Ethos and Logos

Washington really uses all three forms of rhetoric, including pathos (as most good politicians do), but the one he leans on the most heavily is ethos—with a side of logos.

The fact that Washington dispenses advice while stepping down from the presidency is a pretty clear sign that his role as president is significant. He plays it off modestly, but despite claiming inadequacy, he keeps on dishing out the lessons.

Obviously everyone knew that he was president, but Washington also gently reminds them that he had wanted to retire earlier, but "mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea" (3.3).

In other words, lots of people wanted him to stay on as president, so that means he was doing something right. So, you should listen to him.

When he transitions to his giant advice column, he really lays on the ethos:

But a solicitude for your welfare […] and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me […] to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend […]. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. (7.2-4)

This paragraph does several things. It tells his audience that he (while being president) has really given this a lot of thought. It flatters the American people by calling them his friends, which makes him look a bit more egalitarian. Finally, he reminds them that they've listened to his advice in the past (again, while he was president…and also a war hero). They wouldn't have done that if he weren't important.

He also helpfully reminds the audience:

This government, the offspring of our own choice […] has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. (16.4-5).

That's a not-so-subtle hint that people should listen to the government that they, ahem, chose.

At the same time, Washington doesn't just offer up words of wisdom without some logic to back it up. For example, when he discusses staying away from alliances with foreign nations, he lays it out like this:

Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury […] and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. (32.4)

That's a pretty solid reason for being wary of choosing sides.

Similarly, political parties are problematic because the "spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism" (26.2). It's just that he doesn't like factions and party politics; he sees a real danger in that based on human behavior and past experience.

Washington's farewell address definitely wouldn't hold the same weight nor would it be so well remembered if he weren't the legendary George Washington—war hero and father of our country. His importance in early American political history makes his advice worth listening to.

Being the upstanding gentleman that he is, though, he only offers up advice that he can support with some solid logical thinking.