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THE 


CIVIL-SERVICE  REFORM 
MOVEMENT. 


A-  ^fi: 


BY 


W.     E.     P^OSTER, 

Author  of  *'' The  Literature  of  Civil-Service  Reform  in  the   United  States." 


BOSTON : 
Press  of  Geo.  H.  Ellis,  141  P^ranklin  Street. 


NOTE. 


The  following  study  of  some  of  the  distinguishing 
features  of  the  civil-service  reform  movement  was  under- 
taken by  the  writer,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  definhig 
the  grounds  of  his  own  belief.  It  has  been  thought  by 
the  executive  committee  of  the  Boston  Civil-Service 
Reform  Association  that  its  publication  would  be  of  ser- 
vice to  others  who  may  be  studying  the  subject.  In  the 
hope  that  it  may  contribute,  in  some  degree,  to  a  more 
intelligent  consideration  of  the  subject,  the  writer  has  con- 
sented to  its  pub4««pjbipn.     . 


•  • 


>•    •  •. 


•    • 


«   •) 


Providence,  JRL.f.j  ijTovi  .tv*€8i. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I. 

Chapter  II. 

Chapter  III. 

Chapter  IV. 

Chapter  V. 

Chapter  VI. 

Chapter  VII. 

Chapter  VIII. 


The  reform  is  not  undemocratic 
~t  is  not  unconstitutional 

t  is  not  impracticable  . 

t  is  not  unbusiness-like 

t  is  not  indefinite 

t  is  not  unnecessary    . 

t  is  not  destructive 

t  is  not  opposed  to  public  sent 


PAGB 

5 

lO 

13 

24 

30 
39 
46 


ment 


Appendix.      The  Pendleton  bill 
Index    


67 

72 


228369 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/civilservicerefoOOfostrich 


^^  OP  ri{^  ^^  '}S^\ 


CHAPTER  Y. 


THE    REFORM    IS    NOT    UNDEMOCRATIC. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  proposed  reform  of  the  civil 
service  is  undemocratic.  Considering  the  origin  of  our 
government,  and  the  manifest  intent  of  the  founders  of  the 
republic  to  make  this  ''  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  for  the  people,"  this  point  becomes  of  the  highest 
importance.  Is  it  not  the  spoils  system  which  is  undemo- 
cratic, rather  than  the  proposed  reform  ?  The  very  concep- 
tion of  a  democracy  necessitates  a  government  "  for  the 
people."  Yet  how  can  that  government  be  so  described, 
in  which  the  civil  service  is  regarded  not  as  a  service  for 
the  public,  but  as  a  source  of  emolument  and  gain  to  a 
few.'*  When  the  end  in  view  is  not  the  advancement 
of  the  public  interest,^  but  the  chance  of  strengthening 
one's  self,  rewarding  one's  party  friends,  and  punishing 
one's  party  opponents,  the  system  is  one  of  private  pat- 
ronage, and  not  public  service. 

T/ie  Nation  well  says  :  ''Few  persons  are  aware  to  what 
an  extent  patronage  has  perverted  free  institutions  and 
created  a  governing  class  or  caste  exercising  irresponsible 
power  under  republican  forms.  Patronage  controls  con- 
ventions, conventions  make  nominations,  the  nominees 
control  patronage,  and  so  the  circle  is  complete.  It  is 
this  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  machine.  The  sys- 
tem is  subversive  of  free  government,  in  the  sense  that 
free  government  implies  the  unbiassed  rule  of  the  ma- 
jority." 

Not  only  is  the  result  of  this  system  the  introduction  of 
an  aristocratic  principle  into  what  was  meant  to  be  a 
democratic  republic,  but  it  brings  in,  through  the  agency 

1  According  to  a  Supreme  Court  ruling  "  The  theory  of  our  government  is,  that  all 
public  stations  are  trusts." —  21  Wallace,  450. 


THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


\  of  what  is  known  as  the  *'  courtesy  of  the  senate,"  the 
^  spirit  and  proceedings  of  feudal  times.  To  quote  from 
a  recent  discussion  of  this  point,  in  the  Princeton  Re- 
view :  ^  "  Under  the  extension  of  the  '  courtesy '  to 
removals,  it  follows  that,  as  to  all  those  five  hundred 
officers,^  excepting  at  most  the  thirty-three  serving  at 
Washington,  their  removal  really  depends  on  the  will  of 
the  senators  of  the  state  where  these  oflBcials  respect- 
ively serve."  "The  power  and  prestige  of  the  executive 
are  thus  enfeebled  and  degraded  in  the  estimation  of  his 
own  subordinates  in  the  same  degree  that  senators  are  ex- 
alted and  are  tempted  to  become  domineering  patronage 
monopolists  at  Washington,  and  feudal  purveyors  of 
places   and  despots  in  partisan  politics  at  home."^ 

Again,  no  less  must  a  government  truly  democratic  be 
a  government  ''by  the  people."  That  form  of  govern- 
ment is  oligarchic,  rather  than  democratic,  in  which  the 
control  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  body  of  the  people.  In  this  country 
political  control  is  vested  in  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage. 
But  such  is  the  management  of  the  office-holding  body 
in  some  states  that  but  a  small  portion  of  the  citizens 
are  admitted  to  the  exercise  of  this  right.  A  volume 
published  in  1880,  entitled  "  The  Independent  move- 
ment in  New  York,"  explains  with  much  fulness  the 
*' New  York  system  of  primaries."  They  are  "a  series 
of  permanent  clubs  or  companies."  And  the  writer  adds: 
*'  They  must  have  members  enough  to  make  a  pretence 
of  popular  representation,  but  they  must  not  be  so  numer- 
ous as  to  become  unmanageable."  To  show  the  extent 
to  which  this  power  is  committed  to  a  few  men,  con- 
sider, he  says,  that,  "  in  a  city  of  a  million,  six  thousand 
club  men  are  sufficient."*  Mr.  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  also, 
in  the  article  already  referred  to,*  states  other  features: 
"  Life-long  adhesion    to    the    Republican    party,    and  un- 

1  Princeton  Review,  Sept.,  18S1,  p.  167. 

»  Referring  to  certain  officers  in  the  '1  rcasury  Department. 

•The  reform  of  the  civil  service  not  only  aims  to  remove  the  system  of  appoint- 
ments  from  politics,  but  to  restore  the '  appointing  power  to  the  executive,  as 
enjoined  by  the  constitution. 

♦"The  IndciuMidcnt  movement,"  p.  i6S. 

^Princeton  Revtejv,  Sept.,  1881,  p.  159. 


THE    REFORM    IS    NOT    UNDEMOCRATIC. 


broken  support  of  its  principles,  do  not  even  create  a 
presumptive  riglit  to  pass  the  doors  of  any  one  of  these 
primaries ;  and  until  admitted  to  one  of  them  no  man  is 
recognized  as  a  member  of  the  party,  nor  can  he  vote 
or  be  heard  on  any  nomination  of  delegates."  In  this 
system  ''the  civil  officials"  are  "the  spoils-system 
generals,  colonels,  and  captains."  ^  How  demoralizing 
to  true  citizenship  is  any  such  substitution  of  personal  rule 
for  the  support  of  the  principles  of  a  Free  government  is 
obvious.  Civil-service  reform,  as  everywhere  understood, 
m'eans  the  utter  divorce  of  ofiicial  interference  from  the 
expression  by  the  citizens  of  their  choice  of  officers. - 

Yet,  conceding  all  that  has  been  stated,  the  charge  is 
sometimes  made,  that  a  system  of  official  selection,  pro- 
motion, and  service  will  raise  up  an  official  class,  or  caste, 
out  of  sympathy  with  the  people,  and  not  responsible  to 
them.  In  order  that  this  should  result,  however,  it 
would  be  necessary  that  the  body  of  office-holders  should 
control  and  dispense  patronage ;  should  be  drawn  from  a 
similar  or  uniform  class  of  society ;  and  be  beyond  fear 
of  interference  or  removal  for  cause.  But  this  reform 
provides  for  competitive  examinations,  open  to  all  classes 
and  localities  and  shades  of  opinion,  and  demanding  only 
that  the  applicant  be  found  fit  for  the  place.^  The  tenure 
of  office,  again,  is  not  beyond  reach  of  necessary  limita- 
tion ;  but  while  securely  removed  from  envious  partisan- 
ship* it  is  at  the  same  time  distinctly  subject  to  the  proper 
discharge  of  duties. 

Those  who  see  in  this  reform  the  bugbear  of  an  aristo- 
cratic* class  should  study  the  history  of  civil-service 
reform  in  Great  Britain,  where  it  had  to  meet  at  the 
outset  the  objection,  not  that  it  was  ''  not  democratic," 
but  that  it  was  ''  too  democratic,"  and  woukl  allow  the 
*' lower  classes"   to    compete    and  enter   the  service;    and 

'^Princeton  Review,  Sept.,  iSSi,  p.  158. 

2  Sec  the  Willis  hill,  •'  To  prevent  extortion,"  coercion,  etc. 

8  As  a  level-headed  daily  paper  (the  Boston  Herald)  has  remarked,  in  comment- 
ing on  this  claim,  '•  One  element  in  good  behavior  is  courtesy  to  the  public;  and  we 
do  not  fear  that  placing  the  service-on  merit  would  cndanger'our  liberities." 

*One  of  the  provisions  of  the  Pendleton  bill  is  "that  no  person  in  the  public  ser- 
vice is  for  that  reason  under  any  obligation  to  contribute  to  any  political  fund,  or  to 
render  any  political  service,  and  that  he  will  not  be  removed  or  otherwise  prejudiced 
for  refusing  to  do  so."  (Sect,  a,  rule  6.) 


8  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

where,  as  the  result  has  proved,  the  service  has  been 
practically  opened  to  men  of  any  social  rank  whatev^er, 
provided  they  possess  the  real  qualifications  for  the 
position. 

To  quote  Mr.  Eaton  once  more :  "  There  is  no  more 
politics  in  a  British  custom-house  than  in  a  college,  a 
regiment,  or  a  church.  Neither  members  of  parliament^ 
great  officers,  nor  politicians  have  any  patronage  in  con- 
nection with  such  offices.  The  son  of  a  duke  or  a 
bishop,  if  he  would  gain  an  appointment  over  the  son  of 
a  drayman  or  a  stoker,  must  show  himself  the  better 
man  in  open  competition  by  his  side."  ^ 

In  this  country  we  know  no  rank  or  class  distinction,  f 
and,  in  this  light,  civil-service  reform,  we  shall  admit,  is  I 
democratic. 

Another  point  yet  remains  to  be  considered.  A  recent 
writer  on  the  subject  ^  claims  that  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  '*  the  public  places  are  public  property,"  "  the  active 
participation  by  the  largest  number  of  persons  in  the 
practical  administration  of  their  own  government"  is  an 
•'object  highly  to  be  desired."  It  is  to  be  feared  that  this 
writer's  views  are  somewhat  confused  on  this  point.  It 
is  clear  that  by  "practical  administration"  he  means 
holding  an  office ;  and  yet  only  one  hundred  thousand 
offices  for  fifty  millions  of  people  is  a  ludicrously  small 
allowance,  and  not  "'  enough  to  go  around."  He  has  not 
clearly  apprehended  the  nature  of  our  government.  This 
is  a  representative  republic,  and  it  is  by  the  exercise  of 
the  right  of  sulTrage  that  each  citizen  makes  his  voice 
heard  in  its  administration,  rather  than  by  holding  an 
office.^ 

Lastly,  it  may  be  said  that  the  system    to  be    reformed 

»  See  also  Mr.  Eaton's  ••  Civil  service  in  Great  Britain,"  p.  359,  316. 

^LippincotVs  Magazine,  Dec,  iSSo,  v.  396,  p.  690-07. 

>A  New  England  j(»urnal  {Providence  journal)  remarks,  that  in  too  many 
instances  ••  the  American  citizen  is  taujjht  from  his  youth  up,  that  the  possession 
of  a  public  office  is  proof  of  the  estimation,  or,  at  any  rate,  will  command  the 
respect,  of  the  people ;  that  it  is  to  be  souj^ht  to  be  attained  by  a  strujj-gle  com- 
mencing with  the  hrst  effort  in  a  debatini?  society;  that  anybody  may  be  President, 
and  that  all  ought  to  strive  to  be  somebody  '  officfally ; '  "  and  admonishes  citizens  of 
the  wholesome  •'  fact  that  office  is  a  trust  which  imposes  responsibility,  and  reflects 
no  credit  upon  any  one  who  cannot  properly  fulfil  its  duties ;  that  it  is  not  to  be 
scrambled  for  as  tne  most  essential  thiuK  in  life,  to  be  obtained  at  the  sacrifice  of 
the  heart,  the  judgment,  and  the  conscience." 


THE    REFORM    IS    NOT    UNDEMOCRATIC. 


is  undemocratic  because  it  discourages  "  the  active  par- 
ticipation by  the  largest  number  of  persons,"  not  as 
this  writer  urges,  "in  the  practical  administration  of" 
the  government,  but  in  the  act  of  suffrage  itself,  and 
the  preliminary  meetings  for  expressing  choice  of  officers. 
Besides  the  instances  already  cited  of  involuntary  disz 
franchisement,  there  has  been  forming,  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  an  element  in  American  citizenship 
which  is,  rightly  or  wrongly,  withdrawing  its  partici- 
pation and  intiuence  from  the  politics  of  the  country. 
Disgusted  at  the  abuses  and  outrages  of  the  partisan 
system,  overborne  and  neutralized  by  the  office-holding 
influence,  they  have  subtracted  their  votes,  and  then- 
interest^  as  well,  from  the  country  to  which  they  belong. 
It  is  easy  to  say  that  they  are  blameworthy.  Indeed, 
*'  the  continued  neglect  of  the  caucus,"  to  quote  from  a 
recent  address, "^  "will  work  the  ruin  of  the  republic,  for 
it  means  in  the  end  the  utter  decay  of  all  real  interest 
in  public  affairs."  The  proposed  reform  strikes  at  the 
root  of  these  evils.  It  aims  to  introduce  efficiency  into  1 
administration,  and  to  protect  the  exercise  of  each  citizen's 
fundamental  right  of  suflrage  from  official  manipulation  ' 
and  interference. 

lYet  there  are  indications  that  the  class  of  citizens  most  alienated  by  long- 
continued  abuses  from  active  interest  and  participation  in  politics  are  seeing-  their 
way  clear  to  rcnewinj;  their  influence.  There  is  much  truth  in  the  significant  utter- 
ance of  the  late  Professor  Diman :  "  It  is  in  the  indirect  and  slower  process  of 
appealing  to  public  opinion  that  the  ultimate  vindication  of  truth  and  justice  is 
assured."  In  this  sense,  he  adds,  the  educated  citizen  "  is  a  spiritual  power  in  the 
state  that  no  factions  can  outwit,  that  no  majorities  can  overwhelm," — ["The  alien- 
ation  of  the  educated  class  from  politics,"  by  J.  L.  Diman  (<l>  B  K  oration  at  Cam- 
bridt?e,  June  20,  1S76),  p.  26.  | 

2  Address  ot  Mr.  A.  Thayer,  before  the  Massachusetts  Club,  Oct.  8,  iSSi. 


10  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER  11. 

IT    IS    NOT    UNCONSTITUTIONAL. 

But  the  reform  is  objected  to,  not  only  on  the  ground  that 
it  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  but 
with  the  letter  also ;  that  it  conflicts  with  the  provisions 
of  the  constitution  itself.  Let  us  see,  first,  what  the  constitu- 
tion really  provides.  Next  let  us  observe  what  is  actually 
the  case  under  the  present  system,  and,  afterwards,  what  the 
proposed  relorm  requires.  What  docs  the  constitution  pro- 
vide.? In  Sect.  2,  art.  3,  it  specifies  that  " //^  "  (/.e.,  the 
president)  '"  shall  nominate,  and,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  senate,  s/ial/  appoifit^  ambassadors,  other 
public  ministers  and  consuls,  judges  of  the  supreme  court, 
and  all  other  officers  of  the  United  States,  whose  appoint- 
ments are  not  herein  otherwise  provided  for,  and  which  shall 
be  established  by  law ;  but  the  congress  may  by  law  vest 
the  appointment  of  such  inferior  officers  as  they  think 
proper  in  the  president  alone,  in  the  courts  of  law,  or  in  the 
heads  of  departments." 

What  is  the  practice  which  has  grown  up  under  the 
partisan  system  of  public  service?  Let  answer  be  made  in 
the  forcible  language  of  Gen.  Garfield,  in  1870,  when  a 
member  of  the  house  of  representatives  ^ :  — 

"  W^e  go"  (2.f7.,  the  legislators).,  "  man  by  man,  to  the 
heads  of  these  several  departments,  and  say  :  '  Here  is  a 
friend  of  mine  ;  give  him  a  place.*  We  press  such  appoint- 
ments upon  the  departments ;  we  crowd  the  doors ;  we  fill 
the  corridors  ;  senators  and  representatives  throng  the  offices 
and  bureaus  until  the  public  business  is  obstructed  ;  the 
patience  of  officers  is  worn  out,  and  sometimes,  for  fear  of 
losing  their  places  by  our  influence,  they  at  last  give  way, 
and  appoint  men,  not  because  they  are  fit  for  their  positions, 
but  because  we  ask  it." 

^  Congressional  Globe,  March  14,  1S70,  p.  1940. 


IT    IS    NOT    UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  11 

What  does  the  reform  propose  ?  A  recent  party  platform 
(that  of  the  Massachusetts  Repubh'can  Convention  at  Wor- 
cester, Sept.  21,  iSSi)  has  expressed  this  in  very  direct 
and  intcHigible  form  :  ''  Maintenance  of  the  constitutional 
frcrogative  of  the  president  to  make  7ioniinations  upon 
his  sole  responsibility."  .  .  .  "  The  relief  and  exclusion 
of  the  members  of  the  legislative  branch  from  the  business 
of  selecting  office-holders"  "  for  party  purposes." 

Which  of  the  two  conforms  to  the  constitution.?  The 
answer  is  not  difficult.  When  it  comes  to  a  question  of 
means,  certain  details  as  to  knowledge  of  candidates  claim 
attention,  and  chiefly  these  three :  How  is  the  president 
to  know.'*  May  not  a  senator  or  representative  sometimes 
know.'*  Can  the  president  act  through  an  examining  board.'' 
All  three  are  important  questions,  but  only  the  first  and 
third  will  be  discussed  at  this  point,  from  the  fact  of  their 
legal  and  constitutional  bearing.  Tlie  other  will  be  con- 
sidered under  another  heading. 

It  is  perfectly  obvious  that,  in  order  to  act  intelligently,  the 
president  must  seek  for  information  of  some  one.  Can  he 
act  as  he  is  enjoined  by  the  constitution,  and  yet  accept  the 
reports  as  to  qualifications,  etc.,  which  reach  him  through 
an  examining  board.? 

This  question  was  in  due  time  submitted  to  the  attorney- 
general  of  the  United  States  (at  that  time  Mr.  Akerman), 
in  connection  with  the  provisions  of  section  1753  of  the 
"•  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States,"  which  had  become 
law  in  1871.^  Mr.  Akerman,  on  the  31st  of  August,  1S71, 
rendered  an  opinion  as  follows  :  The  '"  question  proposed  by 
the  commissioners  is  this:  'May  the  president,  under 
the  act  by  which  the  board-  is  organized,  regulate  the 
exercise  of  the  appointing  power  now  vested  in  the  heads  of 
departments  or  in  the  courts  of  law  so  as  to  restrict  appoint- 
ments to  a  class  of  persons  whose  qualifications  or  fitness 
shall  have  been  determined  by  an  examination  instituted  in- 

1  This  section  is  as  follows  :  '•  The  president  is  authorized  to  prescribe  such  reg- 
ulations for  the  admission  of  persons  into  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States  as 
may  best  promote  the  efficiency  thereof,  and  ascertain  the  fitness  of  tacli  candidate 
in  respect  to  age,  health,  character,  knowledge,  and  ability  for  the  branch  of  service 
into  which  he  seeks  to  enter;  and  for  this  purpose  he  may  employ  suitable  persons 
to  conduct  such  inquiries,  and  may  prescribe  their  duties,  and  establish  regulations 
for  the  conduct  of  persons  who  may  receive  appointment  in  the  civil  service." 

2  /.  e.y  the  "  Civil-service  commission." 


12  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

dependent  of  the  appointing  power?  '  M}^  opinion  is  that  he 
may."^  And  in  this  connection  he  cites  the  opinion  dehvered 
by  a  previous  Attorney-General.  (Mr.  Legare,  in  ''  Official 
opinions  of  the  Attorneys-General,"  v.  4,  p.  164.)  As 
expressed,  therefore,  in  the  Report  of  the  Civil-Service  Com- 
mission, the  next  year,^  it  appears  ''  that  both  the  theory  of 
the  constitution  and  its  recognized  interpretation,  allowed 
the  direct  exercise  of  choice  by  the  appointing  power  to  be 
limited  to  a  few  of  the  worthier  applicants  ;  the  less  worthy 
having  been  first  ascertained  and  eliminated  by  a  just 
method,  authorized  by  law  and  fairly  exercised  under  its 
sanctions."  ^  Not  only  was  the  principle  here  recognized 
embodied  in  the  legislation  of  187 1,"*  but  with  no  less  care  in 
the  bill  now  before  congress. 

The  reform,  therefore,  not  only  in  its  general  principle, 
but  as  regards  this  specific  feature  of  examinations,  rests  on 
a  constitutional  basis,  as  repeatedly  affirmed  by  the  govern- 
ment's chief  legal  advisers. 

1  "  Official  opinions  of  the  attorneys-general  of  the  United  States,"  v.  13,  p.  524. 

2  Dated  April  15,  1S74. 

3  See  p.  20  of  the  '•  Report  of  the  Clvil-Service  Commission,"  April  15,  1S74.  It 
should  be  added  that  in  this  report  the  whole  question  of  constitutionality  is  exam- 
ined  with  much  detail.  (Sec  p.  19,  20,  23,  61-63.)  Also  by  Mr.  Eaton  in  his  letter  to 
tlie  Strinffficld  Republican,  dated  Oct.  10,  iSSi,  when  he  says  :  — 

"  The  language  of  the  bill  is  not  •  appoint  a  chief  examiner,'  but '  employ  a  chief 
examiner.'  Now,  from  the  foundation  of  the  government  there  has  been  this  dis- 
tinction :  that  when  officials  have  had  business  details  to  attend  to  —  like  a  committee 
of  congress  needing  a  clerk,  for  example  —  they  have  been  allowed  to  'employ'  such 
persons  as  they  may  approve,  within  the  limits  of  an  appropriation.  So  broad  is  the 
rule  that,  from  the  beginning  to  this  day,  — when  there  are  more  than  ^2,000  post- 
offices,  —  every  clerk  and  subordinate  in  either  of  them,  including  the  assistant  post- 
masters, have  been  employed  and  dismissed  by  the  postmasters  at  their  discretion, 
without  the  approval  of  other  officials;  such  "being  the  fact  even  in  regard  to  the 
thousand  clerks  in  the  New  York  offic,  and  the  assistant  postmaster  there,  who  may 
be  left  in  sole  charge  of  that  vast  office.  When  the  postmaster  at  Boston  or  Pittsfield 
is  thus  allowed  to  employ  and  dismiss,  at  his  pleasure,  all  those  who  serve  under 
him,  may  not  five  civil-service  commissioners  be  allowed  to  employ  one  examiner 
without  violating  the  constitution?" 

«  Section  1754  of  the  "Revised  statutes,"  also  relating  to  the  same  point,  but 
stating  the  preference  to  be  given  to  honorably  discharged  soldiers,  has  also  been 
reaffirmed  in  an  opinion  delivered  this  year  by  Attorney-General  MacVeagh  :  — 

"An  ex-Union  soldier  applied  for  a  position  in  the  New  York  Custom  House. 
He  was  informed  that  he  must  first  pass  the  prescribed  civil-service  examination 
before  he  would  be  eligible  to  the  anpointment  he  desired.  He  appealed  to  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  claiming  the  right  of  precedence  over  tnnse  who  had 
passed  tlhe  examination  referred  to  under  the  act  jriving  preference  in  appointments 
to  positions  in  the  treasury  department  to  ex-soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion.  Secretary  Winclom  referred  the  matter  to  the  attorney-general,  with  a  re- 
quest for  an  opinion  upon  the  legal  question  involved.  Attorney-t/eneral  Mac  Veagh 
replied  that  the  preference  conferred  by  the  statute  upon  an  ex-soldier  or  sailor  is 
over  those  who,  with  himself,  have  pass'ed  the  civil-service  examination.  Passing 
the  prescribed  examination  is  an  indispensable  condition  precedent  to  appointment 
in  the  civil  service."—  Boston  Herald,  Aug.  ai,  iSSi. 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  13 


CHAPTER    III. 

