To George Washington from Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., 23 January 1797
I
From Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
Lebanon [Conn.] 23d Janry 1797
Dear sir
You will pardon me—I am persuaded you will—for troubling you with an affectionate, ’tho unimportant Letter: unimportant as to business—not so, as it respects my feelings.
I have been promising myself the pleasure of seeing you in the course of this Winter, and presenting to you in person, my respects and my regrets; but, the severity of the season, with some other circumstances, I find will prevent me. My regrets you have long since known, on the subject of your leaving the Goverment, while the event was in contemplation only—all my feelings on the actual occasion you cannot know. it is not in my power to convey them to you; nor, was it in my power, would it be of any real importance to do it. Some of the consequences which I have heretofore ventured to present to your View in contemplation, have already been experienced, in the late hardly contested Election for your Successor.1 Would to Heaven! that this might be the only Evil we shall have to encounter in this Event—circumstances however, almost forbid us the Hope. But Providence is Wise—“and to its disposals, I shall endeavour to bow, with profound submission & acquiescence.
Be assured Sir! that, in every situation in which you may be placed, my most respectfull Regards & Veneration will ever attend you. in your retreat from the Cares of Business, my warmest benedictions, will accompany you—and, in the Bosom of your long wished for retirement, may you be favored with every enjoyment your fondest wishes may suggest—And further—I most devoutly pray Heaven to grant, that no evil Demon of Discord may be suffered to arise and agitate the Peace & Happiness of our Country, so as again to dragg you from your pleasing Quiet & repose!! But—of this event, I am far—too far alas, from being confident.2
May I pray you Sir! to commend my very respectfull Regards to Mrs Washington. participating as she does in your wishes for retirement,3 may she also participate with you in the enjoyments of Tranqu[i]lity & repose in your Retreat.
With all the sincerity of my wonted Attatchment, I bid you a happy Adieu!!4 and beg leave to add—that I am—Dear Sir! Your real & Affectionate Friend & ever devoted hume Servant
Jona. Trumbull
ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, NN: Washington Collection.
1. In the 1796 presidential election, John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson by a narrow margin of seventy-one to sixty-eight electoral votes (see U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to GW, 10 Feb. 1797, n.1). The election became controversial when French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet attempted to influence it in favor of the Republicans through the publication of letters highly critical of GW’s foreign policy (see GW to Alexander Hamilton, 2 Nov. 1796, n.2; and Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov. 1796, n.5).
2. In a letter to GW, written from Lebanon on 22 June 1799, Trumbull alluded to his statements in the present document while attempting to convince GW to seek another term as president: “You may perhaps recollect, my Dear Sir! that in some conversation of mine with you on the Event of your resignation of the Presidency, or in some Letter written to you on that subject, I expressed to you my wish, that no untoward Events might take place, which should once more draw you from your beloved solitude & retirement. … Another Election of a President is near at hand, and I have confidence in believing, that, should your Name again be brort up, with a View to that Object, you will not disappoint the hopes & Desires of the Wise & Good in every State, by refusing to come forward once more to the relief & support of your injured Country” ( 4:143–44).
Though GW did not seek re-election as president, he was called from retirement briefly during the start of the Quasi-War with France. In July 1798, Congress commissioned him commander in chief of the regular army and of a still-nonexistent provisional army, which Congress had authorized to be raised in the event of either a formal declaration of war or an attempted invasion of the United States. GW never took the field but traveled to Philadelphia on military business in late 1798 (see James McHenry to GW, 3 July 1798, and n.1 to that document, in 2:367–68).
3. For Martha Washington’s longing to return to Mount Vernon, see Benjamin Walker to GW, 27 Dec. 1796, and n.4 to that document.
4. GW replied to Trumbull on 3 March (see Document V).