Washington's Warning
George Washington - Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, first President of the United States, steps down after two terms but left us his farewell address.
We believe it's important to trust the values of the founding fathers. Though their time was different than ours, we can learn from their example and apply those lessons to our own time.
So What do the founders have to say about political parties? Long story short: they didn't trust them. But let's look closely. The most prominent to speak out on the subject was George Washington.....
230 years ago, President Washington stepped down and left us with his famous farewell address. Thanking Americans for their faith and their support, crediting them with his successes, and wishing us all the best. But from this place of gratitude and affection, he left us with a solemn warning about the dangers of faction and party-spirit.
Anti-Administration
Pro-Administration
Political Parties of the 1st Congress
31 members of the Pro-Administration Faction (later the Federalist Party), and 23 members of the Anti-Administration Faction (later the Democratic-Republican Party). The remaining 5 seats are vacancies.
Though it had just started, there were already divisions that threatened America's success. Divisions between north and south, divisions between coastal and inland, but most worrisome to Washington was the growing influence of political parties in the legislature and in his own cabinet. In these parties he saw potential seeds of destruction for America - and its new Constitution.
So He Warned Us.
In his farewell address, Washington left us with specific warnings about the behavior of political parties
He warned us that parties would find it convenient to win support for themselves by misrepresenting the views of others, thus spreading division.
He warned us that they might subvert the will of the people to the will of the party elite.
He warned us that the spirit of party might divide communities and open the door to foreign influence and corruption.
He warned us they might create patterns of domination and revenge: one party over the other and the other over the one, causing such disfunction that gradually people begin to want one person to seize power tyrannically, if only it would solve these problems.​​​
Despite all that, he reluctantly acknowledged that parties are useful facilitators in a system of checks and balances. But their role is a limited one that's in constant danger of excess, and it's up to us to keep it under control. It's our responsibility to keep it, as he said, a fire that warms without consuming.
"The spirit of party.....A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest instead of warming it should consume"
- George Washington, Farewell Address
The Pattern
It wasn't just George Washington that felt this way. Other founders had similar views on partisanship, though they didn't call it by that name - they called it "the spirit of party" or "faction".​
There are four in particular that spoke on the subject.
George Washington
Hero of the Revolutionary War
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1st President of the United States
Alexander Hamilton
Veteran of the Revolution
Lead Author of the Federalist Papers
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence
3rd President of the United States
James Madison
Father of the Constitution
4th President of the United States
Their similar views tend to follow a pattern: they were wary of the dangers of party-spirit but recognized it as an inevitable part of human nature. They were distrustful of political parties but admitted them to be useful in their own way. And most importantly, they made it our responsibility to keep a careful eye on our relationship with political parties.
Dangers of Party-Spirit
Alexander Hamilton pulled no punches on the dangers of party-spirit, writing that it is the "most common" and "most fatal disease" of popular governments and that it "enables leaders of the parties to become the Masters and oppressors of the people"
"party-spirit.... enables the leaders of the parties to become the Masters & oppressors of the People."
- Alexander Hamilton, c. 1793
James Madison had the most detailed take and identified party divisions as the culprit behind the failure of past democracies: "the violence of faction.....can introduce instability, injustice, and confusion into public councils... [which] have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished."
"the violence of faction.... [has caused] the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished"
- James Madison, Federalist 10
An Inevitable Part of Human Nature
The founders spoke out on the dangers of political parties but also acknowledged them as an inevitable part of our human nature.
George Washington was straight to the point in his farewell address: "The spirit [of party], unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having it's root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed...."
"The spirit [of party], unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature"
- George Washington, Farewell Address
Alexander Hamilton called party-spirit is an "inseparable appendage of human nature" which is natural to all people. "It grows out of the rival passions of Men, and is therefore to be found in all Governments."
"it grows out of the rival passions of Men, and is therefore to be found in all governments."
- Alexander Hamilton, c. 1793
James Madison had similar thinking, and pointed out that the causes of faction are "sown into the nature of man, and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity". In explaining the inevitability of parties, he described how societies as naturally divided into a variety of different interests that must be regulated in the legislature. This reconciliation "involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government."