-  IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE. 

Closely  allied  with  the  point  just  considered  is  that  sug- 
gested by  the  questions,  Is  not  this  an  impossible  theory?  Is 
the  idea  a  practical  one  ?  Is  the  scheme  practicable  ?  There 
is  no  better  way  to  answer  questions  like  these  than  to  show 
what  has  been  done.  In  this  light  we  are  able  to  answer 
that  the  reform  is  essentially  a  practicable  one.  Ten  years 
ago,  indeed,  we  might  point  to  what  had  been  the  experience 
in  Great  Britain  since  1855.  Yet,  since  it  might  be  urged 
that  two  countries  didering  so  widely  in  social  and  national 
characteristics  cannot  furnish  analogies  for  each  other,  an 
American  experience  was  desirable.  This,  also,  we  have 
had.  Without  going  back  to  the  distinguished  career  of  Mr. 
Bristow,  as  secretary  of  the  treasury  from  1S74  to  1876, 
during  which  great  administrative  reforms  were  accom- 
plished, it  will  be  well  to  consider  in  detail  those  that  have 
followed. 

In  1S76  a  writer  in  the  North  American  Review  said, 
respecting  the  reasonable  hope  that  Mr.  Schurz  might  be 
called  to  a  place  in  the  cabinet  in  case  of  Mr.  Hayes's  election, 
that  "  He  more  than  any  other  man  in  the  country  personifies 
that  which  they"  (/.£?.,  independent  voters,  including  friends  v^ 
of  civil-service  reform)  "'■  wish  to  see  introduced  into  politics  : 
that  he  is  the  spear-head  ^to  which  they  are  but  a  shaft."  ^ 
Mr.  Schurz  did  become  a  member  of  President  Hayes's 
cabinet,  and  retained  his  seat  throughout  the  presidential 
term  of  four  years.  He  was  the  first  to  demonstrate,  by 
actual  administration,  that  an  entire  government  department 
may  be  conducted  on  these  very  principles.  What  he  accom- 
])lished  might  appropriately  be  described  in  the  very  language 
used  in  1S69  ^^y  ^^n.  Cox,  then  at  the  head  of  this  very  same 
department,  in   stating  his  ideal  of  administration.^     "To 

» North  American  Reviexv,  Oct.  1876,  v.  123,  p.  467. 

-  "  Aiinua!  report  of  the  secretary  of  the  interior,  for  the  year  1S69,"  p.  xxiv. 


14  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

raise  the  standard  of  qualification,  make  merit,  as  tested 
by  the  duty  performed,  the  sole  ground  of  promotion, 
and  secure  to  the  faithful  incumbent  the  same  perma- 
nence of  employment  that  is  given  to  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy ; "  with  this  exception,  that  the  civil-service 
reform  measure  now  advocated  does  not  insist  on  a  per- 
manent tenure  of  office.  The  chief  features  of  his  service  to 
the  country  are  given  in  detail  in  an  article  in  the  Inter- 
national Review}  We  have  space  to  quote  from  itonlj'the 
following:  "  The  results  of  Mr.  Schurz's  administration  are 
of  almost  inestimable  value  to  the  country."  "  The  country 
has  been  given  an  opportunity  to  study  a  civil-service  re- 
former as  an  executive  officer.  It  has  seen  him  reaching 
practical  results  for  the  attainment  of  which  his  predecessors 
made  no  effort.  He  has  left  his  department  in  better  condi- 
tion than  it  was  ever  in  before  ;  he  has  adopted  methods  for 
transacting  the  public  business  more  perfect  than  were  ever 
dreamed  of  by  any  business  man  who  ever  filled  the  office  " 

(P-393)-. 

Again,  if  a  demonstration  of  a  different  kind  were  needed, 
we  have  it  in  the  experience  of  the  two  great  local  sub-offices, 
the  New  York  Custom  House  and  the  New  York  Post 
Office.  A  public  service  has  been  done  by  the  issue  in 
pamphlet  form  of  the  history  of  the  abuses  to  be  reformed, 
the  ineffectual  eflbrts  to  abate  them,  and  the  successful  ac- 
complishment of  this  result  in  both  offices,  under  the  late 
collector,  Mr.  Merritt,  and  the  late  postmaster,  Mr.  James. ^ 

This  pamphlet  was  prepared  by  request  of  Mr.  Hayes 
(then  president),  in  view  of  the  fact  that  "the  civil-service 
rules  requiring  open  competitive  examinations  for  appoint- 
ments and  promotions  in  the  post  office,  the  custom  house, 
the  surveyor's  office,  and  the  naval  office,  at  the  city  of  New 
York,  have  now,  I  think,  been  tested  long  enough  to  dis- 
close their  tendency  and  to  enable  an  opinion  of  some  value 
to  be  formed  as  to  the  probable  effects  of  the  permanent  en- 
forcement of  such  public  tests  of  merit."     To  this  pamphlet 

»  •' Schurz's  administration  of  the  interior  department,"  by  Henry  L.  Nelson, 
International  Review^  April,  i8Sr,  v.  lo,  pp.  380-396. 

»  "  The  '  spoils '  sy.stem  and  civil-scrvice  reform  jn  the  custom-house  and  post-office 
at  New  York,"  by  Dnrman  B.  Eaton.  [Publications  of  the  N.  Y.  Civil-servlce  Reforni 
Association,  No.  3.]  This  valuable  document  is  frequently  cited  in  these  pages, 
under  the  name  of"  Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet." 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  15 

are  appended  an  abstract  of  the  civil-service  rules  for  the 
custom  house,  and  specimens  of  subjects  of  examinations. 

In  1870  Mr.  Thomas  Murphy  was  collector  of  the  port  of 
New  York,  and  in  the  course  of  the  congressional  investiga- 
tion of  that  office,  conducted  in  the  spring  of  1S73,  testified 
in  a  somewhat  grimly  amusing  manner  as  follows  :  — 

Speaking  of  an  officer  who  had  been  in  the  custom-house 
over  thirty  years,  Mr.  Murphy  remarked  that  he  was  "  a 
great  relief  to  and  a  great  comfort  to  any  collector." 

Question,  To  have  a  man  of  such  experience  and  good 
character? 

Answer.     To  have  such  a  man  of  experience. 

jg.     Kept  there  steadily  attending  to  public  business.? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

J§.  Is  he  not  allowed  to  enjoy  his  own  opinions  in  regard 
to  political  matters  } 

A.     He  is,  sir;   Mr.  Clinch  is. 

^.  And  he  attends  to  his  duties  and  does  that  publicly, 
and  is  permitted  to  remain  .f* 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

jg.     No  matter  what  may  be  the  ebb  or  flow  of  party.'* 

A.     That  is  so,  sir. 

.§.  And  tiie  result  is  that  the  collector  has,  as  you  say,  a 
great  comfort  in  this  officer.'* 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

^.  Who  is  permitted  to  serve  the  public  and  yet  main- 
tain his  personal  independence? 

A.  Yes,  sir.  He  is  an  exception  to  the  general 
rule  though} 

This  is  the  same  collector  whose  idea  of  the  custom  house 
was  "  a  machine  to  be  run  in  the  interest  of  the  party." 
And  yet  this  is  a  custom  house  whose  business  exceeds  that 
of  any  other  in  the  world,  requiring  the  collection  of  more 
than  $480,000  every  day  of  the  year  except  Sundays.  In 
1879  the  open  competitive  examinations  went  into  eflect 
under  Collector  Merritt,  together  with  the  entirely  new  order 
of  things  which  an  intelligent  public  sentiment  would  de- 
mand.   Some  of  the  facts,  as  given  in  Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet 

1'* Testimony  in  relation  to  alleged  frauds   in  the  New  York    Custom-House" 
(iS73),v.  3,  p.  406. 


IG  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

already  cited,  are  significant.  In  1880  the  revenue  collected 
was  more  than  one-third  greater  than  that  of  1877,  with  a 
force  smaller  than  in  that  year.  At  the  same  time  the 
cost  of  collection  had  increased  only  one-eighth .  (Mr.  Eaton's 
pamphlet,  p.  62-63.)  Mr,  Murphy's  term  of  office  lasted 
eighteen  months,  during  which  he  made  three  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  removals,  or  three  every  five  days.  (Mr.  Eaton's 
pamphlet,  p.  23.)  Mr.  Eaton,  writing  in  February  of  the 
present  year,^  states  that  during  the  eighteen  months  of 
Mr.  Merritt's  collectorship  then  completed,  only  forty-four 
removals   had   been    made,  and   each    of  them   for   cause. 

(p-  63.) 

The  statistics  in  connection  with  the  competitive  examin- 
ations are  interesting,  as  disproving  some  familiar  objections 
to  the  system.  "  It  was  not  generally  boys  or  young  persons 
fresh  from  their  studies  who  competed,  but  men  ;  —  the  aver- 
age age  of  the  first  four  hundred  competitors  being  thirty- 
seven  years,  (p.  67.)  And  to  conclude,  let  us  listen  to  the 
testimony  of  the  merchants  themselves.  The  New  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  in  June,  voted  :  — 

"That,  in  the  judgment  of  this  chamber,  (the  system  of  examina- 
tion for  appointment  to  places  in  the  custom  house  which  has  ruled 
during  the  last  few  years  has  been  of  substantial  value  to  the  mer- 
cantile community /and  is,  in  their  eyes,  of  great  importance. 

'''-Resolved^  That  the  interest  of  all  doing  business  with  the 
custom  house  demands  the  continuance  and  extension  of  the  same 
systeni,  as  one  which  has  resulted  in  more  prompt  and  intelligent 
attention  to  the  business  both  of  the  government  and  the  merchant.'"* 

In  July  of  the  present  year  Mr.  Merritt  retired  from  the 
position  of  collector  with  distinguished  honor.  In  his  final 
report  he  says  :  — 

"I  am  of  opinion  that  applying  the  simple  test  of  efficiency  and 
character,  as  compared  with  appointments  heretofore  made,  it  may 
be  declared  a  complete  success.  While  it  is  possible  for  the  nomi- 
nating officer,  if  unembarrassed  by  political  considerations,  to  select 
competent  and  trustworthy  men  (and  with  the  desire  to  do  so  he 

•  In  February  of  the  present  year  Mr.  Merritt  made  a  special  report  to  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  consequence  of  a  request  for  information  made  by  the 
senate,  from  which,  amonjf  other  points,  it  appeared  that  a  reduction  of  33  per  "cent, 
had  been  made  in  the  cost  of  collecting,  as  compared  with  the  expense  under  his 
predecessor.     [Executive  document  no,  01,  46th  congress,  3d  session,  p.  ^.] 

»  Resolutions  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  at  its  montlily  meeting, 
June  a,  iSSi. 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  17 


would  still  be  open  to  the  charge  of  favoritism),  it  is  practically  im- 
possible to  become  sufficiently  acquainted  with  applicants  at  the 
outset  to  determine  as  to  the  wisdom  of  their  appointment.  The 
present  rules  have  at  least  one  merit,  —  that  the  tests,  whether  the 
best  that  can  be  devised  or  not,  are  fair,  and  absolutely  impartial. 
Rules,  however,  to  have  the  fullest  measure  of  respect  should  apply 
to  all  branches  of  the  civil  service  under  similar  conditions.  Per- 
manency of  tenure  is  an  important  consideration,  if  the  employd  is 
of  proved  competency  and  trustworthiness." 

His  successor,  Mr.  Robertson,  in  some  remarks  made  to 
a  committee  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  a 
few  days  after  assuming  control,  said  :  — 

"  I  shall  continue  to  pursue  the  policy  adopted  by  my  predecessor 
in  making  appointments  to  the  customs  service.  The  usual  com- 
petitive examinations  will  be  held.  My  predecessor  bequeathed  me 
a  legacy  of  names  of  candidates  for  examination  and  appointment 
which  will  last  for  a  long  time.'" 

Nor  is  the  experience  in  the  New  York  Post  Office  of  less 
interest.  The  need  of  efficient  and  intelligent  administrat/on 
was  no  less  urgent.  When  Mr.  James  was  appointed  post- 
master, in  1S73,  '^  Hundreds  of  long-negtected^^i^  of  mail 
were  found  scattered  or  piled  in  various  parts  of  the  post- 
office."  "  For  policemen  to  bring  in  drunken  carriers,  to 
empty  their  pockets  of  mail  before  taking  them  to  station- 
houses,  was  among  the  incidents  of  post-office  experience  at 
New  York."  These  details  sound  more  like  the  brilliant 
absurdities  of  opera  boufle  than  plain  narration  of  fact;  but 
they  a're  stated  on  good  authority.  (Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet, 
p.  71.)  "  Those  in  the  postal  service,"  he  adds,  ''were 
nearly  all  active  partisans  and  henchmen  of  great  poltiicians." 
Fortunately  Mr.  James  was  one  of  the  comparatively  few 
men  who  have  a  native  talent  for  organization  and  adminis- 

1  In  the  letter  oi  President  H:iyes  to  Mr.  Eaton,  Dec.  3,  iSSo,  calling  for  a 
report  on  the  observance  of  the  civil-service  rules,  he  stated  that,  besides  describing 
their  operation  in  New  York,  it  would  be  well  to  notice  also  "the  more  recent  and 
less  complete  experiments  in  the  direction  of  enforcin'^  those  rules  :it  Boston  and 
Phil:ulcij)hia."  Although,  in  the  limited  time  at  his  disposal,  Mr.  Eaton  was  pre- 
vent! d  Irom  givin-^  his  attention  to  the  othccs  at  cither  of  the  two  latter  places, 
Collector  Beard,  of  the  Boston  custom-house,  has  published  in  the  Boston  yournal 
of  Auyfust  6,  iSSi,  a  statement  of  the  work  of  his  office  durinsj  18S0.  He  states  "  that 
the  appointments  have  nearly  all  been  to  the  minor  grades  of  the  service.  The  pro- 
motioiis  have  been  because  of  merit  as  exhibited  in  competitive  service,  and  upon 
the  recommendations  of  superior  officers.  .  ,  .  The  collector  is  responsible  for 
the  efficiency  and  good  conduct  of  liis  office,  and  believes  that  removals  should  only 
be  made  for  sufficient  cause,  and  appointments  to  the  customs  service  should  be  made 
on  business  principles." 


18  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

tration.  Few  phenomena  are  so  interesting  as  the  process, 
alkided  to  on  another  page,  by  which,  without  any  civil- 
service  rules  to  begin  with,  a  true  civil-service  reform  wa& 
developed  in  this  office  almost  in  the  order  of  nature,  —  a 
striking  testimony  to  the  firm  basis  of  truth  and  common- 
sense  underlying  it. 

"  He  thought,"  says  Mr.  Eaton,  "he  could  best  serve  his 
country  and  his  party  by  thoroughly  performing  his  duty  as 
postmaster."     A  writer  in  Scribner's^  in  1878,  remarked  :  — 

"Under  Mr.  James's  administration  a  system  of  genuine  civil 
service  has  grown  up.  He  has  steadily  resisted  the  demands  of 
politicians  that  good  clerks  shall  be  removed  on  account  of  their 
lack  of  efficiency  in  ward  politics.  It  is  said  to  be  a  beautiful  sight 
to  see  him  send  for  a  superintendent  and  ask  what  kind  of  a  man 
the  clerk  is,  in  the  presence  of  the  '  statesmen  '  of  the  assembly 
district  who  are  urging  his  removal.  A  good  report  from  the 
superintendent,  and  a  polite  'You  see,  gentlemen,  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  remove  him,'  ends  it." —  ("  The  New^  York  Post  Office,"  by 
Edward  Eggleston,  Scribner's,  May,  1878,  v.  16,  p.  76.) 

Mr.  James  found  the  pass-examinations  which  he  at  first 
established  "  not  calculated  to  meet  the  growing  require- 
ments of  the  situation,"  as  he  himself  states  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Eaton  (Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet,  p.  73)  ;  and  accordingly, 
after  consultation  with  other  officers  of  the  government,  de- 
cided to  cooperate  with  President  Hayes  in  establishing  open 
competitive  examinations  at  the  New  York  Post  Office. 
After  six  months'  trial,  he  stated  in  his  report  to  the  presi- 
dent, Nov.  8,  1879,  "  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the 
results  have  been  salutary  in  a  marked  degree,  and  that, 
from  my  experience  so  far,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  general 
application  of  similar  rules  could  not  fail  to  be  of  decided 
benefit  to  the  service."  (Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet,  p.  74.) 
The  statistics  of  this  office  also  are  instructive.  The  cost  of 
administration  is  less  by  $20,000  than  five  years  ago,  yet 
the  business  of  the  office  has  increased  fully  one-third  during 
that  time. 

"  It  is  not  merely  that  mails  a  third  larger  and  more  numerous 
have  been  handled  at  less  cost,  but  collections  and  deliveries  have 
been  made  more  frequent  and  certain.  As  against  five  daily  deliveries 
under  his  predecessor,  Mr.  James  now  makes  seven;  and  where 
there  were  only  ten  collections  below  Canal  street  there  are  now 
nineteen.      Nor   is   this  the   most   important ;   an   office    so   lately 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  19 


disreputable  for  its  scandals,  inefficiency,  and  corruption  has  become 
the  pride  of  those  who  serve  it,  and  an  honor  to  republican  adminis- 
tration throughout  the  Union.  ...  It  has  become  the  model 
post-office  of  the  country,  and  imparted  a  higher  ambition  to  every 
worthy  postmaster." 

"It  has  won  such  strength  with  the  community  that  a  senate, 
which  had  not  voted  a  dollar  in  aid  of  the  reform  through  which 
such  results  have  been  possible,  has  twice  hastened  to  confirm  Mr. 
James  without  a  dissenting  vote.  And  yet  there  are  thousands  of 
partisans,  zealous  for  the  party  to  which  the  postmaster  belongs,  — 
to  say  nothing  of  other  thousands  too  ignorant  or  prejudiced  to  form 
any  "judgment  on  the  matter, — who  affect  to  sneer  at  the  very 
methods  through  which  such  results  have  been  possible.  Just  as, 
ten  years  ago,  they  thought  the  postal  service  of  the  city  as 
good  as  it  need  be,  they  now  think  it  the  most  complete  in  the 
world;  when,  in  fact,  it  is  yet  behind  that  of  London  and  other 
English  cities,  where  the  standard  is  higher,  the  competitive 
methods  have  been  much  longer  in  practice,  and  appropriations  are 
more  adequate.  The  daily  deliveries  in  London,  for  example,  are 
twelve  in  some  parts  and  eleven  in  other  parts  as  against  seven  in 
the  most  favored  portion  of  New  York."' 

And  yet  a  writer,  who  seems  very  much  in  earnest,  has 
mentioned,  as  one  of  his  objections  to  civil-service  re- 
form, ''the  claim  that '  the  business  of  the  government  should 
be  done  on  business  principles.'  This  is  generally  understood 
to  mean  obtaining  the  most  work  for  the  least  money." 
And,  after  expressing  his  disapproval  of  this  claim,  he  passes 
on  to  mention  what  he  considers  would  "  more  probably 
secure  an  efficient  service."^  But  this  is  a  free  country, 
where  every  man  is  entitled  to  his  own  opinion,  however 
peculiar. 

Nor  is  this  the  extent  of  our  experience  in  the  practical 
working  of  the  principle.  The  accession  of  Gen.  Garfield 
to  the  presidency  in  March  of  the  present  year  was  made 
the  occasion  of  the  transfer  of  Mr.  James,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  become  thoroughly  identified  with  the  reformed 
administration  of  the  New  York  Post  Office,  to  a  position 
in  the  national  cabinet,  as  postmaster-general  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  few  cabinet  appointments 
were  ever  so  heartily  and  universally  endorsed  by  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  country.  Tiie  circumstance,  also, 
is  not  without  its  significance  as  marking  a  distinct  advance 

iMr.  Eaton's  piimphlct,  p.  75-76. 

^North  American  Reviezv,  April,  iSSi,  v.  133,  pp.  314,  319. 


20  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

in  national  ideas  of  administration.  Cabinet  officers  have 
frequently  been  selected  heretofore  on  the  ground  of  being 
distinguished  men,  able  legislators,  far-seeing  statesmen,  or 
sagacious  diplomatists,  but  never  before  on  the  ground  of 
conspicuously  competent  administration,  as  in  this  instance. 
Even  the  selection  of  Mr.  Schurz  as  a  member  of  Mr. 
Hayes's  cabinet,  which  proved  in  the  end  to  have  secured 
an  exceptionally  able  administrator,  was  made  before  he  had 
actually  had  experience  in  similar  service.  The  expecta- 
tions which  Mr.  James's  appointment  encouraged  have  not 
been  disappointed,  and  his  administration  has  been  a  signal 
example,  not  less  striking  than  that  of  Mr.  Schurz,  of  what 
a  department  may  be  made  under  the  loile  of  intelligent 
principles.  A  saving  of  nearly  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  was  made  within  the  first  three  months,  in 
the  Star  route  and  steamboat  mail  service,  and  with  the 
energetic  and  determined  measures  which  have  since  then 
been  pushed,  for  the  summary  abatement  of  the  Star  route 
abuses,  the  public  is  happily  familiar. 

As  would  naturally  be  supposed,  the  experience  of  Mr. 
James  with  competitive  examinations  in  the  New  York  Post 
Office  has  led  him  to  believe  them  practicable  in  the  Post- 
office  Department,  and  accordingly  we  find  him  stating,  a  few 
months  ago,  that  he  has  "been  considering  two  schemes  to 
reform  the  "  service.  The  tragic  event  which  has  since  then 
occupied  the  minds  and  attention  of  all  has  delayed  their 
execution,  but,  should  he  continue  to  fill  this  position,  their 
ultimate  adoption  is  reasonably  certain. 

