in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its
provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to
a second term of the Presidency. The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson
early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been made,
hitherto without success, to apply the amendatory power of the States
to its correction. As, however, one mode of correction is in the power
of every President, and consequently in mine, it would be useless, and
perhaps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of
many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the
Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which we
are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our system. It
may be observed, however, as a general remark, that republics can
commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their
systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the
lover of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to
commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more
likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an
office of high trust. Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more
destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character
of a devoted republican patriot. When this corrupting passion once
takes possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes
insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with his
growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. If this
is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service
of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of
her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of
her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting
that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not
the master. Until an amendment of the Constitution can be effected
public opinion may secure the desired object. I give my aid to it by