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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO JAMES MADISON. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XII (1790-1794).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO JAMES MADISON.

Mount Vernon, 20 May, 1792.

My dear Sir,

As there is a possibility if not a probability, that I shall not see you on your return home;—or, if I should see you that it may be on the road and under circumstances which will prevent my speaking to you on the subject we last conversed upon; I take the liberty of committing to paper the following thoughts, and requests.

I have not been unmindful of the sentiments expressed by you in the conversations just alluded to:—on the contrary I have again, and again revolved them with thoughtful anxiety; but without being able to dispose my mind to a longer continuation in the office I now have the honor to hold.—I therefore still look forward to the fulfilment of my fondest and most ardent wishes to spend the remainder of my days (which I cannot expect will be many) in ease and tranquillity.

Nothing short of conviction that my deriliction of the Chair of Government (if it should be the desire of the people to continue me in it) would involve the Country in serious disputes respecting the chief Magestrate, and the disagreeable consequences which might result there from in the floating and divided opinions which seem to prevail at present, could, in any wise, induce me to relinquish the determination I have formed: and of this I do not see how any evidence can be obtained previous to the Election. My vanity, I am sure is not of that cast to allow me to view the subject in this light.1

Under these impressions then, permit me to reiterate the request I made to you at our last meeting—namely, to think of the proper time, and the best mode of announcing the intention; and that you would prepare the latter.—In revolving this subject myself, my judgment has always been embarrassed.—On the one hand, a previous declaration to retire, not only carries with it the appearance of vanity and self-importance, but it may be construed into a manœuvre to be invited to remain.—And on the other hand, to say nothing, implys consent; or, at any rate, would leave the matter in doubt; and to decline afterwards might be deemed as bad, and uncandid.

I would fain carry my request to you farther than is asked above, although I am sensible that your compliance with it must add to your trouble; but as the recess may afford you leizure, and I flatter myself you have dispositions to oblige me, I will, without apology, desire (if the measure in itself should strike you as proper, and likely to produce public good, or private honor) that you would turn your thoughts to a valedictory address from me to the public, expressing in plain and modest terms, that having been honored with the Presidential chair, and to the best of my abilities contributed to the organization and administration of the government—that having arrived at a period of life when the private walks of it, in the shade of retirement, becomes necessary and will be most pleasing to me;—and the spirit of the government may render a rotation in the elective officers of it more congenial with their ideas of liberty and safety, that I take my leave of them as a public man; and in bidding them adieu (retaining no other concern than such as will arise from fervent wishes for the prosperity of my Country) I take the liberty at my departure from civil, as I formerly did at my military exit to invoke a continuation of the blessings of Providence upon it, and upon all those who are the supporters of its interests, and the promoters of harmony, order and good government.

That to impress these things it might, among other things be observed, that we are all the children of the same country—a country great and rich in itself—capable and promising to be, as prosperous and as happy as any the annals of history have ever brought to our view—That our interest, however deversified in local and smaller matters, is the same in all the great and essential concerns of the Nation.—That the extent of our Country—the diversity of our climate and soil—and the various productions of the States consequent of both, are such as to make one part not only convenient, but perhaps indispensably necessary to the other part;—and may render the whole (at no distant period) one of the most independant in the world.—That the established government being the work of our own hands, with the seeds of amendment engrafted in the Constitution, may by wisdom, good dispositions, and mutual allowances; aided by experience, bring it as near to perfection as any human institution ever approximated; and therefore, the only strife among us ought to be, who should be foremost in facilitating and finally accomplishing such great and desirable objects; by giving every possible support, and cement to the Union.—That however necessary it may be to keep a watchful eye over public servants, and public measures, yet there ought to be limits to it; for suspicions unfounded, and jealousies too lively, are irritating to honest feeling; and oftentimes are productive of more evil than good.

To enumerate the various subjects which might be introduced into such an address would require thought; and to mention them to you would be unnecessary, as your own judgment will comprehend all that will be proper; whether to touch, specifically, any of the exceptionable parts of the Constitution may be doubted.—All I shall add therefore at present, is, to beg the favor of you to consider—1st, the propriety of such an address.—2d, if approved, the several matters which ought to be contained in it—and 3d, the time it should appear: that is, whether at the declaration of my intention to withdraw from the service of the public—or to let it be the closing act of my administration—which will end with the next session of Congress (the probability being that that body will continue sitting until March,) when the House of Representatives will also dissolve.

