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 odious system of
proscription for the exercise of the elective franchise in the
government of the United States." He continued: "I understand it
is the system on which the party in his own State, of which he is
the reputed head, constantly acts. He was among the first of the
secretaries to apply that system to the dismission of clerks of
his department . . . known to me to be highly meritorious . . .
It is a detestable system."
And Webster thundered: "I pronounce my rebuke as solemnly and as
decisively as I can upon this first instance in which an American
minister has been sent abroad as the representative of his party
and not as the representative of his country.
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