President Martin Van Buren visited Ontario County. So did President Harry S Truman.
In all 15 presidents, in office such as President George W. Bush, or out of office, as President Millard Fillmore was, are known to have visited the county.
But as the old joke goes, President George Washington did not sleep here and is not known to have visited the county, according to Ontario County and Canandaigua City Historian Preston Pierce. But as commander of the Continental Army, Washington did come close.
“He got up to the upper regions of the Mohawk River but never to this area,” Pierce said.
Regardless, Washington certainly made an impact on this region, as many local history buffs well know.
During the American Revolution, Seneca warriors and Loyalist Rangers used villages at Canandaigua, Honeoye, Naples, and Geneva as staging areas for frontier raids, according to a history account on the Ontario County website. Gen. John Sullivan, acting on Washington’s orders, retaliated for those raids by devastating the Native American towns in 1779.
Of course, Washington made history as the country’s first president, and like many of the leaders who followed, he, too, made good newspaper copy, particularly when he announced in 1796 he would not be running for a third term.
George Washington and the Canandaigua Daily Messenger
The contents of President Washington’s lengthy farewell announcement in 1796 was published in the first edition of the precursor to the Canandaigua Daily Messenger, which celebrated 200 years of continuous publication in 1996.
The Ontario Gazette and Western Chronicle was started in Geneva by a printer named Lucious Cary and at the time was the first newspaper published west of Utica, according to one of the Daily Messenger stories in a three-section celebration of the bicentennial of the publication and succeeding iterations of the newspaper.
That first edition was a source of pride for the Ewing family, who owned the Daily Messenger until selling to GateHouse Media in 2007: A photographic copy of that first issue hung in the vestibule of the former newspaper office on Buffalo Street in Canandaigua.
Here’s what then Daily Messenger Publisher George M. Ewing Jr. had to say in 1996: “Two hundred years ago Lucius Carey exercised what was then a new practice in the fledgling United States of America. He published a newspaper in which he printed what he wanted without interference from the government or any outside source. He had embarked on what was evolving into one of America’s inalienable rights as outlined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: freedom of the press.”
The First Amendment has endured amid serious challenges along the way from past to present. As for Washington’s farewell, some of what he had to say way back when resonates today.
President Washington’s farewell
When President George Washington, on Sept. 19, 1796, announced he would not be seeking a third term, he apparently was worn out by the burdens of the presidency and attacks of political foes, according to the United States Senate Historical Office. This announcement was not made publicly but instead was shared in the Philadelphia Daily American Advertiser and subsequently in papers like the Ontario Gazette and Western Chronicle around the country, the office notes.
Washington seemed more than ready to depart the public eye, yet grateful to have served his country in the capacity he did.
“In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me,” Washington said in the announcement,
Besides a farewell to public life, the announcement is considered by many historians and political scientists as a clearing of the way for the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next. Pierce said he is especially struck by Washington’s warnings against political factions, meaning parties, and his cautioning against foreign entanglements and desire to maintain peace with all nations.
Richmond Councilman Steve Barnhoorn, who has been fascinated by presidents since his elementary school days, said Washington’s farewell isn’t just a historical artifact to him; it feels like a handbook for the kind of principled governance he and fellow elected officials strive for in the town.
“At the town level, you aren’t a ‘Democrat’ or a ‘Republican’ when a neighbor’s road is washed out; you’re a public servant,” said Barnhoorn, adding that Washington’s warning about foreign entanglements also carries a deeply personal weight for him. His late father, Bart Barnhoorn, survived the ‘Hunger Winter’ of 1944–1945 in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands before choosing to make a new life here.
“As we approach the 250th anniversary of this nation, Washington’s message is a reminder that our strength doesn’t come from partisan victory, but from the unity he called our ‘main pillar’ of independence,” Barnhoorn said. “If we want to honor his legacy, we start by being neighbors first and partisans last.”
Washington liked to consider himself as apolitical, Pierce said. Two parties consolidated into two rival political entities by the time he left office, and quickly, problems arose because of that, Pierce said, prompting his concerns.
But, Pierce said with a laugh: “It was great advice at the time, not likely to be followed.”
And in this 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some would say, that’s the American way.
Mike Murphy covers Canandaigua and other communities in Ontario County and writes the Eat, Drink and Be Murphy food and drink column. He can be reached at mmurphy@messengerpostmedia.com. Follow him on X at @MPN_MikeMurphy.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: George Washington never visited Ontario County. His words still made local history
Reporting by Mike Murphy, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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By Mike Murphy, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
