Mr.
Addington and Mr. Fox passed away too soon to avail the two countries
of their dispositions. Had I been personally hostile to England,
and biassed in favor of either the character or views of her great
antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand. I had
only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if ever I was gratified
with the possession of power, and of the confidence of those who had
entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was enabled to
use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion
here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another person in
the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could have
resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments and
orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer is,
that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
our neighborhood.
I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics,
to possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes
which are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself
from all political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life
with what have been the passions of every portion of it, books, science,
my farms, my family, and friends.
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