Tenth Amendment Center: Washington’s First “State of the Union”

 

Washington’s First “State of the Union” Timeless principles we can't afford to ignore any longer

On January 8, 1790, President George Washington walked into the Senate chamber of Federal Hall in New York City to deliver his first Annual Message to Congress - what we would now call the first State of the Union Address. His remarks were concise, rooted in the Constitution, and set the tone for a young republic. In contrast with today’s televised spectacle, Washington’s address had no pomp or ceremony - no honored guests, no orchestrated applause lines. Instead, he spoke directly to the challenges facing the fledgling Union, underscoring the importance of unity, defense, and constitutional principles. He opened by congratulating the nation on “the present favorable prospects of our public affairs,” highlighting North Carolina’s decision to join the Union. For nearly a year and a half starting in July 1788, North Carolina had chosen independence rather than ratification of the Constitution. Acting as an independent republic for nearly nine months after the Constitution went into effect, North Carolina even appointed a foreign diplomat to the United States of America, where Hugh Williamson worked to persuade them to adopt amendments more favorable to North Carolina’s interests. This is notable because it illustrates the voluntary nature of union - which was created by choice, rather than force. Washington went on to outline his priorities. And first on the list was national defense, but his approach was far, far different than how these people talk about it today. For the first president, the most important thing was a well-armed, well-trained, and well-disciplined people - a militia. “Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.” Ten days later - Secretary of War Henry Knox sent Washington his revised “Plan for the Arrangement of the Militia” “An energetic national militia is to be regarded as the Capital security of a free republic; and not a standing army, forming a distinct class in the community.” [emphasis in original] Learn more about this essential history they don’t teach in government schools. Podcast - A Real State of the Union: George Washington’s First Annual Address Article - George Washington’s First “State of the Union,” Building a Foundation for the Young Republic After informing Congress that peaceful measures “with regard to certain hostile tribes” of Native Americans had not achieved the desired outcome, he requested authorization to take further action - extending a temporary measure Congress had granted reluctantly a few months earlier. Both the House and Senate sent responses four days later, sending support for this request. Here, in the reply from the House of Representatives on Jan. 14, 1790: “We regret that the pacific arrangements pursued with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians have not been attended with that success which we had reason to expect from them. We shall not hesitate to concur in such further measures as may best obviate any ill effects which might be apprehended from the failure of those negotiations.” By April 30th, Congress made good on this promise - and George Washington signed into law “An Act for regulating the Military Establishment of the United States,” which gave him the war powers authorization he requested: “For the purpose of aiding the troops now in service, or to be raised by this act, in protecting the inhabitants of the frontiers of the United States, the President is hereby authorized to call into service, from time to time, such part of the militia of the states, respectively, as he may judge necessary for the purpose aforesaid.” Only after receiving this authorization did Washington launch what we now call the Harmar campaign, demonstrating Washington’s strict adherence to the Constitution on war powers that most people today never learn about. Washington went on to outline what he saw as the new Republic’s most pressing needs from Congress, including efforts to support and fund the United States in matters of foreign affairs, rules for naturalization, and the establishment of “Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States.” By March, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790. In the Summer, after a request from Congress, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson submitted his “Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States.” JOIN TAC, SUPPORT LIBERTY! Let’s keep building the foundation! For as little as $2/month, help us take a stand for the Constitution and liberty - whether the government likes it, or not. (they don’t!) details here President Washington then turned his attention to education, declaring, “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” Like many other leading Founders - including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush - Washington stressed that advancing knowledge was crucial to “the security of a free constitution.” He noted that it does so in a number of ways: “by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society” He closed his short speech by addressing an incredibly important fiscal issue - establishing and supporting the “public credit.” That’s exactly what Washington emphasized again in his Farewell Address a few years later, reminding us that this requires a combination of using it “sparingly” and paying off debt quickly: “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.” [emphasis added] George Washington’s message still echoes today: lasting peace through a strong and well-trained militia, strict constitutional limits on war powers, careful avoidance of crushing debt, and more. These principles aren’t taught in government-run schools, which is why we work tirelessly to spread them far and wide. But we can’t do it alone.

