7813. SENATE (United States), Jefferson's address to.—
To give the usual opportunity
of appointing a President pro tempore,
I now propose to retire from the chair
of the Senate; and, as the time is near at
hand when the relations will cease which
have for some time subsisted between this
honorable house and myself, I beg leave, before
I withdraw, to return them my grateful
thanks for all the instances of attention and
respect with which they have been pleased to
honor me. In the discharge of my functions
here, it has been my conscientious endeavor
to observe impartial justice, without regard
to persons or subjects; and if I have failed
in impressing this on the mind of the Senate,
it will be to me a circumstance of the deepest
regret. I may have erred at times. No doubt
I have erred. This is the law of human
nature. For honest errors, however, indulgence
may be hoped. I owe to truth and justice
at the same time to declare that the habits
of order and decorum, which so strongly
characterize the proceedings of the Senate,
have rendered the umpirage of their president
an office of little difficulty; that in times
and on questions which have severely tried
the sensibilities of the house, calm and temperate
discussion has rarely been disturbed by
departures from order. Should the support
which I received from the Senate, in the performance
of my duties here, attend me into
the new station to which the public will has
transferred me, I shall consider it as commencing
under the happiest auspices. With
these expressions of my dutiful regard to the
Senate, as a body, I ask leave to mingle my
particular wishes for the health and happiness
of the individuals who compose it, and to
tender them my cordial and respectful adieu.—
Speech to the U. S. Senate. Washington ed. iv, 362.
Ford ed., vii, 501.
(Feb. 28, 1801)
