your interference; and that the president must be left to
judge for himself what matters his duty, or the public good, may require
him to propose to the deliberations of Congress. I have, therefore, the
honor of returning you the copies sent for distribution, and of being,
with great respect, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant."
Even this did not keep Genet quiet.

Throughout all the storm that had agitated his cabinet, and the
hostility of Jefferson and his party to the measures of the
administration, Washington never withheld from the secretary of state
his confidence in his wisdom and patriotism; and the latter left office
with the happy consciousness that he carried with him into retirement
the friendship of one, of whom he said in after years, "His integrity
was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known; no
motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being
able to bias his decision. He was indeed, in every sense of the word, a
wise, and good, and great man"[62]

On the last day of the year, Mr. Jefferson offered his resignation in
the following letter to the president: "Having had the honor of
communicating to you, in my letter of the last of July, my purpose of
retiring from the office of secretary of state at the end of the month
of September, you were pleased, for particular reasons, to wish its
postponement to the close of the year. That time being now arrived, and
my propensities to retirement daily more and more irresistible, I now
take the liberty of resigning the office into your hands. Be pleased to
accept with it my sincere thanks for all the indulgences which you have
been so good as to exercise toward me in the discharge of its duties.
Conscious that my need of them have been great, I have still ever found
them greater, without any other claim on my part than a firm pursuit of
what has appeared to me to be right, and a thorough disdain of all means
which were not as open and honorable as their object was pure. I carry
into my retirement a lively sense of your goodness, and shall continue
gratefully to remember it.

"With very sincere prayers for your life, health, and tranquillity, I
pray you to accept the homage of great and constant respect and
attachment."

To this Washington replied the next day as follows: "I yesterday
received, with sincere regret, your resignation of the office of
secretary of state. Since it has been impossible to prevail u