The Greatest Americans: George Washington's Farewell Address

....a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection...and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people…interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment...."

Written near the end of his second term as president, Washington's Farewell Address is more than the empty jargon of a politician – it is nothing short of the heartfelt concern of a gentle leader for his people's continuing welfare.