p.

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salaries and emoluments, among numbers, is a most in-
jurious practice. It often displaces officers who are de-
pendent on the salaries or fees for the support of their
families, and who are thus deprived of means of living,
when there is no pretence of unfaithfulness, and when the
incumbent is better qualified to discharge the duties of the
office than any other man.

But this demand of rotation in executive offices is
fruitful of evils to the community. It promotes that
scrambling for office in which all the worst passions of
men are called into action ; in which characters are vilified,
neighbourhoods disturbed, and the harmony of society is
violated.

It is for the peace of society, for the interest of the
incumbents in office, and for the good of the community,
that all executive and judicial officers should hold their
offices during good behaviour. No man should be removed
from office, merely to make a vacancy for another man. It
is a species of injustice to faithful officers, which ought to
be reprobated by every good citizen.

Much less ought faithful officers to be removed on
account of their political opinions. The practice of con-
straining men to vote for a particular candidate, under the
penalty of losing his means of subsistence, is one of the
wickedest and meanest practices that ever disgraced a re-
presentative government. It is intolerance, as detestable in
principle as the punishment of the rack, to compel men to
support a religious establishment. It is to compel men to
violate their consciences, and assume the garb of hypocrites.
It is a practice that destroys the independence of citizens,

D