It was just as Thomas Jefferson had warned after leaving the presidency, a bookend to Washington’s injunction against nepotism two decades earlier: Towards acquiring the confidence of the people the very first measure is to satisfy them of [the president’s] disinterestedness, & that he is directing their affairs with a single eye toward their good, & not to build up fortunes for himself & family: & especially that the officers appointed to transact their business, are appointed because they are the fittest men, not because they are his relations.59
