George Washington on Liberty and Order; C. Carson

ClarenceB. Carson George Washington on Liberty and Order THERE are truths to which the pas sage of time and the gaining· of new experience add luster and vitality. So it has been, for me at least, with those contained in Washington's Farewell Address. With each new reading of it, I have been impressed anew with the relevance of so much that he had to say to our own time. Often, too, I discover some new theme or emphasis that I had not been aware ofearlier. Undoubtedly, these different impressions arise in part from the richness of the material but also may be conditioned by my par ticular interests at a given time. At any rate, the theme of liberty and order stood. out for me in my latest reading of the Farewell Address. It Dr. Carson has written and taught extensively, spe cializing in American intellectual history. He is the author of several books and is working at present on A Basic History of the United States to be published by Western Goals, Inc.

seemed to me that all the parts fit ted together into a whole within the framework of this theme. Before getting into that, however, it may be of some aid to place the address in a much broader historical frame. Some observations about lib erty and order more generally will help to set the stage for his remarks. Thoughtful men may differ about the desirability of liberty, but they rarely do about the necessity for or der. Also, nations, kingdoms, and empires have differed much more over the extent ofliberty within them than ofthe degree of order, over long periods of time anyway. They have ranged from the most compulsive tyrannies to ones in which consid erable liberty prevails. By contrast, all governments are to a greater or lesser extent devoted to maintain ing order. But there are great differ ences of belief, persuasion and prac67 68 THE FREEMAN February tice as to how order is to be maintained and the proper role of government in doing so. It is the dif ferences on this that largely deter mine the extent of liberty in a country.

There have been, and are, coun tries in which those in power believe that government must act to impose order in every nook and cranny of society. The active principle in this, if principle it be, is that if govern ment does not impose order then disorder and chaos will prevail. Thomas Hobbes, English philoso pher in the seventeenth century, ex pressed this view with clarity and force. He declared that if men were permitted to act according "to their particular judgments and particular appetites, they can expect thereby no defense, nor protection against a common enemy, nor against the in juries of one another." There must be a power over them, he said, and the way to get that power is "to con fer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills ... unto one will .... For by this au thority, given him by every particu lar man in the commonwealth, he hath the use of so much power and strength conferred on him, that by terror thereof, he is enabled to per form the wills of them all .... "

A view similar to this of what was necessary to order and how it could be achieved, as well as the role of government in it, was widespread in Europe in the seventeenth century. It was an age of royal absolutism, of claims about the Divine right of kings, and of the assertion of gov ernment power to direct the lives of peoples. England had an established church; no others were tolerated. All were required to attend its services, contribute to its support, and have most of the great events of life cele brated or recorded in it. The church officials censored publications, li censed schools, and kept watch over the doings of the people. Mercantilism Economic life was circumscribed and controlled by the government under a system most commonly known as mercantilism. The gov ernment controlled exports and im ports, gave subsidies, bounties, and grants to encourage certain under takings, prohibited others, gave pa tents, charters, and other forms of monopolies to individuals and com panies, enforced craft regulations, and maintained much power over the lands of the realm. Harsh penalties were imposed for every sort of of fense from blasphemy to treason.

Evidence abounded that govern ment was making massive efforts to impose order. As for liberties, they had most commonly to be asserted against the grain of the prevailing system. So, too, in the twentieth century, 1983 GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LIBERTY AND ORDER 69 the dominant view of those in power in many lands is that government must impose an all-encompassing order upon the peoples under its sway. At its farthest reaches, this view achieves its fruition in the to talitarian state, with its direct con trol over all the media of communi cation, every aspect of the economy, over education, over such religion as is permitted, over work and over play. In other lands, where this bent to ward state-compelled order has been moderated thus far-has been kept from going so far-it evinces itself in government intervention in the economy, the thrust of regulation into many realms, in redistribu tion of the wealth, in controls over education, medicine, charity, and hundreds of other areas. The ideol ogies supporting this pervasive government power differ in many particular respects from those that supported seventeenth-century government power, but the notion that government must impose an or der else chaos and disorder will pre vail is common to both. Extensive liberty can hardly be reconciled with such compulsive orders.

That George Washington held a view on how to maintain order and the proper role of government in sharp contrast to those described above is manifest in his life and works. Moreover, a seismic change in outlook, both in England and America and over much of Europe, had taken place between the time when Hobbes had penned his Levia than and the founding of the United States. A major aspect of that change was a shift from the emphasis upon a government order imposed on men toward individual liberty and re. sponsibility. The shift sparked in many Americans an awareness of the danger of government both to lib erty and to order. At the root of this shift was a different conception of the origin and nature of order. Beliefin a NaturalOrder George Washington and his con temporaries were imbued with a strong belief in a natural order. Or der, in their view, was not some thing that could be arbitrarily con trived and imposed by man. The foundations of order, they held, are in the frame of the universe, in the laws that govern it, in the nature of man and his faculty of reason, and in the principles of relationships by which constructive activities can take place. At best, men can only act in accord with and imitate the order that is given.

