The period of my retiring from the public service being at little
distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for
expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued
confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful
recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can
never cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my
country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion
will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources,
which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall
behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with
peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the
American people have reached in safety and success their fortieth year
as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have
had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring of their
undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found
it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances:
to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles
a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national
power for the defense of national rights with a security against wars of
injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the fundamental provision
which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself,
which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities.
Pages:
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216