ch you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of
our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment
of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we
shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it
in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt
should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge
will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of
debt, corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge
of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and
it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another
President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects
subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix
on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our
country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary
considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never
can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated
by our fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to
admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was,
that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress
than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel
your aid to be still as important for the future, as it has been for the
past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of
Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the
most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope,
then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that
you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political
career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement,
as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In
addition to the common interest in this question, I feel particularly
for myself the considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you
for your valuable aid during my administration of the public affairs,
a just sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was
earned by your labors, and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship
and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to promote the
c