_Washington, June 30, 1835_.
EDWARD LIVINGSTON, Esq.,
_Washington_.
SIR: Your letter of the 29th instant has been laid before the President,
and I am directed to reply that the President can not allow you, who
have been so long and usefully employed in the public service, to leave
the trust last confided to you without an expression of his regard and
respect, the result of many years of intimate association in peace
and war. Although differing on some points of general policy, your
singleness of purpose, perfect integrity, and devotion to your country
have been always known to him. In the embarrassing and delicate position
you have lately occupied your conduct, and especially your last official
note in closing your correspondence with the French Government, has met
his entire approbation, exhibiting as it does, with truth, the anxious
desire of the Government and the people of the United States to maintain
the most liberal and pacific relations with the nation to which you were
accredited, and a sincere effort to remove ill-founded impressions and
to soothe the feelings of national susceptibility, even when they have
been unexpectedly excited, while at the same time it discourages with a
proper firmness any expectation that the American Government can ever
be brought to allow an interference inconsistent with the spirit of its
institutions or make concessions incompatible with its self-respect. The
President is persuaded that he will be sustained in these opinions by
the undivided sentiment of the American people, and that you will carry
into a retirement which he trusts may be temporary the consciousness
not only of having performed your duty, but of having realized the
anticipations of your fellow-citizens and secured for yourself and
your country the just appreciation of the world.