George Washington’s farewell address is published, September 19, 1796
After serving two terms, Washington must set one more precedent: the peaceful transition of power. It was not commonplace at the time, and Washington easily could have won a third term. But he publishes in the American Daily Advertiser in Philadelphia a thirty-two-page handwritten document, “The Address of General Washington to the People of the United States on His Declining of the Presidency of the United States.” His overriding theme is unity: “The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”