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In Defense of the Spoils System

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In Defense of the Spoils System
William L. Marcy, U.S. Senator from New York, c. 1856. Mathew Benjamin Brady/Library of Congress, Public Domain
Jeffrey A. Tucker
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Commentary

“To the victor go the spoils,” said ​​William L. Marcy, a U.S. senator from New York, in 1832. He was defending the practice of the hiring of campaign cronies in the event of a successful election win. That practice was then dubbed the “spoils system,” as if someone had put it in place to work that way.

Jeffrey A. Tucker
Jeffrey A. Tucker
Author
Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises.” He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. He can be reached at [email protected]
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