136 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS both when, on January 1, 1794, President Wash ington accepted Jefferson s resignation. He left office at a fortunate time for his reputation, since his correspondence with the English plenipoten tiary, George Hammond, and the French pleni potentiary, Edmond Genet, had just been pub lished in a large pamphlet. Jefferson s letters to those gentlemen were so moderate, so just, and so conciliatory as to extort the approval of his op ponents. Chief-Justice Marshall, an extreme Federalist, remarks, in his "Life of Washington," that this correspondence lessened the hostility of Jefferson s opponents without diminishing the at tachment of his friends. Five days after his re lease from office he set out for home, having been secretary of state three years and ten months. All his interest in the cultivation of the soil now returned to him, and he supposed his public life ended forever. In September, 1794, after the re tirement of Hamilton from the cabinet, Washing ton invited Jefferson to go abroad as special envoy to Spain; but he declined, declaring that "no cir cumstances would evermore tempt him to engage in anything public." Nevertheless, in 1796, Wash ington having refused to serve a third term in the presidency, he allowed his name to be used as that of a candidate for the succession. The contest was embittered by the unpopularity of the Jay treaty with Great Britain. Jefferson had desired
