Volume 8 / Part 3 — PART III. REPLIES TO PUBLIC ADDRESSES. (continued 2)

The receipt of your kind address in the last moments of the session of Congress, will, I trust, offer a just apology for its late acknowledgment.

Your friendly salutations on the close of my public life, and approbation of the motives which dictated my retirement, are received with great satisfaction.

That there should be a contrariety of opinions respecting the public agents and their measures, and more especially respecting that which recently suspended our commerce and produced temporary privations, is ever to be expected among free men; and I am happy to find you are in the number of those who are satisfied that the course pursued was marked out by our country's interest, and called for by her dearest rights. While the principles of our constitution give just latitude to inquiry, every citizen faithful to it will, with you, deem embodied expressions of discontent, and open outrages of law and patriotism, as dishonorable as they are injurious; and there is reason to believe that had the efforts of the government against the innovations and tyranny of the belligerent powers been unopposed among ourselves, they would have been more effectual towards the establishment of our rights.

Unconscious of partiality between the different callings of my fellow citizens, I trust that a fair review of my attention to the interests of commerce in particular, in every station of my political life, will afford sufficient proofs of my just estimation of its importance in the social system. What has produced our present difficulties, and what will have produced the impending war, if that is to be our lot? Our efforts to save the rights of commerce and navigation. From these, solely and exclusively, the whole of our present dangers flow.

With just reprobations of the resistance made or menaced against the laws of our country, I applaud your patriotic resolution to meet hostility to them with the energy and dignity of freemen; and thankful for your solicitude for my health and happiness, I salute you with affectionate sentiments of respect.

TO THE FRIENDS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED STATES IN BRISTOL COUNTY, RHODE ISLAND.

Monticello, March 20, 1809.

The receipt of your friendly address in the last moments of the session of Congress, will, I trust, offer a just apology for its late acknowledgment.

We have certainly cause to rejoice that since the waves of affliction and peril, raised from the storm of war by the rival belligerents of Europe, have undulated on our shores, the councils of the nation have been able to preserve it from the numerous evils which have awfully menaced, and otherwise might have fallen upon us. How long we may yet retain this desirable position is difficult to be foreseen. But confident I am that as long as it can be done consistently with the honor and interest of our country, it will be maintained by those to whom you have confided the helm of government. A surer pledge for this cannot be found than in the public and private virtues of the successor to the chair of government, which you so justly recognize. Your reflections are certainly correct on the importance of a good administration in a republican government, towards securing to us our dearest rights, and the practical enjoinment of all our liberties; and such an one can never fail to give consolation to the friends of free government, and mortification to its enemies. In retiring from the duties of my late station, I have the consolation of knowing that such is the character of those into whose hands they are transferred, and of a conviction that all will be done for us which wisdom and virtue can do.

I thank you, fellow citizens, for the kind sentiments of your address, and am particularly gratified by your approbation of the course I have pursued; and I pray heaven to keep you under its holy favor.

TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN DELEGATES FROM THE TOWNSHIPS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, IN PENNSYLVANIA, CONVENED ON THE 21ST OF FEBRUARY, 1809.

Monticello, March 31, 1809.

The satisfaction you express, fellow citizens, that my endeavors have been unremitting to preserve the peace and independence of our country, and that a faithful neutrality has been observed towards all the contending powers, is highly grateful to me; and there can be no doubt that in any common times they would have saved us from the present embarrassments, thrown in the way of our national prosperity by the rival powers.

It is true that the embargo laws have not had all the effect in bringing the powers of Europe to a sense of justice, which a more faithful observance of them might have produced. Yet they have had the important effects of saving our seamen and property, of giving time to prepare for defence; and they will produce the further inestimable advantage of turning the attention and enterprise of our fellow citizens, and the patronage of our State legislatures, to the establishment of useful manufactures in our country. They will have hastened the day when an equilibrium between the occupations of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, shall simplify our foreign concerns to the exchange only of that surplus which we cannot consume for those articles of reasonable comfort or convenience which we cannot produce.

Our lot has been cast, by the favor of heaven, in a country and under circumstances, highly auspicious to our peace and prosperity, and where no pretence can arise for the degrading and oppressive establishments of Europe. It is our happiness that honorable distinctions flow only from public approbation; and that finds no object in titled dignitaries and pageants. Let us then, fellow citizens, endeavor carefully to guard this happy state of things, by keeping a watchful eye over the disaffection of wealth and ambition to the republican principles of our constitution, and by sacrificing all our local and personal interests to the cultivation of the Union, and maintenance of the authority of the laws.

My warmest thanks are due to you, fellow citizens, for the affectionate sentiments expressed in your address, and my prayers will ever be offered for your welfare and happiness.

TO THE CITIZENS OF ALLEGHANY COUNTY, IN MARYLAND.

Monticello, March 31, 1809.

