| |
| The Art of Governing |
| |
|
The Chief Executive of a republic
is expected to govern in the public interest and not for his own enrichment or that of his
family and friends. The art of governing consists simply of being honest, exercising
common sense, following principle, and doing what is right and just.
|
| |
 |
| |
|
"It behooves [a
chief executive] to think and to act for [himself] and for [his] people. The great
principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the
aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.
[He need] only aim to do [his] duty, and mankind will give [him] credit where [he
fails]." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. (*) ME 1:209, Papers
1:134
|
| |
|
"The organization of
[government] may be thought [to entail great difficulties]. But follow principle, and the
knot unties itself." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. (*) ME 15:37
|
| |
|
"Principles being
understood, their application will be less embarrassing." --Thomas Jefferson to
Thomas Pinckney, 1792. ME 9:7
|
| |
|
"There are no mysteries in
[the public administration]. Difficulties indeed sometimes arise; but common sense and
honest intentions will generally steer through them, and, where they cannot be surmounted,
I have ever seen the well-intentioned part of our fellow citizens sufficiently disposed
not to look for impossibilities." --Thomas Jefferson to Josephus B. Stuart, 1817. ME
15:112
|
| |
|
"If ever you find yourself
environed with difficulties and perplexing circumstances out of which you are at a loss
how to extricate yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate you
the best out of the worst situations. Though you cannot see when you take one step what
will be the next, yet follow truth, justice and plain dealing, and never fear their
leading you out of the labyrinth in the easiest manner possible. The knot which you
thought a Gordian one will untie itself before you. Nothing is so mistaken as the
supposition that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty by intrigue, by
chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases
the difficulties tenfold; and those who pursue these methods get themselves so involved at
length that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more exposed." --Thomas
Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1785. ME 5:83, Papers 8:406
|
| |
|
"I have ever found in my
progress through life, that, acting for the public, if we do always what is right, the
approbation denied in the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from posterity
we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are making for their service, of time,
quiet and good will." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1825. ME 16:99
|
| |
|
"After the satisfaction of
doing what is right, the greatest is that of having what we do approved by those whose
opinions deserve esteem." --Thomas Jefferson to William Phillips, 1779. ME 4:302,
Papers 3:44
|
| |
|
|
"Government [is] founded in
opinion and confidence." --Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1792. ME 1:317
|
| |
|
"It is not wisdom alone but
public confidence in that wisdom which can support an administration." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Monroe, 1824. FE 10:316
|
| |
|
"I wish support from no
quarter longer than my object candidly scanned shall merit it; and especially not longer
than I shall rigorously adhere to the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin
Stoddart, 1801. ME 10:209
|
| |
|
"The good opinion of
mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world."
--Thomas Jefferson to M. Correa de Serra, 1814. ME 14:222
|
| |
|
"Opinion is power."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1816. ME 14:39
|
| |
Efforts to Win Confidence |
|
"[Our government's] energy
depending mainly on the confidence of the people in the Chief Magistrate, makes it his
duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that confidence." --Thomas
Jefferson to Horatio Turpin, 1807. ME 11:222
|
| |
|
"I would be glad even to
know, when any individual member [of Congress] thinks I have gone wrong in any instance.
