CHAP. III. on the resignation of general Lincoln, he had been appointed secretary of war. To his past 1789. services, and to unquestionable integrity, he was admitted to unite a sound understanding; and the public judgment as well as that of the chief magistrate, pronounced him in all respects competent to the station he filled. The president was highly gratified in believing that his public duty comported with his private inclinations, in nominating general Knox to the office which had been conferred upon him under the former government. The office of attorney general, was filled by Mr. Edmund Randolph. To a distinguished reputation in the line of his profession, this gentleman had added a considerable degree of political eminence. After having been for several years the attorney general of Virginia, during great part of which time he was decidedly at the head of the bar in that state, he had been elected its governor. While in this office, he was chosen a member of the convention which framed the constitution, and was also elected to that which was called by the state for its adoption or rejection. After having served at the head of the executive the term permitted by the constitution of the state, he entered into its legislature, where he preserved a great share of influence. Such was the first cabinet council of the president. In its composition, public opinion as well as intrinsic worth had been consulted, and a high degree of character had been blended with real talent. 1789. In the selection of persons for high judicial CHAP. III, offices the president was guided by the same principles. In a letter written on the occasion to Mr. John Rutledge, his sentiments are thus expressed: regarding the due administration of justice as the strongest cement of good government, I have considered the first organization of the judicial department as essential to the happiness of the people, and to the stability of the political system. Under this impression, it has been with me an invariable object of anxious solicitude to select the fittest characters to expound the laws and to dispense justice." At the head of a department deemed by himself so important, he placed Mr. John Jay. From the commencement of the revolution to the present moment, this gentleman had filled a large space in the public mind. Remaining without intermission in the service of his country, he had passed through a succession of high offices, and in all of them had merited the approbation of his fellow citizens. To his pen, while in congress, was America indebted for some of those masterly addresses which reflected most honour upon the government; and to his firmness and penetration, was in no inconsiderable degree to be ascribed the happy issue of those intricate negotiations, which were conducted, towards the close of the war, at Madrid, and at Paris. On returning to the United States, he had been appointed secretary of foreign affairs, in which station he had conducted himself with his accustomed ability. A sound judgment improved by CHAP. III. extensive reading and great knowledge of publíc 1789. affairs, unyielding firmness, and inflexible integrity, were qualities of which Mr. Jay had given frequent and signal proofs. Although for some years withdrawn from that profession to which he was bred, the acquisitions of his early life had not been lost; and the subjects on which his mind had been exercised, were not entirely foreign from those which would, in the first instance, employ the courts in which he was to preside. John Rutledge of South Carolina, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, William Cushing of Massachussetts, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and John Blair of Virginia, were nominated as associate justices. Some of these gentlemen had filled the highest law offices in their respective states; and all of them had received distinguished marks of the public confidence. In the appointment of district judges also, and of subordinate officers, the president manifested the same wish to draw into the public service, men whose weight of character would add respectability to the stations they were invited to fill. In the systems which had been adopted by the several states, officers corresponding to those created by the revenue laws of congress, had been already established. Uninfluenced by considerations of personal regard, the president could not be induced to change men whom he found in place, if worthy of being employed; and where the man who had filled such office in the former state of things was unexceptionable in his conduct and character, he was uniformly re-appointed. In deciding between competitors for vacant offices, CHAP. III. the law he prescribed for his government was to 1789. regard the fitness of candidates for the duties they would be required to discharge; and where an equality in this respect existed, former merits and sufferings in the public service gave claims to preference which could not be overlooked. Actuated solely by a regard to the interests of the nation in the distribution of the offices in his gift, the president could not fail to receive the approbation of candid minds, and to add strength and solidity to the government he administered. But the satisfaction given by his appointments, though general, could not be universal. Among the candidates for office were many whose merits and pretensions in every respect were so nearly equal, that the disappointed could perceive no superiority of claim in their successful rival. Nor could the wound inflicted by the preference which had been given be healed by declarations previously made, that no private friendships, that only considerations of a public nature would conduce to the choice. Although for the moment, The answers given by the president to the numerous applications he received all avow this sentiment. The following extract is from a letter written to a gentleman whose pretensions yielded but to few, and who had long been on terms of strict friendship with the first magistrate. "To you sir, and others who know me, I believe it is unnecessary for me to say, that when I accepted the important trust committed to my charge by my country, I gave up every idea of personal gratification that I did not think was compatible with the public good....Under this impression I plainly foresaw that 1789. CHAP. III. the sensations created by disappointment were restrained from manifesting themselves, it was not to be expected that they could be absolutely subdued, or that their influence, on some future more favourable occasion, would not be felt. In the legislative, as well as in the executive and judicial departments, great respectability of character was also associated with an eminent degree of talents. The constitutional prohibition to appoint any member of the legislature to an office created part of my duty which obliged me to nominate persons to offices, would, in many instances, be the most irksome and unpleasing; for however strong my personal attachment might be to any one...however desirous I might be of giving him a proof of my friendship...and whatever might be his expectations, grounded upon the amity which had subsisted between us,...I was fully determined to keep myself free from every engagement that could embarrass me in discharging this part of my administration. I have therefore uniformly declined giving any decisive answer to the numerous applications which have been made to me, being resolved that whenever I shall be called upon to nominate persons for those offices which may be created, I will do it with a sole view to the public good, and will bring forward those who upon every consideration, and from the best information I can obtain, will in my judgment be most likely to answer that great end. "The delicacy with which your letter was written, and your wishes insinuated, did not require me to be thus explicit on this head with you, but the desire which I have that those persons whose good opinion I value should know the principles on which I mean to act in this business has led me to this full declaration; and I trust, that the truly worthy and respectable characters in this country will do justice to the motives by which I am actuated in all my public transactions." |