The sentiments of attachment, respect, and esteem, expressed in your address of the 20th ult., have been read with pleasure, and would sooner have received my thanks, but for the mass of business engrossing the last moments of a session of Congress. I am gratified by your approbation of our efforts for the general good, and our endeavors to promote the best interests of our country, and to place them on a basis firm and lasting. The measures respecting our intercourse with foreign nations were the result, as you suppose, of a choice between two evils, either to call and keep at home our seamen and property, or suffer them to be taken under the edicts of the belligerent powers. How a difference of opinion could arise between these alternatives is still difficult to explain on any acknowledged ground; and I am persuaded, with you, that when the storm and agitation characterizing the present moment shall have subsided, when passion and prejudice shall have yielded to reason its usurped place, and especially when posterity shall pass its sentence on the present times, justice will be rendered to the course which has been pursued. To the advantages derived from the choice which was made will be added the improvements and discoveries made and making in the arts, and the establishments in domestic manufacture, the effects whereof will be permanent and diffused through our wide-extended continent. That we may live to behold the storm which seems to threaten us, pass like a summer's cloud away, and that yourselves may continue to enjoy all the blessings of peace and prosperity, is my fervent prayer.

TO THE REPUBLICAN CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND, ASSEMBLED AT HAGERSTOWN ON THE 6TH INSTANT.

Monticello, March 31, 1809.

The affectionate sentiments you express on my retirement from the high office conferred upon me by my country, are gratefully received and acknowledged with thankfulness. Your approbation of the various measures which have been pursued, cannot but be highly consolatory to myself, and encouraging to future functionaries, who will see that their honest endeavors for the public good will receive due credit with their constituents. That the great and leading measure respecting our foreign intercourse was the most salutary alternative, and preferable to the submission of our rights as a free and independent republic, or to a war at that period, cannot be doubted by candid minds. Great and good effects have certainly flowed from it, and greater would have been produced, had they not been, in some degree, frustrated by unfaithful citizens.

If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the blood-stained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

I salute you, fellow citizens, with every wish for your welfare, and the perpetual duration of our government, in all the purity of its republican principles.

TO JAMES HOCHIE, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE ANCIENT PLYMOUTH SOCIETY OF NEW LONDON.

Monticello, April 2, 1809.

Sir,—I have duly received your favor of March 17th, covering resolutions of the Ancient Plymouth Society of New London, approving my conduct, as well during the period of my late administration, as the preceding portion of my public services.

Our lot has been cast in times which called for the best exertions of all our citizens to recover and preserve the rights which nature had given them; and we may say with truth, that the mass of our fellow citizens have performed with zeal and effect the duties called for. If I have been fortunate enough to give satisfaction in the performance of those allotted to me by our country, I find an ample reward in the assurances of that satisfaction. Possessed of the blessing of self-government, and of such a portion of civil liberty as no other civilized nation enjoys, it now behooves us to guard and preserve them by a continuance of the sacrifices and exertions by which they were acquired, and especially to nourish that union which is their sole guarantee. I pray you to accept for yourself and your associates the assurances of my high consideration and respect.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR WRIGHT.

Monticello, April 3, 1809.

Dear Sir,—Your friendly note of March 3d, was delivered to me on that day. You know the pressure of the last moments of a session of Congress, and can judge of that of my own departure from Washington, and of my first attentions here. This must excuse my late acknowledgment of your note. The assurances of your approbation of the course I have observed are highly flattering, and the more so, as you have been sometimes an eye-witness and long of the vicinage of the public councils. The testimony of my fellow citizens, and especially of one who, having been himself in the high departments, to the means of information united the qualifications to judge, is a consolation which will sweeten the residue of my life. The fog which arose in the east in the last moments of my service, will doubtless clear away and expose under a stronger light the rocks and shoals which have threatened us with danger. It is impossible the good citizens of the east should not see the agency of England, the tools she employs among them, and the criminal arts and falsehoods of which they have been the dupes. I still trust and pray that our union may be perpetual, and I beg you to accept the assurances of my high esteem and respect.

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Monticello, April 12, 1809.

I receive with respect and gratitude, from the Legislature of New York, on my retirement from the office of chief magistrate of the United States, the assurances of their esteem, and of their satisfaction with the services I have endeavored to render. The welfare of my fellow citizens, and the perpetuation of our republican institutions, having been the governing principles of my public life, the favorable testimony borne by the Legislature of a State so respectable as that of New York, gives me the highest consolation. And this is much strengthened by an intimate conviction that the same principles will govern the conduct of my successor, whose talents, and eminent services, are a certain pledge that the confidence in him expressed by the Legislature of New York, will never be disappointed.