That  some  of  the  other  departments  of  the  government 
have  not  before  this  set  in  operation  the  same  system  is  due 
to  the  national  calamity  just  referred  to.  Secretary  Windom, 
beginning  with  no  intimate  acquaintance  with  civil-service 
reform,  has  passed  through  some  such  an  experience  as  Mr. 
James  in  the  New  York  Post  Otiice.  The  overwhelming 
pressure  of  ofiice-seekers,  fitly  compared  by  Mr.  Curtis,  in 
his  Saratoga  address,  to  Niagara,  has,  by  sheer  force  of 
circumstances,  made  him  a  '"civil-service  reformer."  Said 
Mr.  Curtis,  in  answering  the  question  why  the  fittest  ap- 
pointments are  not  now  made  by  officers  of  the  government, 
without  the  interposition  of  civil-service  reform  methods :  — 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  21 

"  For  the  same  reason  that  a  leaf  goes  over  Niagara.  It  is  because 
the  opposing  forces  are  overpowering."  A  high  officer  of  the  gov- 
ernment "  said  to  me,  as  we  drove  upon  the  heights  of  Washington  : 
'  Do  you  mean  that  I  ought  not  to  appoint  my  subordinates,  for 
whoni  lam  responsible.'"  I  answered:  'I  mean  that  you  do  not 
appoint  them  now;  I  mean  that  if,  when  we  return  to  the  capital, 
you  hear  that  your  chief  subordinate  is  dead,  you  will  not  appoint 
his  successor.  You  will  have  to  choose  among  the  men  urged 
upon  you  by  certain  powerful  politicians.  Undoubtedly  you  ought 
to  appoint  the  man  whom  you  believe  to  be  the  most  fit.  But  you 
do  not  and  cannot.  If  you  could  or  did  appoint  such  men  only, 
and  that  were  the  rule  of  your  department  and  of  the  service,  there 
would  be  no  need  of  reform.'  And  he  could  not  deny  it.  There 
was  no  law  to  prevent  his  selection  of  the  best  man.  Indeed,  the 
law  assumed  that  he  would  do  it.  The  constitution  intended  that 
he  should  do  it.  But  when  I  reminded  him  that  there  were  forces 
beyond  the  law  that  paralyzed  the  intention  of  the  constitution, 
and  which  would  inevitably  compel  him  to  accept  the  choice  of 
Others,  he  said  no  more."  ' 

Much  the  same  experience  convinced  Mr.  Windom, 
at  the  end  of  three  or  four  months,  of  the  necessity  of  such 
provision.  He  ordered  that  ''  all  information  obtainable, 
concerning  such  rules  and  regulations  in  the  departments, 
be  prepared  and  laid  before  him."  An  experienced  observer 
wrote  from  Washington,  in  July,  respecting  this:  ''  Those 
of  his  subordinates,  on  whom  this  duty  was  laid,  were  very 
glad  to  give  bim  all  the  assistance  in  their  power.  As  soon 
as  anvthing  can  be  done,  I  think  we  shall  generally  have 
rules  like  "  (those  of  the  New  York  and  Boston  custom- 
houses) ''  introduced  and  applied  to  all  the  custom-hou.se 
appointments,  and,  probablv,  also  to  the  treasury  department 
itself"  2 

^'  When  the  president  gets  at  work  on  a  civil-service 
scheme,"  said  this  correspondent,  ''  he  will  not  have  any 
more  earnest  helper  than  Secretauy  Windom,  who  may  now 
be  ranked  on  the  side  of  good  government  in  all  its  aspects." 
The  remarks  of  a  newspaper  correspondent  are  not  to  be 
received  as  official  declarations,  of  course  ;  but  are  here  in- 
troduced as  representing  the  cordial  approval  of  the  public 
at  large,  the  press,  and   government  officials,  which   such 


1  Address  of  George  William  Curtis,  before  the  American  Social  Science  Associ. 
ation,  at  Saratoga,  Sent.  8,  iSSi. 

2  ••  E.  H.,"  in  the  Boston  Sunday  Herald,  of  July  17,  iSSi. 


22  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

movements  commanded.  But  Secretary  Windom  is  himself 
on  record  on  this  point,  and  his  own  words  are  worthy  of 
attention  :  — 

'•  I  am  a  good  deal  more  of  a  civil-service  reformer  than  w^hen  I 
entered  the  secretaryship  of  the  Treasury,  three  months  and  a  half 
ago.  In  the  last  one  hundred  days  a  few  thousand  men  in  search 
of  office  have  taken  nine-tenths  of  the  time  of  the  president  and  his 
cabinet  advisers.  This  time  is  due  to  the  fifty  millions  of  people 
rather  than  to  the  office-seekers."  ' 

The  death  of  the  president,  with  the  consequent  with- 
drawal of  Secretary  Windom,  has,  it  is  true,  interfered  with 
the  sequence  of  these  plans ;  but  they  are  none  the  less  in- 
teresting as  marking  the  rise  of  the  reform  sentiment.  In 
the  War  Department  "  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  officers 
are  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  military  education  and  training 
has  excluded  the  spirit  and  many  of  the  evils  of  partisan 
intrigue."  -  In  the  Navy  Department,  regulations  to  govern 
the  appointment  of  civil  engineers  on  civil-service  reform 
principles  have  been  adoi^ted.  The  admirable  and  fearless 
administration  of  the  department  of  justice,  under  Attorney- 
General  MacVeagh,  is  what  might  reasonably  have  been 
expected  of  that  otBcer,  who  had,  before  his  accession  to 
the  cabinet,  an  outspoken  record  on  civil-service  reform. 
As  has  very  truly  been  remarked  :  — 

"Taken  in  connection  with  the  appointment  of  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral James,  the  most  conspicuous  representative  in  the  country  of 
civil-service  reform  reduced  to  practice,  Mr.  MacVeagh's  presence 
in  the  cabinet  was  one  of  the  most  promising  signs  of  the  times." 

In  the  State  Department  the  principle  of  civil-service 
reform  has,  as  is  well  known,  long  been  a  recognized 
feature.  An  order  of  the  president,  dated  March  14, 
1S73,  provided  for  "  examinations  upon  subjects  relative  to 
the  official  service  required,  stated  in  writing."  Among 
other  subjects  inchided  are  international  hiw  and  the  regula- 
tions for  the  consuhu-  service  of  the  United  States.^ 

One  conspicuous  exception  to  these  instances  will  at  once 
occur  to  the  reader,  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  under 

>  Address  at  Lon)ar  Branch,  June  23,  iSSi. 

'  See  '*  CJvil-Scrvicc  Commission  report,"  April  15,  1S74,  p.  45. 

>  Same  rcp<>rt,  p.  39. 


IT    IS    NOT    IMPRACTICABLE.  23 

Secretary  Schurz's  successor.     More  extended  reference  will, 
however,  be  made  to  this  later  on.^ 

It  is  no  slight  consideration  in  favor  of  the  practical  nature 
of  the  reform,  that  it  has  been  subject  to  twelve  years'  careful 
study,  discussion,  trial,  and  criticism.  It  is  by  such  a  pro- 
cess as  this  that  we  come  to  possess  a  knowledge  of  its 
actual  capabilities  and  limitations.  It  is  through  such  a  pro- 
cess as  this  that  the  specific  plan  of  legislation,  now  before 
congress,  has  been  developed  and  shaped. 

1  See  Chapter  6,  p.  39. 


24  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

IT    IS    NOT    UNBUSINESS-LIKE. 

Many  who  are  favorably  inclined  to  civil-service  reform, 
but  "  doubtful  of  the  practical  success  of  the  measures  pro- 
posed," have  questioned  this  ;  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  lead 
one  to  believe  ''  that  in  their  minds  it  is  an  objection  of  great 
weight."  This  is  formidable  until  we  remember  that  if  civil- 
service  reform  means  anything,  it  distinctly  means  this  very 
thing,  the  conducting  of  the  government  on  business  princi- 
ples. Let  us  see :  in  a  successfully  managed  mercantile 
house  a  clerk  or  salesman  is  selected  with  direct  reference 
to  his  possessing  qualifications  suited  to  his  special  duties, 
and  not  from  his  holding  certain  religious  or  political  views. 
Just  this  is  true  of  the  reformed  civil-service.^  Is  it  of  the 
present  spoils  system  ?  In  a  well-conducted  business  estab- 
lishment a  clerk  whose  long  experience  has  made  him  in- 
creasingly efficient  is  not  rotated  out  of  office  to  give  some 
one  else  a  chance,  but  retained  indefinitely  during  good 
behavior.  True  again  of  the  reformed  service,  but  just  the 
opposite  of  the  truth  in  the  spoils  system.^  Again,  in  a  busi- 
ness establishment  such  as  has  been  supposed  merit  is  recog- 
nized, and,  as  a  consequence,  stimulated  and  cultivated.  The 
employ^  nearest  the  foot  of  the  ladder  feels  that  should  a 
vacancy  occur  he  is  in  the  direct  line  of  promotion,  and,  if 
found  efficient,  is  sure  to  rise.  This  suggests  another  effective 
contrast. 

But  are  competitive  examinations  a  feature  of  ordinary 
business  establishments.'*  In  the  earlier  years  of  the  reform 
the  champions  of  the  present  system  were  accustomed  to  be- 
come very  merry  over  this  feature,  and  one  well-known  poli- 
tician, formerly  a  member  of  the  senate,  expressed  himself 
very  strongly  in  disapproval  of  the  fine-spun  theories  of  "  them 

»  Sec  Pendleton  bill,  sect.  3,  rule  6. 

"  See  the  resolution  embodying  this  idea,  passed  at  a  meeting  of  the  Providencfr 
Board  of  Trade,  Sept.  24,  18S1. 


IT    IS    NOT    UXBUSINESS-LIKE.  25 

literary  fellers."  But  the  public  at  large  has  learned,  long 
before  this,  that  the  principle  of  competitive  examinations 
rests  on  no  fanciful  theory,  but  on  sound  experience.  This  i& 
perhaps  best  seen  in  the  case  of  the  New  York  Post  Office, 
which  for  several  years,  under  the  skilful  administration  of 
Mr.  James,  now  postmaster-general,  has  become  almost  a 
synonym  for  excellent  service.  Mr.  James,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  a  recent  government  report,  *'  saw  in  the  first  place 
that  it  would  not  do  to  let  everybody  in  for  whom  a  place  was 
applied  by  some  man  of  prominence  or  influence."  "  He  set 
bis  foot  down  in  the  beginning,  so  far  as  this,  that  no  person 
should  be  admitted  to  a  place  in  the  post-office  "  "''  without  a 
preliminary  examination."^  He  found  that  the  preliminary 
examination"  "did  not  remedy  the  evil;  that,  in  the  first 
place,  as  great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him  in 
regard  to  selecting  the  persons  who  should  submit  to  exam- 
ination ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  he  found  it  very  hard,  with- 
out the  spur  of  competition,  to  make  the  examinations 
thorough.  So  he  has  adopted  the  system  of  competitive  ex- 
aminations."^ 

x\gain,  there  has  been  disapproval  expressed  at  the  alleged 
literary  nature  of  such  an  examination.  Of  what  service  will  it 
be  to  a  man  who  is  to  weigh  sugar  to  be  able  to  read  the  Greek 
drama  in  the  original,  or  to  one  who  superintends  the  mail 
service  in  a  large  city  to  have  his  mind  stored  with  the 
various  grades  and  qualities  of  sugar  .^^  Of  what  service 
indeed  ?  But  if  the  objector  had  inquired,  he  would  have 
found  that  his  apprehensions  were  groundless.  No  such 
absurdities  are  committed.  In  fact,  the  competitive  exami- 
nations are  based  on  a  principle  of  the  highest  importance 
in  practical  business,  —  the  direct  adaptation  of  means  to 
ends.* 

1  "  The  svBtem,"  says  Mr.  James,  "  has  worked  so  well  that  it  would  now  be  im- 
possible  to"  discontinue  it." —  Civil  Service  Record,  No.  5,  Sept.  19,  iSSi.  Sec  also 
pp.  16  of  this  pamphlet. 

2 Senate  report,  no.  S72,  46th  congress,  3d  session;  appendix,  p.  35. 

3  "There  are  certain  kinds  of  intormation  which  every  official  needs:  how  to  rei\d, 
to  write,  to  apply  the  elements  of  arithmetic.  As  we  rise  in  the  j^^rades  of  the  service 
technical  or  f)flicial  information  becomes  indispensable.  This  may  be  peculiar  to  an 
office,  as  in  the  mint,  the  assay  office,  the  postal  service,  tlie  custom  house."  (Mr. 
Eaton's  pamphlet,  p.  55-56.) 

*The  Boston  Advertiser  of  Sept.  17,  iSSi,  pointedly  says:  "There  is  nothing 
more  preposterous  than  this  attempt  to  make  out  that  tiic  issue  is  a  question  of 
•business  qualifications'  versus  competitive  examinations.  There  is  not  a  person 
who  has  given  enough  investigation  either  to  wiiat  is  known  .as  the  spoils  system,  of 


26  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


It  is  instructive  to  notice  that  this  feature  of  competitive 
examinations  was,  when  first  introduced  in  England,  as  much 
of  a  bugbear  as  in  this  country.  Mr.  Eaton,  in  his  volume, 
*' Civil  Service  in  Great  Britain"  (p.  198-99),  states  that, 
"by  some  the  new  system  was  opposed  on  the  ground  that  the 
standard  of  examinations  would  be  fixed  so  high  that  none 
but  learned  pedants  and  college-bred  aristocrats  could  gain 
admission  ;  and  by  others  it  was  opposed  for  exactly  the 
opposite,  that  it  would  be  fixed  so  low  that  gentlemen 
would  be  overslaughed  by  a  band  of  conceited,  impractica- 
ble school-masters  and  book-worms."  ''  Ridicule,"  how- 
over,  he  states  (p.  211),  ''was  soon  turned  against  those 
who  had  laughed."  vStatistics  are  preserved  showing  the 
details  of  these  examinations,  and  Mr.  Eaton  adds  (p.  225), 
^'  as  further  shqwing  in  what  small  ratio  merely  literary  (or 
not  directly  practical)  knowledge  excludes  those  rejected," 
"the  report  for  1S67  shows  that  of  818  rejections  in  that 
year  (from  the  3,038  examined)  805  were  made  by  reason 
of  deficiency  in  knowledge  of  '  subjects  connected  with  the 
practical  worlv  of  the  office,'  or  of  ignorance  in  the  matters 
of  '  reading,  spelling,  arithmetic,  and  handwriting.'  " 

The   adoption   of  competitive   examinations   in   England 

to  the  proposed  reform,  who  does  not  know  that  business  qualifications  are  among 
the  last  things  considered,  when  tliey  are  considered  at  all,  under  that  system.  A 
man  is  neither  appointed  in  the  first  place,  nor  kept  in  the  service  after  his  appoint- 
ment, on  account  of  his  business  qualifications,  unless,  indeed,  these  people  under- 
stand  by  business  qualifications  the  knack  of  making  a  speech,  packing  a  caucus, 
or  carrying  elections  by  arts  which  do  not  bear  close  inspection." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  New  York  post-office  "there  are  competitions  and 
-drilling  in  mechanical  expertness  in  the  making  up,  distribution,  and  stamping  of 
mails,  to  which  the  community  is  much  indebted  for  the  promptness  of  their  recep- 
tion."    (Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet,  n.  74.) 

An  article  in  Scribner's  Afontli/y,  May,  1878,  gives  farther  details  :  "  For  instance, 
the  clerks  who  are  distributing  matter  in  the  mailing  department  were  recently  re- 
quired to  place  correctly  2,200  cards,  containing  the  names  of  all  the  post-offices  in 
Ohio,  in  a  series  of  pigeon-holes,  labelled  with  the  names  of  all  the  counties  in  that 
state.  One  man  succeeded  in  making  the  distribution  in  two  hours  and  twenty 
minutes,  with  only  thirteen  errors.  'Ine  best  man  at  the  New  York  table  was  yet 
more  remarkable.'  He  put  the  whole  2S40  into  their  proper  counties  in  one  hundred 
and  five  minutes,  with  but  a  single  error."  "  In  the  delivery  department,  the  box 
ass<»rters,  whose  wonderful  memory  of  twenty  thousand  names  I  have  described" 
(elsewhere  in  the  article),  "are  tested  by  the  "distribution  of  cards  containing  2,000 
names  of  persons  and  firms  holding  boxes.  A  little  over  a  year  ago,  when  these 
examinations  were  begun,  the  highest  man  on  the  lift  receivedf  a  mark  of  ninety  for 
•correctness,  while  the  lowest  ran  down  to  sixty.  At  the  last  trial  (1S7S)  seven  were 
marked  over  ninety-nine  per  cent,  for  correctness.  The  swiftest  assorted  the  whole" 
*•  in  forty-five  minutes ;  the  slowest  —  a  new  man  perhaps  —  was  more  than  four  times 
as  long.  But  the  very  lowest  of  the  wliolc  twenty-nine  received  sixty-seven  as  the 
percentage  of  correctness  and  expertness,  Sueh  is  the  improvement  wrought  by 
the  stimulus  of  emulation."—  ("The  New  York  Post  Office,"  by  Edward  Eggleston, 
Hcribner'Sf  v.  16,  p.  77-7S.) 


IT    IS    NOT    UNBUSINESS-LIKE.  27 

appears  to  have  been,  to  some  extent,  a  matter  of  theoretical 
poHtical  administration.  The  beauty  of  its  actual  introduc- 
tion in  this  coimtry  as  a  working  measure,  on  the  other 
hand,  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  was,  to  a  large  extent,  a 
perfectly  natural  development  from  the  existing  conditions. 
Neither  Mr.  James,  in  the  New  York  Post  Office,  nor  Mr. 
Windom,  in  the  Treasury  Department,  wanted  these  examina- 
tions. Step  by  step  they  advanced  to  a  consideration  of  their 
value,  and,  in  Mr.  James's  case,  to  actual  trial,  verification, 
and  complete  endorsement.  In  fact,  the  testimony  to  the 
value  of  this  one  feature  of  examinations,  from  the  busi- 
ness element  of  the  country,  is  very  striking,  and  may  well 
be  considered  to  outweigh  the  criticisms  that  the  system  is 
unbusiness-Iike,  made  by  others.  Let  us  hear  what  the  gen- 
tleman who  has  now  succeeded  to  the  presidency  had  to 
say  of  them,  when  acting  as  collector  at  the  New  York  cus- 
tom-house ;  and  no  one,  we  think,  will  consider  the  collector 
of  that  day  as  especially  prejudiced  in  favor  of  civil-service 
reform,  to  say  the  least.  He  remarked,  in  a  report  to  the 
president:  ^  — 

"No  one  in  any  degree  acquainted  with  the  necessities  of  the  cus- 
toms service  can  doubt  the  propriety  of  some  kind  of  an  examina- 
tion for  admission  to  it.  This  obvious  necessity  has,  for  many 
years,  been  recognized  by  requiring  an  examination  ;  but  it  had, 
prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  new  rules,  become,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, formal  and  perfunctory.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  in- 
creased strictness  required  by  tlie  new  system  has,  in  this  respect, 
been  beneficial." 

His  successor,  Mr.  Merritt,  who,  while  entering  upon  his 
duties  with  some  misgivings  as  to  these  provisions,  has  gone 
the  farthest  in  enforcing  them,  says  of  them  that  tliey 
have,  in  large  measure,  served  the  purpose  intended. 
Mr.  James,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  almost  driven 
to  the  competitive  examinations,  in  his  report  to  President 
Hayes,  Nov.  S,  1879,  declares:  '"I  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  the  results  have  been  salutary  in  a  marked 
degree,  and  that,  from  my  experience  so  far,  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  general  application  of  similar  rules  could  not  fail 
to   be   of  decided  .  benefit  to   the    service."     (Mr.    Eaton's 

1  Quoted  in  ••  Civil-Service  Commission  Report,"  Apr.  15,  1S74,  p.  53. 


28  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

pamphlet,  p.  74.)^  It  is  also  of  importance  to  know  how 
these  measures  were  regarded  by  the  constituency  of  these 
officers,  the  great  business  community  of  New  York  city. 
Mr.  Merritt  says,  in  a  report  to  President  Hayes,  in  No- 
vember, 1S79:  "The  examinations  liave  been  attended  by 
many  citizens,  who  had  an  opportunity  to  thoroughly  in- 
vestigate the  scope  and  character  of  the  tests  and  the  methods 
of  determining  the  results,  and  those  visitors  have,  without 
exception,  approved  the  methods  employed,  and  several  of 
them  have  publicly  attested  their  favorable  opinion." - 

The  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  resolved,  June  2, 
18S1,  that  "The  system  of  competitive  examination  has 
been  of  substantial  value  to  the  mercantile  community,  and 
is,  in  their  eyes,  of  great  importance."  On  the  acceptance 
by  Mr.  James  of  the  position  of  postmaster-general  his 
position  as  postmaster  of  New  York  was  filled  by  the 
appointment  of  his  assistant  postmaster,  Mr.  Pearson.^  In 
this  connection  it  is  stated  very  significantly  :  "  The  demand 
in  this  city  for  his  appointment  was  spontaneous,  decisive,  and 
general  beyond  all  precedent.  It  was  irrespective  of  all  party 
lines."  "Never  before  did  public  opinion  in  New  York 
designate  a  postmaster.  Now  it  has  dictated  his  appoint- 
ment." "  His  name  was  little  known  to  the  public.  But 
this  they  knew,  that  Mr.  Pearson  had  helped  to  take  the 
post-office  out  of  partisan  politics  ;  that  he  had  been  identified 
with  the  examinations  which  had  brought  in  worthy  clerks." 
(Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet,  p.  103.) 

Again,  every  merchant  or  business  man  knows  that  while 
an  examination  is  useful  so  far  as  it  goes,  it  does  not  tell  you 
all  you  want  to  i;now  about  an  applicant.  But  let  the  new- 
comer work  under  the  eye  of  the  superintendent,  and  show 
his  practical  abilities  in  every-day  experiences,  and  you  can 

»  Mr.  James  .ilso  snys  :  •*  II  is  my  deliberate  judgment  that  I  and  every  subordi- 
nate can  do  more  for  the  party  of  our  choice  by  tifivins?  the  people  of  this  city  a  good 
and  cflicicnt  |xjstai  service  than  by  controlling  primaries  or  dictating  nominations." 

"  .MacPherson's  "  Hand-book,"  iSSo,  p.  lo. 

*  From  the  following  newspaper  paragraph  it  appears  that  the  same  methods  are 
to  l>c  employed  ;  — 

•'  Postmaster  Pearson,  of  New  York,  announces  that  he  intends  to  make  no  new 
appointments.  He  will  promote  members  of  the  existing  staff  in  the  post-otlice,  and 
each  of  the  successive  vacancies  will  be  filled  l\v  a  promotion  from  the  rank  below. 
This  is  a  practical  reform  of  one  branch  of  the  civil  service,  and  all  acknowledge  its 
benefits.  Why  not  apply  it  to  the  custom-houses  of  the  country?  Is  there  any  reason 
why  post-ofHces  bhouid  be  out  of  politics  and  custom-houses  in  politics?"—  Boston 
Transcript. 


IT    IS    NOT    UNBUSINESS-LIKE.  29 

tell  better  at  the  end  of  six  months  "whether  that  boy 
will  do."  It  is  precisely  this  principle  which  underlies  the 
fourth  rule  of  section  2  of  the  Pendleton  bill :  '•'  There 
shall  be  a  period  of  probation  before  any  absolute  appoint- 
ment or  employment  aforesaid."  The  examinations  are  by 
no  means  the  whole  of  the  system.^  They  represent  one 
phase  of  the  plan,  but  one  only,  and  are  most  appropriately 
complemented  with  this  other  proviso,  founded  on  simple, 
common-sense  principles,  which  commend  themselves 
readily  to  any  business  man.  *^  The  fact  that  it  will  be 
applied,"  says  Mr.  Eaton  (speaking  of  its  operation  in  Eng- 
land), "  generally  keeps  away  those  young  men  who  know, 
or  whose  friends  know,  they  have  no  practical  qualities  for 
business."- 

1  "  Of  two  individuals  who  might  present  themselves  for  such  a  place,  any  dis- 
creet  person  would  say  that,  while  they  might  have  the  same  mental  qualifications, 
and  might  be  able  to  answer  the  questions,  one  as  well  as  the  other,  yet  one  might 
be  well  fitted  for  the  service  in  every  way,  and  another  would  fail  in  it.  And  the 
government  will  get  its  service  best  in  the  same  way  that  the  bank  officer  gets  his 
clerks.  While  he  in  some  way  ascertains  whether  they  have  the  proper  mental  quali- 
fications,  he  goes  further  than 'that,  and  examines  the  men  personally  to  see  whether 
thev  are  likely  to  be  men  wlio,  in  all  their  characteristics,  will  suit."  —  Coug'ressman 
Robinson,  oj  Afassachusetis,  in  Boston  Advertiser,  July  xo,  iSSi. 

Tlie  following  from  Mr.  Morritt's  report,  of  last  February,  is  very  suggestive : 
*' An  important,  and  indeed  indispensable,  feature  in  the  system  is  the  rule  that  all 
appointments  of  successful  candidates  shall  be  made  at  first  for  a  probationary  term 
of  six  months  only,  at  the  end  of  which  period  the  examining  board  shall  report 
their  conduct  and  efficiency  during  tlie  term,  and  if  the  report  is  not  satisfactory  the 
employcmnt  ceases ;  but  it  satisfactory  a  reappointment  is  made.  This  probationary 
term  is  a  practical  corrective  of  any  defects  in  the  examinations  as  a  test  of  the  quali- 
fication and  efficiency  of  those  nominated  for  appointment.  Only  four  appointees 
have  been  dropped  at  the  end  of  the  probationary  term."     (Report,  p.  7.) 

*  "  Civil  service  in  Great  Britain,"  p.  i6S. 


