ress
of that body to President Washington upon his retirement from
the great office. Strange indeed to our ears sound the words that
even mildly reflect upon the Father of his Country. Of this,
however, we may be assured, that the Golden Age of our history
is but a dream; "the era of absolute good feeling,"--the era that has
not been.

"Past and to come seem best;
Things present, worst."

Before condemning Mr. Giles too severely the words of Edmund Burke
may well be recalled: "Party divisions, whether upon the whole
operating for the best, are things inseparable from free Government."
Party divisions came in with our Constitution; partisan feeling
almost with our first garments.

In this connection it will be remembered that this country has
known no period of more intense and bitter party feeling than during
the administration of the immediate successor of Washington, the
period which witnessed the downfall of the Federal party, and
the rise of the party of Jefferson. It was after the election but
before the inauguration of John Adams, that the following words
were spoken of President Washington by the brother-in-law of the
little old lady to whom I have referred:

"I must object to those parts of the address which speak of the
wisdom and firmness of the President. I may be singular in my
ideas, but I believe his administration has neither been firm
nor wise. I must acknowledge that I am one of those who do not
think so much of the President as some others do. I wish that this
was the moment of his retirement. I think that the Government
of the United States can go on without him. What calamities would
attend the United States, and how short the duration of its
independence, if but one man could be found fitted to conduct
its administration! Much had been said and by many people about
the President's intended retirement. For my own part, I feel no
uncomfortable sensations about it."

As I thus recalled the man whose public life began with that of
Washington, his kinswoman at my side seemed indeed the one living bond
of connection between the present and the long past, that past
which had witnessed the Declaration of Independence, the War of
the Revolution, and the establishment of the Federal Government.

The younger, by many years, of the two ladies, was the daughter of
the Hon. Thomas W. Gilmer, a distinguished member of Congress during
the third decade of the century, later the Governor of V