He did so this day. He began by observing that he had put
it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit, his
remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
called on to come forward to set the present government in motion,
it appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a
change in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all
would be well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years
he found some things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he
thought it was not worth while to disturb the course of things, as
in one year more his office would expire, and he was decided then to
retire. Now he was told there would still be danger in it. Certainly,
if he thought so, he would conquer his longing for retirement. But he
feared it would be said his former professions of retirement had been
mere affectation, and that he was like other men, when once in office
he could not quit it. He was sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing,
perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it.
That with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there
we're suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a
great deal too far: there might be desires, but he did not believe there
were designs to change the form of government into a monarchy: that
there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life,
particularly in the great cities; but that the main body of the people
in the eastern States were as steadily for republicanism as in the
southern.
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