many interests, addresses itself so strongly to popular passions, and
holds out such powerful temptations to ambition, that it necessarily
becomes a strong trial to public virtue, and even hazardous to public
tranquillity."

There is another evil which attends these frequent elections of the
chief magistrate--namely, the enormous patronage at his disposal, and
the mass of jobbery and corruption to which the exercise of it almost
invariably leads. Besides the appointment of nearly ever military,
naval, civil, judicial, and revenue-collecting official--some of these
subject, it is true to the approval of the Senate--Mr. Justice Story
remarks, that with regard to inferior offices "his patronage probably
includes ninety-nine out of every hundred of the lucrative offices of
the government." His great rival in patronage is the Postmaster-General,
who has power to appoint and remove all deputy-postmasters, which, as
the number of post-offices is 22,688, amounts to something considerable.

This power was doubtless intended for the public good, and in order that
incompetent or inefficient persons should be removed. To the honour of
Washington, it is recorded that during his eight years' Presidency only
nine removals took place. To President Jackson they are indebted, as I
have before remarked, for the introduction of the present corrupt
system. According to Justice Story, on his entering office he removed
233 _employes_; since then, the snowball has been steadily increasing
till the present moment; it has now reached an amount which it would
require Mr. Babbage's machine to calculate. Who can doubt that such vast
patronage, has far more influence in the selection of a President, than
any personal qualification for the high and important post? Nothing
could prove more clearly that such influences are paramount to all
others than the last election. There were eight candidates on the
democratic side, of whom General Pierce was not one; all the eight had
their special friends, and each party was loth to lose the chance of
patronage which their friend's election might reasonably lead them to
hope for. Thus they fought so vigorously that there was no chance of any
one having the requisite number of votes, i.e., a majority of the
whole number polled.

The Convention being deputed by the different States to select from the
candidates already in the field, how do they get out of the difficulty
at the eleventh hour? They take upon them