During that era, nearly every commander in chiefs’ administration was committed to the preservation of the spoils system — the tradition of sweeping political patronage. The cronyism of the ...

is Trump’s desire to replace the professionalized civil service of today with his own version of the 19th-century “spoils system.” He’s already tried. Near the end of his presidency ...

William Marcy of New York. The senator’s boast became a platitude and provided a label for the politics of the era: the spoils system. The spoils system propagated like a pernicious weed.