spoils system: the practice of the winning political party awarding its supporters with public office
Spoil is a very old word meaning plunder captured from a defeated enemy. The political version of spoil (more common now as the plural spoils) is control of plum civil service jobs and the other perks that go along with getting elected. The term spoils system was popularized by New York Senator William Marcy in 1832. Speaking of Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party, he said, "When they are contending for victory, they avow the intention of enjoying the fruits of it. If they are defeated, they expect to retire from office—if they are successful . . . they see nothing wrong in the rule, that to the victor belongs the spoils of the enemy. " True to his principles, Marcy later became a leading Hunker, the faction of New York Democrats who believed in acting conservatively and taking care of their own interests.
The spoils system in the nineteenth-century United States mainly amounted to office holders rewarding their friends and relatives with Civil Service jobs, which were doled out through the patronage system rather than merit. This system reached its peak during the administrations of Ulysses S. Grant. Those outraged by the rampant corruption began calling for Civil Service reform. The Civil Service was finally revamped after President Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker.