William L. Marcy

William Learned Marcy was a Democratic Party leader and U.S. Secretary of State. He once remarked about the system of patronage and party politics emerging during the era of Andrew Jackson, "To the victor go the spoils," after which the spoils system came to called. As Secretary of State, he asked U.S. European Diplomats James Buchanan, James Y. Mason, and Pierre Soulé to draft the Ostend Manifesto, but because of its aggressively pro-slavery slant, Marcy disavowed any connection with it.