6082. OFFICES, Confirming power.—
I
have always considered the control of the
Senate as meant to prevent any bias or
favoritism in the President towards his own
relations, his own religion, towards particular
States, &c., and perhaps to keep very
obnoxious persons out of offices of the first
grade. But in all subordinate cases, I have
ever thought that the selection made by the
President ought to inspire a general confidence
that it has been made on due enquiry
and investigation of character, and that the
Senate should interpose their negative only
in those particular cases where something
happens to be within their knowledge, against
the character of the person, and unfitting him
for the appointment.—
To Albert Gallatin.
Ford ed., viii, 211.
(1803)
