George Washington Quotes About Political Parties
-
It is our policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
→ -
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true, and, in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.
→ -
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.
→ -
Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another. In governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.
→ -
All combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; 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 of the community.
→ -
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, 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 themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
→ -
The alternate triumphs of different parties ... make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels.
→ -
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. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
→ -
[The spirit of party] serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another.
→ -
This spirit [of Party], unfortunately, is inseperable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human Mind. It exists under different shapes in all Governments, more or less stifled, controuled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy.
→ -
Let me ... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.
→ -
Much indeed to be regretted, party disputes are now carried to such a length, and truth is so enveloped in mist and false representation, that it is extremely difficult to know through what channel to seek it. This difficulty to one, who is of no party, and whose sole wish is to pursue with undeviating steps a path which would lead this country to respectability, wealth, and happiness, is exceedingly to be lamented. But such, for wise purposes, it is presumed, is the turbulence of human passions in party disputes, when victory more than truth is the palm contended for.
→ -
The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
→ -
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
→
George Washington
- Born: February 22, 1732
- Died: December 14, 1799
- Occupation: 1st U.S. President
Related Authors
-
Barack Obama 44th U.S. President -
Benjamin Franklin Founding Father of the United States -
Alexander Hamilton Founding Father of the United States -
Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President -
Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President -
Martha Washington Former First Lady of the United States -
Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President -
John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights activist -
George H. W. Bush 41st U.S. President -
Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S. President -
George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President -
Paul Revere Silversmith -
William J. Clinton 42nd U.S. President -
James Madison 4th U.S. President -
Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S. President -
John Adams 2nd U.S. President -
Robert E. Lee Military Officer -
John Quincy Adams 6th U.S. President -
James Monroe 5th U.S. President