general remark， that republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the lover of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs； and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust. nothing can be more corrupting， nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted republican patriot. when this corrupting passion once takes possession of the human mind， like the love of gold it becomes insatiable. it is the never-dying worm in his bosom， grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. if this is true， it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of her foreign relations， the execution of her laws， and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent， not the principal； the servant， not the master. until an amendment of the constitution can be effected public opinion may secure the desired object. i give my aid to it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will i consent to serve a second term.
but if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects of the constitution in the wa
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