In the politics of the United States, a spoils system refers to an informal practice by which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor go the spoils." It is opposed to a system of awarding offices on the basis of some measure of merit independent of political activity (merit system). Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Politics of the United States of America takes place in a framework of a presidential... The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. ...

Spoils systems are endemic in nations that are struggling to transcend systemic clientage based on tribal organization or other kinship groups and localism in general. A Kinship Group is a collection of people based on a relationship of common ancestry: blood, marriage, adoption, and or affliation such as god-parents and so on. ... Localism usually describes social measures or trends which emphasise or value local and small-scale phenomena. ...

Beginnings

The spoils system was pioneered by New York governors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, most notably George Clinton and DeWitt Clinton. At the federal level Thomas Jefferson systematically reviewed the civil list, and list of military officers, when he became President in 1801 with the goal of neutralizing the overwhelming advantage held by the opposition during the First Party System. President John Quincy Adams tried to be nonpartisan in his appointments in 1825, but quickly discovered that caused problems. "On such appointments all the wormwood and gall of the old party hatred squeeze out. A vacancy to any office had occurred and there was a distinguishing Federalist started and pushed home as a candidate to fill it, always well qualified, sometimes in an eminent degree, and yet so obnoxious to the Republican party, that they cannot be appointed without exciting a vehement clamor against him and the administration. It becomes thus impossible to fill any vacancy in appointment without offending one half of the community."^[1] George Clinton (July 26, 1739 – April 20, 1812) was an American soldier and politician. ... DeWitt Clinton. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The First Party System is the term political scientists and historians give to the political system existing in the United States between roughly 1792 and 1824. ... John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was a diplomat, politician, and President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829). ...

After he became President in 1828, Andrew Jackson systematically rewarded his supporters by starting the Second party System. He considered that popular election gave the victorious party a "mandate" to select officials from its own ranks. Proponents claimed that ordinary Americans were able to discharge the former official duties of government offices; not just a special civil service elite. Opponents considered it vulnerable to incompetence and heavy duty corruption, and thus violating the credo of republicanism. For other uses, see Andrew Jackson (disambiguation). ... The Second Party System is the term historians give to the political system existing in the United States from about 1824 to 1854. ... Republicanism is the political value system that has dominated American political thought since the American Revolution. ...

The period from 1854 to 1896 was the apogee of the spoils system. It was used quite effectively by Abraham Lincoln in supporting both his Republican party and the Union war effort. By the late 1860s, reformers were demanding a civil service system. Running as Liberal Republicans in 1872, they were harshly defeated by patronage-hungry Ulysses S. Grant. The Pendleton Act of 1883 created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission that evaluated job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. The law allowed the President to transfer jobs (and their current holders) into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job. Mugwumps were Republican reformers who in 1884 deserted their party to support Democrat Grover Cleveland, a champion of civil service reform. Theodore Roosevelt gained fame as a civil service reformer in the 1890s. From 1885 to 1897, the White House changed hands four times, and after each election the outgoing President applied the Pendleton law to thousands of people (his own supporters). By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service and the spoils system was limited only to very senior positions. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States (March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865). ... This article is becoming very long. ... Liberal Republicans were an American political party that existed during the 1872 election. ... Ulysses S. Grant[2] (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American general and the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877). ... The United States Pendleton Act established the United States Civil Service Commission now called the Office of Personnel Management and placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the spoils system. ... Mugwumps were Republicans who supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the 1884 United States presidential election. ... Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, and the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). ... Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, Jr. ...

The separation between political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the Hatch Act which prohibited federal employees from engaging in political activities. The Hatch Act of 1939 is a United States federal law whose main provision is to prohibit federal employees (civil servants) from engaging in partisan political activity. ...

This was all under Andrew Jackson

References

• Griffith; Ernest S. The Modern Development of City Government in the United Kingdom and the United States (1927)
• Hoogenboom, Ari Arthur. Outlawing the Spoils: A history of the civil service reform movement, 1865-1883 (1961)
• Ostrogorski; M. Democracy and the Party System in the United States (1910)
• Rubio; Philip F. A History of Affirmative Action, 1619-2000 University Press of Mississippi, 2001ghetoo