"To the victor belong the spoils." For decades in the 1800s, that phrase was more than a slogan; it was the official hiring ...

A cartoon of President Andrew Jackson atop a pig depicts his spoils system, which rewarded party members with government jobs. Bettmann/GettyImages Jackson was quite wrong about some of his ...

The trouble started in the 1820s when Andrew Jackson rebelled against ... “To the victors belong the spoils of the enemy,” gloated Jackson’s ally, Sen. William Marcy of New York.

Andrew, then thirteen years old, joined the local militia as a patriot courier. At fifteen years of age, Jackson and his other brother, Robert, were captured by the British in 1781. Jackson’s face was ...