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 century.

Like Philip II of Spain, who worked twelve hours a day at the business of being a King, Jackson took the duties of his exalted post very seriously.  No man had ever accused him of laxness in public office, civil or military; on the contrary, his superiors commonly considered themselves fortunate if they could induce or compel him to keep his energies within reasonable bounds.  As President he was not without distressing shortcomings.  He was self-willed, prejudiced, credulous, petulant.  But he was honest, and he was industrious.  No President ever kept a closer watch upon Congress to see that the rights of the executive were not invaded or the will of the people thwarted; and his vigilance was rewarded, not only by his success in vindicating the independence of the executive in a conflict whose effects are felt to this day, but by the very respectable amount of legislation which he contrived to obtain in the furtherance of what he believed to be the public welfare.  When a rebellious Congress took the bit in its teeth, he never hesitated to crack the whip over its head.  Sometimes the pressure was applied indirectly, but with none the less effect.  One of the first acts of the Senate to arouse strong feelings in the White House was the rejection of the nomination of Isaac Hill to be Second Comptroller of the Treasury.  A New Hampshire senatorship soon falling vacant, the President deftly brought about the election of Hill to the position; and many a gala hour he had in later days as Lewis and other witnesses described the chagrin of the senators at being obliged to accept as one of their colleagues a man whom they had adjudged unfit for a less important office.

Much thought had been bestowed upon the composition of the Cabinet, and some of the President’s warmest supporters urged that he should make use of the group as a council of state, after the manner of his predecessors.  Jackson’s purposes, however, ran in a different direction.  He had been on intimate terms with fewer than half of the members, and he saw no reason why these men, some of whom were primarily the friends of Calhoun, should be allowed to supplant old confidants like Lewis.  Let them, he reasoned, go about their appointed tasks as heads of the administrative departments, while he looked for counsel whithersoever he desired.  Hence the official Cabinet fell into the background, and after a few weeks the practice of holding meetings was dropped.