Why do we say "To the victor belong the spoils"?

Meaning:

The winning person, team, or party is entitled to the benefits associated with success.

Background:

This phrase sounds like it should come from Ancient Rome. One gets a mental image of armies looting the cities of those they’ve conquered, stripping temples and palaces of wealth. Its origin, however, is much more recent and definitely less violent.

The saying is attributed to US politician William L. Marcy (1786-1857). The New Yorker had an exceptionally successful career, serving as US Senator (1831-1833), Governor of New York (1833-1838), Secretary of War under President James Polk (1845-1849), and Secretary of State under both James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce (1853-1857). In his last role, he negotiated the $10 million Gadsden Purchase with Mexico — a nearly 30,000-square-mile strip of land that eventually became the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico.

Marcy’s biggest claim to fame, however, may be his coining of the phrase that is the subject of this article. During a congressional debate in 1832, he stated, “To the victor belong the spoils” in defense of President Andrew Jackson’s political appointments.

The Senator’s audience would have understood he wasn’t speaking figuratively, instead referring to the “spoils system” that had become a part of 19th-century US politics. By the 1820s, the practice of rewarding political supporters with government appointments was a common way of ensuring that a president was surrounded by loyalists who would support their agenda. (Critics felt it led to incompetent people manning critical offices.) The spoils system remained until after the American Civil War, when civil service reforms were put in place at the federal level and a merit-based approach was implemented.

Today the phrase has evolved well beyond the political sphere and is referenced in many different contexts, generally meaning the winner gets all the benefits associated with their victory. It’s been quoted on TV shows (The Sopranos), in movies (The Hunger Games), and in literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned) and is generally widely understood whenever it’s used.

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