30  THE    CIVII.-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IT    IS    NOT    INDEFINITE. 

But  it  is  claimed  that  it  lacks  definiteness ;  that  there  is 
no  agreement,  even  among  '•  reformers,"  as  to  what  specific 
plan  to  adopt.  All  of  this  was  very  true  ten  years  ago  ;  but 
the  constant  discussion  of  the  past  few  years  has  made  many 
points  familiar,  has  settled  some,  and  rendered  others 
clearer  ;  so  that  we  have  in  the  bill  now  pending  in  congress  ^ 
a  measure,  perfected  by  the  experience  and  discoveries  of 
fourteen  years,  and  which  practically  expresses  the  common 
sentiment  of  citizens  generally.  It  would  be  a  matter  of 
surprise  to  observe  how  closely  the  provisions  of  this  bill 
correspond  with  what  most  men  have  gradually  come  to 
agree  upon.  Yet  the  most  significant  reason  for  its  ready 
acceptance  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  distinctly  represents  the 
very  features  we  have  just  been  discussing,  namely,  the 
"  practical  "  and  the  "  business-like  ;"  for,  according  to  a 
source  justly  regarded  as  high  authority  on  this  matter,-  it 
"  is  simply  the  legal  embodiment  of  the  system  already  tested 
in  several  offices  in  Washington  and  in  the  New  York 
custom-house.  As  it  has  been  and  is  now  in  actual  opera- 
tion, there  is  no  longer  any  doubt  of  its  practicability,  and 
the  results  of  its  working  have  been  such  as  to  settle  the 
question  of  its  usefulness.  Mr.  Pendleton's  bill  is  designed 
to  perpetuate  it  and  to  give  it  a  more  general  application."" 
It  may  therefore  not  improperly  be  regarded  as  a  growth  of 

»  Senate  bill  2006,  aCtli  conf^ress,  3d  session,  "  A  bill  to  regulate  and  improve  the 
civil  service  of  the  IJnitcd  States."  This  bill  was  reported  to  the  Senate,  Feb.  16,. 
18S1,  by  a  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Pendleton  of  Ohio,  was  chairman,  and  was 
ordcrcti  printed.  It  has  been  issued  as  Senate  report  no.  872,  46th  congress,  3d 
session.    The  text  of  the  bill  will  be  found  in  the  appendix. 

•'This  bill,  carefully  prepared  by  an  association  of  gentlemen  representing  both 
parties,  and,  after  a  thorough  discussion,  approved  by  a  committee  of  the  senate,. 
also  composed  of  members  of  both  parlies,  was  reported  to  the  senate  by  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton last  February,  accompanied  by  an  al)le  report,  with  the  approbation  of  every 
member  of  the  comniiltec  who  attended  its  meetings,  including  members  of  both 
parties."     (Mr.  Eaton,  in  tiie  North  American  Review,  June,  1S81,  v.  \xi,  p.  cci.) 

»rA*A^o/io«,  Aug.  iS,  iSSi,p.  ia6.  J  .  h  as    ; 


IT    IS    NOT    INDEFINITE.  31 

legislative  enactment,  from  the  actual  facts,  rather  than  an 
artificially  created  provision.  The  bill  is  by  no  means  the  first 
and  only  legislation  offered  ;  but  this  is  no  place  in  which  to 
give  a  detailed  history  of  the  eftbrts  of  the  past  fourteen 
years. ^  It  will,  however,  be  of  service  to  examine  the  bill, 
point  by  point,  and  see  what  its  essential  features  are,  and 
wherein  it  marks  an  advance. 

It  consists  of  seven  sections,  and  in  point  of  brevity,  con- 
ciseness, and  directness,  it  is  a  noticeable  improvement  over 
the  many  similar  bills  which  have  preceded  it.-  As  we 
have  already  seen,  the  principle  on  which  this  legislation  is 
founded  is  that  '•  There  can  be  neither  patronage,  nor  ^ 
fiivoritism  in  making  appointments,  promotions,  or  removals.^ 
Proceeding,  therefore,  on  the  abundantly  ascertained  principle 
that  the  preeminently  fairest  method  of  acting  impartially 
is  by  a  system  of  examinations,  the  bill  provides  such  a 
system.  (Sect.  2,  part  2,  rule  i.)  The  whole  of  part 
2,  of  section  2,  is  devoted  to  prescribing  the  details  of 
this  plan.  The  remainder  of  section  2  relates  to  the 
organization  of  the  commission  which  is  to  act  as  the 
medium  through  which  "  to  inform  the  conscience  of  the 
appointing  power,"  to  use  the  language  of  the  United  States 
Attorney-General's  decision  of  1873.^  Sections  3,  4,  and  5 
provide  for  various  necessary  details  of  executing  the  system, 
and  securing  improved  results  over  those  of  previous  bills, 
in  the  extension  of  the  system  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
capital  of  the  country  ;  in  making  specific  provision  for  the 
use  , of  buildings  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country  for  the 
purposes  of  examinations;  and  in  making  the  tampering- 
with  these  tests  of  merit  a  criminal  oflence.  Section  6  pro- 
vides for  the  necessary  arrangement  of  the  various  officers  in 
groups  and  graded  classes,  for  the  ])urpose  of  promotion  ; 
and  here  the  organizing  talent  of  Mr.  James  has  clearly  been 
made   available.     The  final   section,  evidently  the  outcome 

^  For  references  to  these  efforts  at  legislation  see  the  writer's  pamphlet,  entitled 
•*  The  literature  of  civil  service  reform  in  tlie  United  States,"  p.  9-12. 

2  The  1st  section  establishes  the  "  Civil-service  com  mission  ;"  the  2d  prescribes 
its  duties;  the  3d  appoints  a  ♦' chief  examiner ; "  the  4th  provides  for  necessary- 
expenditure  ;  the  5th  guards  against  abuse  of  authority ;  the  6th  provides  for  classified 
grades  of  offices ;  the  7th  prescribes  date  of  operation,  and  discriminates  between 
this  and  certain  former  legislation. 

3  Mr.  Eaton's  pamphlet,  p,  40. 

*  ••  Official  opinions  of  the  attorneys-general,"  v.  13,  p.  524. 


32  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

of  some  careful  study  of  conflicting  legislation,  sharply 
descriminatcs  between  the  provisions  of  this  bill  and  those 
of  several  earlier  enactments,  and  fixes  the  date  at  which  it 
shall  take  effect.  The  official  organization  to  which  the 
bill  commits  the  execution  of  the  plan  is  worthy  of  attention, 
and  diiVers  essentially  not  only  from  that  of  the  act  of  1871, 
now  in  force,  but  from  that  of  each  one  of  the  six  bills  in- 
troduced by  Mr.  Jenckes  (1867-71)  ;  and  from  that  of  the 
English  civil-service  commission.  The  Jenckes  bills  provided 
for  a  board  of  three  (or,  in  some  cases,  four)  commissioners. 
The  act  of  1871^  commits  the  matter  solely  to  the  charge 
of  three  officers  in  each  department.  By  the  Pendleton 
bill  "  two  shall  be  experienced  officers  in  the  publicservice 
in  Washington,  but  not  in  the  same  department ;"  but  the 
other  three  "shall  hold  no  other  official  place  under  the 
United  States"  (Sect,  i),  the  latter  provision  securing  the 
undivided  service  and  attention  of  at  least  a  portion  of  the 
board  to  the  single  purpose  of  executing  these  rules.  Other 
features  peculiar  to  this  bill  are  the  selection  of  these 
commissioners  from  different  parties,  "  in  order  to  be  as 
far  as  possible  removed  from  partisan  influences  ;"  the  fix- 
ing of  a  secure  tenure  for  their  (/.c  ,  the  commissioners) 
holding  the  position,  and  a  specific  declaration  as  to  what 
their  duties  are  ;  the  act  of  1871  having  left  this  matter  too 
largely  to  inference.  As  regards  the  nine  fundamental  rules 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  "original  entrance  to  the  public 
service  "  "  shall  be  at  the  lowest  grade  ; ''  that  "  promotions 
shall  be  from  the  lower  grades  to  the  higher,  on  the  basis  of 
merit  and  competition."  Also  that  "  there  shall  be  a  period 
of  probation  before  any  absolute  appointment  or  employ- 
ment aforesaid."  Two  other  provisions  are  also  in  the 
direction  of  cleaner  politics,  namely  :  "That  no  person  in 
the  public  service  is  for  tlrat  reason  under  any  obligation  to 
contribute  to  any  political  fimd,  or  to  render  any  political 
service,  and  thai  he  will  not  be  removed  or  otherwise  preju- 
diced for  refusing  to  do  so," ^  and  "  that  no  person  in  said 


'  "  Revised  statutes,"  sect.  1753. 

=  A  bill  was  introduced  at  the  last  session  of  congress,  by  Mr.  Willis,  of  Ken. 
tucky,  entitled  :  **  A  bill  to  prevent  extortion  from  persons  in  the  public  service,  and 
bribery  and  coercion  by  such  persons."  For  the  text  of  this  bill,  see  Civil  Service 
Record,  no.  5,  Se;>t,  19,  iSSi. 


IT    IS    NOT    INDEFINITE.  33 


service  has  any  right  to  use  his  official  authority  or  influence 
to  coerce  the  political  action  of  an}'  person  or  body." 

It  should  be  noticed,  also,  that  the  proposed  legislation  is 
noteworthy  for  what  it  does  not  prescribe  as  well  as  for  what 
it  specifically  covers.  Three  points  in  particular  deserve 
attention.  First,  it  is  subversive  to  the  slightest  degree 
possible  of  the  legislation  of  1871,  its  aim  being  avowedly  to 
supplement  and  complement  what  has  been  found  of  service 
in  that  act.^  Second,  it  prescribes  nothing  concerning  the 
"  higher  officers  "  whol  sustain  relations  of  personal  confi- 
dence, judicial  officers,  and  a  few  others,  too  miscellaneous  to 
be  classified.^  Third,  it  is  silent  as  regards  tenure  of  office. 
Leaving  the  first  of  these  points  to  be  treated  more  fully 
under  another  head,^  let  us  examine  the  other  two.  In  thus 
leaving,  as  it  does,  the  '•  higher  officers  of  the  government," 
this  simply  follows  the  example  of  all  previous  bills,  and 
selects  for  the  scope  of  its  operation  the  "subordinate 
officers  and  the  clerks  by  which  the  federal  administra- 
tion is  carried  on,"  embracing  the  employes  of  the  seven 
executive  departments  at  Washington,  and  the  larger  custom- 
houses and  post-offices  throughout  the  country. "*  It  will  be 
observed  that  in  the  consideration  already  given  to  the 
practical  operation  of  the  reform,  the  instances  were  almost 
solely  in  the  Washington  and  New  York  offices.  In  the 
former  city  the  whole  number  of  clerks  is  considerably 
above  five  thousand,  and  in  the  latter  about  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred.  "  These,"  remarks  the  Civil-Service 
Commission  report  of  1S74  (p.  33),  "are  the  places,  under 
the  rules  of  competition,  about'whijh  the  great  struggle  for 
patronage  goes  on  and  the  great  abuses  gather."  A  sweep- 
ing change  of  this  entire  body  is  not  now  universally  be- 
lieved to  be  a  necessary  condition  of  popular  government. 

'*  A  party  is  merely  a  voluntary  association  of  citizens"  (says  Mr. 
Curtis,  in  his  Saratoga  address),  "  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  a 
certain  policy  of  administration,  upon  which  they  are  agreed.     In  a 

iThis  act  (the  lefjislation  of  1S71)  "will  remain  in  force  so  far  as  consistent 
with  the  bill."  — Pendleton  report,  p.  12. 

'  •'Civil-Service  Commission  report,"  Apr.  15,  1S74,  p.  33. 

8  See  Chapter  7. 

*Tiie  language  of  the  Pendleton  bill  prescribes  (Sectioft6)  that  its  provisions 
may  extend  to  those  custom-houses  and  post-offices  •'  where  the  whole  number  of 
said  clerks  and  persons  shall  be  altogether  as  many  as  fifty."  Of  tliese  offices  tliere 
are  about  forty  in  the  United  States. 


34  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

free  government  this  is  done  by  the  election  of  legislators  and  of 
certain  executive  officers  who  are  friendly  to  that  policy.  But  the 
duty  of  the  great  body  of  persons  employed  in  the  minor  adminis- 
trative places  is  in  no  sense  political.  It  is  wholly  ministerial,  and 
the  political  opinions  of  such  persons  no  more  affect  the  discharge 
of  their  duties  than  their  religious  views  or  their  literary  prefer- 
ences. All  that  can  be  justly  required  of  such  persons,  in  the  interest 
of  the  public  business,  is  honesty,  intelligence,  capacity,  industry, 
and  due  subordination ;  and  to  say  that  when  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment is  changed  by  the  result  of  an  election  from  protection  to 
free  trade,  every  book-keeper  and  letter-carrier,  and  messenger  and 
porter,  in  the  public  offices  ought  to  be  a  free-trader,  is  as  wise  as  to 
say  that  if  a  merchant  is  a  Bapiist,  every  clerk  in  his  office  ought  ta 
be  a  believer  in  total  immersion." 

Yet  no  one  professes  to  believe  that  this  is  the  only  group 
of  positions  at  the  disposal  of  the  government.  How  is  it^ 
to  take  only  one  for  instance,  as  regards  the  great  number 
of  consular  appointments  .^^^ 

Speaking  of  the  dissatisfaction  of  American  merchants  in 
China  w^ith  our  consular  system,  a  writer  who  is  personally 
familiar  with  the  facts  says  :  "  They  contrast,  for  instance, 
that  of  Great  Britain,  which  makes  the  service  so  honorable 
and  attractive  that  entrance  thereto  is  eagerly  sought  by  an 
excellent  class  of  specially  fitted  men.  .  .  .  This  vsystem 
they  contrast  with  one  which  makes  it  possible  to  send  a 
man  to  perform  commercial,  judicial,  and  almost  diplomatic 
functions  among  an  ancient,  formal,  oriental  people,  because 
he  has  been  an  efficient  'worker'  in  the  primaries  of  Osh- 
kosh  or  Yuba  Dam.  .  .  .  Yet  our  system  does  not  save 
us  money,  for  satisfactory  establishments  at  the  leading  ports, 
where  alone  they  are  needed,  would  cost  less  than  the 
present  aggregate.  .  .  .  Our  consular  system  is  some- 
thing '  to  make  the  very  gods  of  solemnity  laugh.'  "^ 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  anything  to  this  presenta- 
tion of  abuses,  with  which  the  public  is  only  too  familiar, 
except  to  remember  the  preposterous  fact  that  the  contempt- 
ible and  half-balanced  wretch  who  murdered  the  late  presi- 
dent was  an  applicant  for  one  of  these  j^ositions.  All  this  is 
true,    and  a  '' reformer "  who  had  given  the  subject  some 

>  The  offices  to  which  the  legislative  provisions  of  1871  (and  those  of  the  Pendle- 
ton bill  also)  do  not  apply, arc  enumerated  in  its  13th  rule.  See,  also,  "Civil  Service 
Commission  report,"  187^,  p.  32. 

«  Eaton's  ••  Civil  service  in  Great  Britain,"  p.  440,  where  the  language  is  quoted 
from  the  Jnternatioturl  Revirw^  Apr.,  1S79,  p.  357-59. 


1 


IT    IS    NOT    INDEFINITE.  35 

earnest  attention,  but  not  an  exhaustive  study,  —  nay,  we  may 
almost  say,  one  who  had  not  been  practically  and  intimately 
concerned  with  the  constructive  work  of  executing  and  for- 
mulating reformed  methods,  —  would,  we  think,  be  inclined 
to  call  at  once  for  the  immediate  abatement  of  these  abuses 
by  legislation,  as  well  as  the  others.  It  shows,  as  we  believe, 
the  cautious,  moderate,  and  reasonable  spirit  in  which  the 
reform  has  been  approached  by  the  framers  of  this  bill,  that 
they  have  left,  for  the  present,  this  group  of  offices,  which 
are  compassed  with  more  practical  difficulties  as  regards 
legislation,  and  "  apparently  with  a  view  to  the  most 
ample  experience  before  its  general  enforcement,"^  have 
limited  the  proposed  system  to  the  group  above  indicated.^ 

As  regards  tenure  of  office,  a  writer  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Review^  April,  1881  (v.  132,  p.  312),  soberly  declares 
that  one  of  "  the  significant  provisions  of  the  bill"  is  "the 
tenure  to  be  for  life,  and  removal  only  for  cause ; "  a 
statement  so  extraordinarily  far  from  the  truth  that  it  is 
charitable  to  suppose  he  had  never  read  the  bill  itself.^  The 
fact  that  similar  statements  have  been  widely  repeated 
renders  it  important  that  the  provisions  of  the  bill  should  be 
intelligently  examined.  The  bill  does  not  even  refer  to 
tenure  of  office  except  in  section  2,  part  2,  rule  6,  which 
provides  the  officer  '^  will  not  be  removed  or  othei^wise 
prejudiced  for  refusing  to  do  so"  (/.c,  to  engage  in  party 
work  or  pay  party  assessments).  Having  ascertained  what 
the  bill  docs  actually  provide,  we  may  go  farther,  and 
ask  whether  it  ought  to  provide  more. 

This  feature  of  the  reform,  tenure  of  office,  has  received 
extended  discussion,'*  and  as  a  result  of  the  careful  attention 

1  North  American  Review,  v.  132,  p.  555. 

2  Senator  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  who  has  been  an  intelligent  observer  of  the 
reform  movement  during-  the  past  fourteen  years,  says:  "Do  we  not  endeavor  to 
cover  too  much  ijround  m  our  discussions  of  tliis  subject,  and  in  that  waydilTuse, 
scatter,  and  diner,  rather  than  concentrate  upon  one  thing-,  and,  accomplishiny- 
that,  move  on  to  the  next  ?  Civil-service  reform  proposes  to  reach  die  best  possible 
civil  service  by  bringing  about  many  changes,  all  necessaiy,  but  having  an  orikr  of 
precedence  and  different  degrees  of  importance."  —  Letter  to  the  Sprin^Jield  Re- 
publicati,  dated  July  19,  iSSi. 

»  A  writer  in  the  same  periodical  suggests  that  this  mis-statement  resulted  from 
information  "  confined  to  the  contents  of  a  telegraphic  despatch  found  floating  in 
the  newspapers"  (v.  132,  p.  549). 

*  See  Mr.  Eaton's  article,  "A  new  phase  of  the  reform  movement."  —  iVbr/A 


American  Review,  ]xine,  iSSi,  v.  13a,  p.  546-5S. 
Also  his  article,  "  Tenure  of  oflice."  —  Lippin 
Also  his  remarks  on  this  subject  in  his  volume,  *'  Civil  service  in  Great  Britain," 


Also  his  article,  "  Tenure  of  oflice."  —  LippincotVs^  June,  18S1,  v.  27,  p.  5S0--92. 
Also  hi 
p.  368-69. 


36  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

given  it  by  Mr.  Eaton,  who  certainly  has  not  had  inferior 
opportunities  for  observing  the  practical  workings  of  such  a 
provision,  is  thus  stated :  "'  The  true  rule  is  to  fix  the  term 
of  office  with  stern  and  sole  reference  to  the  most  beneficial 
doing  of  the  public  work."^  In  another  discussion  of  the 
subject,  the  same  waiter  says  :  "  Morally  and  legally  there 
is  now  no  right  to  remove  without  good  cause."  ^'  There  is 
also  now  a  plain  duty  to  remove  for  good  cause."  Should 
the  proposed  legislation  make  any  specific  provision,  it  would 
either  establish  a  life  tenure  or  one  lasting  for  a  specified 
number  of  years.  The  former  is  objectionable  as  leaving 
the  government  powerless  to  remove  abuses  if  they  originate, 
and  the  latter  as  directly  stimulating  rotation  in  office,  on  the 
theory  elsewhere  examined,^  of  giving  every  citizen  a  chance 
to  hold  office.  This  is  strikingly  characterized  by  Mr. 
Eaton*  as  "  a  change  for  the  sake  of  a  change,  —  a  theory 
that  could  not  bring  about  the  justice  to  which  it  appeals, 
even  if  official  tenure  was  for  only  a  single  day." 

Mr.  Charles  Gibbons,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Church 
Congress,  at  Providence,  R.I.,  Oct.  25,  1881,  touched  upon 
a  kindred  difficulty  :  — 

"  The  merit  system  alone  cannot  bring  that  relief  to  members  of 
congress  and  the  president  which  is  so  necessary  to  the  public  wel- 
fare. There  seems  to  stand  in  the  way  of  that  an  act  of  congress 
passed  in  1820,  which  limits  the  term  of  certain  offices  to  four  years. 
Officers  now  commissioned  for  four  years  only  are  judges  of  terri- 
torial courts,  assistant  treasurers,  principal  officers  of  customs  and 
internal  revenue,  governors  and  secretaries  of  territories,  land 
officers,  Indian  agents,  pension  agents,  postmasters  of  the  first, 
second,  and  third  classes,  district  attorneys  and  marshals,  numbering, 
perhaps,  many  thousands. 

"  Solongas  thisactof  iS2oand  others  like  it  remain  upon  the  statute 
book,  so  long  must  the  president  and  members  of  congress  be 
harassed  by  hordes  of  their  political  partisans,  demanding  positions 
which  the  laws  open  for  them,  and  which  they  know  may  be  filled  by 
new  appointments  if  the  president  chooses  to  make  them.  If  the 
law  operated  as  a  restraint  upon  the  power  of  removal,  there  might 
be  some  value  in  it;  but  it  does  not.  It  cannot;  because  the  power 
is  the  gift  of  the  constitution,  and  cannot  be  taken  away  by  an  act  of 
congress.  Mr.  Webster  said  of  it,  '  The  law  itself  vacates"' the  office, 
and  gives  the  means  of  rewarding  a  friend  without  the  exercise  of 

*  North  American  Reinexv,  June,  iSSi,  v.  132,  p.  55S. 
s  LippincotVs,  v.  27,  p.  584. 

*  Sec  p.  0. 

*  "Civil  service  in  Great  Britain,"  p.  395. 


IT    IS    NOT    INDEFINITE. 


the  power  of  removal  at  all.  Here  is  increased  power  with  diminished 
responsibility.  Here  is  a  still  greater  dependence  for  the  means  of 
living,  on  executive  favor,  and,  of  course,  a  new  dominion  acquired 
over  opinion  and  over  conduct.' '  It  was  admitted  in  the  debate  that 
the  law  had  wrought  more  harm  than  good,  and  the  senate  by  a  vote 
of  31  to  16  passed  a  bill  for  its  repeal.  It  was  at  the  close  of  the 
session,  and  the  bill  never  reached  the  other  house." 

Most  persons,  we  believe,  who  have  followed  Mr.  Eaton's 
line  of  tiiought,  will  admit  with  him  (1)  that  indiscriminate 
and  partisan  removals  are  an  evil  of  such  magnitude  as  to  re- 
quire the  interposition  of  some  guard  ;  (2)  that  the  removal, 
together  with  the  appointment,  is  most  wisely  ordered  by 
freeing  it  from  all  connection  with  personal  favoritism  by 
the  employment  of  the  competitive  examinations,  and  from 
all  connection  with  party  considerations  by  the  6th  rule, 
above  quoted;^  (3)  that  an  administration  of  the  office  on 
business  principles  implies  and  comprehends  all  the  other 
considerations  which  require  to  be  observed. 

In  thus  stating  the  provisions  of  this  bill,  and  representing 
the  present  phase  of  opinion  on  the  subject,  let  us  not  be  un- 
derstood as  insisting  on  this  or  that  system  as  alone  entitled  to 
be  called  "  civil-service  reform,"  any  variation  from  which  is 
to  be  treated  as  heresy.  Such  a  narrow  and  unscientific  view  is 
unfitting  the  discussion  of  any  political  principle,  least  of  all 
of  one  which  is  so  essentially  grounded  on  reasonableness  and 
fitness.  That  extensive  difi'erence  of  opinion  exists  as  to  more 
than  one  of  the  provisions  of  this  bill  is  to  be  expected,  and 
it  would  be  strange,  indeed,  were  the  case  otherwise.  Yet, 
in  answer  to  the  objection  of  indefiniteness  which  may  be 
brought  against  the  reform,  its  framers,  we  believe,  are 
justified  in  adducing  this  much  in  favor  of  this  specific  bill : 
First,  it  represents  more  than  any  other  the  result  of  experi- 
ence in  practical  administration,  it  being,  as  has  already  been 
shown,  "'simply  the  embodiment  of  the  actual  experience 
at  the  New  York  offices  and  the  Washington  departments," 
in  legal  form.^  Second,  it,  more  than  any  other,  represents 
the  careful  study  of  the  most  efficient  methods  of  legislative 
enactment,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  what  the  relation  of 
any  proposed  legislation  should  be  to  acts  already  in  force 

1  Speech  on  the  appointing  power,  Feb.  16,  1835,  in  his  "  Works,"  v.  4,  p.  iSa, 
»  See  p.  30. 
8  See  p.  3S. 


