U.S. Civil Service Reform

Civil Service Reform' in the U.S. was a major issue in the late 19th century at the national level, and in the early 20th century at the state level. Proponents denounced the distribution of government offices—the "spoils"—by the winners of elections to their supporters as corrupt and inefficient. They demanded nonpartisan scientific methods and credential be used to select civil servants. The five important civil service reforms were the two Tenure of Office Acts of 1820 and 1867, Pendleton Act of 1883, the Hatch Acts (1939 and 1940) and the CSRA of 1978.

In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson, alarmed that Federalists dominated the civil service and the army, identified the party affiliation of office holders and systematically appointed republicans. Andrew Jackson in 1829 began the systematic rotation of office-holders after four years, replacing them with his partisans in a controversial move. By the 1830s the "spoils system" meant the systematic replacement of office holders every time the government changed party hands.

The first code of civil service reforms, were designed to replace patronage appointees with nonpartisan employees qualified because of their skills.

President Ulysses S Grant (1869–1877]] spoke out for civil service reform, and rejected demands in late 1872 by Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron and Pennsylvania Governor John Hartranft to suspend the rules and make patronage appointments.

Grant's Civil Service Commission reforms had limited success, as his cabinet implemented a merit system that increased the number of qualified candidates and relied less on Congressional patronage. Interior Secretary Columbus Delano, however, exempted his department from competitive examinations, and Congress refused to enact permanent Civil Service reform. Zachariah Chandler, who succeeded Delano, made sweeping reforms in the entire Interior Department; Grant ordered Chandler to fire all corrupt clerks in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Grant appointed reformers Edwards Pierrepont and Marshall Jewell as Attorney General and Postmaster General, respectively, who supported Bristow's investigations. In 1875, Pierrepont cleaned up corruption among the United States Attorneys and Marshals in the South.

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