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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 ...
At first it covered very few jobs but there was a ratchet provision whereby outgoing presidents could lock in their own appointees by converting their jobs to civil service. Political reformers, typified by the Mugwumps demanded an end to the spoils system. After a series of party reversals at the presidential level (in 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896 ...
"To the victor belong the spoils." For decades in the 1800s, that phrase was more than a slogan; it was the official hiring policy of the U.S. government. "You win the election, you're entitled to ...
Proponents of the spoils system were successful at blocking meaningful civil service reform until the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881. The 47th Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act during its lame duck session and President Chester A. Arthur, himself a former spoilsman, signed the bill into law.
FELLER: The rise of the spoils system during and after Jackson’s presidency – it wasn’t all Jackson’s doing – was attendant upon the rise of political partisanship in the United States.
Tackling corruption was the key to making democracy work in the 20th century. Trump's plans could bring back an age of graft and patronage.
Jackson's view was challenged when the American Anti-Slavery Society agitated for abolition [323] by sending anti-slavery tracts through the postal system into the South in 1835. [322] Jackson condemned the abolitionists as "monsters" [ 324 ] and said they should die, [ 325 ] arguing that their antislavery activism would encourage sectionalism ...
Federal employee protections started as a reform to the chaos caused by the 19th-century spoils system, in which federal jobs were awarded to a president's loyalists. It led to incompetence and corruption as well as massive turnover with new administrations that proved disruptive and prevented continuity of expertise.