4118. JEFFERSON (Thomas), Offices held by.—[further continued]
[President Washington]
returned to the difficulty of naming my successor.
* * * He said if I would only
stay in till the end of another quarter (the
last of December) it would get us through
the difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied
that the affairs of Europe would be
settled with this campaign; for that either
France would be overwhelmed by it, or the
confederacy would give up the contest. By
that time, too, Congress would have manifested
its character and view. I told him that
I had set my private affairs in motion in a
line which had powerfully called for my
presence the last spring, and that they had
suffered immensely from my not going home;
that I had now calculated them to my return
in the fall, and to fail in going then,
would be the loss of another year, and
prejudicial beyond measure. * * * He
asked me whether I could not arrange my
affairs by going home. I told him I did not
think the public business would admit of it;
that there never was a day now in which the
absence of the Secretary of State would not
be inconvenient to the public. And he concluded
by desiring that I would take two or
three days to consider whether I could not
stay in till the end of another quarter, for that
like a man going to the gallows, he was
willing to put it off as long as he could; but if
I persisted, he must then look about him and
make up his mind to do the best he could.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 167.
Ford ed., i, 257.
(Aug. 1793)
See Elections (Presidential)
