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33. Retirement from Public Office
r. Jefferson had long contemplated the approach of the happy day that was to relieve him from the "distressing burthen of power" and restore him to the enjoyment of his family, his books, and his farm. Soon after the commencement of his second term, he had requested his fellow citizens to think of a successor for him, to whom, he declared, "he should deliver the public concerns with greater joy than he received them." Mr. Madison was evidently his first choice, Mr. Monroe his second; but as the public sentiment appeared at first to show some symptoms of vacillation between them, he abstained from any agency in deciding its final direction, not only from a principle of duty, but from a desire to carry into his retirement the equal cordiality of those whom he fondly characterized as "two principal pillars" of his happiness. His wishes were successively ratified by the nation in its successive choices, and their respective administrations, particularly that of Mr. Madison, were so conformable to his own in principle and in spirit that they seemed but a continuation of power in the same hands. When a distinguished French citizen who had visited our country under the sway of this policy returned to France, one of the first questions which Bonaparte asked him was, "What kind of a government is that of the United States?" To which he replied, "It is one, Sir, which you can neither feel nor see." The First Consul asked no more questions, feeling that such a panegyric on this government was the severest satire on his own.
The voice of the nation was strong and importunate for a re-election of Mr. Jefferson, but he rejected the allurement in inflexible adherence to a principle which he wished to become as inviolable as if incorporated into the Constitution. Not only principle, but the strongest of inclinations dictated to him such a course. If there was any one sentiment, next to love of country, that was now uppermost in the breast of Mr. Jefferson, it was that of his familiar assertion, that he never felt so happy as when shifting power from his own shoulders upon those of another. The impatience with which he anticipated the appointed epoch and the satisfaction with which he saluted its arrival are expressed in various letters to his friends.
"I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired of an office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis. My only consolation is in the belief that my fellow citizens at large give me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the continuance of that good-will which follows well-intended actions, and their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement." (to John Dickinson, Jan. 13, 1807. ME 11:137)
"At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I propose to retire from public life and to close my days on my patrimony of Monticello in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform health, but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy for me, and I long for the enjoyment of rural life among my books, my farms, and my family. Having performed my quadragena stipendia, I am entitled to my discharge and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner sensible than myself when I ought to ask it." (to M. Le Comte Diodati, March 29, 1807. ME 11:182)
"Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting the storm with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner released from his chains feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to take a part in resisting them and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without censure and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave everything in the hands of men so able to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and delight; hailing you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations and assurances of constant esteem and respect." (to P. S. Dupont de Nemours, March 2, 1809. ME 12:259)
n the spring of 1809, Mr. Jefferson made his last retreat to the hermitage of Monticello. He retired from a forty years' possession of accumulative honors and from the summit of human popularity with a mind unshaken in its principles, with the same jealousy of power, the same love of equality and abhorrence of aristocracy, and the same unbounded confidence in the majority of the people. He was sixty-six years old. At the same age -- a singular coincidence -- have all the other chief magistrates in the early years of our republic retired from office -- Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe -- except the younger Adams, who wanted but the ordinary term of service to complete the same number of years.
