US_Ch1_spoils-grew

=**Growth of the Spoils System**=

The Democrat Party would use the system set up by Van Buren...the spoils system or rewarding party loyalty/supporters with government and party jobs. Now, the structure would be national-state-county-district-ward-precinct. A new party had emerged in opposition to Andrew Jackson, a party that wanted to give more authority to Congress than the President. This party would be called the Whig Party, which began to compete with the Democrats. It didn't take long for the Whigs to realize how the spoils system could benefit them as well. Soon, both parties were using it.


 * (10)** **What does it mean that parties ran on the assumption that principles were for sale (think spoils system)?**

With slavery being avoided, the major issues were tariffs and internal improvements. The tariff issue was whether or not to increase the tariff on foreign goods. Internal improvements was a code phrase for investments in river towns, coastal cities, or railroad lines that benefited a target group of voters. The bureaucracy slowly grew as both the Democrats and Whigs competed in elections, which turned into which party could offer more spoils or incentives. The biggest example was the post office. There were 8,700 positions, which was 3/4 of the federal workforce, which made the Postmaster General one of the most aspiring positions next to Secretary of State. The Postmaster had the power to appoint all positions.

There would also be an addition in newspapers, which were partisan (biased toward one party or the other). The post office shipped newspapers for free, which allowed newspapers to grow from 2 million to 40 million. Van Buren wanted to use the partisanship (bias) of newspapers. The growth in the number of newspapers was due more to political patronage/spoils system rather than the market. Since the market didn't demand more newspapers, the newspaper companies ran deficits (weren't making profits). How did so many newspapers survive then? The newspaper deficits were balanced by political contributions, "loans," or subsidies (money given by the government). Over time, newspapers became sectional like politics (Northern papers more anti-slave; Southern papers more pro-slave).


 * (11) Why do you think parties would help financially support newspapers (think about how newspapers, which were biased, could help the party that's helping them in terms of articles printed)?**

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