Corruption, political back-scratching, embezzlement of funds. No, this isn’t a ‘ripped from the headlines’ discussion. This week’s episode takes a look at the evolution of the spoils system in the US up to Harrison’s administration in 1841 including the largest theft of public funds in the antebellum period. We’ll explore how the Postmaster General position became one of the most important offices in the nation at the time as well as how and why William Henry Harrison wanted to reform the civil service over forty years prior to the passage of the Gilded Age civil service reform act. * Barnes, Thurlow Weed, ed. Memoir of Thurlow Weed, Volume II. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co, 1884. * Bonney, Catharina V R, ed. A Legacy of Historical Gleanings: Volume II. Albany, NY: J Munsell, 1875. * Burr, Samuel Jones. The Life and Times of William Henry Harrison. Philadelphia: L W Ransom, 1840. * Cleaves, Freeman. Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. Newtown, CT: American Political Biography Press, 2010 [1939]. * Coleman, Mrs. Chapman. The Life of John J Crittenden, with Selections From His Correspondence and Speeches, Volumes I and II. Philadelphia, PA: J B Lippincott & Co, 1873. * Cutler, Wayne, ed. Correspondence of James K Polk, Volume V: 1839-1841. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1979. * Fish, Carl Russell. The Civil Service and the Patronage. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905. * Fowler, Dorothy Ganfield. The Cabinet Politician: The Postmasters General 1829-1909. New York: Columbia University Press, 1943. * Gunderson, Robert Gray. The Log-Cabin Campaign. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977 [1957]. * Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. * Malone, Dumas. Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1806: Jefferson and His Time, Volume IV. Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1970. * Martin Van Buren Papers, Reel 23, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. * Moser, Harold D, ed. The Papers of Daniel Webster: Correspondence, Volume 5, 1840-1843. Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England, 1982. * Niven, John. Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics. Newtown, CT: American Political Biography Press, 2002 [1983]. * Parmelee, Theodore Nelson. “Recollections of an Old Stager,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Oct 1873. P. * Peterson, Norma Lois. The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison & John Tyler. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1989. * Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. * Remini, Robert V. Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 1997. * Remini, Robert V. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union. New York: W W Norton & Co, 1991. * Seager, Robert, II, ed. The Papers of Henry Clay, Volume 9: The Whig Leader, January 1, 1837-December 31, 1843. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. * Shewmaker, Kenneth R, ed. The Papers of Daniel Webster: Diplomatic Papers, Volume 1 1841-1843. Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England, 1983. * Thomas Ewing Family Papers, Box 41, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. * White, Leonard D. The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History. New York: Macmillan Co, 1948. * White, Leonard D. The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1829-1861. New York: Macmillan Co, 1954. * White, Leonard D. The Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801-1829. New York: Macmillan Co, 1956. * William Henry Harrison Papers, Reel 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.