As toxic as American democracy has become in 2024, it’s far more functional today than it was the 1800s when the shadowy bosses of political ... the spoils system. The spoils system propagated ...

Jackson’s actions that rewarded political loyalists ... competence were unnecessary. A cartoon of President Andrew Jackson atop a pig depicts his spoils system, which rewarded party members ...

Garfield’s murder was widely blamed on the spoils system. George William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Weekly and an advocate for reform, published cartoons lambasting the system and called it ...

Jackson employed members of his political party who pledged to march in lockstep with him and his policies. This became known as the “spoils system.” Like Trump, Jackson also had a version of ...