth assault, this time with two divisions of nearly 10,000 men. The idea is to turn the Confederate's left flank, throw the rebels into chaos and drive them in to the streets of Sharpsburg.

But it doesn't happen.

One of the divisons led by Union Major. Gen. William H. French gets lost during the mile-long westward march and then suddenly veers to the south where it later smashes into Confederates hidden in the Sunken Road.

The other division of nearly 5,400 Union troops under Major Gen. John Sedgwick march toward the West Woods.

Union Major Gen. Edwin Sumner orders the ill-fated advance into the WestWoods without sending skirmishers out to scout the area, Bearss said.

He'll wish he had.

Unknown to Sumner and Sedgwick, the woods are full of rebels anxiously waiting to spring a deadly ambush, Bearrs said.

When the Union soldiers come within range, the Confederates level their British Enfield rifles and unleash a murderous fire from two directions. The results are horrifying; the guns are deadly accurate up to 300 yards.

Within 20 minutes, about 2,200 Union soldiers are killed or wounded by an enemy they couldn't even see. One Union colonel will later write that he lost 60 men before his soldiers could get off a single shot.

Union troops trailing the initial assault hold their fire in fear they'd shoot into the backs of their own men, Bearss said. Both Sumner and Sedgwick are shot, but survive.

Union troops lucky enough to escape the slaughter flee the West Woods as the Rebels, led by regiments from South Carolina, give chase.

"The South Carolinians will surge across the Hagerstown Pike, letting go the rebel yell as they pursue the shattered Union force," Bearss said.

But the rebels stop when they run into Union artillery that begins to blast away at them.

By 10 a.m., the fighting in the northern part of the battlefield is over.

Antietam

Dead lie three deep for half a mile

5,000 soldiers slaughtered in Sunken Lane

The fighting shifts half a mile to the south at Sunken Road, a hard clay road that had beeen worn down through the years by rain and wagons. It was used primarily by farmers who wanted to bypass Sharpsburg.

By the end of the day it would have a new name: Bloody Lane.

From his headquarters over at the Pry house, Union General George B. McClellan doesn't realize until later that this road has six angles, and that it's all one road. He thinks it's several different roads, Bearss said.

That shows how detached McClellan was from the battlefield that day, Bearss said. Confederate General Robert E. Lee knew it was one road that zigzagged toward the Boonsboro Pike (Md. 34).

"Lee's command post is generally where the National Cemetery is today," said Edwin C. Bearss, the former chief historian for the National Park Service. "Lee circulated the battlefield. Lee kept his hand on the pulse of the battle."

Fighting at Sunken Road began shortly before 10 a.m.

That's when Union Major Gen. William H. French's division, which had been separated by accident from Sedgwick before the death march into the West Woods, arrives at the road.

Waiting for them are about 2,600 Confederate troops under the command of rebel Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill. They had strengthened their rifle trench for the oncoming battle by throwing up a breastwork of fence rails.

French, known as "Old Blink-Eye" for his nervous habit of batting his eyes when he talked, presses forward with 10 regiments of more than 5,000 men.

Soon, the troops, which includes the famous Irish Brigade, clash in a raging fight that lasts more than three hours.

French, supported by about 4,000 men from Union Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson's division, tries to drive the Southerners back.

Several volley and bayonet advances by the Union are repelled by the entrenched rebels with heavy casualties.

Finally, the outnumbered Confederates are worn down.

Some Union troops are able to flank the road in a deadly manuever known in military terms as an enfilade. The federals fire down on the Confederate entrenchment from a side angle. The dead quickly pile up in the trench, lying three deep for half a mile.

The surviving rebels flee as the Union soldiers surge forward, stepping over the dead Confederates along the way. They chase the rebels through Henry Piper's cornfield.

Determined to stop the advancing Union troop, Confederate Major Generals Hill and James Longstreet helped line up cannons along a ridge.

A successful thrust against the Confederte center could have split Lee's army in half and doomed it.

"Longstreet has a sore foot, wearing a bedroom slipper on one foot, a boot on the other," Bearss said. "(But) he helps man artillery. Hill helps man artillery. So with artillery they hold the breach."

