It is entirely untrue when the circumstances are different.
It would have been unnecessary and undesirable for Washington to have sought the Presidency.

But if Abraham Lincoln had not sought the Presidency he never would have been nominated.

The objection in such a case as this lies not to seeking the office, but to seeking it in any but an honorable and proper manner.

The effect of the shibboleth in question is usually merely to put a premium on hypocrisy, and therefore to favor the creature who is willing to rise by hypocrisy.

When I ran for Speaker, the whole body of machine politicians was against me, and my only chance lay in arousing the people in the different districts.