38  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM   MOVEMENT. 

and  to  the  administrative  details.  Third,  no  other  has  re- 
ceived so  wide-spread  formal  endorsement  and  recognition 
from  the  public  at  large,  from  the  press,  and  from  the  various 
civil-service  reform  organizations  of  the  country.^  The 
sentiment,  not  only  of  the  press,  but  of  the  public,  is  well 
expressed  b}'  the  New  Tork  Evening  Post.^  as  follows  :  — 

"Among  those  who  have  made  the  condition  and  need  of  the 
civil  service  a  subject  of  earnest  study  there  is  scarcely  any  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  the  desirableness  of  the  passage  of  such  a  law." 

1  The  latter  have  in  most  instances  passed  formal  votes  of  approval,  as  separate 
organizations ;  but  besides  this,  at  the  "  Conference  of  the  civil-service  reform  asso> 
ciations  of  tlie  United  States,"  held  at  Newport,  R.I.,  Aug.  ii,  iSSi,  it  was 
unanimously 

'^  Jiesolved,  That  the  bill  introduced  in  the  senate  by  Mr.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio, 
provides  a  constitutional,  practicable,  and  eftective  measure  for  the  remedy  of  the 
abuse  known  as  the  spoils  system,  and  that  the  associations  represented  in  this  con- 
ference will  use  every  honorable  means,  in  the  press,  on  the  platform,  and  by  petition, 
to  secure  its  passage  by  congress." 

a  Aug.  12,  iSSi. 


1 


IT    IS    NOT    UNNECESSARY.  39 


CHAPTER  VI. 

IT   IS   NOT   UNNECESSARY. 

It  being  the  case,  as  has  Just  been  stnted,  that  a  desirable 
and  practicable  system  "  has  been  and  is  now  in  actual 
^operation,"  the  question  is  a  natural  one.  Why  is  any  legis- 
lation needed?  Is  not  the  reform  movement  unnecessary? 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  is  a  consideration  of  the 
highest  importance  ;  since  one  of  the  obstacles  to  progress  in 
any  country  is  unnecessary  legislation.  But  let  us  see.  If 
no  legislation  be  needed,  one  of  two  things  is  true.  Either 
the  executive  alone  is  sufficient  for  the  establishment  and 
perpetuation  of  the  reform,  or  the  legislative  department 
alone.  What  do  we  find  with  regard  to  the  executive? 
Under  President  Grant  an  attempt  at  reform  was  made. 
"  The  adverse  pressure,"  says  Mr.  Curtis,  was  tremendous. 
"I  am  used  to  pressure,"  said  the  soldier.  So  he  was,  but 
not  to  this  pressure.  In  a  message  dated  Dec.  19,  1871,  he 
Bays,  "I  ask  for  all  the  strength  which  congress  can  give 
me  to  enable  me  to  carry  out  the  reforms  in  the  civil  ser- 
vice."—  (Macpherson's  "  Hand-book,"  1873,  p.  31.)  — And 
President  Grant's  testimony,  in  his  message  of  Dec.  7,  1S74, 
is  noteworthy  and  significant :  "  If  congress  adjourns  without 
positive  legislation  on  the  subject  of  civil-service  reform,  I 
will  regard  such  action  as  a  disapproval  of  the  system,  and 
will  abandon  it."  —  (Macpherson's  "  Hand-book,"  1876,  p. 

54-) 

President  Hayes  came  to  the  presidential  chair  with  the 

undoubted  advantage  of  having  placed  himself  on  record  in 
his  letter  of  acceptance  —  (See  Macpherson's  "  Hand-book," 
1876,  p.  212)  — with  unusual  directness  and  emphasis,  declar- 
ing that  "'  the  reform  should  be  thorough,  radical,  and  com- 
plete." Under  his  administration  genuine  advance  was  made, 
for  which  the  country  is  sincerely  grateful ;  yet  we  find  him, 
an  his  third  annual  message,  Dec.  i,  1S79,  speaking  (Mac- 


40  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM   MOVEMENT. 

pherson's  ''  Hand-book,"  1880,  p.  9)  of  the  "  many  embar- 
rassments "  under  which  the  reform  hc-^^  been  conducted. 

President  Garfield,  in  the  course  of  a  public  life  devoted  ta 
the  careful  study  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  government, 
and  after  having  declared  that  "  To  reform  this  service  is 
one  of  the  highest  and  most  imperative  duties  of  statesman- 
ship " — {Atlantic  Monthly, ]u\y^  i877,v.  40,  p.  61) — asked, 
in  that  part  of  his  letter  of  acceptance  touching  the  civil 
service,  that  '^  congress  should  devise  a  method  that  will 
greatly  reduce  the  uncertainty  which  makes  that  service  so 
unsatisfactory."^ — (Macpherson's  "Hand-book,"  1880,  p. 
193.)  — And  is  not  the  brief  four  months'  experience  which 
this  perhaps  best  equipped  of  all  our  presidents  had  with 
the  office-seeking  torrent  which  discharged  itself  upon  him,^ 
in  itself  the  most  significant  commentary  on  the  power- 
lessness  of  the  executive  to  accomplish  the  reform  single- 
handed?^  And,  though  the  appointment  of  government 
officers  is  the  constitutional  duty  of  the  president,^  it  was 
never  intended,  to  use  the  language  of  Mr.  Eaton  in  a 
recent  letter,  that  "  the  whole  burthen  and  effort  of 
reform"  should  be  put '' upon  his  shoulders,  leaving  sena- 
tors and  representatives  at  liberty,  as  before,  to  promise 
appointments  for  votes  and  to  torment  the  president 
daily  because  his  doctrinaire  policy,  his  competition  and 
his  rules,  —  as  they  have  been  called,  —  would  not  allow 
their  cousins,  their  favorites,  and  other  henchmen,  to  step 
into  the  places  they  might  seek,  and  for  which  they  are 
pushed.  The  people  have  a  right  to  claim,  and  they  will 
insist — as  duty  and  justice  require  —  that  senators  and 
representatives,  as  well  as  presidents  and  heads  of  depart- 
ments, shall  from  the  beginning  share  in  the  responsibility 
if  not  in  the  work."  —  (Letter  in  the  Springfield  Republi- 
can of  Oct.  7,  1 88 1.) 

Supposing,  however,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  that 

lAnd  in  his  inaupfural  address  he  declares  that  "The  civil  service  can  never  be 
placed  on  a  satisfactory  basis  until  it  is  regulated  by  law." 

2 So  obvious  was  this  that  a  daily  newspaper  (the  Boston  Herald),  in  somewhat 
strikinj?  languaure,  callod  attention 'to  the  spectacle  of  "a  president  whose  instincts 
are  believed  to  be  honest,  and  whose  intellij^ence  is  unquestioned,"  who  is  so  power- 
fully acted  on  that  ••  he  feels  the  need  of  fixed  laws  to  keep  him  from  going  astray 
from  the  paths  of  virtue." 

The  lan^uaj^c  is  perhaps  unjust,  but  it  serves  to  show  the  urgency  of  the  case. 
•  See  chapter  3. 


IT    IS    NOT    UNNECESSARY.  4l» 

some  one  president  had  succeeded  in  accomplishing  the- 
reform.  So  long  as  he  remains  in  office,  well  and  good  ; 
but  the  expiration  of  his  term  installs  in  his  place  a  successor 
who  may  or  may  not  share  his  own  deep  sense  of  its  im- 
portance, and  the  reform  is  seen  to  be  ephemeral.^  No. 
In  order  to  guarantee  its  permanence,  it  must  not  merely 
represent  the  convictions  of  some  one  man,  but  must  have 
its  foundations  laid  deep  in  well-considered  and  far-reaching 
legislation.-     Says  Mr.  Curtis,  in  his  Saratoga  address":  — 

"  In  this  country  law  is  only  formulated  public  opinion.  Reform 
of  the  civil  service  does  not  contemplate  an  invasion  of  the  consti- 
tutional prerogative  of  the  president  or  the  senate,  nor  does  it  pro- 
pose to  change  the  constitution  by  statute.  The  whole  system  of 
the  civil  service  proceeds,  as  I  said,  from  the  president,  and  the  ob- 
ject of  the  reform  movement  is  to  enable  him  to  fulfil  the  intention 
of  the  constitution  by  revealing  to  him  the  desire  of  the  country 
through  the  action  of  its  authorized  representatives.  When  the 
ground-swell  of  public^  opinion  lifts  congress  from  the  rocks,  the 
president  will  gladly  float  with  it  into  the  deep  water  of  wise  and 
patriotic  action." 

But  let  us  ihterrogate  the  other  branch  of  the  government, 
the  legislative. 

V 

1  General  Garfield,  in  his  letter  of  acceptance,  bore  emphatic  testimony  to  the  fact 
that  congress  should  "co-operate  with  the  executive  denartments  in  placing  the 
civil  service  on  a  better  basis.  Experience  has  proved  that  with  our  frequent 
changes  of  administration  no  system  of  reform  can  be  made  effective  and  perma- 
nent without  the  aid  of  legislation."  —  Macpherson's  "  Hand-book,"  iSSo,  p.  193. 

2  In  the  hearing  before  the  Pendleton  committee  at  Washington,  last  January,  the 
question  was  asked  :  "  If  the  executive  branch  of  the  government  would  take  its  own 
adiAinistration  of  public  affairs  into  its  own  h.inds,"  and  administer  them  with  the 
courage  of  such  convictions  as  yt>u  have,  is  there  any  need  of  legislation  at  all?" 

•—  [Senate  report,  no.  S72,  46th  congress,  3d  session,  p.  43.] 

While  the  answer  to  this  is  obvious,  bearing  in  mind  the  constitutional  declaration,, 
it  remains  that  no  president  will  in  fact  do  this  under  existing  circumstances.  The 
pressure  is  too  great. 

sThe  same  is  true,  not  only  of  the  fiict  that  one  president  may  be  succeeded  by 
another  who  will  not  carry  out  his  work,  but  also  o(  heads  of  departments.  A 
notable  instance  is  that  of  the  Interior  Department,  which,  under  Secretary  Cox  and. 
Secretarv  Schurz,  had  been  attaining  a  liigh  degree  of  efficiency. 

"Mr. 'Kirkvood"  (to  quote  from  tlie  The  Nation  of  May  5,  iSSi,  p.  307-308)^ 
•'when  he  carne  into  office,  found  the  new  plan  at  work  there,  and  thoroughly  suc- 
cessful after  four  years' trial.  But  he  was  old;  it  was  novel  to  him;  he  had  never 
seen  it  or  heard  of  it  •  in  politics  ; '  it  seemed  '  visionary  '  .and  •  literary ;  '  so,  without 
examining  its  operations  for  one  week  even,  he  abolished  it  and  went  back  to  the 
old,  corrupt,  demoralizing,  dishonest,  embezzling  system  of  allowing  congressmen 
to  fill  the  |)laces  with  their  henchmen  as  a  means  of  paying  their  political  debts.  He 
soon  plunged  the  department  into  confusion,  found  himself  overwhelmed  with  office- 
seekers,  and  is  to-day  a  sadder  and  wiser  man." 

It  may  be  added  that  the  levying  of  political  assessments  (which  the  Willis  bill,, 
already  alluded  to,  seeks  to  abate)  needs  no  less  the  specific  legislation  sought^ 
The  extent  to  which  this  abuse  still  flourishes  even  in  the.New  York  Custom  House- 
and  Post  Office  is  a  striking  confirmation  of  the  fact. 


42  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

When  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  1872, 
Mr.  Garfield  said  {^Congressional  Globe^  Apr.  19,  1872,  p. 
2583),  ''Individual  members  of  congress  are  no  longer 
wholly  responsible  for  this  state  of  things,  for  they  are  also 
pressed  by  their  political  friends  for  help  which,  it  is  under- 
stood, they  are  able  to  render.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  any 
man  in  public  life  to  escape  this  pressure."  Senator  Dawes, 
•of  Massachusetts,  in  a  letter  to  the  Springfield  Republican^ 
dated  July  19,  1881,  says;  "No  one  can  altogether  escape 
responsibility  for  the  existing  state  of  things.  The  presi- 
dent has  encouraged  it,  if  not  directly,  certainly  by  recog- 
nizing and  yielding  to  it."  Congressman  Robinson,  of  the 
same  state,  says  (see  Boston  Advertiser^  July  30,  1881)  : 
'*  I  have  no  question  at  all  that  members  of  congress  would 
welcome  any  change  that  would  relieve  them  from  partici- 
pating in  this  matter." 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  neither  of  the  two  departments 
has  felt  equal  to  the  responsibility  of  acting  alone  in  this 
matter.  But,  it  may  be  asked,  have  not  matters  improved 
.since  some  of  these  declarations  were  written }  Few  will 
urge  that  the  legislation  of  1871  is  sufficient  and  adequate, 
after  examining  the  repeated  appeals  in  the  annual  mes- 
sage of  every  president  since  that  year,  and  of  the  other 
government  officers  friendly  to  reform,  for  farther  legisla- 
tion.^ In  that  act,  particular  methods,  since  seen  to  be  well- 
nigh  essential,  were  not  specifically  prescribed,  and  thus 
obstruction  was  made  possible.  But  it  may  be  supposed 
that, since  the  competitive  examinations,  as  conducted  at 
New  York  and  elsewhere,  have  proved  themselves  so  abun- 
dantly eflective,  they  may  be  extended  to  the  other  offices 
without  legislation.  On  this  point  a  recent  statement  of 
Mr.  Eaton  sheds  important  light,  and  shows  that  it  is  not 
to  be  expected  :  — 

"The  self-sacrificing  labors  ofa  few  men  of  rare  ability,  patriotism, 
and  experience,  whose  earnestness  in  the  cause  went  beyond  words, 
scorning  alike  the  sarcasms  of  chieftains  and  high  officials,  alone 
made  such  results  possible.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that  their 
patriotic  labors  will  be  indefinitely  continued.  Such  men  are  not 
likely  to  be  found  in  every  place  where  examinations  will  be  needed. 
A  great  nation  has  no  right  to  ask  that  private  citizens  as  a  charity, 

»  See  McPherson's  ••  Hand-book  of  Politics." 


IT    IS    NOT    UNNECESSARY.  43 

and  the  more  self-sacrificing  and  devoted  of  its  salaried  subordinates 
working  beyond  office  hours,  —  as  have  been  the  facts  in  the  cases  to 
which  the  learned  senator  has  referred,  —  shall  carry  on  a  great  na- 
tional reform  unaided  —  unrecognized  even — by  the  national  con- 
gress, in  order  that  its  members  may  not  have  to  perform  a  plain 
public  duty  at  a  time  when,  perchance,  it  might  not  be  agreeable."  — 
[Letter  in  Springfield  Republican^  Oct.  7,  1881.] 

The  fact  that  the  president  has  an  undoubted  right  to  ask 
the  opinion  of  a  senator  in  the  matter  of  an  appointment, 
where  he  is  certain  that  a  candidate  unknown  to  him  is  per- 
sonally known  to  the  senator,  is  not  to  be  confused  with  an 
obligation  to  do  so.^  In  the  early  days  of  the  republic,  with 
the  constitutional  provision  fresh  in  the  public  mind,  the 
matter  came  before  President  Washington^  for  action,  and 
was  promptly  settled  by  him. 

'*  In  1794  it  was  rumored  that  President  Washington  contemplated 
appointing  Alexander  Hamilton  to  be  minister  to  England.  Mr. 
Monroe,  who  was  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  senate,  was  opposed 
to  this  appointment,  and  wrote  to  the  president,  asking  that  he  be 
granted  a  personal  interview  in  regard  to  the  matter.  President 
Washington,  with  a  wisdom  and  foresight  that  is  wonderful,  saw 
instantly  the  danger  of  establishing  such  a  precedent."  He  refused 
to  grant  the  interview,  and,  on  the  9th  of  April,  1794,  wrote  as  fol- 
lows to  Monroe  :  "  If  you  are  possessed  of  any  facts  or  information 
which  would  disqualify  Col.  Hamilton  for  the  mission  to  which  you 
refer,"  I  request  "  that  you  would  be  so  obliging  as  to  communicate 
them  to  me  in  writing.  .  .  .  As  I  alone  am  responsible  for  a 
proper  nomination,  it  certainly  behoves  me  to  name  such  a  one  as, 
in  my  judgment,  combines  the  requisites  for  a  mission  so  peculiarly 
interesting  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  this  country."  =^ 

For  a  time,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  the  effect  of  this  un- 
mistakable deliverance  from  the  executive,  which  must  have 
cooled  the  air  like  a  thunder-shower,  was  to  put  an  end  to 
any  tendency  towards  the  usurpation  of  executive  powers  by 
-congress.     Insidiously,  however,  it  has  gradually  made  itself 

'  A  legitimate  and  constitutional  view  of  the  matter  is  that  which,  according  to 
the  tcstinionv  of  Congressman  Stone,  "  Senator  Edmunds  of  Vermont  is  said  to  per- 
mit to  himself.  His  reputed  rule  of  action  is  to  take  no  notice  of  matters  of  execu- 
tive appointment,  unless  the  appointing  power  requests  his  advice  in  regard  to  a 
pending  appointment."  — ^o.v^om  Advertiser,  July  30,  18S1. 

2  For  striking  facts  connected  with  this  circumstance  and  others  collected  by 
Mr  John  Jay,  and  furnished  to  the  Ncvj  York  Tribune,  see  its  issue  of  June  12,  iSSi. 

For  a  valuable  study  of  the  course  the  practice  has  taken,  see  the  article  by  Sen- 
ator G.  F.  Hoar,  of  Massachusetts,  on  "The  appointing  power,"  North  American 
Revievj,  Nov.,  iSSi,  v.  133,  p.  46^-76. 

8  "Writings  of  George  Washington,"  v.  10,  p.  399-400. 


44  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

a  recognized  precedent  under  the  name  of  the  ''  courtesy 
of  the  senate  ; "  ^  and  the  advent  of  the  civil-service  reform 
discussion,  fourteen  years  ago,  found  it  not  only  securely  in- 
trenched, but  a  most  formidable  obstacle  to  any  such  reform. 
It  is  of  no  little  interest  now  to  notice  that,  in  1872,  Gen. 
Garfield,  then  a  member  of  congress,  brought  the  force  of 
his  commanding  intellect  and  profound  knowledge  of  politi- 
cal history  and  development  to  bear  upon  this  very  matter  in 
a  characteristically  able  and  convincing  argument.^  In  the 
light  of  this  fact,  it  is  not  a  matter  of  wonder  that,  on  be- 
coming president,  he  should,  in  the  still  unforgotten  contest 
of  last  spring  over  the  New  York  collectorship  nomination, 
have  given  the  ''courtesy  of  the  senate"  its  most  telling 
blow.  Whatever  we  may  think  as  to  the  justifiable  nature  of 
this  struggle,  it  was  eftective.^  It  is  in  the  light  of  this 
earlier  position  of  his  also  that  a  passage  in  General  Garfield's 
letter  of  acceptance,  which  has,  we  think,  been  somewhat 
misconstrued,  should  be  understood  :  — 


1  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  one  of  the  most  extreme  statements  of  this  per- 
verted view  should  come  from  Gen.  Grant.  He  said,  June  12,  18S1  :  "  When  the  presi- 
dent makes  an  appointment  in  any  state,  and  it  fails  to  elicit  the  approval  of  the  two 
senators  from  that  state,  the  matter  should  end  there,  and  the  nomination  be  re- 

ected.  If  the  Republican  senators  from  any  other  state  object  to  any  nomination, 
the  rest  of  the  party  is  expected  to  support  them  in  the  matter  without  exception. 
The  same  is,  of  course,  true  of  the  Democrats."  —  Providence  Star,  June  15,  1S81. 

2  Congressional  Globe,  April  19,  1S72,  p.  2583. 

See  also  his  languag^e  in  the  magazine  article  elsewhere  referred  to :  — 
"The  evil  Jias  been  greatly  aggravated  by  the  passage  of  the  tenure  of  office  act 
of  1S67,  whose  object  was  to  restrain  President  Johnson  from  making  removals  for 

f)oiitical  cause.  But  it  has  virtually  resulted  in  the  usurpation  by  the  senate  of  a 
arge  share  of  the  appointing  power.  The  president  can  remove  no  officer  without 
the  consent  of  the  senate;  and  such  consent  is  not  often  given,  unless  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  successor  nominated  to  fill  the  proposed  vacancy  is  agreeable  to  the 
senator  in  whose  state  the  appointee  resides.  Thus,  it  has  happened  that  a,  policy 
inaugurated  by  an  early  president  has  resulted  in  seriously  crippling  the  just  powers 
of  the  executive,  and  has  placed  in  the  hands  of  senators  and  representatives  a 
power  most  corrupting  and  dangerous." 

"  I  affirm  that  this  present  custom  is  an  apostasy  from  the  original  policy  of  the 
government, —  an  apostasy  alarming  in  its  character,  —  and  that  the  chief  reason 
why  a  reform  in  the  civil  service  is  required  is  that  the  three  powers,  or  particularly 
the  two  powers  of  the  government,  the  legislative  and  the  executive,  may  be  restored 
to  their  independence,  may  be  left  uniwed  and  uninfluenced  by  the  "pressure  of 
personal  dictation  and  control."  — ^//rt«//c  Monthly,  July,  1S77,  v.  40,  p.  61. 

3  The  theory  as  to  his  action  in  this  matter,  suggested  by  a  recent  correspondent 
of  The  Nation,  deserves  consideration ;  but  it  should  be  reihembered  tliatthis  can,  at 
best,  be  only  a  matter  of  speculation.  The  correspondent  says  :  '•  Thoro'ughness  in 
the  mastery  of  every  situation  in  which  he  was  placed  was  a  leading  trait."  —  "Are 
we  not  to  believe  that  he  made  himself  master  of  that  situation  in  which  he  found 
himself  placed  with  reference  to  the  spoils  system  when  he  came  to  be  president?  "  — 
"  In  His  secret  purpose,  Uiinking  his  way  along,  with  light  dawning  on  him  as  he 
went,  independent  of  popular  criticism,"  "  he  cleared  the  way  of  the  most  formidable 
obstacle  to  civil-service  reform."  —  ••  In  doing  so,  he  took  the  risk  of  not  being  under- 
stood  in  case  of  failure;  but  he  risked  his  reputation  for  the  sake  of  the  people."  — 
The  Nation,  Oct.  13,  1S81,  p.  293. 


IT    IS    NOT    UNNECESSARY.  45 

"To  select  wisely  from  our  vast  population  those  who  are  best 
fitted  for  the  many  offices  to  be  filled,  requires  an  acquaintance  far 
beyond  the  range  of  any  one  man.  The  executive  should,  therefore, 
seek  and  receive  the  information  and  assistance  of  those  whose 
knowledge  of  the  communities  in  which  the  duties  are  to  be  per- 
formed best  qualifies  them  to  aid  in  making  the  wisest  choice."  ^ 

He  by  no  means  recognized  in  this  declaration  the  right 
of  congress  to  invade  his  prerogative.  Indeed,  in  another 
part  of  the  letter,  he  expressly  disclaims  that  very  thing. 
Nevertheless,  what  was  the  case  on  his  accession  to  office  .-* 
His  time  was  seized  upon  and  monopolized  by  applicants 
for  office  and  members  of  the  government,  engaged  in  press- 
ing the  claims  of  candidates.     The  Nation  says  :  — 

*'  It  was  not  work  imposed  on  him  by  the  constitution  or  the  laws. 
It  contributed  nothing  to  the  improvement  of  the  administration 
or  of  any  other  public  intei^est.  It  did  not  tend  to  promote  the 
public  welfare  in  any  manner  whatever." 

