Equally beneficial was his rule of not appointing to any office any man merely because he was the President's friend.

Washington knew that such a consideration would give the candidate an unfair advantage.

He knew further that office-holders who could screen themselves behind the plea that they were the President's friends might be very embarrassing to him.

As office-seekers became, with the development of the Republic, among the most pernicious of its evils and of its infamies, we can but feel grateful that so far as in him lay Washington tried to keep them within bounds.
In all his official acts he took great pains not to force his personal wishes.

He knew that both in prestige and popularity he held a place apart among his countrymen, and for this reason he did not wish to have measures passed simply because they were his.