[George] Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States

The engraved broadside had belonged to Lafayette and remained at La Grange, his home southeast of Paris, until 1975, when René de Chambrun (Lafayette's great-great-grandson) presented it to the French Senate as a gift for the U.S. Senate. It is not known how Lafayette acquired the print, but it may have been given to him during his 1824–1825 tour of the United States or sent to him by one of his many friends and admirers in the United States.

This oversized engraving of Washington's Farewell Address was published by Gideon Fairman, B. H. Rand, and Charles Toppan of Philadelphia, likely in late 1821 or early 1822. The three men joined forces in this elaborate and expensive production, publishing their proposal in newspapers as early as 1820 to attract subscribers who would pay $6 per print upon delivery. Washington's Farewell Address—an open letter to the people of the United States that the president published in 1796 on the eve of his retirement from public life—urges the American public to put aside sectionalism and factionalism and to avoid foreign interference in favor of pursuing common national interests. Composed with the help of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, the Farewell Address was intended to guide future generations and clear the way for the peaceful transfer of presidential power at the end of Washington's second term. Washington did not deliver the Farewell Address publicly; it first appeared in print in the Philadelphia Daily American on September 19, 1796, and subsequently in newspapers across the country.

Fairman, Rand, and Toppan hoped that their artistic presentation of Washington's historic text would appeal to the swelling patriotic fervor of the early 1820s. The demand for portraits of leaders of the American Revolution and ceremonial copies of founding documents grew in the wake of the War of 1812, as the nation approached the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The publishers even advertised the print as a possible companion to the ornamental engraving of the Declaration of Independence that John Binns had recently published in Philadelphia in 1819. One 1822 description of the print in a Maryland newspaper promised potential buyers, "The acquisition of this engraving will form a commemorative act, and provide at once a handsome ornament for the dwelling of the purchaser, and an efficacious means of impressing upon the tender minds about him, the true political ethicks [sic] for an American citizen."

The engraving features a large introductory title, "Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States," printed in an intricate ornamental script designed by Charles H. Parker and engraved by Toppan. At the center of the title is an oval bust-length portrait of George Washington engraved by Fairman after a painted likeness by Gilbert Stuart. The full text of the Farewell Address appears in two columns of tidy script below the title. In newspaper advertisements, the publishers boasted that the print would "contain a far greater quantity of writing than has ever before been put on a single plate." At the bottom center of the page is a vignette, engraved by Fairman after a design by Thomas Sully, of two allegorical figures, Virtue and Union. The winged figure of Virtue, bathed in light from above and seated on a sturdy block of marble, holds a book in one hand and a crown of laurels in the other. The figure of Union leans on a bundle of fasces and holds a caduceus, symbolizing trade and commerce, in one hand. Doves at her feet and the crown of olive branches around her head represent peace. In the foreground, emblems of art, science, commerce, and agriculture surround an American flag. In the background, an eagle soars above a majestic landscape. The engraving was printed by William Duffee on fine paper provided by T. Gilpin & Co. of Brandywine, Pennsylvania.