That the American people should find themselves divided in sentiment and affection would not, I confess, surprise me in the least — for I have long feared that such divisions would mark the course of our nation, as they have marked the destiny of all nations that have gone before us.

In my Farewell Address to my countrymen, I acknowledged this very probability with sorrow:

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations.

Yet even knowing this tendency of human nature, I felt bound by duty to offer such counsel as long reflection and observation had impressed upon me. I prayed that my words might occasionally recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, and to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

The counsel I would offer you now is the same I offered then: cherish above all else your national Union. I have observed that local attachments and state prejudices, when carried to excess, become never-failing sources of disquietude to the public mind and pregnant with mischievous consequences. During my service, I witnessed how:

local or State politics will interfere too much with the more liberal and extensive plan of government, which wisdom and foresight, freed from the mist of prejudice, would dictate

I learned through painful experience that:

the honor, power, and true interest of this country must be measured by a Continental scale, and that every departure therefrom weakens the Union, and may ultimately break the band which holds us together

My earnest wish was to see systematic ideas spread through all parts of our rising empire, thereby doing away with those local attachments that threatened our national councils. I believed then, as I would counsel you now, that every citizen should take pride in the name of American and act as though he felt the importance of that character.

In my administration, I sought uniformly to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations — to contemplate the United States as one great whole. This must be your constant aim as well. The alternative is to see the dignity of your nation absorbed or annihilated through endless factional strife.

I would urge you to estimate properly the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness. Cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment to it. Watch for its preservation with jealous anxiety. Frown indignantly upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of your country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which link together the various parts.

Though I could not prevent the passions that would naturally arise among a free people, I hoped my counsel might occasionally recur to moderate their fury. That hope remains my prayer for you now.