Sole depositories of the remains of human liberty, our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to that all personal and local considerations. While the boasted energies of monarchy have yielded to easy conquest the people they were to protect, should our fabric of freedom suffer no more than the slight agitations we have experienced, it will be an useful lesson to the friends as well as the enemies of self-government. That it may stand the shocks of time and accident, and that your own may make a distinguished part of the mass of prosperity it may dispense, will be my latest prayer.

TO THE REPUBLICANS OF QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY.

Monticello, April 13, 1809.

I have received, fellow citizens, your farewell address, with those sentiments of respect and satisfaction which its very friendly terms are calculated to inspire. With the consciousness of having endeavored to serve my fellow citizens according to their best interests, these testimonies of their good will are the sole and highest remuneration my heart has ever desired.

I am sensible of the indulgence with which you review the measures which have been pursued; and approving our sincere endeavors to observe a strict neutrality with respect to foreign powers. It is with reason you observe that, if hostilities must succeed, we shall have the consolation that justice will be on our side. War has been avoided from a due sense of the miseries, and the demoralization it produces, and of the superior blessings of a state of peace and friendship with all mankind. But peace on our part, and war from others, would neither be for our happiness or honor; and should the lawless violences of the belligerent powers render it necessary to return their hostilities, no nation has less to fear from a foreign enemy.

I thank you, fellow citizens, for your very kind wishes for my happiness, and pray you to accept the assurances of my cordial esteem, and grateful sense of your favor.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF BUCK MOUNTAIN IN ALBEMARLE.

Monticello, April 13, 1809.

I thank you, my friends and neighbors, for your kind congratulations on my return to my native home, and on the opportunities it will give me of enjoying, amidst your affections, the comforts of retirement and rest. Your approbation of my conduct is the more valued as you have best known me, and is an ample reward for any services I may have rendered. We have acted together from the origin to the end of a memorable revolution, and we have contributed, each in the line allotted us, our endeavors to render its issue a permanent blessing to our country. That our social intercourse may, to the evening of our days, be cheered and cemented by witnessing the freedom and happiness for which we have labored, will be my constant prayer. Accept the offering of my affectionate esteem and respect.

TO JONATHAN LOW, ESQ., HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

Monticello, April 13, 1809.

Sir,—I received on the 6th instant your favor covering the resolutions of the general meeting of the republicans of the State of Connecticut who had been convened at Hartford; and I see with pleasure the spirit they breathe. They express with truth the wrongs we have sustained, the forbearance we have exercised, and the duty of rallying round the constituted authorities, for the protection of our Union. Surrounded by such difficulties and dangers, it is really deplorable that any should be found among ourselves vindicating the conduct of the aggressors; co-operating with them in multiplying embarrassments to their own country, and encouraging disobedience to the laws provided for its safety. But a spirit which should go further, and countenance the advocates for a dissolution of the Union, and for setting in hostile array one portion of our citizens against another, would require to be viewed under a more serious aspect. It would prove indeed that it is high time for every friend to his country, in a firm and decided manner, to express his sentiments of the measures which government has adopted to avert the impending evils, unhesitatingly to pledge himself for the support of the laws, liberties and independence of his country; and, with the general meeting of the republicans of Connecticut, to resolve that, for the preservation of the Union, the support and enforcement of the laws, and for the resistance and repulsion of every enemy, they will hold themselves in readiness, and put at stake, if necessary, their lives and fortunes, on the pledge of their sacred honor.

With my thanks for the mark of attention in making this communication, I pray you to accept for yourself and my respectable fellow citizens from whom it proceeds, the assurance of my high consideration, and my prayers for their welfare.

TO THE TAMMANY SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF BALTIMORE.

Monticello, May 25, 1809.

Your free and cordial salutations in my retirement are received, fellow citizens, with great pleasure, and the happiness of that retirement is much heightened by assurances of satisfaction with the course I have pursued in the transaction of the public affairs, and that the confidence my fellow citizens were pleased to repose in me, has not been disappointed.

Great sacrifices of interest have certainly been made by our nation under the difficulties latterly forced upon us by transatlantic powers. But every candid and reflecting mind must agree with you, that while these were temporary and bloodless, they were calculated to avoid permanent subjection to foreign law and tribute, relinquishment of independent rights, and the burthens, the havoc, and desolations of war. That these will be ultimately avoided, we have now some reason to hope; and the successful example of recalling nations to the practice of justice by peaceable appeals to their interests, will doubtless have salutary effects on our future course. As a countervail, too, to our short-lived sacrifices, when these shall no longer be felt, we shall permanently retain the benefit they have prompted, of fabricating for our own use the materials of our own growth, heretofore carried to the work-houses of Europe, to be wrought and returned to us.

The hope you express that my successor will continue in the same system of measures, is guaranteed, as far as future circumstances will permit, by his enlightened and zealous participation in them heretofore, and by the happy pacification he is now effecting for us. Your wishes for my future happiness are very thankfully felt, and returned by the sincerest desires that yourselves may experience the favors of the great dispenser of all good.