may be readily formed into a well-disciplined and efficient
organization. And the skill and self-devotion of the Navy assure you
that you may take the performance of the past as a pledge for the
future, and may confidently expect that the flag which has waved its
untarnished folds over every sea will still float in undiminished
honor. But these, like many other subjects, will be appropriately
brought at a future time to the attention of the coordinate branches of
the Government, to which I shall always look with profound respect and
with trustful confidence that they will accord to me the aid and
support which I shall so much need and which their experience and
wisdom will readily suggest.

In the administration of domestic affairs you expect a devoted
integrity in the public service and an observance of rigid economy in
all departments, so marked as never justly to be questioned. If this
reasonable expectation be not realized, I frankly confess that one of
your leading hopes is doomed to disappointment, and that my efforts in
a very important particular must result in a humiliating failure.
Offices can be properly regarded only in the light of aids for the
accomplishment of these objects, and as occupancy can confer no
prerogative nor importunate desire for preferment any claim, the public
interest imperatively demands that they be considered with sole
reference to the duties to be performed. Good citizens may well claim
the protection of good laws and the benign influence of good
government, but a claim for office is what the people of a republic
should never recognize. No reasonable man of any party will expect the
Administration to be so regardless of its responsibility and of the
obvious elements of success as to retain persons known to be under the
influence of political hostility and partisan prejudice in positions
which will require not only severe labor, but cordial cooperation.