Spoils System

SPOILS SYSTEM

The spoils system is the political practice of playing favorites. Used throughout U.S. history, it commonly takes the form of filling appointive offices with loyal supporters. Among the nation's early presidents Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) made particular use of the practice to place his allies in influential civil service posts.

By the time President Andrew Jackson (1829–1837) took office in 1829, this method of rewarding one's political allies was an integral part of the workings of government. Jackson's friend, Senator William Marcy (1786–1857) of New York, coined the phrase "spoils system" in 1832, when he stated, "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy."

The spoils system grew in size as a result of the bitter competition that characterized the two party system during Jackson's presidency. During his first term of office (1829–1833) he assembled a group of unofficial advisers who reportedly met in the White House kitchen, earning them the nickname Kitchen Cabinet. Members included then-Secretary of State Martin Van Buren (1782–1862), who later served as Jackson's vice president and then as president (1837–1841); Francis P. Blair (1791–1876), editor of the Washington Post, and an active participant in politics who would help Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) during his presidential campaign (1860); and Amos Kendall (1789–1869), a journalist and Jackson administration speech writer who later became U.S. Postmaster General. The informality of the Kitchen Cabinet invited the mixing of politics and special interests. It operated outside the official institutions of government and yet was influential in formulating policy during the Jackson administration. Jackson drew harsh criticism for relying on his cronies in this way, and when he reorganized the federal Cabinet in 1831, the informal Kitchen Cabinet was disbanded.

The Kitchen Cabinet closed its doors, but the spoils system continued to influence policy when Martin Van Buren succeeded Jackson as president. Van Buren had been a leader of the Albany Regency which was the Democratic Party machine in New York state. This group of New York Democratic party leaders used the spoils systems to reward members and to maintain strict party discipline.

After the Civil War, the spoils system became an obstruction to good government. Placing political allies in important public service positions often failed to involve a determination of whether or not the person in question was qualified to hold the job. The practice bred corruption and inefficiency and reached staggering proportions by the time Ulysses Grant (1869–1877) became president. His administration was notoriously prone to graft-ridden awards of government contracts.

The failure of the spoils system brought on tragic consequences when in 1881 a frustrated office-seeker shot President James Garfield (1881) in a train station. Garfield's successor, Chester Arthur (1881–1885), though himself a creature of the spoils system, worked to dismantle it. The Pendleton Act of 1883 initiated reform of the system by establishing a federal Civil Service Commission and creating a class of government workers (14,000 out of a total of 100,000) who now had to take an examination to be awarded a government job. Though limited in size, the Civil Service Commission grew in later years.

The system was further refined in the twentieth century. To further separate civil service from politics, the Hatch Act (1940) forbid civil servants from political campaigning. The Hatch Act was revised in 1993 to allow most civil servants to participate in political activity on their personal time. Measures like the Civil Service Commission and the Hatch Act have been successful in limiting the use of the spoils system in the political process, but they haven't eradicated the practice. The spoils system is still (unofficially) practiced in some federal, state, and local government offices.

See also: Civil Service Act, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson

andrew jackson's friend, senator william marcy (1786–1857) of new york, coined the phrase "spoils system" in 1832, when he stated, "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy."