ge of any senator or representative. Nepotism was
considered the curse of the civil service, and for twenty years similar
amendments were discussed at almost every session of Congress. John
Quincy Adams said that half of the members wanted office, and the other
half wanted office for their relatives.

In 1820 the Four Years' Act substituted a four-year tenure of office,
in place of a term at the pleasure of the President, for most of the
federal appointments. The principal argument urged in favor of the law
was that unsatisfactory civil servants could easily be dropped without
reflection on their character. Defalcations had been discovered to the
amount of nearly a million dollars, due mainly to carelessness and gross
inefficiency. It was further argued that any efficient incumbent need
not be disquieted, for he would be reappointed. The law, however,
fulfilled Jefferson's prophecy: it kept "in constant excitement all the
hungry cormorants for office."

What Jefferson began, Jackson consummated. The stage was now set
for Democracy. Public office had been marshaled as a force in party
maneuver. In his first annual message, Jackson announced his philosophy:

"There are perhaps few men who can for any great length of time enjoy
office and power without being more or less under the influence
of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public
duties.... Office is considered as a species of property, and government
rather as a means of promoting individual interests than as an
instrument created solely for the service of the people. Corruption in
some, and in others a perversion of correct feelings and principles,
divert government from its legitimate ends and make it an engine for the
support of the few at the expense of the many. The duties of all public
offices are, or at least admit of being made, so plain, so simple
that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their
performance.... In a country where offices are created solely for
the benefit of the people, no one man has any more intrinsic right to
official station than another."

The Senate refused Jackson's request for an extension of the Four Years'
law to cover all positions in the civil service. It also refused to
confirm some of his appointments, notably that of Van Buren as minister
to Great Britain. The debate upon this appointment gave the spoilsman an
epigram. Clay with directness pointed to Van Buren as the introducer
"of the