From Murray N. Rothbard’s essay, “Bureaucracy and the Civil Service in the United States” (p. 23):
“[T]he most massive employment of the spoils system came with the Lincoln administration, when the Republican Party came to power for the first time. Of the 1,520 presidential class appointees existing in 1859, Lincoln removed no less than 1, 457, or 96 percent. . . .Even military appointments were now made on a largely partisan basis . . . The military forces as well as the civilian establishment were exploited freely, and political generals were notoriously numerous. “
6:44 am on September 20, 2011
