Washington was elected President for the second time in 1793. The eight years of his administration were very prosperous ones. His interpretation and administration of the Constitution have always been considered the standard, among the best of his successors, for their actions. At the end of his second term, when Washington learned that the people really intended to confer on him for the third time the highest honor in the land, he begged his fellow citizens to put the rudder of State into younger hands, and in an official declaration he decisively declined a reëlection. He also took leave of the nation, at the same time giving them some golden words of advice: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice; let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” In closing he said: “Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am, nevertheless, too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.” For a year and a half thereafter he led a life of tranquil happiness on his estate in the country. On the twelfth of December, 1799, during a ride, he was overtaken by a storm and took a severe cold. All treatment was unavailing. His breathing became very painful. He said to the doctor, with unclouded glance and in a calm voice, “Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it. My breath cannot last long.” In the evening, at ten o’clock, he sank to eternal rest.