If private wealth is to supply the defect of public retribution, it will greatly contract the sphere within which the selection of character for office is to be made, and will proportionally diminish the probability of a choice of men able as well as upright.
He warns that relying on private wealth for public office can limit the selection of capable leaders.
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I must not conceal from you my earnest wish that the choice had fallen upon a man less declined in years and better qualified to encounter the usual vicissitudes of war.
Satisfied, therefore, that you have sincerely wished and endeavored to avert war, and exhausted to the last drop the cup of reconciliation, we can with pure hearts appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause.
Under these circumstances, to discharge the dragoons does not seem to comport with economy.
I can not express how greatly affected I am at this new proof of public confidence.
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