Dear Sir,

Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
capable in any question of abstracting it from its 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 nor family interests, and
especially, that the field of 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 and what avoided. But, in truth, the nature of our government
is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the
people, in their Chief Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing
which can strengthen him with that confidence.

*****

Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.

Th: Jefferson.