on is too great for
the chief magistrate of a free state. It is in its nature an imperial
power; and if he be permitted to exercise it, his authority must become
as absolute as that of the autocrat of all the Russias. To give him
the power to dismiss at his will and pleasure, without limitation or
control, is to give him an absolute and unlimited control over the
subsistence of almost all who hold office under government. Let him
have the power, and the sixty thousand who now hold employments
under government would become dependent upon him for the means of
existence.... I know that there are many virtuous and high-minded
citizens who hold public office; but it is not, therefore, the less true
that the tendency of the power of dismissal is such as I have attributed
to it; and that, if the power be left unqualified, and the practice be
continued as it has of late, the result must be the complete corruption
and debasement of those in public employment....

I have seen the spirit of independent men, holding public office, sink
under the dread of this fearful power, too honest and too firm to become
the instruments of the flatterers of power, yet too prudent, with all
the consequences before them, to whisper disapprobation of what, in
their hearts, they condemned. Let the present state of things continue,
let it be understood that none are to acquire the public honors or
to retain them, but by flattery and base compliance, and in a few
generations the American character will become utterly corrupt and
debased.

* * * * *

From the "Address on the relation of the States to the General
Government."

=_83._= PECULIAR MERIT OF OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM.

Happily for us, we have no artificial and separate classes of society.
We have wisely exploded all such distinctions; but we are not, on that
account, exempt from all contrariety of interests, as the present
distracted and dangerous condition of our country, unfortunately, but
too clearly proves. With us they are almost exclusively geographical,
resulting mainly from difference of climate, soil, situation, industry,
and production; but are not, therefore, less necessary to be protected
by an adequate constitutional provision, than where the distinct
interests exist in separate classes. The necessity is, in truth,
greater, as such separate and dissimilar geographical interests are more
liable to come into conflict, and more dangerous, when in that