When was the spoils system started

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Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? They are a massive blight on Jackson's record that seriously calls into question his status as a common man's champion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 15, Accessed November 29, 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.

Senate, Marcy famously said, "to the victor belong the spoils. When Andrew Jackson took office in March , after the bruising election of , 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. The practice, epitomized by the saying "to the victory belong the spoils," involved placing party supporters into government positions. An incoming president would dismiss thousands of government workers and replace them with members of his own party. Scandals under the Grant administration generated a mounting demand for reform.

Ironically, the president who led the successful campaign for civil service, Chester Arthur, a Republican, was linked to a party faction from New York that was known for its abuse of the spoils of office. In fact, in , Arthur had been fired from his post at New York Federal Custom's Collection for giving away too many patronage jobs.

In , Arthur had been elected vice president on a ticket headed by James A.