ABSTRACT
Completing his second term of office as President of the United States, George Washington delivered a farewell address to its citizens. He commended to them 'some sentiments' which he thought important to their 'felicity as a people'. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. One motive for adopting a political approach to nationalism is evidenced in Washington's words. Washington placed 'the love of liberty' at the forefront of the sentiments he commended to Americans. Unity of government he saw as 'a main pillar in the edifice of real independence' and thereby 'the support of that very liberty you so highly prize'. Republican nationalism has a revolutionary application; that is, it seeks constitutional changes on the grounds that the present arrangements are of their nature oppressive. The danger of republican nationalism is that it substitutes, as sources of moral value, political relationships for the ordinary human ones Forster speaks of.
