Comparing George Washington's One Last Time And Farewell Address

Chaelyn Kang

Emily Holmstead

English Language Arts - 11(CP)

30 Mar 2018

HAMILTON One Last Time and Farewell Address Address

Have you ever heard about George Washington? George Washington, the first president of America, was born in 1732, and served as Commander in the Continental Army as well during the American Revolution. He dedicated his whole life for establish a nation. When George Washington decided to step down at the end of his second term in 1796, he published letter across the country to let nation see his last words. Cautionary and patriotic diction, homey metaphors, modes of persuasion, complex sentences, and compound sentences combine to create Washington’s concern for the people of America about preserving the liberties necessary

for the government to survive.
Firstly, there are two tones that strongly reveal in Washington’s Farewell Address.

The first tone is Patriotic. In “One Last Time,” Washington says “After forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal….” It represents he cared much for American and expressed his patriotism. As his Farewell Address says, “The home of American…must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism.” This is the evidence that Washington cherish loyalty to his country, a country he built up. The second tone is cautionary. Washington cautions against several things such as neutrality, political parties, and sectionalism. He only mentions neutrality in the song, but Farewell Address has more Washington’s caution to stay impartial in foreign conflict and nation to preserve the liberties. To warn citizens in America, in his Address, he said “but 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,...... and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a People.” It expresses his efforts to protect

America.
Another aspect of Washington’s category of diction which makes it homey is the effective usage of metaphors. In One Last Time, he refers the Bible saying, “Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.” He is symbolizing vine and fig tree as a comfortable place like home and shelter. Also after mentioning the scripture, he says, “A moment alone in the shade, at home in this nation we’ve made.” It emphasizes homesteading metaphor.
Thirdly, Washington uses mode of persuasion to create his points to be coherent argument.

He uses logos and pathos that are logic and appeals to our emotions or feeling, so citizen across the nation could understand. First of all, Washington applies logos in his address to caution the whole nation of his fears of the future such as He warns against foreign aliances and political parties and urges, “Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge,” As he cares the dangers of foreign alliances and political parties, he reasoned, “And sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitor, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.” This appeals to the logical side of the citizens. The next one he appeals is pathos. Washington expressed his love for nation in his Farewell Address to playing on the emotions to make people know how he cares by saying, “that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence....that your Union and brotherly affection may be perpetual.” He desires and hopes the nation to last forever with

liberty.
Washington does not rely only on word choices, but also use certain sentence structures. He applied complex and compound sentences to make his speech coherent. Complex sentence is the sentence joins an independent clause with one or more dependent clauses that dependent clauses can go first in the sentence. Compound sentence is a sentence that include the words “FANBOYS”. Washington chiefly uses the same sentence structures in his speech often. He started his speech with, “The period for anew election of a Citizen, to Administer the Executive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time actually arrive, when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person, who is to be clothed with that import trust, it appears to me proper…” Beside this quote from Washington’s Farewell Address, readers can see the he uses different type of sentence structure throughout mostly in just the first sentence. Washington also end his last sentence with long and complex that he began with that gives finality for his Address.