328 WHAT WASHINGTON THOUGHT OF A THIRD TERM. set of questions has ever been invented which will show whether he has or has not habits of punctuality, for instance, of prompt decision, of loyalty to an employer, of respect for authority, of firmness and tenacity of purpose, to say nothing of those higher qualities which make up the value of an executive subordinate. Experience in office alone can demonstrate the presence of these qualities. Every administration is entitled to the enthusiastic and loyal support of a considerable fraction of its subordinate force, and is directly dependent for success upon it. The civil service will never come right until we are able to select appointing officers whom we are willing to trust and then to trust them. All else is but another chapter in the Gospel of Distrust. We know then, from his words to Lafayette, what was Washington’s personal view of rotation in this particular office before he had filled it, at the time the Constitution was being scrutinized by the people and adopted. Did he ever modify this view? We are not without the testimony of the most competent witness in this matter. We may safely credit Washington with a knowledge of his own motives. He certainly was under no obligation to disclose them on all occasions to the public. But he was bound in common honesty not to belie them—not to assign one motive for an act which was prompted by another. Washington accepted a second term and declined a third term. He assigned such reasons for his action as he thought proper, and they seem to be sufficient reasons. Washington had taken leave of public life with a good deal of formality and, as he thought, forever, on retiring from the army at the close of the war. Later, he had yielded to importunities in coming before the country again to preside in the Convention of 1787. When the Chief Magistracy was urged upon him in 1788 he relucted greatly, and only waived his"wish for retirement at his farm, and his doubts of his special fitness, upon the representation that a year or two in office would suffice, and that all that was expected of him was to unite the country and to set the wheels of government in motion. The student, who wishes to acquaint himself with the frame
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