CH. XXXVI.]
EXECUTIVE—RE-ELIGIBILITY.
307
talents, and to secure to the government the advantage of permanence in a wise system of administration.[1]
§ 1443. Still it must be confessed, that where the duration is for a considerable length of time, the right of re-election becomes less important, and perhaps less safe to the public. A president chosen for ten years might be made ineligible with far less impropriety, than one chosen for four years. And a president chosen for twenty years ought not to be again eligible, upon the plain ground, that by such a term of office his responsibility would be greatly diminished, and his means of influence and patronage immensely increased, so as to check in a great measure the just expression of public opinion, and the free exercise of the elective franchise. Whether an intermediate period, say of eight years, or of seven years, as proposed in the convention, might not be beneficially combined with subsequent ineligibility, is a point, upon which great statesmen have not been agreed; and must be left to the wisdom of future legislators to weigh and decide.[2] The- ↑ The Federalist, No. 72.
- ↑ Mr. Jefferson appears to have entertained the opinion strongly, that the chief magistrate ought to be ineligible after one term of office. "Reason and experience tell us," says he, "that the chief magistrate will always be re-elected, if he may be re-elected. He is then an officer for life. This once observed, it becomes of so much consequence to certain nations to have a friend or a foe at the head of our affairs, that they will interfere with money and with arms, &c. The election of a president of America some years hence will be much more interesting to certain nations of Europe, than ever the election of a king of Poland was." (Letter to Mr. Madison in 1787, 2 Jeffer. Cor. 274, 275) He added in the same letter: "The power of removing every fourth year by the vote of the people is a power, which they will not exercise; and if they were disposed to exercise it, they would not be permitted."[a 1] How little has this reasoning accorded with the fact!! In the memoir written by him towards the close of his life, he says: "My wish was, that the president
- ↑ See also 2 Jefferson's Corresp. 291, 439, 440, 443.
