American Minute for September 19th:

    The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolken tells of man's lust for "the ring of power." George Washington had that power and twice gave it up. When King George III asked American-born painter Benjamin West what Washington planned to do now that he had won the war, West replied "They say he will return to his farm." King George said "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." Washington later served as President and again returned to his farm, similar to Roman leader Cincinnatus, who twice led Rome's Republic to victory in battle then returned to farming. On SEPTEMBER 19, 1796, the world stood in awe as President George Washington delivered his Farewell Address, stating: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars... Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." George Washington continued: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle... Morality is a necessary spring of popular government...Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation?"_____
George Washington continued warning in his Farewell Address: "And of fatal tendency...to put, in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party; - often a small but artful and enterprising minority... They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for the themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion... 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...[who] turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty... The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism...Let there be no change by usurpation... It is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."

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SEPTEMBER 19. Washington, George. Sept. 19, 1796, Farewell Address, published in the American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, Sept., 1796. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages & Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature & Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. 1, p. 213-224, Sept. 17, 1796. John Clement Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Manuscript Sources 1749-1799, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931-1944), Vol. 35, p. 229. William Barclay Allen, ed., George Washington - A Collection (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, Liberty Fund, Inc., 7440 N. Shadeland, Indianapolis, IN 46250, 1988; based almost entirely on materials reproduced from The Writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799), pp. 512-527. Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., ed., American Historical Documents 1000-1904 (NY: P.F. Collier & Son Co., The Harvard Classics, 1910), Vol. 43, pp. 250-266.

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