6884. PRESIDENT, Reelection.—[further continued] .
Reeligibility makes the
President an officer for life, and the disasters
inseparable from an elective monarchy, render
it preferable, if we cannot tread back that
step, that we should go forward and take
refuge in an hereditary one. Of the correction
of this article [in the new Constitution], I
entertain no present hope, because I find it
has scarcely excited an objection in America.
And if it does not take place ere long, it assuredly
never will. The natural progress of
things is for liberty to yield and government
to gain ground. As yet our spirits are free.
Our jealousy is only put to sleep by the unlimited
confidence we all repose in the person
to whom we all look as our President.
After him inferior characters may perhaps
succeed, and awaken us to the danger which
his merit has led us into.—
To E. Carrington. Washington ed. ii, 404.
Ford ed., v, 20.
(P.
1788)