The Confederates even try a counterattack, but it's halted. The fighting along Sunken Road finally ceases from confusion and exhaustion on both sides. Casualties totaled about 5,000.

Antietam

At the bridge, rebels take a stand

The fighting now moves further south to a 125-foot-long bridge spanning the Antietam Creek. It was called the Lower Bridge or Rohrback Bridge then, but after this day it will become known as Burnside Bridge.

Union General George B. McClellan would say later that he kept prodding Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside for most of the morning to storm the Lower Bridge and the heights beyond to inflict heavy damage to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's right flank and cut off his retreat to Virginia.

Burnside would claim, however, that the orders to march his 12,000 troops and 50 cannons were sent too late.

At 10 a.m., Burnside had split his troops. One division is sent downstream to cross a ford. The rest stay behind to storm the bridge.

Crossing the bridge proves to be a monumental task. On the other side are about 400 Georgian sharpshooters posted atop a steep, wooded bluff. They are backed up by a mere 2,000 rebels who distance themselves from the bridge.

Although Burnside's force outnumbers the Confederates more than 5-to-1, it takes three hours and two disastrous assaults to finally cross.

By 1 p.m., the federals finally gain a foothold on the western bank and the rebels retreat.

But Burnside has lost valuable time. Another two hours go by before his entire corps crosses the bridge and begins marching toward Sharpsburg.

"By this time the situation looks bleak for the Confederates," said Edwin C. Bearss, the former chief historian for the National Park Service.

Between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., Confederate Major Gen. A.P. Hill, wearing the red flannel shirt he always wore into battle, arrives at Sharpsburg and reports to Lee that 3,000 of his men left Harpers Ferry at 7:30 that morning. They were crossing the Potomac River some three miles away.

By 2:30 p.m., Lee is nervous. He looks to the south and can see Burnside's men approaching out of the valley at Antietam Creek.

"Unless troops arrive, the Army of Northern Virginia is doomed," Bearss said.

"He suddenly looks out to the south and west and he can see troops coming."

"He calls to one of his officers and he asked him to train his glasses on them," Bearss said. "He trains his glasses on the flags and reports they are Confederate flags, not United States flags. Lee knows Hill is at hand."

Hill, who covered the 17 miles from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsburg in seven hours, slams into the Union's left flank.

The federals suffer casualties of about 20 percent, but there are still more than 8,500 troops -- about twice the number of Confederates.

Yet, Burnisde scrambles back to the heights above the bridge, saving Lee from disaster.

The Union still has one more chance to crush the rebels, but blows it, Bearss said.

Late in the day, a Union officer suggests to McClellan that they stage a head-on attack at Lee's center in the vicinity of Sunken Raod, the weakest part of the Confederate's battle line.

Union Major Gen. James Longstreet, who helped lead the Confederate forces at Sunken Road, later wrote that one last attack by the Union with 10,000 or more men could have crushed Lee's army.

The Union still had 20,000 soliers in reserve, soldiers who had seen little or no action all day.

McClellan, who by this time is stunned by the magnitude of the losses, still seems somewhat interested in one last strike.

McClellan turns to Major Gen. Fitz John Porter for advice. Porter, not anxious to mix it up with the rebels, says: "Remember General, I command the last reserve of the last Army of the Republic."

McClellan, who always thought he was outnumbered, scraps the attack. He worries a Union loss at Sharpsburg could enable the Confederates to march unmolested to Washington, D.C., or Baltimore.

"That was rather dramatic because the Army of the Potomac is not the last Army of the Republic," Bearss said. "And of course you can imagine a man of McClellan's temperament when he hears something like that from the general that he has the most confidence in. There will be no attack."

By 5:30 p.m., nearly all of the fighting has ended.

The sounds of rifle and cannonfire now give way to the cries and moans of thousands of dead and wounded soldiers scattered over the 12-square-mile battlefield.

The next day, both sides call a truce to take care of their dead and wounded.