"  Now,  in  what  did  this  work  consist?  What  was  it?  Simply  the 
work  of  listening  to  arguments  in  favor  of  giving  some  hundreds  of 
small  offices,  which  were  not  vacant,  to  a  few  thousand  insignificant 
and  obscure  persons  who  had  discovered  that  they  were  unable  to 
make  a  decent  livelihood  in  any  of  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  active 
American  life.  It  was  to  this  class —  one  of  the  least  important  and 
least  worthy  of  the  community  —  that  he  made  the  tremendous 
sacrifice  of  health  and  strength  to  which  all  the  newspapers  called 
attention  during  his  first  four  months  of  office." 

It  is,  then,  one  reason,  and  by  no  means  an  unimportant 
one,  why  the  jwoposed  reform  is  "  not  unnecessary;"  that 
'*  congress,"  to  use  the  recent  language  of  a  newspaper 
writer,  ''  is  part  of  the  thing  to  be  reformed  ;"  and  the  meas- 
ures need  to  receive,  by  this  legislation,  "that  essential 
strength  and  stability  which  only  the  approval  of  congress 
can  impart." ' 

J  McPlicrson's  •' Hand-book,"  iSSo,  p.  193. 
>  "  Report  of  Pendleton  committee,"  p.  13. 


46  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IT    IS    NOT    DESTRUCTIVE. 

An  intelligent  and  acute  observer  in  writing  on  the  subject 
of  government,  ten  years  ago/  called  needed  attention  to  the 
extent  to  which  the  well-being  of  the  people  may  be  made 
to  depend  upon  "  improvement,"  in  the  matters  alluded  to^ 
more  "  than  even  in  what  are  called  great  reforms." 

There  is  much  truth  and  sound  sense  in  this  observation, 
and  one  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  most  intelligent 
support  which  the  present  movement  has.  Destructive 
legislation,  while  it  may  have  a  glamour  for  unthinking 
minds,  has  never  commended  itself  to  the  intelligence  of 
English-speaking  people,  either  in  this  country  or  Great 
Britain,  fit  is  for  this  reason  that  a  plain,  moderate,  business- 
like measure,  like  the  one  now  urged,  has  to  meet  the 
criticism  not  only  of  those  to  whom  such  measures  are  not  at  all 
welcome,  but  also  of  those  who  demand  some  more  striking^ 
perhaps  revolutionary  step.  It  is,  however,  fortunate  that 
only  a  small  minority  is  represented  by  "the  impatient 
reformer  who  troubles  himself  with  nothing  short  of  some 
grand  enactment  sweeping  the  whole  field  at  once,  and  pass- 
ing into  history  under  some  great  name,  as  celebrated  English 
statutes  do,  all-comprehensive  and  all-powerful  for  regener- 
ation and  reformation."  (Letter  of  Senator  Dawes,  to  the 
Springfield  Re fubllcan^  dated  July  37,  1881.)  There  are 
several  reasons  why  the  movement  is  to  be  regarded  as  con- 
structive rather  than  destructive,  and  as  comprehending  the 
various  elements  which  go  to  make  a  stable  and  well-balanced 
enactment.  And,  first,  it  does  not  leave  out  of  consideration 
the  historical  experience  ;  for  a  plan  of  constructing  systems 
of  government  which  should  leave  out  of  account  the  teach- 
ings of  history  would  be  short-sighted  indeed.  The  sugges- 
tive writer  just  quoted,  remarks  in  another  place,  "  History  is 

1  ••Thoughts  upon  government,"  by  Sir  Arthur  Helps.   (Am.  ed.,  p.  v-vi.) 


IT    IS   NOT    DESTRUCTIVE.  4T 

the  chart  and  compass  for  national  endeavor.  Our  early 
voyagers  are  dead;  "were  it  not  for  the  history  of  these 
voyages  contained  in  "  hoarded  lore  of  all  kinds,  each 
voyager,  though  he  were  to  start  with  all  the  aids  of 
advanced  civilization  (if  you  could  imagine  such  a  thing 
without  history),  would  need  the  boldness  of  the  first 
voyager."  ^ 

Other  nations  have  had  similar  abuses  to  remove, 
have  grappled  with  them,  and  have  risen  above  them. 
The  present  German  empire  owes  its  efficient  admin- 
istration to  the  fact  that  in  the  early  part  of  the  century 
Baron  Stein  "  secured  the  gratitude,  and,  in  large  measure, 
the  greatness  of  his  country,  by  three  great  measures- 
of  administrative  reform,"  —  among  them,  that  of  the 
*'  constitution  of  the  supreme  administrative  depart- 
ments." ^  Competitive  examinations  are  in  force  in  most  of 
the  leading  European  government  services.^  The  Frencb 
system  of  consular  service,  for  example,  has  been  so  admi- 
rably efficient  that  it  has  remained  unchanged  for  nearly  fifty 
years.  It  is,  of  course,  the  eflforts  made  in  England  which 
appeal  most  strongly  to  our  interest  and  attention,  and  it  is 
a  fact  of  no  little  significance,  as  showing  the  careful 
account  which  those  who  most  clearly  see  the  need  of  the 
reform  in  this  country  have  taken  of  the  experience  which 
other  countries  furnish,  that  out  of  the  work  of  the  United 
States  Civil  Service  Commission  during  the  past  ten  years  has 
grown  the  most  comprehensive  addition  to  the  literature  of 
the  British  experience.'*  No  extended  reference  is  necessary 
here  to  a  subject  which  has  been  so  comprehensively  treated 

»  "  Friends  in  council,"  by  Sir  Arthur  Helps,     ist  series,  v.  i,  p.  190-191. 

2 Eaton's  "Civil  service  in  Gre.it  Britain,"  p.  337.  See  also  tlie  discussion  of 
the  German  methods  of  reform,  considered  by  R.  von  Mohl,  in  the  •'J0urn.1l  of  the 
American  Social  Science  Association,"  JS70.  European  systems  of  "public  service 
are  also  discussed  by  J.  G.  Rosengarten,  in  this  journal,  1S71.  Compare,  also,, 
the  report  of  Mr.  Patterson's  committee  to  tlie  United  States  senate,  July  2,  1S6S, 
on  "  The  foreign  service." 

3 Mr.  Eaton  also  .states:  "There  is  not  a  great  nation  of  Europe  in  which  the 
large  post-offices  and  custom-houses  have  not  been  as  corrupt  and  inefficient 
as  in  New  York.  Long  before  there  were  parties  to  seize  the  monopoly  of 
patronage  and  spoils  that  monopoly  belonged  to  the  crcnvn  or  tiie  aristocracy.  The 
need  in  each  ot  the  more  advanced  nations  of  the  better  officials  which  that  mo- 
nopoly excluded,  has  long  since  enforced  the  test  of  examinations.  Examinations 
once  established  in  any  country  have  never  been  abandoned  or  limited,  but  have 
been  steadily  extended.  All  the  leading  European  states  now  enforce  them,  and  itt 
each  they  aid  the  cause  of  education  and  political  morals." 

«  "  Cxvil  service  in  Great  Britain,"  by  Dornsan  B.  Eaton,  New  York,  1S79. 


48  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

in  Mr.  Eaton's  admirable  volume.  In  brief,  it  may  be  said 
that  "  it  must  be  apparent  how  wide  and  varied,  in  Great 
Britain  and  India,  is  the  field  of  official  life,  political 
activity,  and  personal  ambition  and  jealousy,  which  is  now 
dominated  by  the  reform  methods.  They  extend  to  all  but 
a  very  few  of  the  highest  places  for  the  exercise  of  the 
appointing  power  of  the  crown.  They  are  supreme  through 
almost  the  whole  vast  range  of  what  was,  for  generations, 
the  patronage  of  the  treasury  and  of  members  of  parlia- 
ment,—  a  patronage  which  was  as  much  greater  than  that  of 
our  heads  of  departments  and  members  of  congress,  as  then' 
authority  would  be  greater  if  the  entire  legislative  and 
executive  power  of  the  states  was  made  a  part  of  the  federal 
jurisdiction.  The  merit  system,  therefore,  with  its  tests  of 
character  and  capacity,  and  its  claims  of  justice  and  prin- 
ciple against  favoritism  and  partisanship,  has  achieved  a 
victory  over  patronage  as  seductive  and  universal ;  has 
suppressed  opportunities  of  intrigue  and  corruption  as 
I  varied  and  numerous ;  has  overthrown  a  tyranny  of  partisan, 
and  official  influence  as  pervading  and  powerful,  as  would 
be  involved  in  this  country  in  a  struggle  which  should  draw 
to  itself  every  selfish  and  partisan  element ;  all  the  offices 
and  gains ;  all  the  intrigue  and  influence  ;  all  the  hopes  and 
fears  of  a  presidential  campaign,  of  senatorial  contests,  and 
of  elections  for  governors,  united  into  one  grand  issue, 
dependent  upon  a  single  national  vote  at  the  polls."  ^ 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  constructive  because  it  does  not 
shut  its  eyes  to  the  peculiar  and  individual  circumstances  of 
our  own  nation.  The  historical  experience  of  other  countries 
is  to  be  studied  and  availed  of,  but  not  necessarily  to  be 
transfeij^  bodily.  It  is  for  the  very  reason  (as  was  shown 
at  the  beginning  of  this  discussion)^  that  the  reform  is  essen- 
tially democratic  in  its  nature,  that,  at  certain  points,  its 
better  adaptedness  to  American  than  to  English  institutions 
will  call  for  a  replacing  of  some  of  the  features  of  the  Eng- 
lish plan  by  improved  methods.^     Sir  Arthur  Helps,  also, 

'  E.iton's  "  Civil  sen'ice  in  Great  Britain,"  p.  316. 

2  See  Chapter  i . 

«  Mr.  Eaton  is  chairman  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  of  the  United  States,  and 
his  volume  was  prepared  directly  in  consequence  of  an  official  request  of  President 
Ha^es,  in  1877.  that  he  would  investigate  and  make  a  report  to  him  concerning  the 
action  of  the  EngiWi  government  in  relation  to  its.civil  service,  and  the  effects  of 


IT    IS    NOT    DESTRUCTIVE.  49 

whom  we  have  ah'eady  quoted,  enlarged  upon  the  inadequacy 
•of  competitive  examinations  alone  to  bring  the  "  fittest  men  " 
into  the  service  of  the  government.^  But  the  plea  which  he 
so  earnestly  makes  is  answered  by  the  supplementary  prin- 
ciple of  probationary  appointments,  an  essential  and  most 
vital  principle  in  the  bill  now  proposed  in  this  country,^ 
but  not,  at  the  time  Sir  Arthur  was  writing  (1871),  fully 
established  in  the  enactments  of  the  British  system.^  An 
examination  of  the  American  legislation,  and  especially 
of  the  bill  now  proposed,  will  show  an  intelligent  and . 
statesman-like  aim  to  construct  it  on  the  basis  of  the  under- 
lying principles  of  the  American  political  system. 

Again,  it  is  constructive  for  the  reason  that  the  proposed 
"enactment  disturbs  existing  legislation  to  the  least  degree 
jDossible,  and,  in  fact,  may  be  described  as  essentially  com- 
plementary to  these  enactments.  As  has  already  been 
indicated,*  the  legislation  of  1871  "will  remain  in  force  so 
far  as  consistent  with  this  "  bill  now  proposed.  Nor  is  it 
simply  an  attempt  to  avoid  destructive  legislation  by  thus 
conforming  to  the  obvious  methods  of  supplementing  the 
former  acts;  but  the  closing  section  (Sect.  7)  shows  a 
painstaking  research,  on  the  part  of  its  framers,  to  avoid  any 
unwitting  and  unforeseen  clashing  with  existing  laws.  Nor 
does  it  avoid  destructive  methods  alone  in  its  general  theory 
and  scope ;  but,  descending  to  each  individual  sub-office  in 
which  its  provisions  may  be  put  in  force,  its  method  is  not 
to  sweep  aside  at  one  blow  the  whole  organization  ;  but, 
after  a  certain  specified  date,  beginning  at  the  lowest  grade, 
the  new  clement  is   introduced,  which   is  gradually  to  per- 

such  action  since  1S50.  "This  volume,"  says  a  competent  authority,  "  will  become 
a  text-book  among  us  on  the  science  of  administration.  It  would  be  well  worth  the 
pains  to  compile  an  abstract  from  it  in  the  form  of  a  manual  for  use  in  schools."  — 
<  The  Nation,  Jan.  15,  18S0,  v.  30,  p.  47.)  — Another  journal  (the  New  York  Tribune) 
says  :  "  The  gravity  of  his  style  is  in  keeping-  with  the  dignity  of  his  subject.  His 
statements  exhibit  exhaustive  research,  discriminating  judgment,  candor  of  opinion, 
and  moderation  of  expression." 

1  A  writer  (an  Englishman)  in  the  Contemporary  Reviezv,  October,  1881,  p.  647, 
says  :  "  In  my  opinion  it  would  hardly  be  well  for  the  American  people  slavishly  to 
imitJite  the  English  system."  In  England,  he  says,  a  reforming  minister  maybe 
"  seriously  hampered  by  the  unreasoning  conservatism  and  official  routine  displayed 
by  the  permanent  stafl"  of  his  department."  It  should  be  noted  that  this  writer  ex- 
pressly declared  (p.  645  of  the  same  article)  that  "  Competitive  examinations  seem 
to  be  the  only  means  whereby  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States  can  be  purified., 
and  invigorated."  y 

>  See  Pendleton  bill,  sect.  2,  pt.  2,  rule  4. 

8  Eaton's  "  Civil  service  in  Great  Britain,  "  p.  229-30,  264.  . 

«  See  Chapter  3.  ' 


50  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

meate  the  mass.  (Pendleton  bill,  Sect.  6.)  The  framers  of 
the  bill  thus  recognize  the  value  of  time  and  patience  as- 
elements  in  any  permanent  and  substantial  construction  ;  and 
not  less  in  the  fact  already  indicated/  that  the  measure,  as 
a  whole,  is  moderate  rather  than  sweeping ;  and,  as  regards 
the  scope  of  its  operations,  begins  with  those  government 
offices  only  to  which  the  provisions  can  at  first  be  most 
practically  applied. 

But  if  the  reform  may  not  with  truth  be  described  as 
destructive,  what  shall  be  said  of  the  partisan  system  which 
it  aims  to  replace?  Can  any  possible  theory  of  civil-service 
reform  be  so  utterly  destructive  as  this  principle,  avowed  by 
a  former  government-officer? — "I  believe  that  when  the 
people  vote  to  change  a  party  administration  they  vote  to 
change  every  person  of  the  opposite  party  who  holds  a 
place,  from  the  president  of  the  United  States  to  the 
messenger  at  my  door."  (Quoted  in  Mr.  Curtis'  Saratoga 
address.)  Mr.  Schurz,  in  an  address  made  in  1876,  pre- 
sented it  in  very  forcible  language  :  — 

"  Imagine  that,  in  this  year  of  the  great  centennial  anniversary, 
some  of  the  wise  men  of  this  repubh"c — Washington,  Adams,  Jeffer- 
son, Hamilton  —  could  rise  from  their  graves  in  order  to  ascertain  by 
tour  of  inspection  what  had  become  of  their  work  in  these  hundred 
years.  Of  course  we  would  have  to  show  them  our  civil  service;  and 
would  it  not  make  them  stare.''  We  would  have  to  explain  to  them 
how,  nowadays,  things  are  managed  ;  how,  on  the  accession  of  a  new" 
president,  the  whole  machinery  of  government  is  taken  to  pieces, 
all  at  once,  to  be  rebuilt  again  out  of  green  materials,  in  a  hurry; 
how  60,000  or  70,000  or  80,000  officers  are  dismissed,  without  the 
least  regard  to  their  official  merits  or  usefulness,  simply  because 
they  do  not  belong  to  the  party,  to  make  room  for  a  '  new  deal.'" 

Or,  to  quote  another  authority  :  "  At  the  end  of  each  four 
years  the  entire  federal  patronage  (amounting  to  one  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  offices)  is  collected  in  one  lot,"  which  the 
President,  when  elected,  is  "  compelled  to  distribute  to  his 
party."  '"No  nation  can  withstand  a  strife  among  its  own 
people,  so  general,  so  intense,  and  so  demoralizing.  No 
contrivance  so  efiectual  to  embarrass  government,  to  disturb 
the  public  peace,  to  destroy  political  honesty^  and  to  en- 
danger the  common  security^  was  ever  before  invented."^ 

»  Sec  Chapter  5. 

'  "  Report  of  tlie  committee  on  alleged  frauds,"  March  3,  1879  (Mr.  C.  N.  Potter^ 
chairman),  p.  64. 


IT    IS    NOT    DESTRUCTIVE.  51 

Tliere  is  no  necessity  whatever  for  exaggeration.  The 
abuses  of  various  descriptions  which  have  made  so  painful 
an  impression  on  the  pubHc  during  the  later  years  of  our 
history  are  fresh  in  memory  :  the  whiskey  frauds,  the  New 
York  Custom  House  frauds,  the  Sanborn  contracts,  the  In- 
dian bureau  corruption,  the  vStar  route  frauds,  —  all  of  which 
have  been  directly  connected  with  the  civil  service.  It  is 
not,  it  is  true,  "  the  worst  on  the  globe  ;  "  for  those  of  Russia 
and  Turkey  are,  doubtless,  capable  of  surpassing  it  in  these 
abuses.  Nor  does  it  mend  matters  much  to  claim,  as  has 
been  done,  with  a  show  of  truth,  that  it  is,  "  for  the  most  part, 
a  bad  system  in  good  hands."  (Boston  Saturday  Evening- 
Gazette.y  As  has  been  abundantly  shown,  there  is  nothing 
to  guarantee  its  being  confined  to  "  good  hands." 

Nor  is  it  absolutely  necessary  to  look  for  the  immediate 
and  sudden  ruin  of  the  country.  To  quote  once  more  Sir 
Arthur  Ilelps,^  "  When  a  state  has  attained  a  certain  amount 
of  force  and  prosperity,"  "  it  takes  a  long  time  to  break  it 
down.  You  may  heap  muddlement  upon  muddlement,  and 
with  a  free  people,  though  much  mischief  is  done  and 
much  good  prevented,  still  they  work  on  steadily,  each  iVan 
in  his  private  capacity  doing  something  to  retrieve  the  effects 
of  bad  or  of  indolent  government"  ^ 

Would  any  "  lover  of  his  country,  however,"  to  quote  his 
next  remark,  "wish  for  such  a  state  of  things  to  continue 
indefinitely,"  and  wish  to  "  leave  things  alone  ".^ 

Not  so  thought  General  Garfield,  and  if  any  American 
public  man  was  entitled  to  be  called  preeminently  a  con- 
structive statesman,  our  late  president  was.  "  To  reform 
this  service,"  he  wrote,  "  is  one  of  the  highest  and  most 
imperative  duties  of  statesmanship.""* 

iThe  writer  in  the   Contemporary  Review,  already  quoted,  alludes  (Oct.  iSSi, 

S.  6^s,),  though  with  evident  gratiiication  and  surprise,  to  "  the  splendid  work  which 
as  been  done  in  many  public  departments,  both  state  and  national,  in  America." 

-  It  is  somewhat  atimsing  to  notice  that  certain  opponents  of  civil-service  reform 
in  this  country  have  delighted  in  quoting  Sir  Arthur  Helps  as  an  authority.  (See 
the  point  cited  by  Mr.  Yi.  F.  Uutler,  when  a  member  of  congress  from  ^Massachusetts, 
Coni^ressionol  Globe,  April  19,  1S72,  p.  25S3.)  But  Sir  Arthur's  works,  if  searched, 
will  show  that  he  had  an  unmistakable  sympathy  with  eflorts  to  improve  govern- 
ment administration ;  and  believed  that,  "if  public  business  is  for  the  future  to  be 
better  conducted  than  it  is  now,  the  public  offices  must  be  intellectually  strengthened." 
—  "Friends  in  council,"  2d  series,  v.  2,  p.  159. 

3  "  Friends  in  council,"  2d  series,  v.  2,  p.  15S. 

*  Atlantic  Monthly,  ]u\w,  1S77,  v.  40,  p.  61. 


52  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IT   IS   NOT   OPPOSED   TO    PUBLIC   SENTIMENT. 

On  the  contrary,  it  is  strongly  favored  by  public  sentiment. 
But,  it  may  be  demanded,  how  do  we  know  that?  We 
know  that  in  a  certain  year  public  sentiment  was  in  favor 
of  the  Whig  party,  because  that  party  received  a  vote  of 
1,375,017;  while  its  antagonist  received  only  1,128,702. 
But  has  anv  general  vote  ever  been  taken  to  show  the  strength 
of  the  civil- service  reform  sentiment  ?  Assuredly  not ;  and  yet 
any  one  who  has  carefully  observed  its  manifestation  will, 
we  think,  admit  the  statement. 

Nor  is  this  a  fact  of  slight  moment.  It  is  of  all-pervading 
importance.  The  question  as  to  what  the  people  themselves 
think  and  believe  is  ultimately  the  significant  one.  It  is 
this  which  the  English  writer  last  quoted  had  in  mind  in 
his  reference  to  "  a  free  people  "  retrieving  the  effects  of  bad 
government.  If  it  be  the  case  in  Great  Britain,  much  more 
is  it  in  this  country,  whose  government  springs  directly  from 
the  people ;  and  we  shall  find  that  in  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  during  the  past  few  years  this  phase  of  it  has  been 
frequently  uppermost.  Senator  Dawes,  in  his  letter  of  July  21 , 
1881 ,  to  the  Sprmgfield  Republicaii^  expresses  himself  to  the 
effect  that,  while  the  president  and  congress  are  undeniably 
responsible  for  the  reform,  yet  its  speedy  accomplishment,  or 
its  hindrance,  depends  on  the  people  themselves,  who  have 
it  in  their  power  to  delay  it  indefinitely  by  their  '•  pressure" 
for  office.  1    Of  this  attitude  of  Mr.  Dawes,  the  Springfield 

1  In  the  course  of  the  hearing'  before  the  Pendleton  committee,  in  February,  he 
also  said  :  "I  think  that  for  years  past,  and  for  years  to  come,  the  members  of  con- 
gress have  been,  and  will  be,  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone."  On  the 
one  side  is  the  executive,  who  makes  those  appointments,  and  on  the  other  the 
"people,  who  have  been  viciously  educated  by  all  parties"  "  for  the  last  forty  years. 
They  have  come  to  believe  that  this  is  the  way  to  live;  the  administration  at  the 
other  end  of  the  capital  conforms  to  that  view,  and  the  members  of  congress  are  in 
the  middle."  •»  We  cannot  get  legislation  and  make  it  permanent,  xinless  our  constitu- 
ents behind  us  will  support  us  in  it."  "We  can  never  make  any  better  laws  than  in 
tlie  long  run  the  public  behind  us  sustain^'  —  (Report  of  Pendleton  committee,  p.  42.) 


IT    IS    NOT    OPPOSED   TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  53 

Republican  remarks  :  "  His  disposition  to  hold  the  people  to 
their  full  share  of  responsibility  for  a  manifest  evil  is  aggres- 
sive, but  not  unhealthy."  An  ably  edited  New  England 
daily  (the  Providence  Journal)  has  returned  to  this 
phase  of  the  subject  again  and  again.  In  its  forcible  way 
it  remarks :  — 

"The  reform  needed  is  a  reform  of  public  opinion.  No  law  will 
be  of  the  slightest  effect  in  the  long  run,  so  long  as  the  education  of 
the  people  is  that  everybody  is  fit  for  every  office ;  and  that,  if  it  can 
begot,  the  means  by  which  it  is  obtained  do  not  much  matter.  Our 
children  have  been  taught  that  political  office  is  the  symbol  and 
guarantee  of  public  esteem  and  personal  power;  and  they  have  seen 
that  '  out  West '  mighty  mean  men  have  been  elected  justices  of  the 
peace.     Why  should  not  everybody  go  in  for  the  spoils?  " 

Mr.  Chace,  recently  elected  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, from  Rhode  Island,  suggests  :  — 

"  Let  us  remember  that  the  rulers  of  the  people  are  what  the 
people  make  them.  No  fountain  rises  higher  than  its  source.  If 
the  people  are  honest,  intelligent,  and  determined  to  preserve  their 
own  rights  and  maintain  the  government  in  its  purity,  then  they 
will  have  honest  and  intelligent  servants." 

