Washington expressed his views on foreign relations with a warning against "permanent inveterate antipathies against particular Nations," as well as "a passionate attachment of one Nation for another." The first, he argued, would lead to unnecessary war, while the second would result in unwise treaty concessions, which ...

The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

(The House continued the practice until 1984.) Since 1893 the Senate has observed Washington's birthday by selecting one of its members to read the Farewell Address. The assignment alternates between members of each political party.