who were disposed to do me such friendly offices, have embraced without restraint every opportunity to weaken the confidence of the people; and, by having the whole game in their hands, they have scrupled not to publish things that do not, as well as those which do exist, and to mutilate the latter, so as to make them subserve the purposes which they have in view.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Ford, XIII, 229.]

Washington’s opinion of the scurrilous crusade against him, he expressed in the following letter to Henry Lee: 

But in what will this abuse terminate?  For the result, as it respects myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within that no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither ambition nor interested motives have influenced my conduct.  The arrows of malevolence, therefore, however barbed and well pointed, never can reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually aimed.  The publications in Freneau’s and Bache’s papers are outrages in that style in proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt and are passed by in silence by those at whom they are aimed.  The tendency of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them, because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Lodge, II, 236.]

By his refusal to take notice of these indecencies, Washington set a high example.  In other countries, in France and England, for example, the victims of such abuse resorted to duels with their abusers:  a very foolish and inadequate practice, since it happened as often as not that the aggrieved person was killed.  In taking no notice of the calumnies, therefore, Washington prevented the President of the United States from being drawn into an unseemly duel.  We cannot fail to recognize also that Washington was very sensitive to the maintenance of freedom of speech.  He seems to have acted on the belief that it was better that occasionally license should degenerate into abuse than that liberty should be suppressed.  He was the President of the first government in the world which did not control the utterances of its people.  Perhaps he may have supposed that their patriotism would restrain them from excesses, and there can be no doubt that the insane gibes of the Freneaus and the Baches gave him much pain because they proved that those scorpions were not up to the level which the new Nation offered them.

As the time for the conclusion of Washington’s second term drew near, he left no doubt as to his intentions.  Though some of his best friends urged him to stand for reelection, he firmly declined.  He felt that he had done enough for his country in sacrificing the last eight years to it.  He had seen it through its formative period, and had, he thought, steered it into clear, quiet water, so that there was