ll as to excite a warmer
admiration of our free constitution, and to exalt our minds to a more
fervent and grateful sense of piety toward Almighty God for the
beneficence of his providence, by which its administration has been
hitherto so remarkably distinguished.

"And while we entertain a grateful conviction that your wise, firm, and
patriotic 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 achievements 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 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 a