SPOILS SYSTEM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Spoils system

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/spɔɪlz sˈɪstəm/ Listen

noun

Spoil n.

1.

That which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty. "Gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils."

2.

Public offices and their emoluments regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage; commonly in the plural; as, to the victor belong the spoils. "From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I was overlooked in the division of the spoil."

3.

That which is gained by strength or effort. "Each science and each art his spoil."

4.

The act or practice of plundering; robbery; waste. "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils."

5.

Corruption; cause of corruption. (Archaic) "Villainous company hath been the spoil of me."

6.

The slough, or cast skin, of a serpent or other animal. (Obs.)

Spoil bank, a bank formed by the earth taken from an excavation, as of a canal.

The spoils system, the theory or practice of regarding public offices and their emoluments as so much plunder to be distributed among their active partisans by those who are chosen to responsible offices of administration.

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Etymology of 'Spoils system'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spoils system" Quotes from Famous Books

... hate the Messengers of Light. Tiberius stood for private and public morality; the Julian-republican clique for the opposite. He stood for the nations welded into one, the centuries to be, and the high purposes of the Law. They stood for anarchy, civil war, and the old spoils system.—Down him then! said they. And how?—Fish up mad Postumus, and let's have a row with the Legions of the Rhine.—Yes; that sounds pretty—for you who are not in the deep know of the thing. But how far do you think the ...

— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris

... also a dangerous source of conflict. It was necessary to find an opening subject which would not only ignore 1912 but would avoid also the explosive conflicts of 1916. The speaker skilfully selected the spoils system in diplomatic appointments. "Deserving Democrats" was a discrediting phrase, and Mr. Hughes at once evokes it. The record being indefensible, there is no hesitation in the vigor of the attack. Logically it was an ideal ...

— Public Opinion • Walter Lippmann

... the political ethics of the sixties that discountenanced the use of the spoils of office, and Lincoln himself, though he resented the drain of office-seeking upon his time, appears not to have seen that the spoils system was at variance with the fundamentals ...

— The New Nation • Frederic L. Paxson

... professions. His longest and sharpest attack is upon the policy pursued by the President in rewarding his followers with office,—a policy in accord with the principles laid down in the inaugural. We are accustomed nowadays to strong statements of the viciousness of the spoils system, but no advocate of civil service reform has attacked the full-grown system of party rewards with any more vigor than Webster showed at the beginning of the system. "No, sir!" he exclaims indignantly, "no individual or party has a claim or right to any office whatever;" and he ...

— Noah Webster - American Men of Letters • Horace E. Scudder

... dismissing them. The new President very rightly refused to recognize nominations so made, and this has been seized upon by his detractors to hold him up as the real author of what was afterwards called "the Spoils System." It would be far more just to ...

— A History of the United States • Cecil Chesterton

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