8440. THIRD TERM, Rotation in office and.—
I am sensible of the kindness of your
rebuke on my determination to retire from
office at a time when our country is laboring
under difficulties truly great. But if the principle
of rotation be a sound one, as I conscientiously
believe it to be with respect to
this office, no pretext should ever be permitted
to dispense with it, because there never
will be a time when real difficulties will not
exist, and furnish a plausible pretext for dispensation.
You suppose I am “in the prime
of life for rule”. I am sensible I am not;
and before I am so far declined as to become
insensible of it, I think it right to put it out
of my own power. I have the comfort, too,
of knowing that the person whom the public
choice has designated to receive the charge
from me, is so eminently qualified as a safe
depositary by the endowments of integrity,
understanding, and experience. On a review,
therefore, of my reasons for retirement, I
think you cannot fail to approve them.—
To Henry Guest. Washington ed. v, 407.
(W.
Jan. 1809)