If I know myself, it would not excite ill blood in me, while it would assist to guide my
conduct, perhaps to justify it, and to keep me to my duty, alert." --Thomas Jefferson
to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:385
|
| |
|
"Continue to go straight
forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can lead us out of
the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or passion to preserve the public
confidence entire as the only rock of our safety." --Thomas Jefferson to Caesar
Rodney, 1810. ME 12:359
|
| |
Avoiding Pomp and Spectacle |
|
"We have suppressed all
those public forms and ceremonies which tended to familiarize the public eye to the
harbingers of another form of government." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko,
1802. ME 10:310
|
| |
|
"We do not wish to set a
precedent which may bind us hereafter to a single unnecessary ceremony." --Thomas
Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1792. ME 8:368
|
| |
|
"I confess that I am not
reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate parading himself through the several States,
as an object of public gaze, and in quest of an applause which, to be valuable, should be
purely voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good-will by a faithful discharge of my
duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way of receiving
them." --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1807. ME 11:238
|
| |
|
"Let us deserve well of our
country by making her interests the end of all our plans, and not our own pomp, patronage
and irresponsibility." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1802. ME 10:308
|
| |
|
"I never doubted the
propriety of our adopting as a system that of pomp and fulsome attentions by our citizens
to their functionaries. I am decidedly against it, as it makes the citizen in his own eye
exalting his functionary and creating a distance between the two, which does not tend to
aid the morals of either. I think it a practice which we ought to destroy and must destroy
and, therefore, must not adopt as a general thing even for a short time." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Monroe, 1800. ME 19:119
|
| |
|
|
"I have not been in the
habit of mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own
doublet. On the contrary, while in public service especially, I thought the public
entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they employed." --Thomas Jefferson
to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:32
|
| |
|
"I hope that to preserve
this weather-gauge of public opinion and to counteract the slanders and falsehoods
disseminated by the [foreign] papers, the government will make it a standing instruction
to their ministers at foreign courts, to keep [their people] truly informed of occurrences
here by publishing in their papers the naked truth always, whether favorable or
unfavorable. For they will believe the good if we candidly tell them the bad also."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1815. (*) ME 14:227
|
| |
|
"A fair and honest narrative
of the bad is a voucher for the truth of the good." --Thomas Jefferson to Matthew
Carr, 1813. ME 13:264
|
| |
|
"Free people think they have
a right to an explanation of the circumstances which give rise to the necessity under
which they suffer." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Green, 1781. Papers 5:356
|
| |
|
"True history, in which all
will be believed, [is] preferable to unqualified panegyric, in which nothing is
believed." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 1816. ME 15:49
|
| |
|
"No ground of support for
the Executive will ever be so sure as a complete knowledge of their proceedings by the
people; and it is only in cases where the public good would be injured, and because
it would be injured, that proceedings should be secret. In such cases it is the duty of
the Executive to sacrifice their personal interest (which would be promoted by publicity)
to the public interest." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1793. ME 9:262
|
| |
|
"Should circumstances arise
which may offer advantage to our country in making [the acknowledged principles of our
foreign relations] public, we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not usual nor
agreeable to governments to bring their conversations before the public, I think it would
be well [for officers] to consider [such matters] as confidential, leaving to the
government to retain or make it public, as the general good may require." --Thomas
Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 1808. ME 12:170
|
| |
Influence of the President |
|
"I was against writing
letters to judiciary officers. I thought them independent of the Executive, not subject to
its coercion and therefore not obliged to attend to its admonitions." --Thomas
Jefferson: Anas, 1793. ME 1:399
|
| |
|
"It is... proposed that I
should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I
should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises
which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this
recommendation is to carry some authority and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those
who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription
perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the
recommendation less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed?... Civil
powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to
direct the religious exercises of his constituents." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel
Miller, 1808. ME 11:428
|
| |
|
"I do not mean... to
arrogate to myself the merit of the measures [which I propose]; that is due, in the first
place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by the weight of public
opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures; it is due to the sound discretion
with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative
duties; it is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the
foundations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains
for others; and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries whose patriotism has
associated with me in the executive functions." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural,
1805. ME 3:380
|
| |
|
|
"Solicitations for office
are the most painful incidents to which an executive magistrate is exposed. The ordinary
affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience, but the gift of
office is the dreadful burthen which oppresses him." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Sullivan, 1808. ME 12:3
|
| |
|
"A person who wishes to make
[the bestowal of office] an engine of self-elevation may do wonders with it; but to one
who wishes to use it conscientiously for the public good without regard to the ties of
blood or friendship, it creates enmities without number, many open but more secret, and
saps the happiness and peace of his life." --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan,
1808. ME 12:3
|
| |
|
"I know well that no man
will ever bring out of that office [i.e., the Presidency] the reputation which carries him
into it." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 1796. ME 9:353
|
| |
|
"The helm of a free
government is always arduous." --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:377
|
| |
|
"I have no inclination to
govern men. I should have no views of my own in doing it; and as to those of the governed,
I had rather that their disappointment (which must always happen) should be pointed to any
other cause, real or supposed, than to myself." --Thomas Jefferson to Constantin
Francois Volney, 1797. ME 9:363
|
| |
|
"I have never been so well
pleased as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I
ever been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
the exercise of power over others." --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy,
1811. ME 13:18
|
| |
|
"I have no ambition to
govern men. It is a painful and thankless office." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams,
1796. ME 9:357
|
| |
|
"I am tired of an office
where I can do no more good than many others, who would be glad to be employed in it. To
myself, personally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.
Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made,
me donne un ingrat, et cent
ennemis
." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1807. ME 11:137
|
| |
|
"No slave is so remote [from
happiness] as the minister of a commonwealth." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1781.
ME 4:185, Papers 6:112
|
| |
|
"So totally is my time
engrossed by the public concerns, that for mere want of time, many of them which I ought
to attend to myself, if my time sufficed, I am obliged, for want of it, to refer to
others. To withdraw myself from still more of them for any voluntary object would be a
failure in duty." --Thomas Jefferson to James Main, 1808. ME 12:175
|
| |
|
"I should have listened to
[certain] solicitations [for a government project] with more patience, had it not been for
the unworthy motives presented to influence me by some of those interested. Sometimes an
opposition by force was held up, sometimes electioneering effects, as if I were to barter
away, on such motives, a public trust committed to me for a different object."
--Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1808. (*) ME 12:118
|
| |
|
|
"In the transaction of [the]
business [of my fellow citizens] I cannot have escaped error. It is incident to our
imperfect nature. But I may say with truth, my errors have been of the understanding, not
of intention; and that the advancement of their rights and interests has been the constant
motive of every measure." --Thomas Jefferson: 8th Annual Message, 1808. ME 3:485
|
| |
|
"Men come into business at
first, with visionary principles. It is practice alone which can correct and conform them
to the actual current of affairs. In the meantime, those to whom their errors were first
applied have been their victims." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:42
|
| |
|
"Nothing my friends can do
is so dear to me, and proves to me their friendship so clearly, as the information they
give me of their sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that due reflection
which ought to precede action." --Thomas Jefferson to Wilson C. Nicholas, 1803. ME
10:420
|
| |
|
"It is much easier to avoid
errors by having good information at first, than to unravel and correct them after they
are committed." --Thomas Jefferson to David Rittenhouse, 1790. ME 8:56
|
| |
|
"I fear not that any motives
of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me
knowingly from the path of justice; but the weakness of human nature and the limits of my
own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to [the nation's]
interests." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural, 1805. ME 3:383
|
| |
|
"Public misfortune may be
produced as well by public poverty and private disobedience to the laws, as by the
misconduct of the public servants." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1781. ME 4:185,
Papers 6:112
|
| |
|
"Although every reasonable
man must be sensible that all [the President] can do is to order, that execution must
depend on others and failures be imputed to them alone, yet I know that when such failures
happen, they afflict even those who have done everything they could to prevent them."
--Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:194
|
| |
|
"I may have erred at times
-- no doubt I have erred; this is the law of human nature. For honest errors, however,
indulgence may be hoped." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 1801. ME 10:212
|
| |
|
"It is our consolation and
encouragement that we are serving a just public who will be indulgent to any error
committed honestly and relating merely to the means of carrying into effect what they have
manifestly willed to be a law." --Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 1807. ME
11:323
|
| |
|
"It is impossible not to
deplore our past follies and their present consequences, but let them at least be warnings
against like follies in future." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:189
|
| |
|
"Only aim to do your duty
and mankind will give you credit where you fail." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of
British America, 1774. ME 1:210, Papers 1:134
|
| |
|
|
"In a government like ours,
it is the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in order to enable himself to do all the good
which his station requires, to endeavor by all honorable means to unite in himself the
confidence of the whole people. This alone, in any case where the energy of the nation is
required, can produce a union of the powers of the whole and point them in a single
direction as if all constituted but one body and one mind, and this alone can render a
weaker nation unconquerable by a stronger one. Towards acquiring the confidence of the
people, the very first measure is to satisfy them of his disinterestedness, and that he is
directing their affairs with a single eye to their good and not to build up fortunes for
himself and family." --Thomas Jefferson to John Garland Jefferson, 1810. ME 12:353
|
| |
|
"The public will never be
made to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit alone,
uninfluenced by family views; nor can they ever see with approbation offices, the disposal
of which they entrust to their Presidents for public purposes, divided out as family
property... It is true that this places the relations of the President in a worse
situation than if he were a stranger, but the public good, which cannot be effected if its
confidence be lost, requires this sacrifice." --Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson,
1801. ME 10:249
|
| |
|
"So prone are [the people]
to suspicion, that where a President appoints a relation of his own however worthy, they
will believe that favor and not merit was the motive. I therefore laid it down as a law of
conduct for myself never to give an appointment to a relation." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Garland Jefferson, 1810. ME 12:354
|
| |
|
"I have thought it my duty
[to exclude merit from office, merely because it was related to me], that my constituents
may be satisfied that, in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am
influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and especially, that the field of
public office will not be perverted by me into a family property." --Thomas Jefferson
to Horatio Turpin, 1807. ME 11:221
|
| |
|
"In the course of the trusts
I have exercised through life with powers of appointment, I can say with truth and with
unspeakable comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely
because I never saw the case in which someone did not offer, or occur, better
qualified." --Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1824. ME 16:7
|
| |
Avoiding Self-Interest and
Enrichment
|
|
"When I first entered on the
stage of public life (now twenty-four years ago), I came to a resolution never to engage
while in public office in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to
wear any other character than that of a farmer. I have never departed from it in a single
instance; and I have in multiplied instances found myself happy in being able to decide
and to act as a public servant, clear of all interest, in the multiform questions that
have arisen, wherein I have seen others embarrassed and biased by having got themselves
into a more interested situation." --Thomas Jefferson to [unknown], March 18, 1793.
ME 9:44
|
| |
|
"On coming into public
office, I laid it down as a law of my conduct, while I should continue in it, to accept no
present of any sensible pecuniary value. A pamphlet, a new book, or an article of new
curiosity, have produced no hesitation, because below suspicion. But things of sensible
value, however innocently offered in the first examples, may grow at length into abuse,
for which I wish not to furnish a precedent... My desire, by a perseverance in the rule,
[is] to retain that consciousness of a disinterested administration of the public trusts,
which is essential to perfect tranquility of mind." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel
Hawkins, 1808. ME 12:203
|
| |
|
"I had laid it down as a law
for my conduct while in office, and hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no
present beyond a book, a pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value; as well to avoid
imputation on my motives of action, as to shut out a practice susceptible of such abuse.
But my particular esteem for the character of the Emperor [Alexander of Russia], places [a
gift of] his image in my mind above the scope of law. I receive it, therefore, and shall
cherish it with affection." --Thomas Jefferson to Levett Harris, 1806. ME 11:101
|
| |
|
"[The] approbation of my
fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I am conscious of having always
intended to do what was best for them; and never, for a single moment, to have listened to
any personal interest of my own." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard M. Johnson, 1808. ME
12:9
|
| |
|
"Nothing personal or
self-interested entered into my motives for continuing in the public service."
--Thomas Jefferson to Augustus B. Woodward, 1809. ME 12:284
|
| |
|
"If, in the course of my
life, it has been in any degree useful to the cause of humanity, the fact itself bears its
full reward." --Thomas Jefferson to David Barrow, 1815. ME 14:296
|
| |
|
"Disapproving myself of
transferring the honors and veneration for the great birthday of our republic to any
individual, or of dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday
be known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform
answer to every application of the kind." --Thomas Jefferson to Levi Lincoln, 1803.
ME 10:416
|
| |
|
"A consciousness that I feel
no desire but to do what is best, without passion or predilection, encourages me to hope
for an indulgent construction of what I do." --Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 1801.
ME 10:234
|
| |
| ME, FE = Memorial Edition, Ford Edition. |
| |