*'  That  civil-service  reform  must  come  in  this  country'  is  inevitable. 
That  it  will  come  if  it  is  left  to  the  people  who  dispense  the  offices 
it  seems  to  me  is  very  uncertain.  The  movement  must  arise  with 
the  people." 

There  is  food  for  reflection  in  these  statements,  founded,  as 
they  are,  on  universally  acknowledged  truths. 

But  they  gather  fresh  significance,  considered  in  connec- 
tion with  the  sentiment  which  has  been  manifesting  itself.  It 
has  not  always  been  so.  A  dozen  years  ago,  to  quote  from 
Mr.  Curtis's  Saratoga  address,  "  To  the  country,  reform  was 
a  proposition  to  reform  evils  of  administi-ation,  of  which  it 
knew  little,  and  which  at  most  seemed  to  it  petty  and  imper- 
tinent in  the  midst  of  great  affairs."  And  if  we  seek  for  the 
reasons  underlying  the  growth  of  this  sentiment,  we  shall 
find  fresh  evidence  of  the  natural  and  healthy  process  by 
which,  with  very  little  artificial  shaping,  it  has  thus  developed 
itself.  Without  much  doubt  the  first  advance  was  made 
when  the  actual  evidence  of  its  practical  operation  was  fur- 
nished. The  administrations  of  Secretary  Schurz  in  the 
Interior  Department,  and  Collector  Merritt  and  Postmaster 
James  at  New  York,  bore  stronger  testimony  than  any  words, 


A 


54:  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

to  the  fact  that  it  was  possible,  practical,  and  business-like. 
And  the  spontaneous  recognition  of  their  services  by  the 
business  community,  chambers  of  commerce,  etc.,  has  been 
dwelt  upon  elsewhere  in  this  discussion.^  Another  advance 
in  public  sentiment  was  connected  with  the  accession  of 
General  Garfield  to  the  presidency.  It  was  felt  to  be  signifi- 
cant that  a  public  man  who  had  so  conspicuously  identified 
hknself  with  advocating  this  reform  should  be  placed  in  the 
executive  chair.  It  is  moreover  true  that  many  citizens 
expected  to  see  him  consummate  the  reform  single-handed, 
and  the  fact  that  he,  exceptionally  equipped  for  this  as  he 
was,  was  seen  not  to  be  able  to  withstand  tlie  pressure,  and 
to  be  appealing  to  congress  for  specific  legislation,  was  a 
striking  lesson  as  to  the  necessity  of  legislation.  It  will  be 
seen,  in  fact,  that  these  successive  stages  of  the  reform  con- 
stituted in  themselves  an  education  of  the  public  mind. 

That  the  fearful  tragedy  by  which  the  country  was  cruelly 
robbed  of  President  Garfield's  precious  life  and  inestimable 
services  has  a  significant  bearing  upon  the  matter,  none  can 
doubt.  To  state  with  perfect  accuracy  what  its  significance 
is,  and  to  indicate  its  full  extent  and  comprehensiveness, 
is  a  question  of  much  gravity  and  jDractical  difficulty. 
We  are  yet  too  near  the  terrible  event  to  judge  it  without 
heat.  This  much,  however,  is  plain,  that  (to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Boston  Tra?2sc7'tpt)  ^  '"  this  sad  event  which 
has  befallen  the  nation,  and  under  the  shadow  of  which  it 
still  rests,  has  directed  public  attention  to  civil-service  re- 
form as  it  never  was  before"  directed.  Public  opinion  had 
been  accumulating  in  volume  and  in  definiteness  for  the  past 
few  years,  but  the  impetus  given  by  this  shock  was  remark- 
able.    To  quote  Mr.  Curtis  once  more  :  — 

"  Like  the  slight  sound  amid  the  frozen  silence  of  the  Alps  that 
loosens  and  brings  down  the  avalanche,  the  solitary  pistol  shot  of 
the  2d  of  July  has  suddenly  startled  this  vast  accumulation  of  pub- 
lic opinion  into  conviction,  and  on  every  side  thunder  the  rush  and 
roar  of  its  overwhelming  descent,  which  will  sweep  away  the  host 
of  evils  bred  of  this  monstrous  abuse.  This  is  an  extraordinary 
change  for  twelve  years  ;  but  it  shows  the  vigorous  political  health, 
the  alert  common-sense,  and  the  essential  patriotism  of  the  country, 
which  are  the  earnest  of  the  success  of  any  wise  reform." 

'  See  Chapter  4. 


IT    IS    NOT    OPPOSED    TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  55 

Of  the  sentiment  now  existing  there  are  numerous  mani- 
festations. Even  a  casual  examination  of  the  daily  and 
weekly  press,  during  the  past  few  years  (and  particularly 
the  past  few  months) ,  reveals  it.  The  matter  has,  within 
these  years,  also  developed  a  literature  of  its  own,  of  less 
ephemeral  nature  than  the  newspaper.^  It  has  become  a  sub- 
ject of  earnest  and  determined  discussion  in  our  colleges.^ 
The  voice  of  the  business  community  has  been  expressed 
through  the  resolutions  and  addresses  of  chambers  of  com- 
merce and  boards  of  trade.  With  remarkable  unanimity 
the  pulpit  has  expressed  it.^  Congressmen  have  put  them- 
selves on  record  in  the  matter,  in  reported  conversations  or 
in  letters  to  the  press.  Local  and  state  political  organiza- 
tions, in  their  annual  conventions,  have  voiced  the  convictions 
of  the  party .^  The  national  political  conventions,  in  their 
utterances  during  the  past  ten  years,  have  shown  an  in- 
creasing definiteness  and  emphasis  scarcely  exceeded  by 
the  presidents'  messages  of  the  same  period,  and  individ- 
ual voters  of  the  country,  gathered  in  the  "  civil-sei-vice  re- 
form associations,"  which  are  now  springing  up  all  over  the 
country,  have  served  to  crystallize  and  render  more  effective 
the  reform  sentiment.^ 

Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  in  detail  at  the  gradual  rise, 


1  See  the  writer's  pamphlet,  "  The  literature  of  civil-service  reform  in  the  United 
States"  (1881). 

2  In  order  more  efFectually  to  encourage  and  to  develope  this,  two  prizes,  one  of 
$  100  and  tlie  other  of  $50,  have  been  oiiered  by  the  Boston  Civil-Service  Reform 
Association,  for  the  best  essays  on  the  subject  presented  by  college  students.  —  See 
Civil  Service  Record,  No.  2,'june  iS,  iSSi. 

8  At  the  seventh  church  congress  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  the 
United  States,  held  at  Providence,  Oct.  25-28,1881,  the  subject  of  civil-service  re- 
form  was  discussed  with  great  vigor,     (See  Providence  yournal,  Oct.  26,  iSSi.) 

*See  The  Civil  Service  Record  for  some  of  these  miscellaneous  expressions  of 
sentiment. 

^  The  most  fully  organized  of  these  associations  are  those  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn,  and  those  in'^Boston  and  Cambridge.  Their  close  proximity  renders  it 
practicable  for  the  two  former  to  combine  with  each  other,  and  the  two  latter  to 
combine  with  each  other,  in  the  issue  of  publications,  the  holding  of  public  meet- 
ings, the  conducting  of  correspondence,  etc. 

The  publications  of  the  New  York  Association  are:  — 
I.     "  Purposes  of  the  Civil-Service  Reform  Association." 
II.     "  The  beginning  of  the  spoils  system  in  the  national  government,  1829-30." 

III.  "  The  spoils  system  and  civil-service  reform  in  the  custom-house  and  post- 
office  at  New  York,"  by  Dorman  B.  Eaton. 

The  Boston  and  Cambridge  Associations  publish  The  Civil-Service  Record,  a 
periodical  of  which  six  numbers  have  appeared. 

The  Providence  Association  ("Young  Men's  Political  Club")  has  published 
the  pnmphlet  already  alluded  to,  "The  literature  of  civil-service  reform  in  the  United 
States,"  bv  W.  E.  Foster. 


56  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

in  force  and  degree,  of  the  sentiment  of  the  national  politi- 
cal conventions.^ 

The  improvement  is  gratifying,  and  will  any  one  say  that 
there  was  not  sad  need  of  it?  For  the  dictum,  already 
quoted,  '^  No  fountain  rises  higher  than  its  source,"  has  a 
wider  significance  than  as  referring  to  the  votes  cast  for 
some  particular  measure.  It  is  because  the  people  have  not 
before  this  risen  to  the  point  of  disapproving  a  system  the 
spirit  of  which  develops  professional  politicians,  rather  than, 
statesmen,  that  our  politics  have  remained  on  the  lamentably 
low  plane  which  have  characterized  them  for  many  years. 
It  cannot  be  claimed  that  there  has  been  a  lack  of  distin- 
guished and  able  men  in  the  country.  In  previous  periods 
of  the  government  they  have  appeared.  This  nation  has 
had  in  its  revolutionary  epoch  such  men  as  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin and  Samuel  Adams  ;  in  the  period  of  its  constitutional 
development  such  men  as  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  ;  and  in  the  early  presidential  administrations  such 
presidents  as  Washington,  Madison,  and  John  Quincy 
Adams.  The  discussion  of  vital  constitutional  questions, 
later  on,  developed  the  three  great  statesmen  of  our  middle 
period,  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun.  Already,  however, 
the  partisan  system  of  spoils  had  settled  down  over  the 
country,  and  when  the  gi'eat  heroic  epoch  of  the  civil  war 
dawned  in  1861,  while  it  was  impossible  that  the  occasion 
should  not  call  forth  and  develop  characters  memorable 
through  all  coming  history,  yet  the  great  names  of  that 
period  were  not  connected  with  legislation. 

A  notable  exception  readily  suggests  itself  to  all  minds- 
He  who  so  lately  took  his  seat  in  the  presidential  chair,  only 
to  be  wickedly  murdered  after  a  few  short  months,  was  the 

1  In  1872  the  Republican  national  platform  favored  making  "  honesty,  efficiency,. 
aad  fidelity,  the  essential  qualifications  lor  public  positions."  In  1S76  it  declared  )n. 
favor  of  allowing- all  other  appointments  {than  the  liigher  offices)  "to  be  filled  by  jier- 
sons  selected  with  sole  reference  to  the  efficiency  of  the  public  service,"  —  a  noticeable 
advance  in  definitcncss  and  specific  provisions.  In  iSSo  it  demanded  '•  that  congress 
shall  so  legislate  that  fitness,  ascertained  by  proper  practical  tests,  shall  admit  to 
the  public  service; "  thus  advancing  to  the  recognition  of  examinations  as  a  method,. 
and  legislation  as  an  essential.  In  iSSi,  at  the  Massachusetts  Republican  Convention 
(a  definite  bill  to  compass  this  reform  having  in  the  mean  time  been  introduced  in. 
congress),  the  sentiment  expressed  was  tlius  definitely  formulated  :  «'  Appointments 
to  clerkships  to  depend,  in  the  first  instance,  upon  successfully  passing  a  proper 
examination,  open  to  all  applicants  witiiout  distinction  of  party;  and,  secondly,  upoa> 
•atisfactory  service  during  a  period  of  probation." 


IT    IS    NOT    OPPOSED    TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  57 


most  conspicuous  example  of  a  statesman  as  distinguished 
from  a  politician  that  later  years  have  witnessed.  A  states- 
man needs  a  broad  foundation  of  scholarship  on  which  to- 
build  ;  he  needs  also  a  natural  capacity  and  faculty  for  ac- 
quiring the  details  of  his  subject,  and  a  close  and  ready  famil- 
iarity with  history ;  he  needs,  moreover,  a  natural  predilec- 
tion for  affairs  of  state,  and  long  and  careful  training  in  their 
exercise  ;  he  needs  a  wide  and  thorough  knowledge  of  men, 
and  daily  intercourse  with  them ;  he  needs  that  excellent 
quality,  tact,  in  dealing  with  other  men  ;  he  needs,  certainly, 
a  sense  of  humor,  for  the  lack  of  which  even  Mr.  Gladstone 
has  sometimes  made  his  course  a  needlessly  difficult  one ; 
he  needs  (to  use  the  language  of  President  Eliot,  of  Har- 
vard)^ "the  power  of  clear,  forcible,  and  persuasive  exposi- 
tion." Judged  by  this  standard,  does  our  late  president  fail 
to  come  up  to  the  requirements.^  Rather,  is  he  not  the  most 
conspicuous  instance  we  know,  of  a  man  coming  to  the  presi- 
dency, nay,  coming  to  each  position  of  responsibility  which 
he  occupied  in  turn,  before  reaching  the  presidency,  fully 
equipped  for  that  position  by  long,  patient,  profound,  far- 
reaching  study  of  the  principles  and  problems  involved  ?  ^  It. 
has  been  said  of  another  public  man,  whose  public  career 
recently  closed  quite  suddenly,  that  "the  most  important- 
questions  of  his  time  have  taken  no  hold  upon  hihi :  tariff 
reform  and  our  commercial  relations  with  other  countries ; 
methods  of  taxation ;  regulations  of  elections,  etc."  But 
whoever  that  public  man  may  be,  to  whom  such  language 
was  apj^licable,  there  is,  assuredly,  no  one  of  whom  it  was- 
more  untrue  than  President  Garfield.  His  acquaintance 
with  all  these  points  was  intimate  and  thorough.  Yet  this 
is  not  all.  President  Eliot  goes  on  to  say,  that,  if  mental 
preparation  be  essential,  moral  qualities  are  even  more  so. 
President  Garfield  was,  as  the  whole  American  people 
have  seen  in  the  closing  portion  of  his  career,  a  man,  in  the 
truest,  highest  sense.  He  possessed  a  character  preeminent 
in  its  loftiness  and  purity,  a  possession  which  he  has  left  as 

lAt  the  Schurz  banquet,  Boston,  March  22,  1^1.  — {In  Harvard  Register,  v.  :i, 
p.  357.)  . 

»"Therc  was  nothing-  cloudy  about  his  writing  or  speaking."  It  "  contains  a  body 
of  doctrine  of  which,  taken  for  all  in  all,  any  American  may  be  proud,  —  such  doctrine 
as  perhaps  no  other  man  among  us,  who  for  so  long  a  period  successfully  retained, 
his  place  in  public  life,  could  show."—  The  Nation,  Sept.  29,  iSSi,  p.  246. 


58  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

-a  precious  legacy  to  the  American  people.  Where  will 
you  find  elsewhere  a  man  of  such  '•  high  heart,"  to  use  the 
French  term,  who  bore  4iot  only  with  fortitude,  but  with 
unflagging  spirits,  a  phenomenal  pluck  and  even  keen  sense 
of  humor,  the  long  and  excruciating  days  of  pain?  His 
was  the  "  victorious  spirit,"  which  not  even  the  most  adverse 
physical  surroundings  could  subdue.  Well  has  a  writer  in 
J^unch  expressed  it :  — 

"  So  fit  to  die,  with  courage  cahn, 
Armed  to  withstand  the  threatening  dart. 
Better  than  skill  is  such  high  heart 
And  helpfuller  than  healing  balm. 

"  So  fit  to  live,  with  power  cool 
Equipped  to  fill  his  function  great, 
To  crush  the  knaves  who  shame  the  state ; 
Place-seeking  pests  of  honest  rule. 

"  Equal  to  either  fate  he'll  prove. 
May  Heaven's  high  arm  incline  the  scale 
The  way  our  prayers  would  fain  avail, 
And  weight  it  for  long  life  and  love."  ^ 

Where  will  you  find  one  who  has  attached  greater  impor- 
tance to  the  heroic  virtues  of  patience  and  self-reliance  ;  who 
has  climbed,  by  dint  of  his  own  efforts,  to  the  highest  point ; 
w^ho  has,  with  calm  dependence  on  the  results  of  time,  taken 
time  for  the  accomplishment  of  needed  projects  .^  Where 
will  you  find  one  in  whom  the  moral  element  has  so  pre- 
dominated ;  who  has  acted  constantly,  not  for  the  sake  of 
gaining  the  flattering  and  shallow  praise  of  some  one  else, 
but  has  constantly  obeyed  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience 
and  preserved  his  own  self-respect.'*  "  It  is  of  some  moment 
to  me,"  he  once  said  to  a  meeting  of  his  own  constituents, 
"  what  this  and  that  one  may  think  of  me  ;  but  this  is  of  no 
weight  as  compared  witli  this  other  consideration,  What 
will  James  A.  Garfield  think  of  me?" 

But  how  exceptional  to  the  direct  tendency  of  the  system 
itself  such  a  career  as  President  Garfield's  was,  his  whole 
life  witnesses,  for  it  was  a  prolonged  struggle  with  that  sys- 
tem ;  nay,   his  words  themselves    bear  witness.        In    an 

1  Pitnch,  July  16,  iSSi,  p.  15. 


IT    IS   NOT    OPPOSED    TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  59 

article  already  quoted  from,  he  said:  "The  present  system 
^  .  .  impairs  the  efficiency  of  the  legislators ;  .  .  . 
it  degrades  the  civil  service  ;  ...  it  repels  from  the 
service  those  high  and  manly  qualities  which  are  so  neces- 
sary to  a  pure  and  efficient  administration  ;  and,  finally,  it 
debauches  the  public  mind  by  holding  up  public  office  as 
the  revs^ard  of  mere  party  zeal.  To  reform  this  service  is 
one  of  the  highest  and  most  imperative  duties  of  statesman- 
ship." ^ 

This  declaration  is  strikingly  borne  out  by  figures  w^hich 
have  been  collected,  showing,  for  example,  the  withdrawal 
of  educated  men  from  active  participation  in  the  govern- 
ment.^ ''  The  truth  is,  and  it  is  well  that  it  should  be  im- 
pressed upon  the  public  mind,  that  the  struggle  for  princi- 
ples is  ennobling.  It  makes  men  think.  It  makes  men 
feel  themselves  to  be  the  instruments  of  the  great  forces  that 
uphold  and  control  society."  "  A  struggle  for  spoils,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  the  reverse  of  ennobling."  ^ 

It  is  not,  then,  that  the  nation  is  destitute  of  men  who  can 
render  the  highest  service  to  their  country,  but  that  that  ser- 
vice has  not  attracted  them.  Has  there  not  been,  to  quote 
again  from  the  same  journal,  a  diversion  of  some  of  "  the 
most  powerful  personalities  into  business  enterprises?  Is 
it  not  true  that  the  finest  spirits,  and  the  men  best  qualified 
by  character,  and  best  equipped  by  culture  for  public  ser- 
vice, have  turned  away  from  such  a  career  into  the  walks  of 
literature,  art,  science,  or  philanthropy?  And  can  it  be  said 
that  there  is  no  connection  between  such  facts  as  these  and 
the  ascendency  of  the  politician  class  ?"  "  It  is  time  to  substi- 
tute measures  for  men,  and  principles  for  patronage,  in 
the  management  of  parties  and  the  conduct  of  the  govern- 
ment.    Personal  politics  beget  small  men." 

For  many  years  public  sentiment  has  supported,  or  seemed 
to  support,  the  rule.and  management  of  the  late  senior  sena- 
tor from  New  York.  This  is  no  place  to  give  to  his  career 
any  extended  consideration,  though  the  minute  analysis,  — - 
one  might  alniost  say  '•  dissection  "  — of  it  in  a  late  periodi- 
cal article  well  merits  thoughtful  study. ^     It  is  sufficient  to 

^Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1S77,  v.  40,  p.  61. 

2/V«;/  J/oM/A/y.July,   iSSl.V.   12,  p.  516-17.  rr         ,Jr^.       ^       00^ 

•■*  Professor  diaries  Carroll  Everett  (in  Boston  Sunday  Herald,  Oct.  16,  iSSi). 
*  Iniernational  Revieto,  Oct.,  1S81,  v.  11,  p.  375-9°- 


60  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM   MOVEMENT. 

say,  in  the  language  of  another  writer,^  that  "  The  interest 
he  now  awakens  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  is  the  representa- 
tive and  the  victim  of  the  spoils  system,  from  the  great 
manor  where  it  was  born  and  is  now  developed.  His  utter 
neglect  of  great  things,  and  his  supreme  care  for  little  things, 
his  rise,  his  rule,  and  his  collapse,  alike  illustrate  the  spirit 
and  the  effects  of  that  system." 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  there  has  been  a  progress  in  public 
opinion  not  only  truly  remarkable,  and  extremely  gratifying, 
but  well-nigh  controlling.  We  say  "  well-nigh  controlling," 
for  it  is  above  all  things  important,  in  a  matter  like  this,  to 
recognize  the  extent  and  influence  of  the  opposing  sentiment. 

And  there  are  several  reasons  for  this.  In  the  first  place^ 
the  very  fact  that  the  reform  is  essentially  a  reasonable  one, 
and  one  which  advances  by  gradual  and  natural  stages, 
renders  it  natural  that  there  should  be  many  honest  and  sin- 
cere lovers  of  their  couniry  who  are  not  yet  persuaded  as  to 
its  overwhelming  importance.  And  so  there  are  every  day 
many  who  are  for  the  first  time  opening  their  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  the  reform  is  not  undemocratic,  is  not  unnecessary, 
is  not  impossible,  or  is  not  unbusiness-like.  And,  until 
recently,  it  has  been  true,  as  expressed  by  the  Boston  Adver- 
tiser^ that  "  the  masses  of  the  people  will  not  be  moved 
until,  with  the  proof  that  matters  are  in  a  bad  way,  they 
are  furnished  with  a  complete,  intelligible,  and  practical 
plan,  demonstrably  better  in  practice  than  the  old,  while 
obviously  better  in  principle  ; "  an  objection  removed  by  the 
bill  now  proposed.  All  sensible  advocates  of  the  reform  will 
heartily  admit,  with  the  same  paper,  that  it  is  a  great 
mistake  to  ''  think  that  any  one  who  tries  to  test  the  value 
of  their  remedy  is  an  enemy.  Every  one  who  is  prepared 
to  admit  that  the  prevailing  method  of  choosing  subordinate 
officers  of  the  United  States  is  irrational  and  harmful  to 
the  political  morals  of  the  people  is  a  possible  reformer.'* 
In  this  many-sided,  bewildcringly  complex  civilization  or 
ours  there  is  opportunity  to  give  time  and  attention  to  only 
a  small  number  of  those  topics  which  one  would  like  to  study 
thoroughly  ;  and,  unquestionably,  there  are  hundreds  of  citi- 
zens who  have  heretofore  dismissed  this  reform  from  their 


1  Princeton  Review,  Sept.,  iSSi,  p.  169. 


IT    IS    NOT    OPPOSED   TO    PUBLIC   SENTIMENT.  61 

minds  for  this  reason,  who,  once  they  give  their  whole 
mind  to  the  subject,  cannot  help  being  "■  reformers,"  if  they 
try.^  Another  reason  is,  as  Mr.  Eaton  suggests  in  his  letter 
to  Mr.  Dawes, ^  that  ''  the  nomenclature  of  reform  is  so  little 
settled,  and  so  much  feeling  enters  into  its  discussion,  that  we 
should  not  be  surprised  either  at  honest  misapprehensions 
or  at  artful  misrepresentations."  Perhaps  the  most  potent 
element  of  misunderstanding,  however,  is  in  a  supposed  in- 
herent clashing  of  theory  and  practice.  Were  the  present 
movement  a  '^  theoretical"  one,  it  would  justly  give  occasion 
for  distrust.  That  it  is,  in  its  present  stage,  advocated  by 
some,  out  of  the  entire  mass  who  "  see  only  one  side  of  the 
shield,"  is  not  incredible.  "  Many  of  the  friends  of  reform," 
says  Mr.  Eaton,^  "  are  only  in  the  stage  of  disgust,  denun- 
ciation, and  general  discontent."  "They  have  not  those 
definite  views  needed  for  devising  or  even  for  giving  effective 
support  to  better  methods."  No  one  can  wonder  that  a  man 
like  Senator  Dawes,  who  has  given  years  to  the  study 
both  of  its  theory  and  practice,  should  say  with  some  weari- 
ness :  "  I  have  found  the  theoretical  reformer  very  impatient 
and  unwilling  to  listen  to  anything  but  a  reference  to  his 
demand  for  a  law  which  shall  do  this  work  and  save  us 
further  trouble."  *  And  one  can  readily  sympathize  with 
the  feeling  thus  expressed  by  a  daily  newspaper :  ^  "  But 
what  did  Senator  Dawes  expect  of  or  from  the  '  theoretical 
reformer'.?  Has  not  the 'reformer'  insisted  for  the  last 
thirty  years  that  law,  not  virtue  in  the  people,  would  sup- 
press intemperance.?  There  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  theory 
underlying  each  and  every  law.  The  trouble  with  the  re- 
formers, with  which  the  senator  is  exasperated,  is  that  their 
theory  excludes  the  most  essential  elements  of  the  problem." 

