For the same republican reasons Washington was anxious that he not be paid a salary as commander in chief. To the end of his life Thomas Jefferson remained committed to a classical view of officeholding—officeholding in accord with what he called “the Roman principle.” “In a virtuous government,” he said, “… public offices are, what they should be, burthens to those appointed to them, which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring with them intense labor, and great private loss.”
