the opinion of duty and to the deference for what appeared to be your desire." He tells the .
reader also that he wanted to resign after the first term, but was persuaded not to when he .
writes, "The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led .
to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection of the then .
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice .
of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea." Next Washington .
addresses the importance of staying together as a Union versus Sectionalism. The country .
was starting to become divided into parts, the North, the South and the West. Although the .
West was thought of as a section, it was really the North and the South that fought to have .
control over the West. As Washington pointed out the North was primarily industrial and .
the South primarily agricultural. He urged the unifying goals of prosperity, religion, and .
morality. The president infers that sectionalists would sabotage these goals for regional ends .
whereas union implied national benefits. He recommended "institutions for the general .
diffusion of knowledge" that would benefit all Americans, he advocated taxation stating, .
"towards the payment of debt 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". .
The third part of Washington's Farewell Address, was to defend his policy on foreign .
neutrality. He requested neutrality in thought and action toward foreign powers stating, "Tis .
our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.if .
we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may .
defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will .
