Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Jefferson on the Hereditary Presidency

As an old Vignina man, I’m supposed to speak of Thomas Jefferson as though he were in the next room. So let me say that Mr. Jefferson is as pleased by the prospect that Hillary Clinton will not inherit the office of President as he was displeased when George W Bush did so:

“[Some] apprehend that a single Executive with eminence of talent and destitution of principle equal to the object might, by usurpation, render his powers hereditary.” --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811.

“If some period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective, will in fact be for life; and that will soon degenerate into an inheritance.” --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Weaver, Jr., 1807.