feelings and wishes,
that ever I have been called upon to make. It would be to forego
repose and domestic enjoyment for trouble, perhaps for public obloquy:
for I should consider myself as entering upon an unexplored field,
enveloped on every side with clouds and darkness.

"From this embarrassing situation I had naturally supposed that my
declarations at the close of the war would have saved me; and that my
sincere intentions, then publicly made known, would have effectually
precluded me forever afterwards from being looked upon as a candidate
for any office. This hope, as a last anchor of worldly happiness in
old age, I had still carefully preserved; until the public papers and
private letters from my correspondents in almost every quarter, taught
me to apprehend that I might soon be obliged to answer the question,
whether I would go again into public life or not?"

"I can say little or nothing new," said he in a letter to the Marquis
de Lafayette, "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 ether friends, than with my own feelings. In truth, my difficulties
increase and magnify as I draw towards the period, when, according to
the common belief, it will be necessary for me to give a definitive
answer in one way or other. 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 endeavours 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 ensure 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 count