83. ADAMS (John), Midnight Appointments of.—[continued].
Those scenes of midnight
appointment, * * * have been condemned by
all men. The last day of his political power,
the last hours, and even beyond the midnight,
were employed in filling all offices, and especially
permanent ones, with the bitterest
federalists, and providing for me the alternative,
either to execute the government by my
enemies, whose study it would be to thwart
and defeat all my measures, or to incur the
odium of such numerous removals from office,
as might bear me down.—
To Dr. Benjamin Rush. Washington ed. v, 561.
Ford ed., ix, 297.
(M.
Jan. 1811)
