I wish every member of the administration and Congress would read and take to heart George Washington’s farewell address. I’ll quote some passages:

“(National unity) is a main pillar in the edifice of your independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad … Much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.

“To put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party … The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction … turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation.

“It is important 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 … real despotism.

“It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

One can’t possibly condense the magnitude of Washington’s warning into a few words. It seems that all his fears have been realized and now belittle our United States.

Finlay McQuade

Brunswick

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