Washington’s Farewell Address, as the letter is now called, has inspired much historical analysis, but its initial impact on publication centered around a single fact: Washington was leaving office. So it was a moment of great import when Philadelphia's American Daily Advertiser published an open letter from Washington to the American public on September 19, 1796, announcing his planned retirement from public life. Even the country's new capitol bore his name. He was directly associated with every major event of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress, and the building of the new republic. Washington’s presence was felt across the nation. “If there was a Mount Olympus in the new American republic, all the lesser gods were gathered farther down the slope” (120). Adding to Washington’s allure were the astonishing true stories about his heroism at the battle of Yorktown in 1781, when he stood in the midst of an artillery attack for fifteen minutes. “A legend in his own time, Americans had been describing Washington as 'The Father of the Country' since 1776 which is to say, before there was even a country” (120). George Washington, elected to the Presidency in 1789, enjoyed a reputation that blurred the line between omnipotence and reality.
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