ot mentioned as a candidate, and, to use his own words, he expected
to "be gently dropped without the parade of a resignation." In his
distaste at separation from his wife, the desire to abandon public life
grew upon him. But personal abuse of him in the newspapers exasperating
his friends, he was taken up again in October, and he arrived on the
scene, he says, too late to prevent it. He had no hope, however, of
success, and was resolved to resign a seat to which he was in every way
indifferent. "Ambition, love of power," he wrote to his wife on October
16, he had never felt, and he added, if vanity ever made one of the
ingredients which impelled him to take an active part in public life, it
had for many years altogether vanished away. He was nevertheless
reelected by the district he had represented.

* * * * *

The second session of the fourth Congress began on December 5, 1796. At
the beginning of this session Mr. Gallatin took the reins of the
Republican party, and held them till its close. The position of the
Federalists had been strengthened before the country by the energy of
Washington, who, impatient of the delays which Great Britain opposed to
the evacuation of the posts, marched troops to the frontier and obtained
their surrender. Adet, the new French minister, had dashed the feeling
of attachment for France by his impudent notice to the President that
the dissatisfaction of France would last until the executive of the
United States should return to sentiments and measures more conformable
to the interests and friendships of the two nations. In September
Washington issued his Farewell Address, in which he gave the famous
warning against foreign complications, which, approved by the country,
has since remained its policy; but neither the prospect of his final
withdrawal from the political and official field, nor the advice of
Jefferson to moderate their zeal, availed to calm the bitterness of the
ultra Republicans in the House.

The struggle over the answer to the President's message, which Fisher
Ames on this occasion reported, was again renewed. An effort was made to
strike out the passages complimentary to Washington and expressing
regret at his approaching retirement. Giles, who made the motion, went
so far as to say that he 'wished him to retire, and that this was the
moment for his retirement, that the government could do very well
without him, and that he would enjoy