McClellan makes preparations to attack on the morning of Sept. 19. But as soon as night falls on the evening of the 18th, Lee's battered army slips across the Potomac River at Pack Horse Ford near Shepherdstown, W.Va.

The Confederate's first invasion of the North has ended in retreat.

It is the first of a series of rebel losses over the next three weeks.

Historians say the South's biggest threat against the North crested with Antietam.

"The tide rolls on westward as the Confederates pull back," Bearss said. "Never again will the Confederate Army throughout the 1,000-mile front be so poised, so close to victory as they were on that 17th day of September 1862."

Good morning from VA Beach!

Finally getting some much needed rain here (YAY). Hubby's at work, his boat is currently in the shipyards for a scheduled upkeep. How long it stays there is the subject of quite a bit of gossip. Not really sure who to believe, just taking what I hear with a grain of salt.

Kids are doing good. JJ is enjoying school, now if I could just get the kids to fall asleep at a decent hour (say before 9pm) I'd be doing great. *L*

Have a great day everyone!

Good morning, Severa. We're getting rain here too finally.
Don't you just love all the scuttlebutt?

Constitution Day in the U. S. of A. I have a fleg from the 200th (1987) I will fly today. Good mornin from Maine.

1730 - Friedrich WLGA von Steuben, Prus/US inspector-gen of Washington's army

Von Steuben was born in Magdeburg fortress where his father was an engineer lieutenant in the military in 1730. Most of his adolescent years were spent in Russia, but with his father at the age of 10, they returned to Germany. He was schooled in Breslau by Jesuits and by the age of 17...was a Prussian officer in the military. He was a member of an infantry unit and a staff officer in the Seven Years War, later being made a member of the General Staff serving in Russia periodically. His service was commendable enough that he was eventually given assignment with Frederick the Great's headquarters.
His experiences as a General Staff member in the Prussian Army gave him a wealth of knowledge that heretofore was unheard of, even in the British and French armies of the period. His training would eventually bring to the American soldiers the technical knowledge necessary to create an ARMY.

At the age of 33, in 1763, Steuben was discharged as a captain from the army, for reasons that are only speculative. The following year he received his "Baron" title when he became chamberlain at the Petty Court of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. He was the only courtier to accompany his incognito prince to France in 1771, hoping to borrow money. Failing to find funds, they returned to Germany in 1775, deeply in debt. Looking for work to reverse his fortunes, von Steuben tried employment in several foreign armies including Austria, Baden and France. He discovered that Benjmin Franklin was in Paris and that possibly, he could find work with the Continental Army in America.

Steuben traveled to Paris in the summer of 1777. As luck would have it, he was endorsed for service by the French Minister of War (Count de St. Germain) who fully realized the potential of an officer with Prussian General Staff training. Steuben was introduced to General Washington by means of a letter from Franklin as a "Lieutenant General in the King of Prussia's service," a certain exaggeration of his actual credentials. He was advanced travel funds and left Europe from Marseilles. On September 26th, 1777, he reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire and by December 1st, was being extravagantly entertained in Boston. Congress was in York Pennsylvania, after being ousted from Philadelphia for the winter and on February 5, 1778, Steuben was with them. They accepted his offer to volunteer, without pay for the time, and on the 23rd of the same month, Steuben was reporting for duty to General Washington at Valley Forge. Steuben did not speak English, but his French was such that he could communicate with some of the officers. Washington's aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton as well as Nathanael Greene were a great help in this area. The two men assisted Steuben in drafting a training program for the soldiers which found approval with the Commander-in-Chief in March.

How did the men at Valley Forge become an ARMY? Steuben began with a "model company," a group of 100 chosen men and trained them...they in turn successively worked outward into each brigade. Steuben's eclectic personality greatly enhanced his mystique. He trained the soldiers, who at this point were greatly lacking in proper clothing themselves, in full military dress uniform, swearing and yelling at them up and down in German and French. When that was no longer successful, he recruited Captain Benjamin Walker, his French speaking aid to curse at them FOR HIM in English. His instructions and methods have a familiar ring, nor is this strange when we consider that much of what is done today stems from his teachings. To correct the existing policy of placing recruits in a unit before they had received training, Von Steuben introduced a system of progressive training, beginning with the school of the soldier, with and without arms, and going through the school of the regiment. Each company commander was made responsible for the training of new men, but actually instruction was done by selected sergeants, the best obtainable.

