CHAPTER X
THE JAY TREATY
There is no doubt that Washington in his Olympian quiet took a real
satisfaction in his election. On January 20, 1793, he wrote to
Governor Henry Lee of Virginia:
A mind must be insensible indeed not to be gratefully impressed by
so distinguished and honorable a testimony of public approbation
and confidence; and as I suffered my name to be contemplated on
this occasion, it is more than probable that I should, for a
moment, have experienced chagrin, if my reelection had not been
by a pretty respectable vote. But to say I feel pleasure from the
prospect of commencing another term of duty would be a departure
from the truth,--for, however it might savor of affectation in
the opinion of the world (who, by the by, can only guess at my
sentiments, as it never has been troubled with them), my
particular and confidential friends well know, that it was after a
long and painful conflict in my own breast, that I was withheld,
(by considerations which are not necessary to be mentioned), from
requesting in time, that no vote might be thrown away upon me, it
being my fixed determination to return to the walks of private
life at the end of my term.[1]
[Footnote 1: Ford, XII, 256.]
Washington felt at his reelection not merely egotistic pleasure for
a personal success, but the assurance that it involved a triumph of
measures which he held to be of far more importance than any success
of his own.
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