fensive partizanship. Even under
Jefferson, when the holders of half of the offices were changed in the
space of four years, there were few removals for political reasons.

No sooner was Jackson in office, however, than wholesale proscription
began. The ax fell in every department and bureau, and cut off chiefs
and clerks with equal lack of mercy. Age and experience counted rather
against a man than in his favor, and rarely was any reason given for
removal other than that some one else wanted the place. When Congress
met, in December, it was estimated that a thousand persons had been
ousted; and during the first year of the Administration the number is
said to have reached two thousand. The Post-Office Department and the
Customs Service were purged with special severity. The sole principle
on which the new appointees were selected was loyalty to Jackson.
Practically all were inexperienced, most were incompetent, and several
proved dishonest.

"There has been," wrote the President in his journal a few weeks after
the inauguration, "a great noise made about removals." Protest arose
not only from the proscribed and their friends, but from the
Adams-Clay forces generally, and even from some of the more moderate
Jacksonians. "Were it not for the outdoor popularity of General
Jackson," wrote Webster, "the Senate would have negatived more than
half his nominations." As it was, many were rejected; and some of the
worst were, under pressure, withdrawn. On the general principle the
President held his ground. "It is rotation in office," he again and
again asserted in all honesty, "that will perpetuate our liberty," and
from this conviction no amount of argument or painful experience could
shake him. After 1830 one hears less about the subject, but only
because the novelty and glamor of the new regime had worn off.

Jackson was not the author of the spoils system. The device of using
the offices as rewards for political service had long been familiar in
the state and local governments, notably in New York. What Jackson and
his friends did was simply to carry over the spoils principle into the
National Government. No more unfortunate step was ever taken by an
American President; the task of undoing the mischief has been long and
laborious. Yet the spoils system was probably an inevitable feature of
the new rule of the people; at all events, it was accepted by all
parties and sanctioned by public sentiment for more than half a
cen