"The Spoils System" was the name given to the practice of hiring and firing federal workers when presidential administrations changed in the 19th century. It is also known as the patronage system. Show The practice began during the administration of President Andrew Jackson, who took office in March 1829. Jackson supporters portrayed it as a necessary and overdue effort at reforming the federal government. Jackson's political opponents had a very different interpretation, as they considered his method to be a corrupt use of political patronage. And the term Spoils System was intended to be a derogatory nickname. The phrase came from a speech by Senator William L. Marcy of New York. While defending the actions of the Jackson administration in a speech in the U.S. Senate, Marcy famously said, "to the victor belong the spoils." When Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, after the bruising election of 1828, he was determined to change the way the federal government operated. And, as might be expected, he ran into considerable opposition. Jackson was by nature very suspicious of his political opponents. As he took office he was still quite angry at his predecessor, John Quincy Adams. The way Jackson saw things, the federal government was full of people who were opposed to him. When Jackson felt that some of his initiatives were being blocked, he became incensed. His solution was to come up with an official program to remove people from federal jobs and replace them with employees considered loyal to his administration. Other administrations going back to that of George Washington had hired loyalists, of course, but under Jackson, the purging of people thought to be political opponents became official policy. To Jackson and his supporters, it was a welcome change. Stories were circulated claiming that elderly men who were no longer able to perform their jobs were still filling positions to which they had been appointed by George Washington nearly 40 years earlier. Jackson's policy of replacing federal employees was bitterly denounced by his political opponents. But they were essentially powerless to fight against it. Jackson's political ally (and future president) Martin Van Buren was at times credited with having created the new policy, as his New York political machine, known as the Albany Regency, had operated in a similar fashion. Published reports in the 19th century claimed that Jackson's policy accounted for nearly 700 government officers losing their jobs in 1829, the first year of his presidency. In July 1829, a newspaper report claiming the mass firings of federal employees actually affected the economy of the city of Washington, with merchants unable to sell goods. That may have been exaggerated, but there is no doubt that Jackson's policy was controversial. In January 1832 Jackson's perennial enemy, Henry Clay, became involved. He assailed Senator Marcy of New York in a Senate debate, accusing the loyal Jacksonian of bringing corrupt practices from the New York political machine to Washington. In his exasperated retort to Clay, Marcy defended the Albany Regency, declaring: "They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victor belong the spoils." The phrase was widely quoted, and it became notorious. Jackson's opponents cited it often as an example of blatant corruption that rewarded political supporters with federal jobs. Presidents who took office after Jackson all followed the practice of doling out federal jobs to political supporters. There are many stories, for instance, of President Abraham Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, being endlessly annoyed by officer-seekers who would come to the White House to plead for jobs. The Spoils System was criticized for decades, but what ultimately led to its reform was a shockingly violent act in the summer of 1881, the shooting of President James Garfield by a disappointed and deranged office seeker. Garfield died on September 19, 1881, 11 weeks after being shot by Charles Guiteau at a Washington, D.C. train station. The shooting of President Garfield helped inspire the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which created civil servants, federal workers who were not hired or fired as a result of politics. Senator Marcy of New York, whose retort to Henry Clay gave the Spoils System its name, was unfairly vilified, according to his political supporters. Marcy did not intend his comment to be an arrogant defense of corrupt practices, which is how it has often been portrayed. Incidentally, Marcy had been a hero in the War of 1812 and served as governor of New York for 12 years after briefly serving in the U.S. Senate. He later served as the secretary of war under President James K. Polk. Marcy later helped negotiate the Gadsden Purchase while serving as secretary of state under President Franklin Pierce. Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York State, is named for him. Yet, despite a long and distinguished government career, William Marcy is best remembered for inadvertently giving the Spoils System its notorious name.
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In politics and government, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity. The term was used particularly in politics of the United States, where the federal government operated on a spoils system until the Pendleton Act was passed in 1883 due to a civil service reform movement. Thereafter the spoils system was largely replaced by nonpartisan merit at the federal level of the United States. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils" by New York Senator William L. Marcy,[1][2] referring to the victory of Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, with the term spoils meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory.[3] Similar spoils systems are common in other nations that traditionally have been based on tribal organization or other kinship groups and localism in general. OriginsAlthough it is commonly thought that the spoils system was introduced by President Andrew Jackson, historical evidence does not support this view.[4][5] Patronage came to the United States during its Colonial history, whereas in its modern form, the spoils system got introduced into U.S. politics during the administration of George Washington, whose outlook generally favored members of the Federalist Party.[6] Sometimes, Washington is accused of introducing the system himself.[7][8] In addition, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson have also been accused, to a degree, of introducing the spoils system to U.S. politics.[9] In 1828, moderation was expected to prevail in the transfer of political power from one U.S. president to another. This had less to do with the ethics of politicians than it did with the fact the presidency had not transferred from one party to another since the election of 1800-known historically for the extraordinary steps the outgoing Federalist Party took to try and maintain as much influence as possible by exploiting their control over federal appointments up until their final hours in office[10][11] (see: Marbury v. Madison and Midnight Judges Act). By 1816, the Federalists were no longer nationally viable, and the U.S. became effectively a one-party polity under the Democratic-Republican Party.[12] The Jacksonian split after the 1824 Election restored the two-party system.[13] Jackson's first inauguration, on March 4, 1829, marked the first time since 1801 where one party yielded the presidency to another. A group of office seekers attended the event, explaining it as democratic enthusiasm. Jackson supporters had been lavished with promises of positions in return for political support. These promises were honored by a large number of removals after Jackson assumed power. At the beginning of Jackson's administration, fully 919 officials were removed from government positions, amounting to nearly 10 percent of all government postings.[14]: 328–33 The Jackson administration aimed at creating a more efficient system where the chain of command of public employees all obeyed the higher entities of government. The most-changed organization within the federal government proved to be the Post Office. The Post Office was the largest department in the federal government, and had even more personnel than the War Department. In one year, 423 postmasters were deprived of their positions, most with extensive records of good service.[14]: 334 Nevertheless, Jackson did not differ much from other Presidents in the number of officials he replaced by his own partisans.[4] ReformBy the late 1860s, citizens began demanding civil service reform, but it was only after the assassination of James A. Garfield by a rejected office-seeker in 1881 that the calls for civil service reform intensified. Moderation of the spoils system at the federal level came with the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job.[citation needed] The Pendleton Act's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the White House every election between 1884 and 1896. Following each election, the outgoing President applied the Pendleton Act to some of the positions for which he had appointed political supporters. By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service, and the spoils system was limited to fewer and fewer positions. Although state patronage systems and numerous federal positions were unaffected by the law, Karabell argues that the Pendleton Act was instrumental in the creation of a professional civil service and the rise of the modern bureaucratic state.[15] The law also caused major changes in campaign finance, as the parties were forced to look for new sources of campaign funds, such as wealthy donors.[16] The separation between political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the Hatch Act of 1939 which prohibited federal employees from engaging in many political activities. The spoils system survived much longer in many states, counties and municipalities, such as the Tammany Hall machine, which survived until the 1950s when New York City reformed its own civil service. Illinois modernized its bureaucracy in 1917 under Frank Lowden, but Chicago held on to patronage in city government until the city agreed to end the practice in the Shakman Decrees of 1972 and 1983. See also
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Look up spoils in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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When it was developed during the jackson administration, the patronage system was designed to
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