Gazette Of The United States

Mr. Fenno,

The observations of TIMOLEON, upon the subject of appointments to office, inserted in your last, coincide in general, with the sentiments of the wise and independent part of the community; but his last article is rather too strait-laced: I conceive that a man of worth and real abilities, may, with propriety, let his pretensions be known, without letting down his own character, or wounding the feelings, or delicacy of those, whose patronage he solicits.

I go further, and suppose that duty and justice to the public, may unite to impel a person of the greatest modesty, to come forward with a statement of services, from which a competency of knowledge has been acquired, to discharge the particular trust applied for.

But if the idea of Timoleon should be adopted, the most meritorious characters might rest in perpetual obscurity, while their country suffered the loss of their abilities.

Merit, Modesty, and Diffidence, are nearly allied, and the two last have deprived the community of the first, too often already—and to add to the number, by throwing additional obstacles in its way, would be cruel, unjust, and impolitic.

While the influence of men in power is solicited with ardour, and a persecuting perseverance by those, to whom ignorance gives a brazen front, let us not deprive the Supreme Executive of a counterbalance to impertinent importunity, by discouraging the applications of worth and abilities.

C.