I allude to the general tenor of
his administration, and to its effect, for good or for evil, upon the
condition of his country. This is the proper time for such a view to be
taken. The political existence of this great man now draws to a close.
In little more than forty days he ceases to be an object of political hope
to any, and should cease to be an object of political hate, or envy, to
all. Whatever of motive the servile and time-serving might have found
in his exalted station for raising the altar of adulation, and burning the
incense of praise before him, that motive can no longer exist. The
dispenser of the patronage of an empire, the chief of this great
confederacy of States, is soon to be a private individual, stripped of all
power to reward, or to punish. His own thoughts, as he has shown us
in the concluding paragraph of that message which is to be the last of
its kind that we shall ever receive from him, are directed to that
beloved retirement from which he was drawn by the voice of millions
of freemen, and to which he now looks for that interval of repose
which age and infirmities require.
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