triotic administration has been signally conducive to the
success of the present form of government, we can not forbear to
express the deep sensations of regret with which we contemplate your
intended retirement from office.

"As no other suitable occasion may occur, we can not suffer the
present to pass without attempting to disclose some of the emotions
which it can not fail to awaken.

"The gratitude and admiration of your countrymen are still drawn to
the recollection of those resplendent virtues and talents which were
so eminently instrumental to the achievement of the revolution, and of
which that glorious event will ever be the memorial. Your obedience to
the voice of duty and your country, when you quitted reluctantly, a
second time, the retreat you had chosen, and first accepted the
presidency, afforded a new proof of the devotedness of your zeal in
its service, and an earnest of the patriotism and success which have
characterized your administration. As the grateful confidence of the
citizens in the virtues of their chief magistrate has essentially
contributed to that success, we persuade ourselves that the millions
whom we represent, participate with us in the anxious solicitude of
the present occasion.

"Yet we can not be unmindful that your moderation and magnanimity,
twice displayed by retiring from your exalted stations, afford
examples no less rare and instructive to mankind than valuable to a
republic.

"Although we are sensible that this event, of itself, completes the
lustre of a character already conspicuously unrivalled by the
coincidence of virtue, talents, success, and public estimation; yet we
conceive we owe it to you, sir, and still more emphatically to
ourselves and to our nation, (of the language of whose hearts we
presume to think ourselves, at this moment, the faithful interpreters)
to express the sentiments with which it is contemplated.

"The spectacle of a free and enlightened nation offering by its
representatives the tribute of unfeigned approbation to its first
citizen, however novel and interesting it may be, derives all its
lustre (a lustre which accident or enthusiasm could not bestow, and
which adulation would tarnish) from the transcendent merit, of which
it is the voluntary testimony.

"May you long enjoy that liberty which is so dear to you, and to which
your name will ever be so dear; may your own virtue and a nation's
prayers obtain the happiest sunshine for the decli