Culture Spot 03: On this day....September 19

On this day in 1796, President George Washington's Farewell Address was published in newspapers throughout the new nation. Washington was coming to the end of his second term as president and wanted to retire to his home at Mount Vernon. Many in the government wanted President Washington to run for a third term, which he would have won handily if he did, but Washington felt that a working republic required a change in leadership. In fact, President Washington originally wanted to retire after his first term as president but ran for reelection under pressure in order to help preserve the new fledgling government which risked falling apart. He had prepared a draft with the help of James Madison at the end of his first term which of course was never printed. By the time Washington decided that there was no convincing him to run for a third term, he had Alexander Hamilton revise the draft. Though not really an address but more of an open-letter to the American people, Washington chose to touch on two major themes. One: he called for national unity in time where party factionalism was growing which he believed could tear the country apart. Secondly: Washington warned the United States from getting involved in permanent foreign alliances which he also believed dangerous to the new nation.

Washington's Farewell Address quickly became one of America's most important political documents. Even today in the US Senate, the reading of the speech has become an annual event.

Vocabulary

a term - un mandat

to run for - se présenter, être candidate

handily - commodément

fledgling - débutant, naissant, jeune

a draft - un brouillon

factionalism - le sectarisme

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On this day in 1911, British novelist and poet Sir William Golding was born. He is a Nobel Prize for Literature laureate which he won in 1983, but he is probably best known for his novel The Lord of the Flies, of which there are two film adaptations. Other well known works include his trilogy To the Ends of the Earth and the novel, The Double Tongue which was printed posthumously. To learn more about Sir William Golding, click here and here.