Heyday of the 'spoils sytem'

Andrew Jackson ushered in the spoils system of patronage in 1829, and his successors used it to remove increasing numbers of civil servants and replace them with party loyalists. The data show the share of civil servants subject to presidential appointment who were replaced during each president's term.

Gaps in the presidents are due to a lack of reliable information on their appointments. Lincoln's numbers would have likely been higher but for the Civil War.
Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Compiled and estimated by the author from C.R. Fish, "The Civil Service and the Patronage" and other works Get the data