November 20th
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“To have steered my Bark amid the intricacies of variegated public employment to a haven of rest with an approving conscience; and while receiving the approbation of my own country for the part I have acted, to meet similar proofs of it from many of the moderate and virtuous of other countries consummates my greatest wish and all my ambition and in my eye is more precious than any thing, that Power or riches could have bestowed.”
“In times of turbulence, when the passions are afloat, calm reason is swallowed up in the extremes to wch. measures are attempted to be carried; but when those subside and the empire of it is resumed, the man who acts from principle, who pursues the paths of truth, moderation and justice, will regain his influence.”
Jean (Johan) Luzac
Leydens Ramp
To Jean Luzac*
Mount Vernon, 2 December 1797
Sir,
The letter for which I am indebted to your politeness, dated “Leyden the 10th. of September 1797” with the book which accompanied it, I had the pleasure to receive about three days since, and, in thanking you for both, I hasten to acknowledge the sense I have of the favorable sentiments you have been pleased to express of me.
To have steered my Bark amid the intricacies of variegated public employment to a haven of rest with an approving conscience; and while receiving the approbation of my own country for the part I have acted, to meet similar proofs of it from many of the moderate and virtuous of other countries consummates my greatest wish and all my ambition[,] and in my eye is more precious than any thing, that Power or riches could have bestowed.
In times of turbulence, when the passions are afloat, calm reason is swallowed up in the extremes to wch. measures are attempted to be carried; but when those subside and the empire of it is resumed, the man who acts from principle, who pursues the paths of truth, moderation and justice, will regain his influence. Such, I persuade myself will be, if it has not already been, your case.
To the writings and conduct of men of this description (amongst whom you have always been placed) America is much indebted. And as a private citizen, for that is the class in which I now move, I offer you my thanks for the part you have acted, and for the Annals you have been pleased to record of one, who with pleasure subscribes himself your obedient and Very Hble Servant
G:o Washington
* “Philologist and professor of Greek in the University of Leyden; editor in chief of the Gazette de Leyde.” — Fitzpatrick, et al., WGW
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