Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, by JARED SPARKS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

CHARLES FOLSOM, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY.

I cannot fail of being much pleased with the friendly part you take in every thing which concerns me, and particularly with the just scale on which you estimate this last great sacrifice, that I consider myself as having made for the good of my country. When I had judged, upon the best appreciation I was able to form of the circumstances, which related to myself, that it was my duty to embark again on the tempestuous ocean of public life, I gave up all expectations of private happiness in this world. You know, my dear Sir, I had concentred all my schemes, all my views, all my wishes, within the narrow circle of domestic enjoyment,

Though I flatter myself the world will do me the justice to believe, that, at my time of life and in my

*Having been officially notified by a special messenger from Congress, that he was unanimously elected President of the United States, General Washington left Mount Vernon on the 16th of April, and proceeded to New York where Congress was then sitting. He arrived in that city on the 23d of April, and took the oath of office on the 30th. See APPENDIX, No. I.

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circumstances, nothing but a conviction of duty could have induced me to depart from my resolution of remaining in retirement, yet I greatly apprehend, that my countrymen will expect too much from me. I fear, if the issue of public measures should not correspond with their sanguine expectations, they will turn the extravagant, and I might almost say undue praises, which they are heaping upon me at this moment, into equally extravagant, though I will fondly hope unmerited censures.*

*Similar sentiments were expressed in a letter to General Wayne. My greatest apprehension at present is, that more will be expected from me, than I shall be able to perform. All that an honest zeal can dictate for the advancement of the interests of our country will, however, be cheerfully and perseveringly attempted."-May 4th. And to General Schuyler; "It is only from the assurances of support, which I have received from the respectable and worthy characters in every part of the Union, that I am enabled to overcome the diffidence, which I have in my own abilities to execute my great and important trust to the best interest of our country. An honest zeal, and an unremitting attention to the interests of the United States, are all that I dare promise.”. May 9th. And again to Mr. Jones; "The numerous and friendly congratulations, which I have received from respectable characters in every part of the Union, are truly pleasing to me; not only on account of their discovering a warm attachment to my person, but because they convey the most flattering idea of the good dispositions of the people in the several States, and the strongest assurances of support to the government. It affords me likewise no small satisfaction to find, that my friends have done justice to the motives, which again brought me into public life. Under all these circumstances I shall feel a degree of confidence in discharging the duties of my administration, with which a consciousness alone of the purity of my intentions could not have inspired me."-May 14th. To Robert R. Livingston, after stating the principles which he had adopted for regulating his conduct in regard to appointments, he wrote; "The delicacy with which your letter was written, and your wishes insinuated, did not require me to be thus explicit on this head with you; but the desire which I have, that those persons whose good opinion I value, should know the principles on which I mean to act in this business, has led me to this full declaration; and I trust, that the truly worthy and respectable characters in this country will do justice to the motives by which I am actuated in all my public transactions.". May 31st.