hese motives, nor the hazard to which my former reputation
might be exposed, nor the terror of encountering new
fatigues and troubles, that would deter me from an
acceptance; but a belief that some other person, who had
less pretense and less inclination to be excused, could
execute all the duties fully as satisfactorily as myself."

To Lafayette he wrote, after the elections were held in January, 1789,
but before the electoral college met to make choice of a president: "I
can say little or nothing new, in consequence of the repetition of your
opinion, on the expediency there will be for my accepting the office to
which you refer. Your sentiments, indeed, coincide much more nearly with
those of my other friends than with my own feelings. In truth, my
difficulties increase and multiply as I draw toward the period when,
according to the common belief, it will be necessary for me to give a
definitive answer, in one way or another. Should circumstances render it
in a manner inevitably necessary to be in the affirmative, be assured,
my dear sir, I shall assume the task with the most unfeigned reluctance,
and with a real diffidence, for which I shall probably receive no credit
from the world. If I know my own heart, nothing short of a conviction of
duty will induce me again to take an active part in public affairs; and
in that case, if I can form a plan for my own conduct, my endeavors
shall be unremittingly exerted, even at the hazard of former fame or
present popularity, to extricate my country from the embarrassments in
which it is entangled through want of credit, and to establish a general
system of policy which, if pursued, will insure permanent felicity to
the commonwealth. I think I see a path, as clear and as direct as a ray
of light, which leads to the attainment of that object. Nothing but
harmony, honesty, industry, and frugality, are necessary to make us a
great and happy people. Happily, the present posture of affairs, and the
prevailing disposition of my countrymen, promise to co-operate in
establishing those four great and essential pillars of public felicity."

These sentences, taken from Washington's letters to his most intimate
friends, show how little ambitious he was for the fame of statesmanship,
and how honestly and eagerly he yearned for the quiet and obscurity of
domestic life. At the same time, they reveal the true motives which led
the great patriot to enter upon public empl