ome of the most lucrative public offices in their share
of the spoils. No sooner did General Jackson reach Washington then
they made a systematic attack upon him, introducing and praising
one another, and reciprocally magnifying their faithful services
during the canvass so successfully ended. The result was that soon
after the inauguration nearly fifty of those editors who had
advocated his election were appointed to official Federal positions
as rewards for political services rendered.

Up to that time the national elections in the United States had
not been mere contests for the possession of Federal offices--there
was victory and there was defeat; but the quadrennial encounters
affected only the heads of departments, and the results were matters
of comparative indifference to the subordinate official drudges
whose families depended on their pay for meat and bread. A few of
these department clerks were Revolutionary worthies; others had
followed the Federal Government from New York or Philadelphia; all
had expected to hold their positions for life. Some of these desk-
slaves had originally been Federalists, others Democrats; and while
there was always an Alexander Hamilton in every family of the one
set, there was as invariably a Thomas Jefferson in every family of
the other set. But no subordinate clerk had ever been troubled on
account of his political faith by a change of the Administration,
and the sons generally succeeded their fathers when they died or
resigned. Ordinarily, these clerks were good penmen and skillful
accountants, toiling industriously eight hours every week day
without dreaming of demanding a month's vacation in the summer, or
insisting upon their right to go to their homes to vote in the
fall. National politics was to them a matter of profound indifference
until, after the inauguration of General Jackson, hundreds of them
found themselves decapitated by the Democratic guillotine, without
qualifications for any other employment had the limited trade of
Washington afforded any. Many of them were left in a pitiable
condition, but when the _Telegraph_ was asked what these men could
do to ward off starvation, the insolent reply was, "Root, hog, or
die!" Some of the new political brooms swept clean, and made a
great show of reform, notably Amos Kendall, who was appointed Fourth
Auditor of the Treasury, and who soon after exulted over the
discovery of a defalcation of a few hundred dollars i