Joseph Ellis has written of George Washington and the FarewellAddress that For 2

Joseph Ellis has written of George Washington and the FarewellAddress that For 20 years over the entire life span of therevolutionary war and the experiment with republican governmentWashington had stood at the helm of the ship of state. Now he wassailing off into the sunset. The precedent he was setting may haveseemed uplifting in retrospect but at the time the glaring andpainful reality was that the United States without Washington wasitself unprecedented. The Farewell Addresswas never delivered asa speech. It should by all rights be called the Farewell Letterfor it was in form and tone an open letter to the America peopletelling them they were now on their own. (J. Ellis FoundingBrothers 122)