"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master"
About this Quote
Strip away the powdered wig and you get a stark warning: the state isn’t your wise uncle. It’s a tool built to compel. Washington’s line works because it refuses the comforting fiction that politics is primarily persuasion or morality. “Not reason; not eloquent” is a deliberate deflation of civic romance, a jab at the idea that good speeches equal good government. What remains is “force” - the police power behind every law, the muscle that makes compliance more than a suggestion.
The fire metaphor is doing heavy rhetorical lifting. Fire is domestic and indispensable: it cooks food, forges tools, keeps you alive. That’s the argument for government’s necessity, especially for a founder who watched the Articles of Confederation falter under too little federal authority. But fire also spreads, consumes, and ignores intentions. Call it “a dangerous servant and a fearful master” and you get Washington’s political psychology in one line: power is useful only when kept on a short leash, and it has an appetite for becoming the leash itself.
The subtext is aimed at both sides of the early American argument. To the anti-federalist fear of tyranny: yes, your paranoia has a point. To the pro-government impulse to “just fix things” with authority: remember what you’re feeding. It’s less anti-government than anti-innocence - a founder insisting that liberty depends not on believing in power’s benevolence, but on designing institutions that assume its volatility.
The fire metaphor is doing heavy rhetorical lifting. Fire is domestic and indispensable: it cooks food, forges tools, keeps you alive. That’s the argument for government’s necessity, especially for a founder who watched the Articles of Confederation falter under too little federal authority. But fire also spreads, consumes, and ignores intentions. Call it “a dangerous servant and a fearful master” and you get Washington’s political psychology in one line: power is useful only when kept on a short leash, and it has an appetite for becoming the leash itself.
The subtext is aimed at both sides of the early American argument. To the anti-federalist fear of tyranny: yes, your paranoia has a point. To the pro-government impulse to “just fix things” with authority: remember what you’re feeding. It’s less anti-government than anti-innocence - a founder insisting that liberty depends not on believing in power’s benevolence, but on designing institutions that assume its volatility.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | George Washington, Farewell Address (1796). Includes line: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force; like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." |
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