A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 3

of appointing and removing at his pleasure the agents
selected for their custody the Commander in Chief of the Army and
Navy is in fact the treasurer. A permanent and radical change should
therefore be decreed. The patronage incident to the Presidential office,
already great, is constantly increasing. Such increase is destined to keep
pace with the growth of our population, until, without a figure of
speech, an army of officeholders may be spread over the land. The
unrestrained power exerted by a selfishly ambitious man in order either
to perpetuate his authority or to hand it over to some favorite as his
successor may lead to the employment of all the means within his
control to accomplish his object. The right to remove from office, while
subjected to no just restraint, is inevitably destined to produce a spirit
of crouching servility with the official corps, which, in order to uphold

the hand which feeds them, would lead to direct and active interference
in the elections, both State and Federal, thereby subjecting the course
of State legislation to the dictation of the chief executive officer and
making the will of that officer absolute and supreme. I will at a proper
time invoke the action of Congress upon this subject, and shall readily
acquiesce in the adoption of all proper measures which are calculated to
arrest these evils, so full of danger in their tendency. I will remove no
incumbent from office who has faithfully and honestly acquitted
himself of the duties of his office, except in such cases where such
officer has been guilty of an active partisanship or by secret means--the
less manly, and therefore the more objectionable--has given his official
influence to the purposes of party, thereby bringing the patronage of the
Government in conflict with the freedom of elections. Numerous
removals may become necessary under this rule. These will be made by
me through no acerbity of feeling--I have had no cause to cherish or
indulge unkind feelings toward any--but my conduct will be regulated
by a profound sense of what is due to the country and its institutions;
nor shall I neglect to apply the same unbending rule to those of my own
appointment. Freedom of opinion will be tolerated, the full enjoyment
of the right of suffrage will be maintained as the birthright of every
American citizen; but I say emphatically to the official corps, "Thus far
and no farther." I have dwelt the longer upon this subject because
removals from office are likely often to arise, and I would have my
countrymen to understand the principle of the Executive action.
In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be resorted to,
and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace be sedulously
avoided. A wise and patriotic constituency will never object to the
imposition of necessary burdens for useful ends, and true wisdom
dictates the resort to such means in order to supply deficiencies in the
revenue, rather than to those doubtful expedients which, ultimating in a
public debt, serve to embarrass the resources of the country and to
lessen its ability to meet any great emergency which may arise. All
sinecures should be abolished. The appropriations should be direct and
explicit, so as to leave as limited a share of discretion to the disbursing
agents as may be found compatible with the public service. A strict
responsibility on the part of all the agents of the Government should be

maintained and peculation or defalcation visited with immediate
expulsion from office and the most condign punishment.
The public interest also demands that if any war has existed between
the Government and the currency it shall cease. Measures of a financial
character now having the sanction of legal enactment shall be faithfully
enforced until repealed by the legislative authority. But I owe it to
myself to declare that I regard existing enactments as unwise and
impolitic and in a high degree oppressive. I shall promptly give my
sanction to any constitutional measure which, originating in Congress,
shall have for its object the restoration of a sound circulating medium,
so essentially necessary to give confidence in all the transactions of life,
to secure to industry its just and adequate rewards, and to reestablish
the public prosperity. In deciding upon the adaptation of any such
measure to the end proposed, as well as its conformity to the
Constitution, I shall resort to the fathers of the great republican school
for advice and instruction, to be drawn from their sage views of our
system of government and the light of their ever-glorious example.
The institutions under which we live, my countrymen, secure each
person in the perfect enjoyment of all his rights. The spectacle is
exhibited to the world of a government deriving its powers