Must be something in the nature of man .....

     "I thank you for your polite wishes to see me restored to public life.  There was a time when I would have accepted of an Appointment Abroad. . . . But the time is past -- for my accepting of that or of any other appointment in the Government of the United States. -- I already see a System of influence bordering upon corruption established in our Country, which seems to proclaim to innocence & patriotism to keep their distance."

Benjamin Rush, as excerpted from a 1789 letter to John Adams, as printed here