He was accompanied into retirement with the plaudits and benedictions of his grateful countrymen. Addresses upon addresses, public and private, by political assemblies, religious associations, and literary institutions were showered upon him, expressive of approbation of his conduct in the administration of the government and containing prayers for his future tranquillity and happiness. To the citizens of Washington who assembled to pay him a farewell tribute of their affection, he replied:
"I receive with peculiar gratification the affectionate address of the citizens of Washington, and in the patriotic sentiments it expresses, I see the true character of the national metropolis. The station which we occupy among the nations of the earth is honorable but awful. Trusted with the destinies of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government, from hence it is to be lighted up in other regions of the earth, if other regions of the earth shall ever become susceptible of its genial influence. All mankind ought, then, with us to rejoice in its prosperous, and sympathize in its adverse fortunes as involving everything dear to man. And to what sacrifices of interest or convenience ought not these considerations to animate us! To what compromises of opinion and inclination, to maintain harmony and union among ourselves and to preserve from all danger this hallowed ark of human hope and happiness! That differences of opinion should arise among men on politics, on religion, and on every other topic of human enquiry, and that these should be freely expressed in a country where all our faculties are free, is to be expected. But these valuable privileges are much perverted when permitted to disturb the harmony of social intercourse and to lessen the tolerance of opinion. To the honor of society here, it has been characterized by a just and generous liberality and an indulgence of those affections which, without regard to political creeds, constitute the happiness of life." (March 4, 1809. ME 16:347)
The inhabitants of his native county, Albermarle, were eager for the occasion to testify those emotions of gratitude and affection which they felt for their "illustrious neighbor and friend"; and to welcome him "to those sweets of retirement for which he had so often sighed." With this view, they formed the determination at a public meeting to receive him in a body at the extremity of the county and conduct him home. Fearful, however, lest the zeal of friendship might inflict a wound on his characteristic modesty, they previously submitted to him their intention. In reply, he expressed his wish that his "neighbors would not take so much trouble on his account." The idea was accordingly relinquished. But at a subsequent meeting of the inhabitants of the county, an address was unanimously adopted and ordered to be presented to him in which they added to the general congratulations of the nation their particular sentiments of respect in the most affecting terms. "As individuals," it concluded, "among whom you were raised and to whom you have at all times been dear, we again welcome your return to your native county, to the bosom of your family, and to the affections of those neighbors who have long known and have long revered you in private life. We assure you, sir, we are not insensible to the many sacrifices you have already made to the various stations which have been assigned you by your country; we have witnessed your disinterestedness; and while we feel the benefits of your past services, it would be more than ingratitude in us did we not use our best efforts to make your latter days as tranquil and as happy as your former have been bright and glorious."
To this address Mr. Jefferson returned the following answer:
"Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society of those with whom I was raised and who have been ever dear to me, I receive, fellow citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office have drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which nature has given us all as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay down the distressing burthen of power and seek with my fellow citizens repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors, and perplexities of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer to my happiness do of themselves confer that happiness; and the measure will be complete if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the several public stations to which I have been called have obtained for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on the theatre of public life has been before them, and to their sentence I submit it: but the testimony of my native county of the individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful as proceeding from eye witnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I may ask in the face of the world, 'Whose ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?' On your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and prosperity." (April 3, 1809. ME 12:269)
Among the numerous testimonials of the public gratitude elicited on this occasion, the "Valedictory Address of the General Assembly of Virginia" is deservedly the most distinguished. It is too rich a document intrinsically and too proudly associated with the reputation of him whose merits it was intended to commemorate not to be presented here. It was agreed to by both houses on the 7th of February, 1809.
"Sir,-- The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their session without acknowledging your services in the office which you are just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate farewell.
"We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on the purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside; patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that 'a national debt is a national blessing' renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions of acres of our national domain extinguished; and without the guilt or calamities of conquest, a vast and fertile region added to our country, far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the West to the Pacific ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand, and teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our peace with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon difficulty and trial; the good will cultivated with the unfortunate aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that we have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing them into justice; and that theme on which, above all others, the historic genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the press, preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to man in vain.
"In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment to liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
"How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your country and proofs the most decisive of the love, the gratitude, the veneration of your countrymen.
"That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and useful; that our youth may see in the blissful close of your days an additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General Assembly of Virginia."
hus terminated the political career of one who had been a principal agent of two revolutions and an eye-witness of a third; of one who, from his entrance into manhood, had continued the advocacy of principles which, first discarded, next endured, then embraced, had eventually swayed the destinies of his country through the perilous and successive convulsions of transformation from a monarchical to a free structure of government, and of deliverance from the fatal catastrophe of a counter-revolution in the last extremities of exhaustion, despair, and self-abandonment; who had lived to see the energies of those principles so extensively transfused into the very sycophants of the tyrants of the old world, temporal and spiritual, as that the earth was everywhere shaking under their feet; and who, at last, enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing his name become the synonym of political orthodoxy at home and the watch-word of the aspirants for its attainment in all parts of the civilized world.
Bright are the memories link'd with thee,
BOAST of a glory-hallowed land,
HOPE of the valiant and the free.Thus had he performed his distinguished course, and thus, full of years and covered with glory, he was ready as to all political affairs to utter his favorite invocation: Nunc dimittas, Domine-- "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
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