WHAT WASHINGTON THOUGHT OF A THIRD TERM. 335 over the Jay treaty occurred in the summer of 1795. July 27, 1795, Washington wrote to Timothy Pickering, with reference to the Boston Resolves and other matters (Sparks, vol. xi, p. 40, mid Life of Pickering, in, p. 177), "when victory moro than truth is the palm contended for, t he post of honor is n private stat ion.” I locomber 22, he wrote to Governeur Morris of the "torrent of abuse” brought upon himself by the .lay treaty just concluded. And on October 10, 1795, Pinckney, his Minister to Spain, had written him from Madrid : " I have sincerely felt for the unpleasantly delicate situation in which late events have placed you as our chief magist rate.” At last, in September, 179G, the farewell address appears,—a paper of unique amj most impressive significance, whoso every word has boon cherished as a precious heritage. Had it contained a word of caution, however qualified and guarded, against, a danger growing out of re-elections to the Presidential office, that word would have been accepted by a considerable fraction of the American people as final. It enumerates reasons for its promulgation and they are those: "The period for a now election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to bo clothod with that important, trust, it, appears to mo proper, especially as it may conduce to a moro distinct expression of the public voice, that 1 should now apprize you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice is to bo made. " I beg you, nt the same time, to do mo the justice to l»e assured that this resolution has not boon taken without a strict regard to all the considorations appertaining to the relation which hinds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a lull convict ion that the step is compatible with both.
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