5330. MONARCHY, Advocates for.—[further continued].
He [President Washington]
said that as to the idea of transforming
this government into a monarchy, he did not
believe there were ten men in the United States
whose opinions were worth attention, who entertained
such a thought. I told him there
were many more than he imagined. I recalled
to his memory a dispute at his own table
* * * between General Schuyler, on one
side, and Pinckney and myself on the other,
wherein the former maintained the position,
that hereditary descent was as likely to produce
good magistrates as election. I told him, that
though the people were sound, there was a
numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation;
that the Secretary of the Treasury was
one of these; that I had heard him say that this
Constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of mere
milk and water, which could not last, and was
only good as a step to something better. That
when we reflected, that he had endeavored in
the convention, to make an English constitution
out of it, and when failing in that, we saw all
his measures tending to bring it to the same
thing, it was natural for us to be jealous; and
particularly, when we saw that these measures
had established corruption in the Legislature,
where there was a squadron devoted to the
nod of the Treasury, doing whatever he had directed,
and ready to do what he should direct.
That if the equilibrium of the three great bodies,
Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, could be
preserved, if the Legislature could be kept independent,
I should never fear the result of such
a government; but that I could not but be uneasy
when I saw that the Executive had swallowed
up the Legislative branch. He said, that
as to that interested spirit in the Legislature,
it was what could not be avoided in any government,
unless we were to exclude particular
descriptions of men, such as the holders of the
funds from all office. I told him, there was
great difference between the little accidental
schemes of self-interest, which would take place
in every body of men, and influence their votes,
and a regular system for forming a corps of
interested persons who should be steadily at the
orders of the Treasury.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 121.
Ford ed., i, 204.
(Oct. 1792)
