hing from my
country, but there is nothing she should ever require of me in vain....
As a citizen of Virginia, I hold myself bound at all times to render any
aid which it may be within the compass of my poor abilities to offer in
furtherance of the rights, the interests, and even the wishes of its
government.... Proud as I should be at being selected as the advocate of
my country's rights by the unsolicited voice of her legislature, I could
not purchase even this gratification at the expense of any whom I love,
esteem, or admire."

Under the date of December, 1822, he writes: "If I know myself, there is
no situation within the power of government to bestow which I covet or
desire, nor is there one which I would not accept, if the discharge of
its duties by me was deemed necessary or useful to my country. I have no
ambition to gratify, although I have duties to fulfil."

Under the date of December 9, 1824, he says: "The public interest shall
never be postponed to my individual concerns, although ruin to myself
may result from it."

When once asked for something like a defence of some parts of his
political career, which he declined to give, he said: "There is no act
of my whole life, public or private, which I regret; none that I am
solicitous should not be scrutinized; none the motives or objects of
which I cannot instantly explain, in a way which candor will approve."

On the 1st of December, 1824, he writes: "If I know myself, there is no
office, place, or appointment within the gift of man which I wish, and
none I would accept save from my native State. To her I have never felt
myself at liberty to refuse myself under any circumstances, when she
thought proper to call me to her side. But even from her I want nothing
but that protection which she affords in common to all her citizens. My
gratitude would constrain me to sacrifice everything to obey her
wishes." On another occasion, when his creed was called for, he wrote:
"As a Virginian, I would willingly suffer this inconvenience and make
this sacrifice, and much more, for Virginia; but I should feel myself
unworthy of her name, if I did not scorn to stoop to the meanness of
blazoning to her view my own merits, which, if they exist at all, none
ought to know so well as my countrymen, or to vindicate myself against
suspicions which, if without foundation, they ought not to entertain. I
cannot, therefore, humiliate myself, or degrade my friends, so far as,
at this