ABSTRACT
The modern Federal Civil Service began with the passage of the Civil Service Act of 1883—the Pendleton Act. Agitation for the abolition of the ‘spoils-system’ of appointments to the Government service had, however, started at least two decades before this date, and the shock to the national conscience administered by the murder of President Garfield by a ‘disappointed office seeker’ resulted in the passage of the 1883 Act. The reformers had studied European Civil Service systems. The American consul in Paris reported, in 1863, on the French customs service and recommended that the u.s. adopt a similar system based on competitive examinations. The Joint Committee (of Congress) on Retrenchment produced a report in 1868 which reviewed extensively the Civil Service systems of China, England, France and Prussia. It included summaries of the opinions of over 400 American Government officials and it advocated reforms in the procedure for recruitment to the Government service. It condemned spoils and recommended that officers be selected after due examination by proper boards. The Committee’s reforming Bill was, however, tabled. At the request of President Hayes (elected in 1876), Dorman B. Eaton prepared two reports, one on the British Civil Service, the other on the improvements which had been effected in the New York Customs House as a result of the introduction of competitive entry into that service.
