ll another, and perhaps a
greatly more mischievous result, of extensive patronage in the hands of
a single magistrate, to which I have already incidentally alluded; and
that is, that men in office have begun to think themselves mere agents
and servants of the appointing power, and not agents of the government
or the country. It is, in an especial manner, important, if it be
practicable, to apply some corrective to this kind of feeling and
opinion. It is necessary to bring back public officers to the
conviction, that they belong to the country, and not to any
administration, nor to any one man. The army is the army of the country;
the navy is the navy of the country; neither of them is either the mere
instrument of the administration for the time being, nor of him who is
at the head of it. The post-office, the land-office, the custom-house,
are, in like manner, institutions of the country, established for the
good of the people: and it may well alarm the lovers of free
institutions, when all the offices in these several departments are
spoken of, in high places, as being but "spoils of victory," to be
enjoyed by those who are successful in a contest, in which they profess
this grasping of the spoils to have been the object of their efforts.

This part of the bill, therefore, Sir, is a subject for fair comparison.
We have gained something, doubtless, by limiting the commissions of
these officers to four years. 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