towards the organization and administration of the government, the best exertions of which a very
fallible judgment was capable.  Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications,
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the
motives to dissidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more
and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.  Satisfied that
if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation
to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism
does not forbid it.
    In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life,
my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which
I owe to my beloved country, for the many honours it has conferred upon me; still more for the
stedfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed
of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness
unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be
remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in
which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes
dubious--vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging,--in situations in which not infrequently want of
success has countenanced the spirit of criticism--the constancy of your support was the essential prop
of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.--Profoundly penetrated
with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that
Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its deneficence--that your union and brotherly
affection may be perpetual--that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be
sacredly maintained--that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and
virtue--that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may
be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to
them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection and adoption of every nation which
is yet a stranger to it.
    Here, perhaps, I ought to stop.  But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with
my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the
present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some
sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear
to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people.  These will be offered to
you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting
friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.  Nor can I forget, as an encouragement
to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
    Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of
mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
    The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you.  It is justly
so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at
home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so
highly prize.  But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters,
much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this
truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external
enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it
is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union,
to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immoveable
attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your
political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing
whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning
upon the first drawing of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or
to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
    For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest.  Citizens by birth or choice, of a
common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections.  The name of AMERICAN,
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism,
more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.  With slight shades of difference, you
have the same religion, manners, habits and political principles.  You have in a common cause
fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils,
and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes.
    But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly
outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest.  Here every portion of our
country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving hte union of the
whole.
    The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common
government, finds in the productions of hte latter, great additional resources of maritime and
commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry.--The South in the same intercourse,
benefitting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand.
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation
invigorated;--and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which