alternatehistory.com

By the time he left the Presidency, George Washington had become convinced that slavery was an evil that needed to eventually be eradicated. He was already engaged in the complicated legal wrangling that eventually saw all of his own slaves freed in his will. Like Jefferson and Madison, Washington had never been an enthusiastic supporter of slavery (which didn't really come into fashion in the South until the 1830s) and he clearly saw that the continuation of the institution threatened the future of the republic.

In his 1796 Farewell Address, Washington spoke of many things, including the need to avoid political partisanship, return to a balanced budget, avoid become bogged down in foreign conflicts, and promote morality in civic life. It instantly became, and remains, an important and influential public document.

What if Washington had also made a statement, perhaps a gentle and open-ended one, about the need to eventually deal with the slavery question? Perhaps he could have framed it within a call to abolish the slave trade in 1808 (the earliest date allowed under the Constitution), using that as a springboard to make an explicit statement that slavery was a negative thing that needed to eventually be done away with.

Would this have made any difference in the long run?
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