JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as President to Dr. Horatio Turpin, Washington, D.C., 10 June 1807. 1 page, 4to, 245 x 190mm. (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.), severely but evenly browned, edges worn, slight losses at intersectional folds on docket page, matted within gilt borders with an engraved, colored portrait and a descriptive plaque, glazed in a giltwood frame. [ With ] Autograph free frank ("free Th: Jefferson Pr. US.") on integral address leaf addressed by Jefferson to Horatio Turpin at "Powhatan County near Manchester Virg[ini]a," brown circular "Washington City" datestamp, slight losses at intersectional folds, not affecting text. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON REFUSES TO APPOINT A RELATIVE TO A FEDERAL OFFICE: "THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OFFICE WILL NOT BE PERVERTED BY ME" Jefferson spells out a "law of conduct... prescribed for myself" which prohibits him from appointing a relative to office, no matter how meritorious, since the government's power is derived from "the confidence of the people in their chief magistrate." "Your favor of June 1 has been duly received to a mind like yours, capable, in any question, of abstracting it from its relation to yourself, I may safely hazard explanations which I have generally avoided to others on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence of my fellow citizens, but I have not felt equal indifference towards excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied that in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am influenced by neither personal interests, & especially that the field of public affairs will not be perverted by me into a family property. But in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the people in their chief magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that confidence. The day is not different when my relations may fairly come into competition for appointment, and when that may be a circumstance of some favor which now opposes their receiving appointments. Had my judgement and conscience permitted me in a case to depart from the law of conduct I have prescribed for myself, in no case certainly should I have been more likely to do so than in yours because no one is more persuaded of your worth & fitness..." Jefferson's draft of this letter is in the Jefferson's Papers.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as President to Dr. Horatio Turpin, Washington, D.C., 10 June 1807. 1 page, 4to, 245 x 190mm. (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.), severely but evenly browned, edges worn, slight losses at intersectional folds on docket page, matted within gilt borders with an engraved, colored portrait and a descriptive plaque, glazed in a giltwood frame. [ With ] Autograph free frank ("free Th: Jefferson Pr. US.") on integral address leaf addressed by Jefferson to Horatio Turpin at "Powhatan County near Manchester Virg[ini]a," brown circular "Washington City" datestamp, slight losses at intersectional folds, not affecting text. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON REFUSES TO APPOINT A RELATIVE TO A FEDERAL OFFICE: "THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OFFICE WILL NOT BE PERVERTED BY ME" Jefferson spells out a "law of conduct... prescribed for myself" which prohibits him from appointing a relative to office, no matter how meritorious, since the government's power is derived from "the confidence of the people in their chief magistrate." "Your favor of June 1 has been duly received to a mind like yours, capable, in any question, of abstracting it from its relation to yourself, I may safely hazard explanations which I have generally avoided to others on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence of my fellow citizens, but I have not felt equal indifference towards excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied that in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am influenced by neither personal interests, & especially that the field of public affairs will not be perverted by me into a family property. But in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the people in their chief magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that confidence. The day is not different when my relations may fairly come into competition for appointment, and when that may be a circumstance of some favor which now opposes their receiving appointments. Had my judgement and conscience permitted me in a case to depart from the law of conduct I have prescribed for myself, in no case certainly should I have been more likely to do so than in yours because no one is more persuaded of your worth & fitness..." Jefferson's draft of this letter is in the Jefferson's Papers.
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