Tenth Amendment Center: George Washington's Farewell Address, Warnings Ignored for Generations

 

On Sept. 19, 1796, the American Daily Advertiser published George Washington’s farewell address. When people remember or discuss the address, they most often recall his warning against political parties, his admonition to avoid permanent, entangling foreign alliances, and his insistence that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to political prosperity.  His warning on factions is almost eerily prophetic: "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." It sure sounds familiar, doesn't it? Most people start with a faction-first mentality - and support or oppose government actions based on who is doing it. And the Constitution is in shreds as a result. But wait, there's more. Washington continued: 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. If we aren't there right now, we're so close it might be indistinguishable. Most people read right over what might be an even more poignant warning in Washington’s address; a warning we failed to heed to our own detriment - for generations. Washington advised that we should hold tight to the original Constitution and avoid giving in to the temptation to turn it into a “living, breathing” document that changes at the whim of whoever holds power. As Washington put it, we must “resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.” Washington wrote that “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.” We see these alterations in the Constitution all the time – mostly courtesy of the federal courts as they have expanded various clauses to “authorize” federal actions that were clearly left to the states and the people. They've twisted restrictions on power and used them to authorize the monster state of today. Thanks to these constitutional “alterations,” the federal government has interjected itself into almost every area of our lives, from dictating how much water flushes down our toilets to the kinds of plants we can grow in our back yard. Of course, we can’t place blame solely on the courts. Not even close.  Presidents have seized a wide range of unconstitutional powers, further altering and undermining the constitutional system.  And Congress has done its part, punting much of its responsibility to the executive branch by passing broadly worded bills that allow executive branch bureaucrats to essentially write the law after the fact. Washington warned us that these kinds of alterations would undermine the system. In fact, he called them a "weapon" by which freedom is destroyed.

Warnings Ignored: George Washington's Farewell Address Audio and Video Podcast - with Reference Links Here The Unheeded Advice in George Washington's Farewell Address Article Here

Thomas Jefferson, who helped convince Washington to stay on for a 2nd term, had a similar warning: To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. Washington wrote that “time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions.” He warned that constantly changing the meaning of the Constitution through government action would ultimately prevent any kind of stable system from developing. “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.” We certainly see this tendency today. The federal government makes up its own rules as it goes, completely untethered from any foundational principles or absolute limits. The founders and old revolutionaries called this arbitrary power - and it's how they defined tyranny. That's why it was one of the most important of the listed grievances in the Declaration of Independence. Those who embrace the idea of a “living, breathing” Constitution argue that it must be flexible to “change with the times.” Washington wasn’t ignorant of this fact. He admitted the need for flexibility, but insisted change must happen within the Constitutional system itself through the amendment process, not via political maneuvering by the government itself. “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.” [Emphasis added.] Sadly, Washington’s advice has not been followed. Not even close. Virtually every change to America’s constitutional system has been by usurpation. The "federal" government has run up trillions upon trillions in debt. It fights unconstitutional wars across the globe. It spies on virtually everybody and violates the right to keep and bear arms.  It reaches into every corner of your life, attacking your liberty at every turn. Washington was right. Whatever transient benefit the federal government may have brought by these actions has been “overbalanced” by evil. And until the people start heeding these warnings, it's only going to get worse. We're working hard every single day to get these foundational constitutional principles out to more and more people. Nothing helps us get that job done more than the financial faith and support of our members. Please consider joining us today - for as little as $2/month here: https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/members/ Help us take a stand for the Constitution and liberty - whether the government wants us to, or not. Concordia res parvae crescunt (small things grow great by concord)   Michael, Mike and the rest of the TAC Team