3. The diplomatic establishment in Europe will
be reduced to three ministers. 4. The compensation of collectors
depends on you (Congress) and not on me. 5. The army is undergoing a
chaste reformation. 6. The navy will be reduced to the legal
establishment by the last of the month (May, 1801). 7. Agencies in every
department will be revised. 8. We shall push you to the uttermost in
economizing. 9. A very early recommendation has been given to the
postmaster-general to employ no printer, foreigner or Revolutionary Tory
in any of his offices."
James Madison was Mr. Jefferson's secretary of state; Henry Dearborn was
secretary of war, and Levi Lincoln, attorney-general. Jefferson retained
Mr. Adams's secretaries of the treasury and navy, until the following
Autumn, when Albert Gallatin, a naturalized foreigner, was appointed to
the first named office and Robert Smith to the second. The president
early resolved to reward his political friends when he came to "revise"
the agencies in every department. Three days after his inauguration, he
wrote to Colonel Monroe, "I have firmly refused to follow the counsels
of those who have desired the giving of offices to some of the
Federalist leaders in order to reconcile. I have given, and will give,
only to Republicans, under existing circumstances."
The doctrine, ever since acted upon, that "to the victor belong the
spoils," was then practically promulgated from the fountain-head of
government patronage; and with a cabinet wholly Democratic, when
congress met in December, 1801, and with the minor offices filled with
his political friends, Mr.
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