e my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were
explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will
only say, that I have with good intentions contributed toward the
organization and administration of the government the best exertions of
which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the
outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my own
eyes--perhaps still more in the eyes of others--has strengthened the
motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of
years admonishes me, more and more, that the shade of retirement is as
necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that, if any
circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were
temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and
prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not
forbid it.

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; still more for the
steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, and for the
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable
attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness
unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these
services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an
instructive example in our annals, that, under circumstances in which
the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead; amid
appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often
discouraging; in situations in which, not unfrequently, want of success
has countenanced the spirit of criticism--the constancy of your support
was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by
which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall
carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows
that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence;
that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free
constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly
maintained; that its administration, in every department, may be stamped
with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people