Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) to Horatio Turpin re: personal law of conduct prohibiting appointing a relative
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04627 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) Place Written: Washington Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1807/06/10 Pagination: 1 p. + address 24.6 x 40 cm Order a Copy
Writing that he could not appoint a deserving relative, with the comment: "the field of public office will not be perverted by me." The document has been lined previously with Japanese tissue paper.
Notes: Unpublished. Capitalization regularized. Jefferson probably confuses Horatio Turpin with his brother Philip, a physician. Turpin (fl. 1807-1823) moved to Gallatin County, Kentucky about 1821. Turpin wrote Jefferson again in 1811 after Madison succeeded to the presidency.
Washington June 10. 07
Dear Sir
Your favor of June 1 has been duly received. To a mind like yours capable, in any question, of abstracting it from it's relation to yourself, I may safely hazard explanations which I have generally avoided to others on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence of my fellow citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied that, in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am influenced by neither personal or family interests, & especially that the fields of the public office will not be perverted by me into a family property. On this subject I had the benefit of useful lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be imitated & what avoided. But in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough. It's energy depending mainly on the confidence of the people in their chief magistrate, make it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that confidence.
The day is not d<is>tant when my relations may fairly come into competition for appoin<tme>nt, and when that [inserted: may be a] circumstance of some favor which now opposes the<ir> receiving appointments. Had my judgment & conscience permitted me in a<ny> case to depart from the law of conduct I have prescribed for myself, in no case certainly should I have been more likely to do so, than in yours because no one is more persuaded of your worth & fitness. The same confidence in you however secures me from all unkind imputation on your part, and justifies my assurances to you of constant friendship & respect.
Th: Jefferson
Doctr. Horatio Turpin
[address leaf:]
free Th: Jefferson Pre. US.
Doctr. Horatio Turpin
Powhatan County
Manchester Virga.
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