As he ponders the fate of his reelection campaign, Joe Biden would be wise to consider the example of George Washington. Washington’s decision to step down in 1796, after two terms in office, is rightly heralded for setting a powerful precedent for orderly Presidential transition. It is also commonly remembered as an act of selflessness, given Washington’s extraordinary popularity at the time.
But lesser known is that Washinton’s famous farewell was born from the deep personal reflections of a man who understood that he was entering the twilight of his life. Washington’s correspondence in the summer of 1796 reveals a man preoccupied not just with the fate of the new nation, but also with how he would be remembered. In this there is a lesson for President Biden – a not-too-late retirement can both help secure American democracy and burnish a President’s legacy.
What came to be known as Washington’s “Farewell Address” was first published on September 19, 1796, as an open letter in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser. Washington announced his decision using the florid, late eighteenth-century style that only gifted writers like Thomas Jefferson could make sound beautiful: “The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, it appears to me proper … that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.”
The bulk of Washington’s farewell address includes lengthy discourses on great threats to democracy. These discourses have garnered much attention in recent years, and understandably so. To read about the peril posed by hyper-partisanship (“party spirit”), foreign interference (“mischiefs of foreign intrigue”), and excessive nationalism (“the impostures of pretended patriotism”) is to be stunned by the address’s relevance for today.
But these discourses were most probably drafted by Alexander Hamilton, the close confidant whom Washington asked to assist with the address, beginning in May, 1796. Washington and Hamilton exchanged at least three drafts in the intervening months. In their correspondence, Washington expounded on broad themes and asked Hamilton to draft language that would be “expressive of these sentiments.” In response, Hamilton crafted passages that he hoped would “wear well, progress in approbation with time, & redound to future reputation.”
By contrast, Washington’s own hand can be clearly discerned in the opening and closing of the address. The opening included frank talk about his age, which was 65: “Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.” And in concluding the address, Washington again took a personal turn: “I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view [my errors] with indulgence; and that … the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.”
It is these more personal passages which shed especially revealing light on Joe Biden’s predicament. Washington was prescient in perceiving “the increasing weight of years.” In fact, he died just three years later, on December 14, 1799, over a full year before the end of his successor John Adams’s term. President Biden might ask himself, “what if my 81 today is Washington’s 65?”
And Washington clearly considered his address with an eye toward his enduring memory, hoping that his fellow citizens would not remember him for his flaws. Might not the same be true for Joe Biden – that stepping down before risking a sudden death or crippling illness holds the best chance that his country will remember him “with indulgence”?
It is not too late for Joe Biden to have a come-to-George-Washington moment. Were Biden to announce that he has decided not to run for reelection – especially if he were to do it with grace – he would secure his place in history as one of our nation’s greatest Presidents.
He would be remembered for having staved off in 2020 the threat that Donald Trump so clearly embodies. He would also be remembered for having highlighted in 2024 an essential truth that Donald Trump still fails to comprehend: at the foundation of our democracy lies the willingness of one President to pass the torch of leadership to the next.
Donald Trump cannot be counted on to teach this vital lesson to a new generation of Americans. His posture of perpetual self-promotion precludes the possibility. And his appetite for reelection appears insatiable, whetted as it is by a large dose of self-preservation given his current legal entanglements.
In 1796, as George Washington cued up the lengthy treatise that flowed principally from Alexander Hamilton’s pen, he concluded the introductory section of his farewell address.
Reminding the American citizenry that a President’s services were always “temporary,” he wrote, “I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.” He thanked the American public, declaring “the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts.” He continued: “Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave.”
It is George Washington, the man – as much as George Washington, the President – to whom Joe Biden should look for inspiration. With an eye not on the polls, but on eternity, he should follow Washington’s lead, declaring a robust farewell and finishing out his term in office, all while singing democracy’s praises.
Well said! Send to the President and to the DNC. or at least to the major news outlets as the previous commenter suggested.
Thank you for this excellent post. Please send it to all of the major news outlets.