Why did George Washington feel that citizens should give their loyalty to the nation as a whole?

George Washington's (1732 - 1799) early experiences as commanding general of the Continental Army directly exposed him to the brittle unity and inefficiency created by competing state governments, each jealous of the other and focused on their own benefit and survival over that of the nation as a whole.
Based on these early experiences, Washington realized that the United States would be a frail nation in the absence of national unity and that the inter-state jealousies he'd previously witnessed might again manifest themselves if there was not a collective sense among the citizenry that was not split by regional and partisan considerations.
This focus on national togetherness was a recurrent theme in Washington's public life. His proclamation designating November 26, 1789 as the first Thanksgiving was intended to promote that national unity he sought to inspire.
In his farewell address of 1796, Washington offered a final reminder of his appeal for a sense of union transcending regionalism:

Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.
https://www.history.org/almanack/life/politics/farewell_address.cfm

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/george-washington/


George Washington believed that citizens should give their loyalty to the country as a whole. George Washington understood that if people were loyal only to their state or region, problems would develop. He believed that people needed to understand that in a country there are going to be times when actions that are good for the country as a whole may actually harm a state or a region. He knew that decisions had to be made in the best interest of the country.
George Washington also feared what would happen if people made decisions based only on the interests of a state or a region. He believed this would lead to constant squabbles and would slow the progress of the country. He believed this could threaten the existence of the United States if people were more focused on their state or their region instead of being focused on the country as a whole. The success of the country depended on a wider, national view of events.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does Bilbo show leadership and courage in The Hobbit?

Bilbo’s increase in confidence and courage is the defining aspect of his character arc. At the beginning of the novel, he is shut away content in his Hobbit hole, happy to remain separate and coddled from the rest of the world. In the movie, Bilbo chooses to join the dwarves on their quest out of a sense for adventure. In the book, however, Bilbo wants nothing to do with them and only joins because he had been duped into signing a contract. Despite being on the adventure somewhat against his will, Bilbo still proves himself time and again, saving the dwarves from the spiders, the trolls, and a number of other dangers they encounter along the way. Bilbo’s character arc has even been cited as a sort of Christian metaphor for the growth of the soul, though how much Tolkien intended on this front is up for debate. From a thematic standpoint, the ring of invisibility also plays into Bilbo’s brand of bravery. If Hobbits are the overlooked creatures of Middle Earth, then it is noteworthy that...
Read more

In “Goodbye to All That,” Joan Didion writes that the “lesson” of her story is that “it is distinctly possible to remain too long at the fair.” What does she mean? How does the final section of the essay portray how she came to this understanding, her feelings about it, and the consequences of it?

In this classic essay, Didion describes moving to New York City from her native Sacramento at the age of twenty-one, and, as she freely admits, a somewhat naive twenty-one, her mind, "programmed by all the movies I had ever seen and all the songs I had ever heard about New York," with the typical feeling, at that age, that, "nothing like this...has ever happened to anyone before." Intending to stay for only six months, she falls in love with the city. As she says, "I do not mean 'love' in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never love anyone quite that way again." This initial love led her to prolong her residency, since, "I still believed in possibilities then, still had the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month." But as the next years roll past, and the "new faces" she encounters...
Read more

Why does the poet say "all the men and women merely players"?

It's one of the most famous lines in literature: All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players . . . This famous saying comes from Shakespeare's play As You Like It, and it's spoken by Jacques. What he's saying here is that simply going about our daily lives is a type of performance. Just like actors on a stage, we all have roles to perform: Daughter. Student. Sister. Captain of the soccer team. The fact that Shakespeare writes that men and women are merely players suggests that the roles are preordained and that a person's choice in being a mother, for example, or a doctor or starting point guard for the Brooklyn Nets is out of their hands. What roles a person performs over the course of their lifetime is up to fate. The notion that "all the world's a stage" has entered pop culture, but within the context of the play, this idea does not sit well with Jacques. He's a pessimist, and the idea that everything is up to fate makes...
Read more