’Though I do not wish to hurry you (the case’s not pressing) in the execution of either of the publications beforementioned, yet I should be glad to hear from you generally on both—and to receive them in time, if you should not come to Philadelphia until the session commences, in the form they are finally to take.—I beg leave to draw your attention also to such things as you shall conceive fit subjects for communication on that occasion; and noting them as they occur that you would be so good as to furnish me with them in time to be prepared, and engrafted with others for the opening of the session. With very sincere and affectionate regard, I am, &c.

[1 ]The first definite expression of a wish to retire at the end of his first term is to be found in a conversation between the President and Jefferson on the 29th of February, 1792. Washington is reported to have said that “many motives obliged him to it. He had, through the whole course of the war, and most particularly at the close of it, uniformly declared his resolution to retire from public affairs, and never to act in any public office; that he had retired under that firm resolution; that the government, however, which had been formed, being found evidently too inefficacious, and it being supposed that his aid was of some consequence towards bringing the people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for their own good, he consented to come into the convention, and on the same motive, after much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get it under way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say, that having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them: that he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of his mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself; that this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found, moreover, his activity lessened; business therefore more irksome, and tranquillity and retirement become an irresistible passion. That however he felt himself obliged, for these reasons to retire from the government, yet he should consider it as unfortunate, if that should bring on the retirement of the great officers of the government, and that this might produce a shock on the public mind of dangerous consequence.”—Jefferson’s Anas.

It is very probable that thoughts of retiring in March, 1793, had been in the President’s mind for some time before he broached them to Jefferson; but there is no positive record of an expression of them, and when on May 5th, 1792, he called Madison to advise him on the mode and time most proper for making known his intention to retire, he said, he “had forborne to communicate his intentions to any other persons whatever but Mr. Jefferson, Col. Hamilton, General Knox, and myself, and of late to Mr. Randolph. Col. Hamilton and Gen’l Knox, he observed, were extremely importunate that he should relinquish his purpose, and had made pressing representations to induce him to it. Mr. Jefferson had expressed his wishes to the like effect. He had not, however, persuaded himself that his continuance in public life could be of so much necessity or importance as was conceived, and his disinclination to it was becoming every day more and more fixed.” He preferred a mode of announcing his retirement which “would be most remote from the appearance of arrogantly presuming on his re-election in case he should not withdraw himself, and such a time as would be most convenient to the public in making the choice of his successor. It had, he said, at first occurred to him, that the commencement of the ensuing session of Congress would furnish him with an apt occasion for introducing the intimation; but besides the lateness of the day, he was apprehensive that it might possibly produce some notice in the reply of Congress that might entangle him in farther explanations.”

Madison urged that the aspect of public affairs demanded his continuance in the public service, and that “under such an impression, I held it a duty, not indeed to express my wishes, which would be superfluous, but to offer my opinion that his retiring at the present juncture might have effects that ought not to be hazarded.” The President “then entered on a more explicit disclosure of the state of his mind; observing that he could not believe or conceive himself anywise necessary to the successful administration of the Government; that, on the contrary, he had from the beginning found himself deficient in many of the essential qualifications, owing to his inexperience in the forms of public business, his unfitness to judge of legal questions, and questions arising out of the Constitution; that others more conversant in such matters would be better able to execute the trust; that he found himself, also, in the decline of life, his health becoming sensibly more infirm, and perhaps his faculties also; that the fatigues and disagreeableness of his situation were in fact scarcely tolerable to him; that he only uttered his real sentiments when he declared that his inclination would lead him rather to go to his farm, take his spade in hand, and work for his bread, than remain in his present situation; that it was evident, moreover, that a spirit of party in the Government was becoming a fresh source of difficulty, and he was afraid was dividing some (alluding to the Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury) more particularly connected with him in the administration; that there were discontents among the people which were also shewing themselves more and more, and that although the various attacks against public men and measures had not in general been pointed at him, yet, in some instances, it had been visible that he was the indirect object, and that it was probable the evidence would grow stronger and stronger that his return to private life was consistent with every public consideration, and, consequently, that he was justified in giving way to his inclination for it.”

Madison then remarked, that with the aid of the official opinions and informations at his command, he was as competent to judge of questions of business as any other man; that he had already rendered essential services in conciliating all parties under a government which had excited such violent controversies and divisions; that by remaining in office he could still further do much in deciding public opinion and the character of the government, giving it such a tone and firmness as would secure it from its enemies or from faction; and that “although his retirement might not be fatal to the public good, yet a postponement of it was another sacrifice exacted by his patriotism.” In a second interview, held on May 9th, the details of an announcement were mentioned and received by the President in a manner that proved he had not relinquished his idea of withdrawing.

