WHAT WASHINGTON THOUGHT OF A THIRD TERM. 333 a conviction which would have closed all debate on the subject, the issuing of the address was purposely delayed until the latest possible moment, because current events might assume such a phase as to demand his re-election to a third term. So far from a question of the propriety of a third term being entertained by his admirers, they had not a doubt that the people of the country were eager to re-elect him at the end of his second term, and they thought them as eager to elect him again at the end of the four years’ term of John Adams who succeeded him. February 26, 1796, at the close of his second term, Madison wrote to Monroe "It is now pretty certain that the President will not serve beyond his present term.” His biographer, Chief Justice Marshall, expresses the conviction that he would have been unanimously re-elected at the end of his second term. These are Marshall’s words : "The men who appeared to control public opinion on every subject, found themselves unable to move it on this. Even the most popular among the leaders of the opposition were reduced to the necessity of surrendering their pretentions to a place in the electoral body, or of pledging themselves to bestow their suffrage on the actual president. The determination of his fellow-citizens had been unequivocally manifested, and it was believed to be apparent that the election would again be unanimous, when he announced his resolution to withdraw from the honors and the toils of office.” Hamilton expressed the same assurance, July 5, 1796, in a letter to Washington urging all possible delay in issuing the farewell address and adding, "a serious opposition to you will, I think, hardly be risked.” And at the end of the term of John Adams, just before Washington’s death,Hamilton’s friends,through Governeur Morris, their last letter on the subject being dated December 9, 1799, were begging him to consent to another candidacy in 1800, as the only hope for the country, the Federalists being then divided, the Jeffersonians gaining ground and Mr. Adams being an accepted and recognized Federalist candidate for a second term. Washington began to consider the issuing of the farewell address which finally appeared, immediately upon the receipt of a letter from Jay, dated New York, April 18,
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