Benjamin Franklin on the Presidency: Ambiton and Avarice

 

Benjamin Franklin on the Presidency as a Profitable and Preeminent Place

From the Constitutional Convention, June 2, 1787

Peter Schultz

 

 

                  “Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honour that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such places it is that renders the British Government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true sources of all those factions which are perpetually dividing the Nation, distracting its councils, hurrying sometimes into fruitless and mischievous wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms of peace.

 

                  “And what kind are the men who will strive for this profitable preeminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your Government and be your rulers. And these too will be mistaken in the expected happiness of their situation: For their vanquished competitors of the same spirit, and from the same motives will perpetually be endeavoring to distress their administration, thwart their measures, and render them odious to the people.”

 

                  A book, The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, is adequate testimony to Franklin’s prescience. In 1787, Franklin described our political situation in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. And, of course, the Clintons were not the only ones who were hunted. Moreover, as Franklin foresaw, the Clintons themselves engaged in some “hunting” of their own against their political opponents in order to render them “odious to the people.” When John Dean recommended that the Nixon administration compile “an enemies list,” he was merely routinizing what had been happening for decades regarding the presidency. Franklin would not have been surprised in the least.