"Regulation of... various and interfering interests.... involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government."
- James Madison, Federalist 10
Parties: Useful in Their Own Way
As much as the founders distrusted political parties - and they really distrusted political parties - they agreed that parties are useful in one specific way: the facilitation of checks and balances.
Even George Washington, who did more than any other person to unite the early states into a single nation, at all times encouraging Americans to think of themselves not in terms of their differences from each other but as members of one Nation, reluctantly admitted that party divisions can be useful. In the facilitation of checks and balances, they have a role to play: "There is an opinion that parties.... are useful checks upon the administration of government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true"
"There is an opinion that parties... are useful checks upon the administration of government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true...."
- George Washington, Farewell Address
Thirty years after Washington's reluctant acknowledgement, Thomas Jefferson wrote about the same useful aspect of parties: facilitating checks and balances. Under the strict conditions that "like religious differences, a difference in politics should never be permitted to enter into social intercourse, or to disturb its friendships... in that form, they are censors of the conduct of each other, and useful watchmen for the public.
"in [the right] form, they are censors of the conduct of each other, and useful watchmen for the public"
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee 8/10/1824
Defending the Constitutional Convention's decision to trust the legislature with the power to maintain a standing army, Alexander Hamilton begrudgingly cited the useful function of political parties in the facilitation of checks and balances. With clear contempt in his voice, Hamilton paid political parties a backhanded compliment:"As the spirit of party, in different degrees, must be expected to infect all political bodies, there will be, no doubt, persons in the national legislature willing enough to arraign the measures and incriminate the views of the majority. As often as the question (of standing army size) comes forward, the public attention will be roused and attracted to the subject, by the party in opposition; and if the majority should be really disposed to exceed the proper limits, the community will be warned of the danger, and will have an opportunity of taking measures to guard against it"
"public attention will be roused and attracted to the subject, by the party in opposition.... and the community will be warned of the danger and will have an opportunity.... to guard against it."
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 26
Our Responsibility
The founders warned us of the dangers of political parties while acknowledging their inevitable and even useful role in our system of government. And because these parties are both dangerous and useful, it's up to us to deal with them. But how? George Washington said it best in his farewell address, when he described the spirit of party as a fire to be watched carefully:"it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit [of party] for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent it bursting into a flame, lest instead of warming it should consume."
"The spirit of party.....A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest instead of warming it should consume"
​
-George Washington, Farewell Address
But How Do We Keep The Energy Of Political Parties Constructive?
Alexander Hamilton encouraged us to soothe the frustatrations of party divisions:
"Wise and virtuous men.... will endeavour to repress the spirit of faction, as one of the most dangerous enemies to republican liberty - to calm and sooth those angry sensations, which in the best administered governments will spring up from the dissimilar manner in which different laws will affect different Interests of the Community."
"Wise and virtuous men...endeavour to repress the spirit of faction....to calm and sooth those angry sensations"
- Alexander Hamilton, c. 1793
But How Do We Soothe Frustrations In The Community?
Advocating for the ratification of the Constitution, James Madison put the utmost importance on the question of party divisions:
"Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction."
- James Madison, Federalist 10
But How Do We Build A Union That Controls The Violence of Faction?
Working With Our Nature
So the Spirit of Party is a force of Nature, and like any force of Nature we can't stop it. But we can harness it. We can't stop water from running downhill, but we can build dams for storage and electricity, levees and ditches to prevent flooding, and canals and irrigation laterals to bring water to fields and towns.
With a two-party system the big parties are insulated from any real competition and can stray from the path and avoid real consequences.
With healthy competition between a variety of political parties, more parties can give voters more ways to hold the government accountable.
The Founding Fathers dedicated their lives to set us on the right path, it's up to us to do the same for future generations. We don't do the Founders any service by doing the same thing year after year as the world changes around us. The way we honor their legacy is by taking the values and traditions they passed down to us and adopting new techniques and practices that help bring those traditions into the new generation and beyond.