After making his decision to retire from office at the conclusion of his second term as president, GW had delivered his Farewell Address to the country via the newspapers, ensuring a wide distribution for his parting advice to the nation.1 GW’s Farewell Address greatly affected all segments of American society. Reactions in the form of letters and addresses, overwhelmingly favorable, poured in from individuals, groups of citizens, organizations, and state legislatures. Likewise, numerous newspaper articles and pamphlets, many heavily influenced by partisanship, appeared with reactions to the Farewell Address. For instance, one Federalist editor wrote: “The President’s farewell address to his countrymen is another gracious testimony of his disinterested love of country. The sentiments it contains and the principles it inculcates must come home to the feelings of every genuine and patriotic American. Such advice from such a citizen … must make the most durable impression; it will form the Americans true political creed; it will be the Book of Oracles to his successsors.”2 On the other side of the political spectrum, Republican newspaper editor William Duane, writing under the alias Jasper Dwight, penned a lengthy “Letter” to GW. Duane’s production was actually a 48-page pamphlet with commentary and “Strictures” on the address and GW’s presidency. Duane accused GW of having “violated your own principles, by making your address the vehicle of personal resentment, the indirect defence of weak and unjustifiable measures; where you have urged dogmas repugnant to free government, subversive of the right of private judgment, and calculated to injure and impede the progress of morals and the happiness of mankind.”3 From all of these reactions, no matter the political persuasion of the reader, it is clear that GW’s address touched the minds and hearts of the American people; not surprising, since GW had been a leader of the Republic in a military or civic role for twenty-one years.

The reactions to GW’s Farewell Address were closely related to the letters and addresses he received on the approach of his actual departure from office in March 1797 and return to private life at Mount Vernon. For these, see the Reactions to GW’s Retirement, 23 Jan.–3 March 1797.

The influence of GW’s address has been profound and enduring. For the impact of GW’s address on government over the course of the first half of the nineteenth century, see Jeffrey J. Malanson, Addressing America: George Washington’s Farewell and the Making of National Culture, Politics, and Diplomacy, 1796–1852 (Kent, Ohio; 2015). For the influence of the address over the longer term, particularly on foreign policy, see Burton Ira Kaufman, ed., Washington’s Farewell Address: The View from the 20th Century (Chicago, 1969).

Because of their similarities to the numbered documents above, some of the letters with the sole subject of reaction to GW’s Farewell Address and some of the responses by GW to such letters have not received editorial treatment. A list of these omitted items, some of which are simple cover letters for addresses to GW, follows: Berkeley County, Va., Citizens to GW, 30 Sept. 1796 (DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); Frederick County, Va., Citizens to GW, 30 Sept. (DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); William Darke to GW, 3 Oct. (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); Shepherdstown, Va., Citizens to GW, 6 Oct. (DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); GW to John Kearsley and Joseph Swearingen, 12 Oct. (ALS, in private hands; LB, DLC:GW; copy, DLC:GW); GW to the Shepherdstown, Va., Citizens, 12 Oct. (ALS [photostat], ViMtvL; LB, DLC:GW; copy, DLC:GW); GW to Darke, 14 Oct. (LB, DLC:GW; copy, DLC:GW); GW to the Berkeley County, Va., Citizens, 14 Oct. (LB, DLC:GW; copy, DLC:GW); Vermont Legislature to GW, 25–27 Oct. (D, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); Robert Rutherford to GW, 3 Nov. (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); New Jersey Legislature to GW, 15–16 Nov. (DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); GW to the New Jersey Legislature, 21 Nov. (LS, in private hands; ADfS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); Daniel Jones to GW, 23 Nov. (ALS, DLC:GW); GW to Jones, 24 Nov. (ALS [letterpress copy], DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); From Elijah Paine and Isaac Tichenor, 10 Dec. (LS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); GW to Paine and Tichenor, 11 Dec. (ALS, in private hands); GW to Elijah Paine and Isaac Tichenor, 12 Dec. 1796 (LS, Vt; DfS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); South Carolina House of Representatives to GW, 19 Dec. (D, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); South Carolina Senate to GW, 19 Dec. (DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); Robert Barnwell to GW, 20 Dec. (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); David Ramsay to GW, 21 Dec. (ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, ScCoAH; LB, DLC:GW); GW to Barnwell, 24 Jan. 1797 (ALS [letterpress copy], DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); GW to Ramsay, 24 Jan. (ALS, ScCoAH: Records of the General Assembly, letters received 1797; ALS [letterpress copy], DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW); and Frederick Green to GW, 27 Jan. (ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).

For other letters containing reactions to GW’s Farewell Address and for GW’s replies, printed elsewhere in this volume, see James McHenry to GW, 25 Sept. 1796; John Hoskins Stone to GW, 16 Dec.; GW to Stone, 23 Dec., found at Stone to GW, 16 Dec., n.3; Pennsylvania Senate to GW, c.12 Jan. 1797, found at Timothy Pickering to GW, 12 Jan., n.2; and GW to the Pennsylvania Senate, c.12 Jan., found at Pickering to GW, 12 Jan., n.2.

The seven letters that follow provide a sample of the reactions to GW’s Farewell Address, and GW’s responses to those letters.