The belief in a natural law and natural order was not new to the eighteenth century, of course; it had been around since the ancient Greeks and Romans, at least. But it had come to the forefront in the century before the founding of the United States as a result both of vigorous efforts to 70 THE FREEMAN February revive it and of many scientific and philosophical formulations of it. Newton had persuasively set forth in mathematical terms the laws governing the course of the heav enly bodies. Thinkers were getting impressi ve results in their searches for the laws and principles govern ing all sorts of relationships. What struck so many in that age was the idea of proportion, balance, har mony, and order resident in the nat ural tendencies of the world about them. Most marvelous of all, at least to many, this order was consonant with human liberty. Rather than frustrating man in the.use of his fa culties for his benefit -(and for the commonweal as well), the natural order provided means for him to do so most effectively. The foundations of liberty in this belief in a natural order were in the natural rights doctrine.

In his Farewell Address, Wash ington did not expand upon or elab orate on the theme of liberty. Al though the word "liberty" occurs several times in -the document, it plays mainly a supportive role in what he has to say. The attachment to liberty is assumed, a given if you will, upon which to hinge his argu ments. Washington said as much himself: "Interwoven as is the love ofliberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment." But, he says, from first one angle then another, if you would have liberty you must support those things on which it depends. For example, in recommending a uni ted support for the general gov ernment' he declared: "This Govern ment, the off-spring of our own choice, . . . adopted upon full inves tigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, unit ing security with energy, and con taining within itself a provision for its own amendment, has ajust claim to your confidence and support." To clinch the argument, he says that these "are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true lib erty." In arguing against the in volvement of Americans in foreign intrigues, he says that by doing so "they will avoid the necessity ofthose overgrown military establishments which, under any form of govern ment, are inauspicious toJiberty .... "

A Sense of Order The word "liberty" occurs fre quently throughout the address, but by my fairly careful count the word "order" occurs only once. Even that instance is insignificant, however, for the word is used in a phrase, as "in order to" do something or other. It occurs at one other point as part of the word "disorders," which, while more significant, is hardly proof of a theme. Yet a sense of order pervades 1983 GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LIBERTY AND ORDER 71 the whole document. It is there in the cadences of the sentences, in the matching of phrase with phrase, in the balance of one tendency against another, in the thrust toward dis covering a common bond by piling up references to particular interests. It is clear, if one reads between the lines, that there is an order for men's lives, an order for nations, an order for relations among nations, an or der by which parts belong to a whole, and an order by which balance and harmony can be maintained. Gov ernment is not the origin of this or der, but it is necessary to the main tenance of it, even as it is ever a potential threat to it. Government is made necessary by the bent in man to disrupt order.

The two main sources of disorder to which Washington alludes are these. First, there are those passions in men which incline them to pursue their own particular and partisan designs at the expense of the well being of others. Washington called it the spirit of party, but we might understand it better as partisanship for causes. (He had in mind the dan gers of this to the stability of gov ernment, but it does no violence to his idea to apply it to individuals as well as groups.) "This spirit," he said, "unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its roots in the strongest passions of the human mind." Among the dangers of these partisan passions, he declared, are these: "It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealou sies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against an other; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption ....

Thus the policy and will of one coun try are subjected to the policy and will of another." The other source of disorder, to which Washington alludes, is "that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart .... " It is this power hunger which makes government danger ous, for it prompts those who govern to overstep the bounds of their au thority. "The spirit of encroach ment'" Washington pointed out, "tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of gov ernment, a real despotism." Advice and Counsel The body of the Farewell Address is devoted to advice and counsel about how to conduct the govern ment so as to maintain order and preserve liberty, and to warnings about holding in check those parti san tendencies and the bent toward consolidating power which endan ger them. The following were his main points: (ll Maintain the union; (2) Keep the principles of the Con72 THE FREEMAN February stitution intact; (3) Preserve na tional independence; (4) Buttress policy and behavior with religion and morality; (5) Cherish the public credit; and (6) Follow peaceful poli cies toward all nations. These gen eral principles are not nearly so re vealing, however, as his particular recommendations and the argu ments he used to support them.

The main device Washington em ployed to support his advice to maintain the union was to invoke those things the people had in com mon: the name American, their struggles for independence, their common beliefs, and their common interest. He surveyed the continent, from a mountaintop as it were, and ticked off how north and south, east and west, were bound together. "The North," he said, "in an un restrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the production of the latter great ... resources of maritime and commer cial enterprise and precious materi. als of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse ... sees its agriculture grow and com merce expand .... The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds ... a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort."

This was an economic order which had its roots in the diversities of the regions. Washington warned against the rise of factions seeking to use political power for partisan ends that might disrupt the union and disturb the existing order. Preserve the Constitution Washington's concern for preserv ing the Constitution intact was mo tivated by the belief that a balance had been incorporated in it, a bal ance in which the national and state government checked one another, and the branches held one another in check. "The necessity of recipro cal checks in the exercise of political power," he declared, ''by dividing and distributing it ... has been evinced by experiments ancient and mod ern .... " "Liberty itself," he pointed out, "will find in such a government with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian." He warned against two things in partic ular. One was the "spirit of innova tion upon its principles." The other was "change by usurpation" of power.

