8510. TRAVEL, Tours of political.—
With respect to the tour my friends to the north
have proposed that I should make in that quarter,
I have not made up a final opinion. The
course of life which General Washington had
run, civil and military, the services he had rendered,
and the space he therefore occupied in
the affections of his fellow citizens, take from
his examples the weight of precedents for others;
because no others can arrogate to themselves
the claims which he had on the public
homage. To myself, therefore, it comes as a
new question, to be viewed under all the phases
it may present. I confess that I am not reconciled
to the idea of a Chief Magistrate parading
himself through the several States, as an object
of public gaze, and in quest of applause
which, to be valuable, should be purely voluntary.
I had rather acquire silent good will by
a faithful discharge of my duties, than owe
expressions of it to my putting myself in the
way of receiving them.—
To James Sullivan. Washington ed. v, 101.
Ford ed., ix, 77.
(W.
June. 1807)
