When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property, and justly liable to the inspection and vigilance of public opinion; and the more sensibly he is made to feel his dependence, the less danger will there be of his abuse of power.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801–09)

Conversation (1807) with Baron Humboldt
    (Source)

In Seymour, A Winter in Washington, ch. 9 (1824), further identified in Raynor, Life of Jefferson (1832). As it is all anecdotal, the accuracy may be easily questioned, but its proximity to the events lends it a certain validity.