Warfare in the Eighteenth Century was a comparitively simple matter, once the battle was joined. Combat was at close range, massed-fire melee, where rapidity of firing was of primary importance. Accuracy was little more than firing faster thatn the opposing line. Much of the Regulations dealt with the manual of arms and firing drills. But battle was close-order drill, and speed of firing could only be obtained by drilling men in the handling of their firearms until the motions of loading and firing were mechanical. Firing was done in eight counts and fifteen motions.

Fire! One Motion.
Half-Cock--Firelock! One Motion.
Handle--Cartridge! One Motion.
Prime! One Motion.
Shut--Pan! One Motion.
Charge with Cartridge! Two motions.
Draw--Rammer! Two motions.
Ram down--Cartridge! One Motion.
Return--Rammer! Two motions.

Complicated as they seem, the new firing regulations were much simpler than those used by foreign armies and they speeded up firing considerably. The bulk of the fighting in the Revolutionary War was a stand up and slug match. The winning side was the one that could get in a good first volley, take a return fire and re-load faster than its foes. Once the individual could handle himself and his musket he was placed in groups of three, then in groups of twelve, and taught to wheel, to dress to the right and to the left. Alignment and dressing the ranks was emphasized but only because proper alignment was necessary for smooth firing.
Another program developed by Steuben was camp sanitation. He established a standards of sanitation and camp layouts that would still be standard a century and a half later. There had previously been no set arrangement of tents and huts. Men relieved themselves where they wished and when an animal died, it was stripped of its meat and the rest was left to rot where it lay. Stueben laid out a plan to have rows for command, officers and enlisted men. Kitchens and latrines were on opposite sides ot the camp, with latrines on the downhill side. There was the familiar arrangement of company and regimental streets.

The results of the army training were in evidence by May 20, 1778 at Barren Hill and then at Monmouth (ending June 28th). Washington recommended an appointment for Steuben as Inspector General on April 30th, and on May 5th, Congress approved it. It was Steuben serving in Washington's headquarters in the summer of 1778 who was the first to report the enemy was heading for Monmouth. During the winter of 1778-1779, Steuben prepared "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States," also known as the "Blue Book." It's basis was the plan he devised at Valley Forge.

The following winter (1779-1780) his commission was representing Washington to Congress regarding the reorganization of the army. He later traveled with Nathanael Greene-the new commander of the Southern campaign. He quartered in Virginia since the American supplies and soldiers would be provided to the army from there. He aided the campaign in the south during the spring of 1781, culminating in the delivery of 450 Virginia Continentals to Lafayette in June. He was froced to take sick leave, rejoining the army for the final campaign at yorktown. At Yorktown his role was as commander of one of the three divisions of Washington's troops. He gave assistance to Washington in demobilizing the army in 1783 as well as aiding in the defense plan of the new nation. He became an American citizen by act of Pennsylvania legislature in March 1784 (and later by the New York authorities in July 1786). He was discharged from the military with honor on March 24, 1784.

He established residency in New York where he became a very prominent figure. His business acumen was not very keen, and he found himself in difficult financial condition once more. The primary reason was most likely the fact he was living off the prospect of financial compensation from the United States government which was unrealized until June of 1790 when he was granted a yearly pension of $2,500. His financial problems were not ironed out until Alexander hamilton and other friends helped him gain a "friendly" mortgage on the property he was given in New York (about 16,000 acres). He died a bachelor in 1794, leaving his property to his former aides, William North and Benjamin Walker.

GOOD MORNING, CANTEEN!!!!!!

Washington's Farewell Address 1796

1796
Friends and Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it 7 It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils 7 Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this con duct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

Geo. Washington.

Beat you! NEENER! NEENER! NEENER!