Pendleton Civil Service Act
Have you ever thought about working for the government? Maybe you’ve
fantasized about being an FBI agent or being an ambassador to a foreign country
one day. Now, imagine that someone who is protecting our country as an FBI
agent was taking bribes, but couldn’t get fired because his brother was friends with
a senator. Now, imagine you can’t get promoted to the job you want, no matter
how hard you try, because you are not friends with the right people. Doesn’t seem
fair, does it?
While today we regard fair hiring practices as a given, in the late 1880s, the spoils
system was pervasive in government. The spoils system is one in which elected
officials reward friends and family members with highly desirable jobs. The term
is derived from the phrase “to the victor go the spoils.” In 1883, the United States
passed a federal law that all government jobs should be awarded on the basis of
merit, rather than the spoils system. Inspired by the assassination of President
Garfield, the Pendleton Civil Service Act was meant to weed out graft and
corruption and it forever changed how our government is run.
Search Terms: Rutherford B. Hayes; Chester A. Arthur; James Garfield; Senator
George Hunt Pendleton; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; William
McKinley; Herbert Welsh; Theodore Roosevelt; Civil Service Commission;
Pennsylvania Merit System
Recommended Collections:
An Open Letter to President Harrison
By Henry Charles Lea
Call # Vb* .9
Ari Hoogenboom, “Pennsylvania in the Civil Service Reform Movement,”
Pennsylvania History 28 (1961): 268-78.
Letter from Wayne MacVeagh to Edward Sayres & Purposes of the Civil Service
Reform Association
Edward Stalker Sayres Collection
Collection#1369
Pennsylvania Civil Service Reform League papers
Collection#1436
Herbert Welsh collection
Collection#0702
*Additional information can be found about Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A.
Arthur, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Senator
George Hunt Pendleton and Civil Service Reform can be found in the PC1 card
catalog.
Other Sources of Information:
Grover Cleveland Library – Speeches and Writings –
www.groverclevelandlibrary.org
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center – Online Texts – Diary and Letters of
Rutherford B. Hayes, Volumes III & IV – www.rbhayes.org
Pennsylvania State Archives – 350 North Street, Harrisburg, PA –
www.portal.state.pa.us
Philadelphia City Archives – 3101 Market St., Philadelphia – www.phila.gov