Is this a good or an evil? Could it be Otherwise? Had the government continued in the hands of the federal party, would it have done better? Was this possible? What have been the consequences, to the United States, of the triumph of the democratic party? Have they been carried out to the end, or have they only begun? What changes have the society and constitution of America undergone, what have they yet to undergo, under their influence?
These are great questions; difficult, if I mistake not, for natives to solve, and certainly impossible for a foreigner.
However it may be, one thing is certain; that which Washington did,—the founding of a free government, by order and peace, at the close of the Revolution,—no other policy than his could have accomplished. He has had this true glory; of triumphing, so long as he governed; and of rendering the triumph of his adversaries possible, after him, without disturbance to the state.
More than once, perhaps, this result presented itself to his mind, without disturbing his composure. "With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions; and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes." [Footnote 91]
[Footnote 91: Washington's Writings, Vol. XII. p 234.]
The people of the United States are virtually the arbiters of their own fortunes. Washington had aimed at that high object. He reached his mark.
Who has succeeded like him? Who has seen his own success so near and so soon? Who has enjoyed, to such a degree and to the last, the confidence and gratitude of his country?
Still, at the close of his life, in the delightful and honorable retirement at Mount Vernon, which he had so longed for, this great man, serene as he was, was inwardly conscious of a slight feeling of lassitude and melancholy; a feeling very natural at the close of a long life employed in the affairs of men. Power is an oppressive burden; and mankind are hard to serve, when one is struggling virtuously against their passions and their errors. Even success does not efface the sad impressions which the contest has given birth to; and the exhaustion, which succeeds the struggle, is still felt in the quiet of repose.