the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt fifteen)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

During May, 1796, Madison wrote Monroe in cipher, “It is now generally understood that the President will retire, and Jefferson is the object on one side, Adams apparently on the other.” Although the Federalists were worried—“If a storm gather,” Hamilton asked Washington, “how can you retreat?”—Washington wrote firmly that he would “close my public life on March 4 [1797], after which no consideration under heaven that I can foresee shall again draw me from the walks of private life.”