6143. OFFICE-HOLDERS, Elections and.—[continued].
To these means [deaths,
resignations, and delinquencies] of obtaining
a just share in the transaction of the public
business, shall be added one other, to wit,
removal for electioneering activity, or open
and industrious opposition to the principles
of the present government, Legislative and
Executive. Every officer of the government
may vote at elections according to his conscience;
but we should betray the cause committed
to our care, were we to permit the influence
of official patronage to be used to
overthrow that cause.—
To Levi Lincoln. Washington ed. iv, 451.
Ford ed., viii, 176.
(W.
Oct. 1802)
