I am not sure that modesty or disinterestedness has much
place in the matter of the acceptance of high political office.
We often hear a gentleman say: "I am not fit to be Judge;
I am not fit to be Governor, or Senator, or member of Congress.
I think other men are better qualified, and I will not consent
to stand in their way." This is often said with the utmost
sincerity. But anybody who acts on such a feeling ought to
remember that if he accept the office, it will not be filled
by a worse man than he; if he accept the office, it being
a political office, he is sure that the office will be filled
by a man who will desire to accomplish, and will do his best
to accomplish, the things he thinks for the public good. He
should also remember, so far as the matter of ability is concerned,
that other men are likely to be much better judges of his
capacity than he is himself. If men are likely often to overrate
their own capacity, they are also very often likely to underrate
it.
Let me not be understood as commending the miserable self-
seeking which too often leads men to urge their own claims
without regard to the public interests.
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