applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interest.

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, and a 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 in

dependence 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 expression 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; but 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 last believed myself to be guided by them.

"In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to 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 conduct, 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 any thing 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 toward 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, humanely 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 own 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 toward it, which is so natural to a man who views it in 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. G. WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, 17th September, 1796.

Father Abraham.-An affectionate nickname applied to Lincoln.

Father of His Country.-A popular title given to Washington in recognition of his services in establishing this government.

Father of the Constitution.-This name is applied to James Madison because he was the author of the resolution that led to the invitation for the Convention of 1787, issued by the Virginia Legislature.

Federalist. The name of eighty-five essays on the Constitution that appeared in the Independent Gazetteer of New York, for the purpose of influencing public opinion in its favor while it was before the people for ratification. They were written by Hamilton, Madison, Jay and William Duer. The latter wrote but three numbers. The brunt of the task fell on Hamilton, and his name is most strongly associated with them. The first papers were signed A Citizen of New York, and the later Publius. The Federalist is an authority on the interpretation of the Constitution. The period of their publication extends from October, 1787, to March, 1788.

Federal Party.-This name was given to those that

were in favor of the adoption of the United States Constitution. The looseness of the Union under the Articles of Confederation had unsettled business, and all citizens that were injured by this state of affairs were in favor of a stronger government. Moreover, the feeling that thus only could we become a nation among nations had much weight in inclining the more thoughtful to favor the Constitution. Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Randolph were all Federalists in the earlier and wider meaning of the term. The adoption of the Constitution left the anti-Federalists without a cause, and the Federal party went into power with Washington at its head practically unopposed. During the first session of Congress the departments of the government were organized. At the second session Alexander Hamilton introduced his financial measures. The foreign debt was to be paid in full, the continental debt was to be paid at par, and the debts of the several States were to be assumed. To the second of these propositions Madison dissented, but it was nevertheless carried. The third aroused enormous opposition, and it was hotly debated both in and out of Congress. After one defeat it was reintroduced and carried by means of a bargain. At the third session a bill taxing distilled spirits was passed and the Bank of the United States was incorporated. These measures Jefferson and Randolph opposed. The party had thus gradually strengthened the broad construction view of the Constitution and had attained real principles and party life. It stood committed to protection of manufactures by import duties, to building up a navy and an army, and to strengthening the federal government. The opposition raised by these centralizing tendencies gradually took form, and headed by Jefferson, Madison and Randolph, formed the Republican party, from which sprang the Democratic-Republican party. The work of the Federalists was carried on in the Second Congress. In the third, the Senate was theirs by but a small majority, while in the House there was a small majority against them. The assumption of the State debts had rendered the prompt establishment

of a navy impossible, and its want now forbade the energetic assertion of our commercial rights. As a consequence, Jay's Treaty was negotiated. In 1798 the party favored war with France, and the popularity of this measure tended to give it temporary prestige, but trouble was brewing. John Adams and his wing of the party was strongly opposed by Hamilton and his followers. The Alien and Sedition Laws had made the administration of the. former thoroughly unpopular. Jefferson and Burr had completely organized the opposition, and the election of 1800 bore heavily against the Federalists and elected Jefferson. The Federalists, now in the minority, resorted to obstruction, and offered opposition even to measures that were in line with those previously advocated by themselves. Their opposition to the Louisiana purchase, certainly an instance of broad construction, is a fair example of these tactics. To the opposition of this last measure they were not, however, able to bring their full strength. In 1804 Federalist electors were chosen from but three States. The party opposed the embargo and other restrictive measures, and in this they were joined by Randolph. Attempts to secure a navy, and opposition to the War of 1812 and to the policy of protection of home manufactures, now constituted its programme. It had, in fact, gone so far as to adopt the strict construction theory. In the presidential election of 1812 it showed a decided increase in strength, but this soon fell off again, and although it still had influence in some of the New England States, its national importance was over. Its supporters became National Republicans, and were of the elements that subsequently formed the Whig party. One of the most serious defects of the party was that it never made any attempt to gain the confidence of the people-its leaders stood aloof. Among the prominent members of the party, besides those mentioned, were John Jay, Fisher Ames, John Marshall, Roger Sherman, Rufus King and James A. Bayard.

Federal-Republican. In 1820 James Monroe was elected President, receiving all but one of the electoral