“Was a victory of the South and West, especially by the latter; it was a victory for democracy; but it was also a victory of organized politics ... it seems to mark the rise of a class of professional politicians. These men were not like the old ruling class whose members were in politics largely from a sense of duty and public service, or for the honor of it, or even for the sake of power; but they were in politics as a business, not for the irregular profits to be derived therefrom but to make a living.” (Development of the United States, pp. 156, 157.)
It is really astonishing to note how speedily manhood suffrage developed its appropriate mischiefs. Soon, with the increase of a purchasable constituency the traffic in votes became more easy and common, and the struggle for the spoils grew rapidly in intensity. The policy then put into play of making the offices the spoils of politics produced in a comparatively few years the beginnings of the political machine.
“General Jackson, the candidate of the populace, and the representative hero of the ignorant masses, instituted a new system of administering the government, in which the personal interests became the most important element, and that organization and strategy were developed which have since become known and infamous under the name of the political machine.” (Life of J. Q. Adams by Morse, p. 214.)
About 1830 a new flood of immigration set in and the politicians made it their business to win the favor of the immigrants and to organize the great foreign vote and especially the Irish vote in New York City and elsewhere. This was not difficult as there was neither opposition nor competition. In New York they seized Tammany Hall, and perfected and employed its organization and similar organizations elsewhere; they developed and enthroned political bosses, and established and operated political machines. The growth of this class is thus described by Ostrogorski:
“But in proportion as the old generation which had founded the republic disappeared, as the development of the country entailed that of the public service, and the political contingents increased through extension of the suffrage, the scramble for the loaves and fishes became closer and keener. There arose a whole class of men of low degree who applied all their energies in this direction, and who sought their means of subsistence in politics, and especially in its troubled waters.” (Democracy and the Party System in the United States, p. 19.)
And further:
“The old political supremacy wielded by the élite of the nation, ... passed to an innumerable crowd of petty local leaders who stood nearer to the masses but who too often were only needy adventurers.” (P. 23.)
Jackson was followed in 1837 by his lieutenant, Van Buren, who was the first machine-made President, and the situation is thus described by Roosevelt:
“During Van Buren’s administration the standard of public honesty, which had been lowering with frightful rapidity ever since, with Adams, the men of high moral tone had gone out of power, went almost as far down as it could go; although things certainly did not change for the better under Tyler and Polk. Not only was there the most impudent and unblushing rascality among the public servants of the nation, but the people themselves, through their representatives in the state legislatures, went to work to swindle their honest creditors. Many states, in the rage for public improvements, had contracted debts which they now refused to pay; in many cases they were unable, or at least so professed themselves, even to pay the annual interest. The debts of the states were largely held abroad; they had been converted into stock and held in shares, which had gone into a great number of hands, and now, of course, became greatly depreciated in value. It is a painful and shameful page in our history; and every man connected with the repudiation of the states’ debts ought, if remembered at all, to be remembered only with scorn and contempt.”
Towards the close of Van Buren’s administration, complaint was made of waste of public money.