The spoils system was a system in which supporters would get government positions for their support of the party. The whole meaning of this was to insure that government members were from the same party as the president. Many presidents are notorious for doing this method. Andrew Jackson, for instance, substituted everyone in the gov. for his supporters. Jackson said he believed it was good to clear out the government office members to keep the government from becoming corrupt. (Fighting corrupt with corrupt, classic government.)
The Pendleton Act was put in place in 1881 to stop The Spoil System. The reason why they made this was because of Charles Guiteau assassinating James A. Garfield because he did not give him a government job. This act created the merit system. It created exams for federal government. It also created a three-member Civil Service Commission administration. This stopped jobs being given out because of a favored party and made a system based off of skills and ability to do jobs. I believe that regardless of the merit system still being in tact today, the spoils system still exists behind closed doors. To quote David Quaglia (shout out to David, you the man.) He said there is about 3% of government jobs are determined by the President outside of the merit system itself.