That was not to say that the Consti tution was perfect as it stood in 1796. But if something needed correction, it should be "by an amendment in the way which the Constitution des ignates." No man or body of men should assume the power to do so, "for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon· by which free governments are destroyed."

1983 GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LIBERTY AND ORDER 73 Washington hoped that the United States would follow an independent course in world affairs, that it would lend its weight toward an order in which peace would be the norm, but that it would not become entangled with other nations in the quest for power and dominance. His distrust of government did not end at the water's edge, for he believed that foreign governments would, if they could, use the United States for their own ends. He warned "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence", for "(I conjure you to believe me, fel low-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican gov ernment." Underlying these fears was the belief that in the nature of things, in the natural order, each nation pursues its own interests.

Hence, "There can be no greater er, ror than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation." He cautioned against constant pref erence for one nation and opposition to others. "It is our true policy," Washington said, "to steer clear of permanent alliances with any por tion of the foreign world .... " Religion and Morality The first President had some other recommendations on foreign policy, but before discussing them, it would be best, as he did, to refer to the role of religion and morality. The belief in a natural order, the hope that the American political system had been shaped in accord with it, was not sufficient, in Washington's opinion, to assure the working or continua tion of order among men. Man is a creature of unruly passions, as al ready noted, and the necessary cor rective to these is religion and morality. "It is substantially true," Wash ington commented, "that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government." And, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable sup ports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness .... A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity."

Moreover, "let us with caution in dulge the supposition that moral ity can be maintained without religion." These remarks preceded both his advice on public credit and on peace ful relations with other nations. On cherishing the public credit, he said: "One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible ... " Washington expected that there would be occasions for extraordi nary expenses, making war came to mind, when it might be necessary for the government to borrow money.

74 THE FREEMAN February But he warned against. the "accu mulation of debt," declaring that the way to avoid this was "not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time ofpeace to discharge the debts which un avoidable wars have occasioned." That way, it should be possible to avoid "ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we our selves ought to bear." Washington thought his countrymen might be the more inclined to follow these poli cies if they would keep in mind "that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have reve nue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and un pleasant .... " Not everyone may find the balanced formulations of eigh teenth-century sentences pleasant, but it must be admitted that the logic in the above is impressive. At any rate, the principles dis cussed in the above two paragraphs provided the framework for his rec ommendations for maintaining peaceful relations with other na tions. To that end, Washington ad vised this: "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Reli gion and morality enjoin this con duct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it." Above all, "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in ex tending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible."

Any extended political connec tions-permanent alliances, for ex ample-could only embroil the United States in the conflicts among other nations. Otherwise, "Har mony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor granting exclusive fa vors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing .... " That is surely the nat ural order for trade, and a plausible hope for peace to those who knew of, when they had not experienced, the devastating mercantile wars result ing from the use of force in national commerce. A Farewell Message of Timeless Truths on Liberty and Order George Washington reckoned that he had devoted the better part of forty-five years to the service of his country when he retired. He was an unabashed patriot, proud to be called an American, a sturdy friend of the union, and none knew better than he the struggles out of which the United States had been born. He was a man of his time, as are all mortal men, spoke in the phraseology of times past, yet in his Farewell Ad1983 GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LIBERTY AND ORDER 75 dress he touched upon and elabo rated some timeless truths. Further experience has served only to con firm the validity of many of his recommendations.

His thoughts on unity, on the love of power, on the impact of partisan strife, on the importance of focusing on our common interests, on avoid ing entanglements with other na tions, on religion and morality, on the public credit,· and on freedom of Cherish Public Credit trade have worn well when they have been observed, and have brought suffering by their neglect. The ter ror and tyranny of this century, the slave labor camps and barbed wired borders of nations with their fet tered peoples prove once again that liberty depends upon order, and that if order is not founded upon and in accord with an underlying order it will tend to be nothing more than the will of the tyrant. i IDEAS ON LIBERTY 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 accumu lation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigor ous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these max ims belongs to your representatives; but it is necessary that public opin ion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment insep arable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquies cence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address Hans F: Sennholz THE WORLDDEBTCRISIS "A small debt creates a debtor, a large debt, an enemy." If this old proverb is applied to the interna tional situation, the United States and other industrial countries have made many new enemies in recent years. The external debt of third world countries and communist countries to creditors in the United States and Europe has soared from less than $100 billion in 1970 to some $850 billion in 1982. At least 26 countries are in default and many more may fail in the coming years. The bad debtors now are lashing at their creditors, the chief economic villains: the United States and Western Europe. "Much of Brazil's inflation is caused by chaos in the Dr. Sennholz heads the Department of Economics at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. He is a noted writer and lecturer on economic, political and mone tary affairs. 76 international economy," says Tan credo Neves of Brazil, "and that chaos is the fault of the rich countries who are our creditors." President L6pez Portillo of Mexico accuses the Mexi can banks in cooperation with for eign banks of ''heading, advising and supporting" a capital flight from Mexico. "They have looted us. They will not loot us again." His govern ment then seized all private banks, including $12 billion in dollar-de nominated accounts owned by Mex ican and U.S. citizens, and forcibly converted the dollar deposits into debased and depreciated pesos.