The receipt of your kind address in the last moments of the session of Congress, will, I trust, offer a just apology for this late acknowledgment of it. I am very sensible of the indulgence with which you are so good as to review the measures of my late administration, and I feel for that indulgence the sentiments of gratitude it so justly calls for. The stand which has been made on behalf of our seamen enslaved and incarcerated in foreign ships, and against the prostration of our rights on the ocean under laws of nature acknowledged by all civilized nations, was an effort due to the protection of our commerce, and to that portion of our fellow citizens engaged in the pursuits of navigation. The opposition of the same portion to the vindication of their peculiar rights, has been as wonderful as the loyalty of their agricultural brethren in the assertion of them has been disinterested and meritorious. If the honor of the nation can be forgotten, whether the abandonment of the right of navigating the ocean may not be compensated by exemption from the wars it would produce, may be a question for our future councils, which the disclaimer of our navigating citizens may, if continued, relieve from the embarrassment of their rights. Sincerely and affectionately attached to our national constitution, as the ark of our safety, and grand palladium of our peace and happiness, I learn with pleasure that the number of those in the county of Essex, who read and think for themselves, is great, and constituted of men who will never surrender but with their lives, the invaluable liberties achieved by their fathers. Their elevated minds put all to the hazard for a three penny duty on tea, by the same nation which now exacts a tribute equal to the value of half our exported produce. I thank you, fellow citizens, for the kind interest you take in my future happiness, and I sincerely supplicate that overruling providence which governs the destinies of men and nations, to dispense his choicest blessings on yourselves and our beloved country. TO THE REPUBLICAN MECHANICS OF THE TOWN OF LEESBURG AND ITS VICINITY, ASSEMBLED ON THE 27TH OF FEBRUARY LAST. MONTICELLO, March 29, 1809. The receipt of your kind address in the last moments of the session of Congress, will, I trust, offer a just apology for its late acknowledgment. Your friendly salutations on the close of my public life, and approbation of the motives which dictated my retirement, are received with great satisfaction.