“The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize.”
That’s George Washington from his farewell address, but watch what he says next: “But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your nation Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together various parts.”
The origins of the United States were always a mouthful, that’s hardly anything new, but it’s difficult to ignore the key values that Washington warned could be a stake in the future. In less than 70 years after his departure, the country plunged into one of the world’s most infamous civil wars.
It would then spend the next hundred trying to determine the boundaries of basic civil rights and liberties across all elements of the populace. The country would then spend the next 40 years determining its phase in a constantly changing international order. In the last decade (or even less), there have been serious questions on how tenable our union is.
Perhaps the most dangerous part is the idea that parts of the country are alienating itself from the rest and believe they still practice the spirit of a national union. Internal enemies are made quite clear, and weren’t shy to present themselves during this midterm cycle -one can only imagine where things will go next week.
Enemies of governmental unity have been constant and active, there’s little debate in it, even with the confessionals from the inside. Is the country worth splitting after a properly won election? The South said so in 1860 and we’ve already survived 2020. The real question that remains is whether 2024 will be conducted the right and only way.