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260 but Sterret had been active in making preparations for it.

Clay agreed with the member. During the pendency of an election, said he, every man in the service should feel free to “indulge his preference;” but no officer should, after election, “be permitted to hold a conduct in open and continual disparagement of the administration and its head.” In the treatment of persons in the service, he thought, the administration “should avoid, on the one hand, political persecution, and on the other an appearance of pusillanimity.” Adams came to a different conclusion. He looked upon this as a test case, and it is wholesome to remember what a President of the United States thought upon such a question in the year 1825. He asked Clay in reply why he should remove this man. The insulting demonstration, of which the member of Congress complained, had only been intended, but not practically carried out. Would a mere “intention never carried into effect” justify the removal of a man from office? “Besides,” he continued, “should I remove this man for this cause, it must be upon some fixed principle, which would apply to others as well as to him. And where was it possible to draw the line? Of the custom house officers throughout the Union four fifths, in all probability, were opposed to my election. They were all now in my power, and I had been urged very earnestly to sweep away my opponents and provide, with their places, for my friends. I can