He may not be able to perform in person, all the details
of his office; but if he gives us the benefit of his understanding, his
integrity, his watchfulness, and takes care that all the details are
well performed by himself or his necessary assistants, all public
purposes will be answered. The remonstrance, indeed, does not allege
that the office has been illy conducted, but only apprehends that it
will be so. Should this happen in event, be assured I will do in it what
shall be just and necessary for the public service. In the mean time, he
should be tried without being prejudged.
The removal, as it is called, of Mr. Goodrich, forms another subject
of complaint. Declarations by myself in favor of political tolerance,
exhortations to harmony and affection in social intercourse, and
to respect for the equal rights of the minority, have, on certain
occasions, been quoted and misconstrued into assurances that the
tenure of offices was to be undisturbed. But could candor apply such a
construction? It is not indeed in the remonstrance that we find it;
but it leads to the explanations which that calls for. When it is
considered, that during the late administration, those who were not of
a particular sect of politics were excluded from all office; when, by a
steady pursuit of this measure, nearly the whole offices of the United
States were monopolized by that sect; when the public sentiment at
length declared itself, and burst open the doors of honor and confidence
to those whose opinions they more approved; was it to be imagined that
this monopoly of office was still to be continued in the hands of the
minority? Does it violate their equal rights, to assert some rights in
the majority also? Is it political intolerance to claim a proportionate
share in the direction of the public affairs? Can they not harmonize in
society unless they have every thing in their own hands? If the will
of the nation, manifested by their various elections, calls for an
administration of government according with the opinions of those
elected; if, for the fulfilment of that will, displacements are
necessary, with whom can they so justly begin as with persons appointed
in the last moments of an administration, not for its own aid, but to
begin a career at the same time with their successors, by whom they had
never been approved, and who could scarcely expect from them a cordial
co-operation? Mr Goodrich was one of these.
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