The following day Washington set out for Mount Vernon, where he remained a few days, and the 25th, when on the road returning to Philadelphia, he met Madison, and handed him this letter of the 20th May, 1792. “Its contents are very interesting,” wrote Madison to Jefferson, “but do not absolutely decide the problem which dictated yours to him.” Jefferson’s letter, dated May 23d, had passed the President on the road, and did not reach him till it was returned to Philadelphia. He also urged the disturbed condition of public opinion, detailed the causes in language which Washington incorporated almost word for word in his letter of July 29th to Hamilton (printed post), and added: “The confidence of the whole Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be more than an answer to every argument, which can be used to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence or secession. North and south will hang together, if they have you to hang on; and, if the first corrective of a numerous representation should fail in its effect, your presence will give time for trying others not inconsistent with the union and peace of the States.” At least, he said, await the result of the election. “Should an honest majority result from the new and enlarged representation, should those acquiesce, whose principles or interests they may control, your wishes for retirement would be gratified with less danger, as soon as that shall be manifest, without awaiting the completion of the second period of four years.”—Works of Jefferson, iii., 359.

July 10th Washington broached the subject again to Jefferson. “He said that the declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was called on to come forward to set the present government in motion, it appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a change in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all would be well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years he found some things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he thought it was not worth while to disturb the course of things, as in one year more his office would expire, and he was decided then to retire. Now he was told there would still be danger in it. Certainly, if he thought so too, he would conquer his longing for retirement. But he feared it would be said his former professions of retirement had been mere affectation, and that he was like other men, when once in office he could not quit it. He was sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing, perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it. That with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there were suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a great deal too far; that there might be desires, but he did not believe there were designs to change the form of government into a monarchy; that there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life, particularly in the great cities, but that the main body of the people in the eastern States were as steadily for republicanism as in the southern. That the pieces lately published, and particularly in Freneau’s paper, seemed to have in view the exciting opposition to the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as to the excise law, according to information he had received from General Hand. That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most dreadful of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy, tended, of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He considered those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool indeed to swallow the little sugar plums here and there thrown out to him. That in condemning the administration of the government, they condemned him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to his sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put his name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That as to the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there was some infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be tolerated. He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat of government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and happy. He wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the discontents were more extensive than he supposed, it might be that the desire that he should remain in the government was not general.”—Jefferson’s Anas.

The arguments of his advisers so far availed as to cause “some relaxation in the disposition” he had discovered to decline a re-election. Hamilton assured him of a uniform impression “that your declining would be to be deplored as the greatest evil that could befall the country at the present juncture, and as critically hazardous to your own reputation; that your continuance will be justified in the mind of every friend to his country by the evident necessity for it.”—Hamilton to Washington, 30 July, 1792. Randolph, six days later, made much the same pleas. “The most inauspicious struggles are past, but the public deliberations need stability. You alone can give them stability . . . It is the fixed opinion of the world, that you surrender nothing incomplete.”—Randolph to Washington, 5 August, 1792.

That the growing differences of opinion among his cabinet, led by Hamilton and Jefferson, were potent in forming his decision to retire, is shown by the strenuous attempt he made when called to Mount Vernon by his nephew’s illness to reconcile the matters in dispute between these two men. He submitted to Hamilton (July 29th) all the criticisms made on his measures by Jefferson. The reply of Hamilton was dated August 18th, but before it was received, Washington had appealed to Jefferson against internal dissensions (August 23d). On receiving Hamilton’s answer to Jefferson’s charges, the President also urged him to sink differences in political opinions (August 26th). Hamilton frankly avowed his being engaged in retaliating on Jefferson, by showing up the Freneau matter, but gave his word that he would concur in any plan that should unite the members of the cabinet upon some steady principle of co-operation. Jefferson’s reply to Washington’s appeal was a lengthy attack upon Hamilton, and the offer of his resignation. The subsequent history of this attempt at reconciliation is told in the correspondence of the two leaders.

On October 1st Jefferson had a conversation with Washington at Mount Vernon, which covered pretty much the same ground that he had traversed in his letter, and showed the President still in doubt on the proper course to pursue. Between that date and December 13th, if Jefferson’s inferences be correct, the decision to accept a re-election was made, with a probability of retiring within two years.