Carolina QuotesThe passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves.
James K. Polk Carolinian
Source
Diary entry (22 June 1846).
- year
- 1846
Cite this record
“The passion for office among members of Congress is very gre…” James K. Polk. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-FCD018899E. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/fcd018899e
More from James K. Polk
By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.
The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.
There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress, as well as others, than I had any conception [of], before I became President of the U.S.