In the administration of domestic affairs you expect a devoted
integrity in the public service and an observance of rigid economy
in all departments, so marked as never justly to be questioned. If
this reasonable expectation be not realized, I frankly confess
that one of your leading hopes is doomed to disappointment, and
that my efforts in a very important particular must result in a
humiliating failure. Offices can be properly regarded only in the
light of aids for the accomplishment of these objects, and as
occupancy can confer no prerogative nor importunate desire for
preferment any claim, the public interest imperatively demands
that they be considered with sole reference to the duties to be
performed. Good citizens may well claim the protection of good
laws and the benign influence of good government, but a claim for
office is what the people of a republic should never recognize. No
reasonable man of any party will expect the Administration to be
so regardless of its responsibility and of the obvious elements of
success as to retain persons known to be under the influence of
political hostility and partisan prejudice in positions which will
require not only severe labor, but cordial cooperation. Having no
implied engagements to ratify, no rewards to bestow, no
resentments to remember, and no personal wishes to consult in
selections for official station, I shall fulfill this difficult
and delicate trust, admitting no motive as worthy either of my
character or position which does not contemplate an efficient
discharge of duty and the best interests of my country.
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