AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 289 



catastrophe would have been deferred for four years, 

 but it was bound to come soon. This in no wise 

 alters or qualifies Jackson's responsibility for the mis- 

 chief, but it helps us to comprehend it in its true rela- 

 tions. At that time the notion had firmly planted 

 itself in men's minds that there is something especially 

 democratic, and therefore meritorious, about " rotation 

 in office." It was argued, with that looseness of anal- 

 ogy so common in men's reasonings about history and 

 politics, that permanency of tenure tends to create an 

 " aristocracy of office," and is therefore contrary to the 

 "spirit of American institutions." It was, as I said 

 before, an age of crude, unintelligent experiments in 

 democracy ; and as soon as this notion had once got 

 into men's heads, it was inevitable that the experiment 

 of the " spoils system " must be tried, just as the exper- 

 iment of an elective judiciary had to be tried. The 

 way was prepared in 1820 by Crawford, when he suc- 

 ceeded in getting the law enacted that limits the 

 tenure of office to four years. This dangerous meas- 

 ure excited very little discussion at the time. People 

 could not understand the evil until taught by hard ex- 

 perience. The honest Jackson would have been 

 astonished if he had been told that he was laying the 

 foundations of a gigantic system of corruption. He 

 was very ready to believe ill of political opponents, 

 and to make generalizations from extremely inadequate 

 data. Democratic newspapers, while the campaign 

 frenzy was on them, were full of windy declamation 

 about the wholesale corruption introduced into all 

 parts of the government by Adams and Clay. In 

 point of fact there has never been a cleaner adminis- 

 tration in all our history than that of Quincy Adams, 



