George Boutwell

The principal of the Public Debt was undergoing a monthly reduction and the gain in the interest account was sufficient to guarantee the payment of the principal in half a century.

Thus did the banks defeat a measure which was designed to secure their perpetuity and calculated to promote their financial interests.

My object was to make the loan more negotiable in Europe and thus to extend the demand, and consequently, to increase the value of our securities.

I chose to act upon my own judgment knowing that there was no one else to share the responsibility in case of failure.

A government cannot afford to disregard the terms of its undertakings even if a violation or neglect does not work harm to anyone.

The faith of the Government had been pledged to a particular policy and I thought that the observance of that policy was both wise and just.

It is true, probably, of every administration, not excepting that of General Washington, that the second term was less acceptable to the country than the first.

A House of Representatives already condemned by a popular verdict is but a poor guardian of the rights of the people; and a defeated administration performs its duties in the most indifferent manner.

A wise man will strive to so conduct affairs as to merit that approval.

For a President there is no future except a re-election, which is in fact an approval by the country of his administration.

The thought that one has a future is a great stimulus to careful and energetic action in the performance of public duties.

Nor is there wisdom in limiting the Presidential office to a single term in the same person.

Such evils may be borne for brief periods, when if the term of the President were extended to six or eight years the dissatisfied elements of society might be tempted to engage in revolutionary movements.

Whenever the power of appointment and removal is abused the public has a remedy in a change of administration.

When the appointing power has designated a person for an office, let that person be examined by an independent board with reference to character and those qualifications which seem to be a fit preparation for the practical duties of the…

The system may become the enemy of honesty and the shield of hypocrisy.

Honest administrators of official duties are embarrassed by the system and dishonest ones evade it.

It may be said, however, that this power of removal gives to a dishonest administrator of a department the opportunity to secure the appointment of his political friends in the place of political opponents removed, and this whatever may be…

With us a change of rulers is a remedy for political wrongs that do not belong to the catalogue of crimes.

This is one of the perils to the public, a peril from which no government can escape.

The power may be abused as every power may be, in the hands of dishonest or corrupt men.

Not infrequently a statement would be the occasion of scandal and of suffering by innocent parties.

It is essential to a proper administration that the Secretary or the President should have the power of removal, and it should never be coupled with the duty of making a statement of the cause.

Even a fresh man at the head of a department will soon find that the fancied political advantages are no adequate compensation for the trouble that he assumes and the risk of error and fraud that he runs when he takes new and untried…

No prudent administrator of a public trust will venture upon such experiments.