such inequalities should give a group of men any special advantages which were inaccessible to their fellow-countrymen.  The full meaning of their complaint against the Bank was left vague and ambiguous, because the Bank itself possessed special legal privileges; and the inference was that when these privileges were withdrawn, the “Money Power” would disappear with them.  The Western Democrat devoutly believed that an approximately equal division of the good things of life would result from the possession by all American citizens of equal legal rights and similar economic opportunities.  But the importance of this result in their whole point of view was concealed by the fact that they expected to reach it by wholly negative means—­that is, by leaving the individual alone.  The substantially equal distribution of wealth, which was characteristic of the American society of their own day, was far more fundamental in their system of political and social ideas than was the machinery of liberty whereby it was to be secured.  And just as soon as it becomes apparent that the proposed machinery does as a matter of fact accomplish a radically unequal result, their whole political and economic creed cries loudly for revision.

The introduction of the spoils system was due to the perverted application of kindred ideas.  The emoluments of office loomed large among the good things of life to the pioneer Democrat; and such emoluments differed from other economic rewards, in that they were necessarily at the disposal of the political organization.  The public offices constituted the tangible political patrimony of the American people.  It was not enough that they were open to everybody.  They must actually be shared by almost everybody.  The terms of all elected officials must be short, so that as many good democrats as possible could occupy an easy chair in the house of government; and officials must for similar reasons be appointed for only short terms.  Traditional practice at Washington disregarded these obvious inferences from the principles of true democracy.  Until the beginning of Jackson’s first administration the offices in the government departments had been appropriated by a few bureaucrats who had grown old at their posts; and how could such a permanent appropriation be justified?  The pioneer Democrat believed that he was as competent to do the work as any member of an office-holding clique, so that when he came into power, he corrected what seemed to him to be a genuine abuse in the traditional way of distributing the American political patrimony.  He could not understand that training, special ability, or long experience constituted any special claim upon a public office, or upon any other particular opportunity or salary.  One democrat was as good as another, and deserved his share of the rewards of public service.  The state could not undertake to secure a good living to all good democrats, but, when properly administered, it could prevent any appropriation by a few people of the public pay-roll.