Thomas Hartley Quotes
My abilities, I well know, are not of the superior kind, but it will be my study to do what is right; and with the assistance of abler counsel, I trust that religion and learning, as well as the rights of human kind, will be advanced and protected under the new government.
The school had organized an event to send off their first Congressman to the new government then headquartered in New York City.
Thomas Hartley, 1748-1800, U. S. Congressman (Federalist, PA), Speech to the Faculty and Students of the York Academy of York Pennsylvania, February 16, 1789
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The Lt. Governor had earlier attempted to wrest the Governor’s position by quasi-legal means when the Governor had traveled out of the state. When he ran for election in 1926, he was badly defeated.
Note that early constitutional experts assumed that one of the President’s roles was to be non partisan and control partisanship. Note the phrase ‘prevent the artifices of party’. The early founders were very wary of political parties of ‘factions’ as Madison called them. However, most were extremely partisan although in the Presidency partisanship was toned down by George Washington but after him, partisan ship became the norm.
1st Marquees of Halifax. This is a very important quotation because it still has much validity today. The “Prince” is the Monarch, King or Official Heading the State. Savile points out that if the Price does not take the time or make the effort to understand an issue and its complexity, he then must trust his advisors and their opinions rather than have any intelligent and knowledgeable views of his own. In modern times the advice applies to elected officials, executive and legislative. If they do not take time and make the effort to understand a complex issue, they cannot use their own judgment but must accept the judgment of staff, friends, colleagues, party leaders, lobbyists or members of committees who they hope are not also ignorant. In modern legislatures, there are so many different issues in so many areas, that it is very difficult to have the time to make the effort to study all the issues. This problem is compounded with politicians as they tend to spend large amounts of their time fundraising for their next election and simply do not have enough time to study issues. In the Congress for example, most members vote on bills that they have not even read and they end up trusting someone else’s judgment.
At the time, the well-educated, elite class of Americans would rarely have anything to do with politics or public service towards the end of the 19th century. It was not part of the cultural expectation. Roosevelt was not only one of the rare exceptions, but he argued strongly to his Harvard and other Ivy League associates that they had a duty to become active. Few responded to his appeal but he set a precedent which over the years brought many talented men into politics and civil service.
Thomas Hartley was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician from York, Pennsylvania. Hartley served in the military and as part of several military campaigns from 1774 to 1779 after being elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in October 1778.
