been provided; and an attempt to serve the guests led to a veritable
saturnalia. Waiters emerging from doors with loaded trays were borne
to the floor by the crush; china and glassware were smashed; gallons
of punch were spilled on the carpets; in their eagerness to be served
men in muddy boots leaped upon damask-covered chairs, overturned
tables, and brushed bric-à-brac from mantles and walls. "It would have
done Mr. Wilberforce's heart good," writes a cynical observer, "to
have seen a stout black wench eating in this free country a jelly with
a gold spoon at the President's House." Only when some thoughtful
person directed that tubs of punch be placed here and there on the
lawn was the congestion indoors relieved. When it was all over, the
White House resembled a pigsty. "Several thousand dollars' worth of
broken china and cut glass and many bleeding noses attested the
fierceness of the struggle." It was the people's day, and it was of no
avail for fastidious Adamsites to lift their eyebrows in ridicule or
scorn.

Those in whom the establishment of the new order aroused keenest
apprehension were the officeholders. A favorite theme of the Jackson
forces during the late campaign was the abuses of the patronage, and
the General came into office fully convinced that an overhauling of
the civil service would be one of the greatest contributions that he
could make to his country's welfare. Even if he had been less sure of
this than he was, the pressure which office seekers and their friends
brought to bear upon him would have been irresistible. Four-fifths of
the people who flocked to Washington at inauguration time were seekers
after office for themselves or their friends, and from every county
and town the country over came pleas of service rendered and claims
for reward. But Jackson needed little urging. He thought, and rightly,
that many of the incumbents had grown lax in the performance of their