6133. OFFICES, Vacancies.—[further continued].
The mischievous law
vacating, every four years, nearly all the
executive offices of the government, saps the
constitutional and salutary functions of the
President, and introduces a principle of intrigue
and corruption, which will soon
leaven the mass, not only of senators, but of
citizens. It is more baneful than the attempt
which failed in the beginning of the government,
to make all officers irremovable but
with the consent of the Senate. This places,
every four years, all appointments under their
power, and even obliges them to act on every
one nomination. It will keep in constant excitement
all the hungry cormorants for office,
render them, as well as those in place,
sycophants to their Senators, engage these
in eternal intrigue to turn out one and put in
another, in cabals to swap work; and make
of them what all executive directories become,
mere sinks of corruption and faction.
This must have been one of the midnight
signatures of the President when he had not
time to consider, or even to read the law; and
the more fatal as being irrepealable but with
the consent of the Senate, which will never be
obtained.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. vii, 190.
Ford ed., x, 168.
(P.F.,,
18201820)gt;
