6751. POLITICS, Retirement from.—
I
ought not to quit the port in which I am
quietly moored to commit myself again to the
stormy ocean of political or party contest,
to kindle new enmities, and lose old friends.
No, tranquillity is the
summum bonum
of old age, and there is a time when
it is a duty to leave the government of the
world to the existing generation, and to repose
one's self under their protecting hand.
That time is come with me, and I welcome
it.—
To Samuel H. Smith.
Ford ed., x, 263.
(M.
Aug. 1823)
See Retirement.
