But have we gained as much as we have
lost? And may not the good be preserved, and the evil still avoided? Is
it not enough to say, that if, at the end of four years, moneys are
retained, accounts unsettled, or other duties unperformed, the office
shall be held to be vacated, without any positive act of removal?
For one, I think the balance of advantage is decidedly in favor of the
present bill. I think it will make men more dependent on their own good
conduct, and less dependent on the will of others. I believe it will
cause them to regard their country more, their own duty more, and the
favor of individuals less. I think it will contribute to official
respectability, to freedom of opinion, to independence of character; and
I think it will tend, in no small degree, to prevent the mixture of
selfish and personal motives with the exercise of high political duties.
It will promote true and genuine republicanism, by causing the opinion
of the people respecting the measures of government, and the men in
government, to be formed and expressed without fear or favor, and with a
more entire regard to their true and real merits or demerits. It will
be, so far as its effects reach, an auxiliary to patriotism and public
virtue, in their warfare against selfishness and cupidity.
The second check on executive patronage contained in this bill is of
still greater importance than the first. This provision is, that,
whenever the President removes any of these officers from office, he
shall state to the Senate the reasons for such removal.
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