The injustice of your new principle of "Reform" would have been too glaring had it been at once boldly unfolded; and hence is it that it was brought out by degrees. At first it was pretended that those only who had made use of office as an engine for electioneering purposes were to be "reformed away." But when it was discovered that there were in place very many of your own friends who had been guilty of this unconstitutional impropriety; as you have been pleased to call it, who, contrary to any feeling of gratitude or sense of duty, had stung the bosom which warmed, and the hand which fed them, making use of their office in the gift of Mr. Adams, as the means of furthering your designs upon the Presidency to his exclusion, and that your rule was a "two-edged sword," which, if honestly borne, would "cut upon both sides," it was soon carefully withheld, and finally gave way to a much more comprehensive scheme of reform.
(1832)