6175. OFFICE-HOLDERS, Removals.—[further continued].
That some ought to be
removed from office, and that all ought not,
all mankind will agree. But where to draw
the line, perhaps no two will agree. Consequently,
nothing like a general approbation on
this subject can be looked for. Some principles
have been the subject of conversation
[in cabinet] but not of determination, e. g.,
1. All appointments to civil offices during
pleasure, made after the event of the election
was certainly known to Mr. Adams, are considered
as nullities. I do not view the persons
appointed as even candidates for the
office, but make others without noticing or
notifying them. Mr. Adams's best friends
have agreed this is right. 2. Officers who
have been guilty of official malconduct are
proper subjects of removal. 3. Good men,
to whom there is no objection but a difference
of political principle, practiced on only as
far as the right of a private citizen will justify,
are not proper subjects of removal except
in the case of attorneys and marshals.
The courts being so decidedly federal and irremovable,
it is believed that republican attorneys
and marshals, being the doors of entrance
into the courts, are indispensably
necessary as a shield to the republican part
of our fellow citizens, which, I believe, is
the main body of the people.—
To William B. Giles. Washington ed. iv, 380.
Ford ed., viii, 25.
(W.
March. 1801)
