y a few,
provided the few are wise and honorable, is the best possible government.
Nay, he went further and declared that an absolute monarchy in which the
monarch was all-wise and all-powerful, could not be improved upon by the
imagination of man.

In his composition, there was a saving touch of humor that both Hamilton
and Washington seemed to lack. He could smile at himself; but none ever
dared turn a joke on Hamilton, much less on Washington. And so when
Hamilton explained that a strong government administered by Washington,
President; Jefferson, Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary of the
Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and Randolph, Attorney-General, was
pretty nearly ideal, no one smiled. But Jefferson's plain inference was
that power is dangerous and man is fallible; that a man so good as
Washington dies tomorrow and another man steps in, and that those who have
the government in their present keeping should curb ambitions, limit their
own power, and thus fix a precedent for those who are to follow.

The wisdom that Jefferson as a statesman showed in working for a future
good, and the willingness to forego the pomp of personal power, to
sacrifice self if need be, that the day he should not see might be secure,
ranks him as first among statesmen. For a statesman is one who builds a
State--and not a politician who is dead, as some have said.

Others, since, have followed Jefferson's example, but in the world's
history I do not recall a man before him who, while still having power in
his grasp, was willing to trust the people.

The one mistake of Washington that borders on blunder was in refusing to
take wages for his work. In doing this, he visited untold misery on
others, who, not having married rich widows, tried to follow his example
and floundered into woeful debt and disgrace; and thereby were lost to
useful society and to the world. And there are yet many public offices
where small men rattle about because men who can fill the place can not
afford it. Bryce declares that no able and honest man of moderate means
can afford to take an active part in municipal affairs in America--and
Bryce is right.

When Jefferson became President, in his messages to Congress again and
again he advised the fixing of sufficient salaries to secure the best men
for every branch of the service, and suggested the folly of expecting
anything for nothing, or the hope of officials not "fixing things" if not
properly paid.