r 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 achievement 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 first 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 luster
of a character already conspicuously unrivaled 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 luster
(a luster which accident or enthusiasm could not bestow, and which
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