Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-01-22
IS A PUBLIC TRUST
origin OF The EXPRESSION PUB.
Lie Office A PUBLIC TRUST.
rfathew Henry Is Really the First to
use the Expression, on Words
From Which the Expression has
Been Coined. Public Writer'S Have
Credited Different Speakers with
Its lntrOduCtiO

The editor OF H H4rper's Weekly is in a
peck OF trouble, and all because he un.
dertook to locate the originator OF the
phrase "A public office is public trust"
Harper's identified the name of the
late Daniel s. Lamont with the phrase
under discussion, but being called to ac-
count by one OF its readers said:
We did not lay that Colonel Lamont
was the author of the phrase "Public
office is pnhic trust"-only that he
adapted it to fitting use in Cleveland
campaign. The originator, we believe,
was the late Governor Hugh S. Thomp-
son, OF South Carolina. who first employ
ed the expression in his first inaugural
address in 1882.
A st. Paul, Mimi, reader of Harper's,
replying to this latest editorial declara-
ton, says
Daniel Webster, in speech in the
Odeon, Boston. seventy years ago, said:
ut is time to declare that offices created
for the people are public trusts, not pri.
vate spoils. ."-Volume l. Works OF Daniel
Webster, p. 335. 1t may be that the
governor Of South Carolina and Colonel
Lamont drew their inspiration from the
same source.
The man who undertakes to name the
originator of the phrase "Publc office is
a public trust" has assumed large task.
In attributing the origin to Governor
Thompson, of South Carolina, Harper's
Weekly does not touch the mark. Gov.
ernor Thompson used it in 1882, perhaps
just as Abram s. Hewitt did in 1858 or
Daniel S. Lamont in 1884, as a phrase
which had become so general as to Justify
its use without quotation marks.
Dorman B. Eaton, a New York lawyer,
who became widely known by his advo-
cacy OF civil service reform, said in 1881 {:
"The public offices are a public trust"
But as long ago as May, 1872. Charles
Summer said: "The phrase public office
is public trust has OF late become com /.
mon property"
The st. Paul reader Of Harpera' cor.
rectly says that Daniel Webster declared
cit is time to declare that office created
for the people are public trusts, not pri-
vate spoils." Mr.. Webster delivered
that speech October l2, 1885. But on
February 13, 1885. John G. Calhoun
said: "The very essence of a free gov
ernment consists in considering offices as
public trusts bestowed for the good of the
country, and not for the benefit of an
individual or a party" So the phrase
certainly did not originate with Webster.
Neither did it originate with Calhoun,
because years bofore Burke, in his ad.
dress on the French Revolution said
ITO execute laws is royal office; to
execute orders is not to be king. How.
ever. political executive magistracy
though merely such, is a z eat trust"
In the same address Burke said "All
persons possessing any portion Of power
ought to be strongly and awfully i'm.
pressed with an idea that they act in
trust, and that they are to account for
their conduct in that trust to the one
great Master, Author and Founder OF
society,"" In the same address Burke
said: ''In their nomination to office
they will not point to the exercise OF
authority as to a pitiful job, but as to
a holy function"
Thomas Jefferson in 1907 said: "When
a man assumes a public trust he should
consider himself as public property"
But among the claims with respect to
the origin OF this phrase, those OF Mat
thew Henry are not entirely ignored
Matthew Henry was British divine,
who died in l714. He published com.
mentary upon the old and new Testa-
ments. In the third chapter OF the first
Epistle to Timothy, referring to the
qualifications of deacons, as we'll as OF
Bishops, it is said, "and let these, also,
first be proved" Commenting on this
Matthew Henry said: at is not fit that
the public trusts should be lodged in the
hands OF any. till they have been first
proved and found fit for the business
they are to be entrusted with"
Clearly, the phrase did not originate,
as Harper's Weekly says it did, with the
governor of South Carolina, nor as the
St. Paul reader says. with Webster.
OF course. the exact origin is not of
the greatest importance, but it is a good
sign that public interest has been aroused
in phrases of this sort; and whether it
comes in the words OF Matthew Henry,
OF Jefferson, of Burke, of Calhoun, OF
Webster or men OF more recent days it is
particularly important at this time that
elector and elected understand that, as
Disraeli put it. "All power is a trust,
and we are accountable for it's exercise" "