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By George Washington

But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Source
Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 · The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 20, pp. 703-722
Read at
Founders Online, National Archives

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Washington's Farewell Address, dated September 19, 1796. The text here follows the Washington Papers' transcription, which keeps his abbreviations and spelling, so it differs slightly from the printed version. Earlier drafts were written by Madison in 1792 and Hamilton in 1796.

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