WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1829
131
RESIGNATION AS GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE 1 Executive Office, Nashville, Tennessee, 16 April 1829
Sir, It has become my duty to resign the office of Chief mag- istrate of the state, & to place in your hands the authority & re- sponsibility, which on such an event, devolves on you by the pro- visions of our constitution.- In dissolving the political connexion which has so long, & in such a variety of forms existed betwer::n the people of Tennessee and myself, no private afflictions however deep or incurable, can forbid an expression of the grateful recollections so eminently due to the kind partialities of an indulgent public.- From my earliest youth, whatever of talent was committed to my care, has been honestly cultivated & expended for the common good; and at no period of a life which has certainly been marked by a full portion of interesting events, have any views of private interests or private ambition been permitted to mingle in the higher duties of public trust.- In reviewing the past, I can only regret that my capacity for being useful was so unequal to the devotion of my heart, and it is one of the few remaining consolations of my life, that even had I been blessed with ability equal to my zeal, my countrys generous support in every vicissitude of my life, has been more than equal to them both.- That veneration for public opinion by which I have measured every act of my official life, has taught me to hold no delegated power which would not daily be renewed by my constituents, could the choice be daily submitted to a sensible expression of ·their will.- And although shielded by a perfect consciousness of undiminished claim to the confidence & support of my fellow citizens, yet delicately circumstanced as I am, & by my own mis- fortunes, more than by the fault or contrivance of any one, over- whelmed by sudden calamities, it is· certainly due to myself & more respectful to the world, that I should retire from a position, which, in the public judgment, I might seem to occupy by ques- tionable authority.- It yields me no small share of comfort, so far as I am capable of taking comfort from any circumstance, that in resigning my Executive charge, I am placing it in the hands of one whose integ- rity & worth have been long tried; who understands & will pur- sue the true interests of the state; and who in the hour of success & in the trials of adversity has been the consistent & valued
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