More
Thoughts from George
Among the vicissitudes incident
to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties
than that of which the notification was transmitted by your
order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On
the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can
never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which
I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering
hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining
years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary
as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination,
and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste
committed on it by time.
On the other hand, the magnitude and
difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called
me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced
of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications,
could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting
inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties
of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of
his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare
aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty
from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it
might
be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this
task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance
of former
instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent
proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence
too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination
for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will
be
palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences
be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in
which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience
to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it
would
be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my
fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over
the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and
whose
providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction
may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people
of the United States a Government instituted by themselves
for
these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed
in its administration to execute with success the functions
allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great
Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that
it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those
of my fellow- citizens at large less than either.
No people
can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which
conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of
an
independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some
token of providential agency; and in the important revolution
just accomplished in the system of their united government
the
tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct
communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared
with the means by which most governments have been established
without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble
anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.
These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have
forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are
none
under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence.
  Posted
by George at 12:26pm
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Thursday,
October 23
