John Winston Jones' Sine die Address of March 03, 1845

by John Winston Jones

Gentlemen of the Haute of Representatives :

The period has arrived which, for the Congress, terminates our labors as the representatives of the people ; and we are very soon to part, it may be to meet no more. And before I perform the last official duty of my station, allow me to return to you, gentlemen, my sincere thanks for the very kind expression of approbation of my conduct which your resolution, just adopted, conveys ; and to say, that if, in the performance of a high public trust, you, with whom it has been my fortune and my pleasure to act, have seen any thing in my course, as the presiding officer of this House, to commend, to assure you that your approbation of my conduct, the highest reward that a faithful public servant can ever receive, affords to me a satisfaction equalled [sic] only by that I enjoy arising from a consciousness of having at all times faithfully, to the best of my poor abilities, performed every public duty that has ever devolved upon me.

These duties, always important, always arduous and difficult, are often delicate in the extreme ; and I have sometimes doubted whether the dignity and honor of the station, exalted as it is, more than compensates for the deep anxiety and care which its duties impose. " Its trappings all may see, but its anxieties and its trials must be endured to be understood." In their discharge I may, and doubtless have, often erred ; but the generous confidence and support, the kind indulgence, which you have, under all circumstances, extended to me, afford the surest guarantee that my errors, whatever they may have been, have been errors of the head and not of the heart ; and of this I desire no higher evidence than is afforded by your resolution, which has been this night adopted—a testimonial, gentlemen, that I shall long cherish as one of the most pleasing recollections of my life.

It has been said that the power of legislation is the highest trust that man can confide to his fellow-man. If this be so, how strikingly must every member of this body be impressed' with the increased magnitude of the trust, in view of the mighty questions upon which you have been called upon to act and to decide. There has, perhaps, been no period in the history of this Government, when so many questions of deep and pervading interest have agitated the public mind, and engaged the deliberations of the American Congress. On one extreme of our Union an empire baa been admitted into this great confederacy; in another direction your laws have, so far as regards the action of this House, been extended beyond the Rocky Mountains, reaching to the shores of the Pacific ; while Florida and Iowa, twin sisters, hare been admitted into the Union on a footing of perfect equality with their sister States. Thus have you enlarged the area of freedom, and secured to ita inhabitants the blessings of civil liberty and of free government.

That these great and agitating questions should have been discussed and decided in the spirit of entire calmness and moderation, was scarcely to have been expected ; and if, in the collisions of discussion which heated debate is but too apt to produce, " an occasional spark of excitement shall have been struck out," may not the hope be indulged " that, like that struck from the flint, it will have been extinguished in the moment that gave it birth ; " and that in this the hour of our separation, it will be remembered only to warn us against its recurrence in after time ?

May health and happiness attend you through life, and may you all return in safety to the circle of your friends, and to the bosom of your families.

It remains for me to announce that this House stands adjourned sine die

Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 2nd Session p.397