The Spoilage System gave voters of the political party that
won the election government jobs. Andrew Jackson sent a letter to congress that
explained how he wanted to put a four year limit on appointments, so that more
people had the opportunity to have appointments. President Jackson allowed Swartwout
to be the collector at the port of New York. This port was the most important
trading point in the United States at that time, and Swartwout was responsible
for all of the trading goods. Van Buren cautioned Jackson that Swartwout had a
criminal history and people were not a fan of him. Jackson appointed Swartwout
to office, regardless of what Buren told him, because Swartwout was an early
supporter of Jackson. Swartwout ended up stealing $1,222,705.09 at the port of
New York. The political cartoonist drew Jackson holding all of the benefits
that the citizens are jumping up to get. Jackson has control over the jobs that
the people want, so the cartoonist drew Jackson holding the jobs with puppet
strings. Jackson controls all of the peoples’ movements. The people are
puppets, while President Jackson is the puppet master who controls the puppets.
Andrew Jackson wanted to be the democratic ideal, however his actions failed.
He does not deserve the “people’s president” reputation. Jackson believed that
it was democratic to change up the appointments so that more people had a
change to become appointed. He thought a limit time on appointments would allow
new ideas to develop from the different people. His plan backfired by causing
the government to lose $1.2 million. Although he tried to make the United
States more democratic, he failed.
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