[CHAPTER XVII.]
Renominated as President.—Letter to Mazzei.—Slanders against Jefferson.—Sad Visit to Monticello.—Second Inauguration.—Receives the Bust of the Emperor of Russia.—Letters to and from the Emperor.—To Diodati.—To Dickinson.—To his Son-in-law.—Devotion to his Grandchildren.—Letter to Monroe.—To his Grandchildren.—His Temper when roused.—Letter to Charles Thompson.—To Dr. Logan.—Anxious to avoid a Public Reception on his Return home.—Letter to Dupont de Nemours.—Inauguration of Madison.—Harmony in Jefferson's Cabinet.—Letter to Humboldt.—Farewell Address from the Legislature of Virginia.—His Reply.—Reply to an Address of Welcome from the Citizens of Albemarle.—Letter to Madison.—Anecdote of Jefferson.
Weary of office, and longing for the tranquillity of private life amidst the groves of his beautiful home at Monticello, it was the first wish of Jefferson's heart to retire at the close of his first Presidential term. His friends, however, urged his continuance in office for the next four years, and persisted in renominating him as the Republican candidate in the coming elections. There were other reasons which induced him to yield his consent besides the entreaties of his friends. We find these alluded to in the following extract from a letter written to Mazzei on the 18th of July, 1804:
I should have retired at the end of the first four years, but that the immense load of Tory calumnies which have been manufactured respecting me, and have filled the European market, have obliged me to appeal once more to my country for justification. I have no fear but that I shall receive honorable testimony by their verdict on these calumnies. At the end of the next four years I shall certainly retire. Age, inclination, and principle all dictate this. My health, which at one time threatened an unfavorable turn, is now firm.
During the summer of 1804 Jefferson made his usual visit to Monticello, where his quiet enjoyment of home-life was saddened by the remembrance of the painful scenes through which he had so lately passed there.
At the time of his second inauguration, on the 5th of March, 1805, Jefferson was in his sixty-second year. His inaugural address closed with the following eloquent words:
I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice; but the weakness of human nature, and the limits of my own understanding, will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced—the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.
The next two years of his life possess nothing worthy of special notice in this volume. The reader will find interesting the following extract from one of his letters of 1806: