[199] During his first year in office, Jackson removed hundreds of federal officials, which was about 10% of all Federal employees,[199] and replaced them with loyal Democrats.[200] He argued that rotation in office was a democratic reform that reduced bureaucracy and corruption[201] by preventing hereditary officeholding and made officeholders responsible to the popular will,[202] but it functioned as political patronage, which came to be known as the spoils system.[203][201]

Petticoat affair
Main article: Petticoat affair
Lithograph cartoon The Celeste-al Cabinet by Albert A. Hoffay, published by H. R. Robinson (1836). Illustrates Jackson's cabinet during the Petticoat Affair. "Celeste" is Margaret Eaton.
Jackson spent much of his time during his first two and a half years in office dealing with what came to be known as the "Petticoat Affair" or "Eaton Affair".[204][205] The affair focused on Secretary of War Eaton's wife, Margaret. She had a reputation for being promiscuous, and like Rachel Jackson, she was accused of adultery. She and Eaton had been close before her first husband John Timberlake died, and they married nine months after his death.