6169. OFFICE-HOLDERS, Recommendations.—[further continued].
The friendship which
has long subsisted between the President of
the United States and myself gave me reason
to expect, on my retirement from office, that
I might often receive applications to interpose
with him on behalf of persons desiring appointments.
Such an abuse of his dispositions
towards me would necessarily lead to the
loss of them, and to the transforming me
from the character of a friend to that of an
unreasonable and troublesome solicitor. It,
therefore, became necessary for me to lay
down as a law for my future conduct never
to interpose in any case, either with him or
the heads of departments, in any application
whatever for office.—
Circular Letter.
Ford ed., ix, 248.
(March. 1809)
