PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

On 2026-02-25, Representative Donald S. Beyer, Jr. (D-VA-8) delivered a floor speech titled "PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS" in the House. The speech addressed taxes and also covered the environment, foreign policy.

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 37 (Wednesday, February 25, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 37 (Wednesday, February 25, 2026)] [House] [Pages H2309-H2314] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Hill of Arkansas was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.) General Leave Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of the Special Order. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Arkansas? There was no objection. Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise today with my colleagues to lead the House of Representatives in reading President George Washington's farewell address. Having just celebrated the 294th birthday of our indispensable first President, this is a fitting tribute as we celebrate the 250th year of our Nation's creation. The farewell address is a remarkable document. Published in the American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796, it was never delivered in person, but it was widely read and remains one of the most important documents in American history. President Washington completed his two terms as our indispensable first President. He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Every step of the way, he viewed his actions through the lens of the precedent it would set for the Presidency and for future Presidents: his dress, his decorum, his relationship with Congress, his decisions about his Cabinet, and his approach to executive decisionmaking. In this address, you will see clearly that he ended his extraordinary public career on a high note. The practice of reading the farewell address began in a joint session of Congress on February 22, 1862, during the darkest days of the Civil War. The Senate revived the ceremonial reading in 1888, and each year since 1896, the Senate has observed George Washington's birthday in February by selecting a Senator, alternating parties, to read the 7,641-word statement in their legislative session. This year, fittingly, in this year of America250, our semiquincentennial, it was Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. The House revived the ceremonial reading in 1889 and continued intermittently until 1933, after which it became an annual fixture in until 1979. {time} 1110 Today, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I are delighted to return this tradition to the House floor accompanied by our handsome portrait of our first President by John Vanderlyn that has hung here in the House Chamber since the 1830s. Mr. Washington's Farewell Address: ``Friends and Fellow-Citizens: ``The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being [[Page H2310]] 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.'' Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the distinguished gentleman from Utah (Mr. Kennedy) to continue our reading. Mr. KENNEDY of Utah. ``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 if 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 than 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 e