The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
RETIREMENT / DESIRE FOR
It seems, from what we hear of the votes at the election, that you
may see me in Philadelphia about the beginning of March, exactly in
that character which, if I were to reappear at Philadelphia, I would
prefer to all others; for I change the sentiment of Clorinda to "L'Alte
temo, l'humile non sdegno." I have no inclination to govern men.
I should have no views of my own in doing it; and as to those of the
governed, I had rather that their disappointment (which must always
happen) should be pointed to any other cause, real or supposed, than
to myself. I value the late vote highly; but it is only as the index
of the place I hold in the esteem of my fellow-citizens. In this point
of view, the difference between sixty-eight and seventy-one votes is
little sensible, and still less that between the real vote, which was
sixty-nine and seventy; because one real elector in Pennsylvania was
excluded from voting by the miscarriage of the votes, and one who was
not an elector was admitted to vote. My farm, my family, my books and
my building, give me much more pleasure than any public office would,
and, especially, one which would keep me constantly from them. I had
hoped, when you were here, to have finished the walls of my house in
the autumn, and to have covered it early in winter. But we did not
finish them at all. I have to resume the work, therefore, in the
spring, and to take off the roof of the old part during the summer, to
cover the whole. This will render it necessary for me to make a very
short stay in Philadelphia, should the late vote have given me any
public duty there. My visit there will be merely out of respect to the
public, and to the new President.
to Mr. Volney, 8 January 1797
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