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This fascinating study of New York politics in the early 19th century traces the origins and development of the 'spoils system', a political practice in which elected officials reward their supporters with government appointments and favors. McBain focuses on the career of DeWitt Clinton, a prominent politician and architect of the Erie Canal, who was both a beneficiary and a victim of this system. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

From the introductory: CHAPTER I. Early Patronage Under The Constitution The name of DeWitt Clinton has been associated for a long time with all that is reprehensible in connection with the introduction of the so-called spoils system into the politics of New York. Not only has the extent to which he carried the policy of removal from office been overestimated but many other phases of his plan of distributing the patronage have been the subject of misrepresentation. Even so eminent a scholar as Mr. Henry Adams expresses the opinion that he was hardly less responsible than Burr for lowering the standard of New York politics and indirectly that of the nation, and in another connection this distinguished historian makes the unqualified assertion that Clinton, urged on by political self-interest, swept out of office every federalist in New York to make room for his republican supporters. Nor is extravagance of statement the only error into which Mr. Adams has fallen. He quite unjustly accuses Clinton of giving undue preferment to his own family connections and of adopting a policy of total exclusion toward the political adherents of his rival, Aaron Burr, in the distribution of both federal and state offices. Similar views have been expressed by historians both before and since Mr. Adams wrote, and a general impression has gone abroad that, when Clinton first came to wield his power in New York, he instituted so drastic a proscription of his political opponents and so thoroughgoing an exclusion of those elements of his own party that were inimical to his personal interests that his conduct can find explanation only in the belief that he was moved by an overmastering spirit of selfishness, and that anything like a guiding principle must have been wholly foreign to his thought and purpose. Unfortunately for the fame of Clinton the materials for a complete study of his policy in the distribution of the New York patronage have never been carefully sifted, although they have not been wholly inaccessible. The manuscript files of the council of appointment, which throw a flood of light upon the history of patronage, lie as yet unorganized and unmounted. The manuscript minutes of the council have been used to some extent, but nothing like an exhaustive study of them has hitherto been made. The public papers of George Clinton, which have received only occasional investigation, offer an invaluable source of information upon every phase of New York politics during the interesting period of his life; while the DeWitt Clinton papers, the newspapers and pamphlets of the time, the legislative journals and the numerous printed collections of correspondence and writings are alike indispensable aids to a fair understanding of the share which the younger Clinton had in the introduction of the system of spoils in New York. It is primarily upon these documents and papers that the present study is based

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