The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
RETIREMENT / FROM PRESIDENCY
It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many
among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between
political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the
person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose,
indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any
decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must
always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse
principles. But I came to the government under circumstances
calculated to generate peculiar acrimony.
I became of course the
butt of everything which reason, ridicule, malice and falsehood could
supply. They have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have
really persuaded themselves, that I am the sole source of all their
imaginary evils. I hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some
of their disaffection to the government of their country.
to Richard M. Johnson, 10 March 1808
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