1  Sec  Mr.  Schurz's  address  at  Boston,  March  22,  iSSi ,  where  he  said  :  ♦'  What  the 
country  wants  is  an  honest,  wise,  business-like  administration  of  public  affairs.  _  It 
wants  to  havequestions  of  public  interestdiscussed  and  decided  upon  their  own  merits. 
In  order  to  have  tiiis,  the  ofliccs  of  the  government  must  cease  to  be  mere  spoils  of 
party  contests,  and  thus  the  spoils  must  cease  to  be  a  great  motive-power  in  political 
contests.  Many  who  did  not  see  this  vesterdav  see  it  to-day,  and  many  who  do  not 
see  it  to-day  will  see  it  to-morrow.  I  believe  there  is  a  growing  sentiment  in  favor 
of  a  thorough  reform,  and  greater  hope  of  its  accomplishment.  What  has  been 
«ained  in  that  direction  cannot  be  abandoned  by  either  political  party,  with  im- 
punity, and  each  party  will  find  itself  obliged  to  move  onward,  if  it  be  only  from 
motives  of  self-preservation."  „       ,    .         o 

sprinted  in  the  Sl'rinj^field  Weekly  Republican,  Sept.  30,  ibbi. 

8  «♦  Civil  .service  in  (;reat  Britain,"  p.  ^03. 
•      < Third  letter  to  the  Springfield  Republican,  dated  Aug.  13,  iSSi. 

i  Providence.  Journal,  A\xg.  19,  iSSi. 


62  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  objections  urged  do  not 
comprise  some  definite  and  clearly  stated  criticisms  of 
specific  points.  These  are  worthy  of  the  most  careful  and 
candid  study  on  the  part  of  those  who  support  the  reform.^ 
But  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  this.  It  is  the  common 
and  the  natural  course,  and  gives  us  reason  to  believe  in  its 
ultimate  establishment.  Its  experience  may  be  (to  quote 
once  more  from  Sir  Arthur  Helps)  that  of  another  great 
question  in  another  country.  This  opinion,  he  says,^  ""has 
gone  through  a  series  of  stages  of  development.  It  was  at 
first  held  by  two  or  three  thoughtful  writers,  who  perhaps 
were  the  only  persons  who  thoroughly  believed  in  it,  and 
were  willing  to  accept  all  its  consequences.  The  opinion 
very  gradually  grew  into  favor,  until  it  came  to  be  held  by 
an  overwhelming  majority."  The  practical  question  now 
is  what  shall  be  done  to  assist  in  its  development.  For  one 
thing,  no  steps  backward  should  be  permitted.  That  which 
has  been  accomplished  should  be  sacredly  guarded.  That 
so  large  a  body  of  citizens  already  believe  in  its  necessity 
should  be  only  an  additional  reason  for  extending  and  en- 
larging the  public  sentiment.  There  should  be  intelligent 
and  painstaking  study  brought  to  bear  on  the  provisions  of 

'  The  following  references  to  articles  presenting  objections  are  here  given,  not  as 
comprising  an  exhaustive  list,  but  embracing  some  which  deserve  particular  atten- 
tion :  — 

Argument  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Connell,  included  in  Mr.  Jenckes's  report  of  May  14,  1868,. 
p.  73-77. 

"  Will  democracy  tolerate  a  permanent  class  of  national  office-holders?  "  —  Lippin- 
coWs  Magazine^  Dec,  18S0,  v.  26,  p.  690-97.  [Answered  in  same  magazine,  June». 
j8Si,  v.  27,  }).  5S0-92.     "Tenure  of  office,"  by  D.  B.  Eaton.] 

•Reform  versus  reformation,"  by  A.  W.  Tourgee.  —  North  American  Review^ 
April,  >88i,  V.  133,  p.  305-19.  [Answered  in  same  magazine,  June,  18S1,  v.  133, 
p.  546-58.     *'  A  new  phase  of  the  reform  movement,"  by  D.  B.  Eaton.] 

**  I^op-holes  in  the  Pendleton  scheme  of  reform." — Boston  Advertiser,  Aug.  26, 
1881. 

A  discussion  of  the  competitive  examination  feature.  —  The  American,  April  2,  iSSi ,. 
V.  i,  p. 

Protesr.or  W.  G.  Sumner,  of  Yale  College,  a  student  of  the  reform  for  many  years, 
discusses  *' Presidential  elections  and  civil  service  reform."  —  Princeton  Revievj, 
Jan.,  1 88 1,  p.  129-4S. 

Senator  Dawes  of  Massachusetts,  who  has  been  intimately  identified  with  the  legis- 
lative discussion,  the  last  ten  years,  examined  some  of  the  features  proposed,  in  three 
letters  to  the  Springjiehi  Republican,  July  21,  July  29,  and  Aug.  15,  iSSi. 

He  was  answered  by  Mr.  Eaton  in  four  letters  to  the  same  paper,  Sept.  30  (weekly) , 
and  Oct.  7,  17,  and  24,  18S1.  Also  (perhaps'  by  a  former  cabinet  minister),  in  The 
Nation,  Auj^.  4,  iSSi,  v.  33,  p.  36.  A  conversation  with  Mr.  David  A.  Wells,  as  to 
the  constitutional  point,  is  printed  in  the  Boston  Sunday  Herald,  of  Aug.  21,  iSSi. 

For  other  articles  see  the  pamphlet,  "  The  literature  of  civil-service  reform  in  the 
United  States,"  p.  13. 

*••  Thoughts  upon  government,"  Am.  ed.,  p.  13. 


IT    IS   NOT    OPPOSED   TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  63 

the  reform  and  of  kindred  points  in  administration.  Es- 
pecially should  there  be  the  freest  discussion  of  objections, 
and  a  candid  examination  of  intelligent  criticism.  All  this, 
it  maybe  said,  will  be  practically  an  education  of  the  public. 
Precisely  ;  and,  should  this  be  accomplished,  whatever  legis- 
lation is  enacted  will  have  a  tenfold  security  of  basis.  Says 
a  daily  paper  :  — 

"  How  to  utilize  this  informed  and  awakened  public  sentiment, 
and  to  apply  the  practicable  remedy  in  law  and  in  administration,  is 
the  problem  of  the  hour." 

If  any  point  has  been  clearly  forced  upon  our  mind  in  the 
course  of  this  discussion  it  is  that  the  executive  has  repeat- 
edly appealed  for  assistance  in  the  shape  of  additional  legis- 
lation ;  that  members  of  congress  themselves  admit  its  neces- 
sity ;  and  that  the  sentiment  of  the  people  is  largely  for  that 
specific  thing.  Clearly  the  next  step  should  be  the  passage 
by  congress  of  some  bill,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  that  it  could 
do  better  than  to  pass  the  particular  bill  which  we  have  been 
considering.  Whether  this  will  be  done  is  of  course  still  a 
matter  of  speculation.  "It  may  be  true,"  says  the  New- 
Tor  k  Evening  Post^  "  that  congress,  as  at  present  con- 
stituted, is  hot  favorable  to  any  thorough-going  reform 
measure."  "But  congress  has  had  to  do  many  things  in 
obedience  to  public  opinion,  and  there  is  an  opportunity 
now  for  the  friends  of  civil-service  reform  to  make  that  opin- 
ion commanding  and  effective."  One  congressman,  during, 
the  summer,  has  expressed  the  optimistic  opinion  that  the 
civil  service  will  take  care  of  itself  if  we  only  give  the 
people  "  the  highest  mental,  moral,  and  physical  culture." 
(Senator  Ingalls,  at  Williams  College,  July  4,  1S81,) 
It  is  also  somewhat  disheartening,  as  the  Boston  Ad- 
vertiser suggests,  that,  considering  "the  length  of  time 
during  which  the  question  has  been  agitated  and  the  length 
of  time  during  which  the  system  has  been  on  trial  in  some 
form,  here  and  elsewhere,  some  of  our  congressmen  show  a 
singular  unfamiliarity  with  its  place  and  usefulness  as  an 
adjunct  of  the  civil  service." 

In  his  letter  to  the  "  Springfield  Republican''  dated 
Sept.  22,  1S81,  Mr.  Eaton  says:  — 

"  It  now  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  senators  and  representa- 
tives from  Massachusetts  will  be  ready  to  take  that  lead  upon  the- 


«64  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

subject,  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  which  her  people  have  taken 
-among  the  States.     And  who  can  doubt  that  they  will?" 

About  the  date  of  this  letter  the  annual  Republican  State 
Convention  in  Mr.  Dawes's  state  (Massachusetts)  was  held. 
At  this,  as  at  every  previous  state  convention  since  1875, 
intelligent  resolutions  were  adopted  on  the  subject  of  the 
civil  service.  The  platform  of  this  year,  however,  says 
'-^  The  JS/ation''  (Sept.  29,  1881,  p.  242),  "goes  one  step 
further  than  any  party  platform  has  hitherto  done,  in  the 
minuteness  of  its  definition  of  a  'thorough  reform,'"  "It 
will  be  difficult,"  adds  The  Natiofi^  "for  any  Massachu- 
setts representative,  at  least,  to  get  round  the  above  in  any 
creditable  way."  They  "are  cut  off  by  the  platform  from 
the  work  of  barren  criticism."  In  this  connection  it  is 
worthy  of  notice  that  Mr.  Rice,  a  representative  from 
Massachusetts,  has  stated  definitely  :  — 

"  As  I  am  at  present  advised,  my  opinion  is  that  the  first  thing  is 
for  congress  to  enact  (similar)  legislation,  leaving  the  execution  of 
it  to  heads  of  departments,  and  watch  the  result."  ' 

Also  that  Mr.  Hoar,  the  junior  senator  from  Massachu- 
setts, has,  in  a  current  periodical  article,^  given  the  Pen- 
dleton bill  the  weight  of  his  approval.     He  says  :  — 

"It  has  worked  well  in  several  important  offices.  Its  adoption  will 
bean  emphatic  expression,  both  by  congress  and  the  executive,  of  a 
desire  to  cooperate  in  getting  away  from  the  evils  of  the  existing 
system.  It  will  enable  the  executive  to  make  an  honest  and  earnest 
effort  to  take  the  civil  service  of  the  country  out  of  politics,  under 
circumstances  which  promise  the  cooperation  of  congress  and  the 
support  of  public  opinion."    (p.  476,) 

The  need  of  caution  in  estimating  the  extent  of  public 
sentiment  has  been  touched  upon  in  these  pages.  No  stu- 
dent of  history  or  political  science  will  question  the  fact  that 
legislation  without  a  sound  basis  of  public  sentiment  is 
valueless.  There  is,  however,  such  a  thing  as  erring  in  the 
direction  of  allowing  legislation  to  lag  too  far  behind  the 
sentiment  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  opposite  error.     In 

'  Boston  Advertiser,  July  30,  iSSi. 

2 "The  appointin;?  power"  by  Senator  George  F.  Hoar,  North  American  Review^ 
Nov.,  18S1,  p.  464-76. 


IT    IS    NOT    OPPOSED    TO    PUBLIC    SENTIMENT.  65 

fact,  as  Mr.  Eaton  says,  in  a  third  letter  to  the  Springfield 
Republican  (dated  Sept.  25,  18S1)  :  — 

"  In  Webster's  speech  on  the  Greek  revolution,  he  treateddebate 
in  congress  as  a  fit  means  of  arousing  and  guiding  a  sound  public 
opinion.  In  his  view,  and  in  that  of  Mr.  Sumner,  as  I  interpret 
them,  it  is  the  part  of  a  statesman  and  legislator  not  to  doubt  and 
hesitate  in  silence,  until  swept  on  by  an  omnipotent  sentiment,  but 
to  speak  early  in  behalf  of  what  ought  to  be  done,  and  to  speak  fear- 
lessly, for  the  encouragement  of  the  spirit  and  intelligence  which 
make  it  possible.  'There  are  excitements  to  duty,'  says  Mr.  Web- 
ster in  his  oration  at  Bunker  Hill,  '  but  they  are  not  suggestions  of 
doubt'  It  is  a  part  of  the  duties  and  functions  of  a  legislator  not 
only  to  discover  and  arraign  abuses  in  the  public  administration, 
but  to  devise  and  put  in  force  the  proper  remedies.  They  have  no 
right  to  be  ignorant  as  to  such  remedies." 

Certainly  there  are  few  who  better  express  the  sentiment 
of  Massachusetts  than  her  present  able  and  statesmanlike 
governor.  Governor  Long,  as  reported  in  the  Boston 
Traveller^  (J^^J  27,  188 [),  says  :  — 

"  Mr.  Dawes  would  have  done  better  service "  (than  in  seek- 
ing some  other  remedy)  "  if  he  had  developed  the  simple,  practi- 
cal, and  excellent  plan  reported  last  year  by  the  committee  of  which 
he  is  an  able  member,  and  of  which  Mr.  Pendleton  is  chairman. 
It  is  a  plan  which  has  the  merit  of  working  no  violent  changes. 
It  applies  only  to  bureaus  where  fifty  or  more  appointees  are  em- 
ployed. In  New  England,  therefore,  it  would  affect,  I  take  it,  only 
the* Boston  Custom  House  and  Post  Office.  Its  adoption  would  make 
no  more  shock  tl»n  the  shifting  of  a  belt  from  one  wheel  to  another. 
It  guards  against  unfit  and  mistaken  selections,  by  putting  every 
successful  candidate  upon  probation,  so  that  if  with  all  his  success 
and  merit  in  passing  examination  he  fails  after  a  few  months'  trial 
in  practical  work,  he  receives  no  appointment,  and  gives  way  to  the 
next  in  order.  This  reform  is  coming  as  sure  as  fate,"  "  not  because 
we  have  not  good  men  now  in  our  civil  service,  nor  because,  indeed, 
we  can  much  improve  on  them  ;  not  because  it  is  English  ;  but  be- 
cause it  is  fair,  because  it  is  democratic,  and  gives  to  the  people  equal 
chance  to  go  in  on  their  merit  and  not  on  their  control  of  political 
infiuences.  And,  finally,  it  is  coming  because  the  business  interests 
of  the  people  demand  it,  —  demand  that  the  congressman  shall  give 
his  time,  which  is  their  time,  to  questions  of  legislation  and  not  of 
office  filling,—  and  because  the  congressman  himself  feels  the  im- 
perative need  of  such  relief."  "  But  just  as  soon  as  the  Pendleton- 
Dawes  bill  is  made  plain  to  the  people,  and  they  see  what  a  practical 
measure  it  is,  and  realize  its  value,  they  will  compel  the  adoption 
of  it  or  something  else  as  good." 

1  Quoted  in  Civil  Service  Record,  No.  4,  Aug.  13,  18S1. 


66  THE    CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM    MOVEMENT. 

It  has  been  questioned  by  certain  journals  whether  "the 
active  politicians  in  this  country,"  and  "  those  in  Washington 
upon  whose  shoulders  the  responsibilities  of  the  government 
rest,  realize  the  depth  of  feeling  that  has  been  stirred  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people  of  this  country  on  the  subject  of  civil- 
service  reform."  It  is  certainly  to  be  hoped  that  they  do.  In- 
deed the  testimony  collected  here,  as  well  as  in  another  part 
of  this  discussion,  shows  that  some  of  them  at  least  appreciate 
it ;  and  if  they  do  not,  certainly  the  people  are  to  be  blamed 
for  not  expressing  their  convictions  in  unmistakable  form.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  in  a  representative  government, 
the  legislative  body  expresses  in  the  long  run  the  popular 
voice  ;  and,  to  quote  once  more  from  a  journal  not  commit- 
ted by  any  means  to  the  support  of  this  bill  (the  Provi- 
dence Journal) :  — 

"  When  it  is  really  thought  better  to  limit  or  regulate  this  power, 
the  voice  of  the  people  will  be  heard.  Congress  will  pass  just  such 
laws  as  the  constituencies  of  the  members  by  a  large  majority  agree 
upon.  There  is  no  man  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  more  amenable 
to  reason  than  a  congressman,  when  that  reason  is  backed  by  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  votes." 

Among  the  duties  justly  considered  imperative  in  this 
matter,  not  the  least  imperative  is  that  of  the  people  them- 
selves, to  manifest  their  convictions. 


^ 


APPENDIX. 


THE   PENDLETON  BILL. 

A  Bill  to   Regulate  and  Improve  the  Civil  Service  of  the 
United  States. 

Wkereas  common  justice  requires  that,  so  far  as  practicable,  all 
citizens  duly  qualified  shall  be  allowed  equal  opportunities,  on 
grounds  of  personal  fitness,  for  securing  appointments,  employ- 
ment, and  promotion  in  the  subordinate  civil  service  of  the  United 
States ;  and  whereas  justice  to  the  public  likewise  requires  that  the 
government  shall  have  the  largest  choice  among  those  likelv  to  an- 
swer the  requirements  of  the  public  service;  and  whereas" justice, 
as  well  as  economy,  efficiency,  and  integrity  in  the  public  service, 
will  be  promoted  by  substitutijig  open  and  uniform  competitive  ex- 
aminations for  the  examinations  heretofore  held  in  pursuance  of  the 
statutes  of  1853  and  1855  :  therefore. 

Be  it  enacted,  etc.  :  That  the  president  is  authorized  to  designate 
and  employ  five  persons,  not  more  than  three  of  whom  shall  be  ad- 
herents of  the  same  party,  as  Civil-Service  Commissioners,  and  said 
five  commissioners  shall  constitute  the  United  States  Civil-Service 
Commission.  Three  of  said  commissioners  shall  hold  no  other 
official  place  under  the  United  States,  and  the  other  two  shall  be  ex- 
perienced officers  in  the  public  service  in  Washington,  but  not  in 
the  same  department,  and  shall  remain  commissioners  no  longer 
than  they  shall  remain  in  the  public  service  in  some  department, 
and  reside  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  president  may  remove  any  commissioner  for  good  cause, 
after  allowing  him  an  opportunity  for  making  an  explanation  in 
answer  to  any  charges  against  him,  such  cause  to  be  stated  in 
writing  in  the  order  of  removal,  which  shall  be  filed  with  the  sec- 
retary of  state;  but  no  removal  shall  be  made  by  reason  of  opinions 
or  party  affiliations;  and  any  vacancy  in  the  position  of  commis- 
sioner shall  be  so  filled  by  the  president  as  to  conform  to  said  con- 
ditions for  the  first  selection  of  commissioners. 

The  three  commissioners  required  not  to  hold  any  other  official 
place  shall  each  receive  a  salary  of  $3,500  a  year,  and  the  two 
members  holding  some  other  public  office  shall  each  receive  a  salary 
of  $500  a  year  in  addition  to  their  respective  salaries  in  said  office. 
And  each  of  said  commissioners  shall  be  paid  his  necessary  ex- 
penses incurred  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  a  commissioner. 

67 


68  APPENDIX. 


Sect.  2.  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  commission  :  — 

First.  To  devise  and  submit  to  the  president  for  his  approval  and 
promulgation,  from  time  to  time,  suitable  rules,  and  to  suggest  ap- 
propriate action  for  making  this  act  effective  ;  and  when  so  approved 
and  promulgated  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  officers  of  the  United 
States  in  the  departments  and  offices  to  which  any  such  rules  may 
relate,  to  aid,  in  all  proper  ways,  in  carrying  said  rules,  and  any 
modifications  thereof,  into  effect. 

Second.  And,  among  other  things,  said  rules  shall  provide  and 
declare,  as  nearly  as  the  conditions  of  good  administration  shall 
warrant,  as  follows  :  — 

Firsts  for  open,  competitive  examinations  for  testing  the  capacity 
of  applicants  for  the  public  service  now  classified  or  to  be  classified 
hereunder; 

Second.,  that  all  the  offices,  places,  and  employments  so  arranged 
or  to  be  arranged  in  classes  shall  be  filled  by  selections  from  among 
those  graded  highest  as  the  results  of  such  competitive  examina- 
tions. 

Third.,  that  original  entrance  to  the  public  service  aforesaid  shall 
be  at  the  lowest  grade  ; 

Fourth.,  that  there  shall  be  a  period  of  probation  before  any  abso- 
lute appointment  or  emploj-^ment  aforesaid ; 

Fifth.,  that  promotions  shall  be  from  the  lower  grades  to  the 
higher  on  the  basis  of  merit  and  competition ; 

Sixth,  that  no  person  in  the  public  service  is  for  that  reason 
uncfer  any  obligation  to  contribute  to  any  political  fund,  or  to  render 
any  political  service,  and  that  he  will  not  be  removed  or  otherwise 
prejudiced  for  refusing  to  do  so; 

Seve7ith,  that  no  person  in  said  service  has  any  right  to  use  his 
official  authority  or  influence  to  coerce  the  political  action  of  any 
person  or  body; 

Eighth.,  there  shall  be  non-competitive  examinations  in  all 
proper  cases  before  the  commission,  when  competition  may  not  be 
found  practicable ; 

Ninth,  that  notice  shall  be  given  in  writing  to  said  commission 
of  the  persons  selected  for  appointment  or  employment  from  among 
those  who  have  been  examined,  of  the  rejection  of  any  such  persons 
after  probation,  and  of  the  date  thereof,  and  a  record  of  the  same 
shall  be  kept  by  said  commission. 

And  any  necessary  exceptions  from  said  nine  fundamental  provi- 
sions of  the  rules  shall  be  set  forth  in  connection  with  such  rules, 
and  the  reasons  therefor  shall  be  stated  in  the  annual  reports  of  the 
commission. 

Third.  Said  commission  shall  make  regulations  for,  and  have 
control  of,  such  examinations,  and,  through  its  members  or  the  ex- 
aminers, it  shall  supervise  and  preserve  the  records  of  the  same;  and 
said  commission  shall  keep  minutes  of  its  own  proceedings. 

Fourth.  Said  commission  may  make  investigations  concerning 
the  facts,  and  may  report  upon  all  matters  touching  the  enforcement 
and  effects  of  said  rules  and  regulations,  and  concerning  the  action 


THE    PENDLETON    BILL.  69 


of  any  examiner  or  board  of  examiners,  and  its  own  subordinates, 
and  those  in  the  public  service,  in  respect  to  the  execution  of  this 
act. 

Fifth.  Said  commission  shall  make  an  annual  report  to  the 
president,  for  transmission  to  congress,  showing  its  own  action, 
the  rules  and  regulations,  and  the  exception  thereto  in  force,  the 
practical  effects  thereof,  and  any  suggestion  it  may  approve  for  the 
more  effectual  accomplishment  of  the  purposes  of  this  act. 

Sect.  3.  That  said  commission  is  authorized  to  employ  a  chief 
examiner,  who  may  also  be  the  secretary  of  the  commission,  a  part 
of  whose  duty  it  shall  be,  under  its  direction,  to  act  with  the  ex- 
amining boards,  so  far  as  practicable,  whether  at  Washington  or 
elsewhere,  and  to  secure  accuracy,  uniformity,  and  justice  in  all 
their  proceedings,  which  shall  be  at  all  times  open  to  him.-' 
»  After  an  opportunity  of  being  heard  in  explanatiorf  of  any  charge 
against  him,  he  may  be  removed  by  the  commission  for  cause  to  be 
entered  on  its  minutes,  and  a  successor  appointed.  The  chief  ex- 
aminer shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  salary  at  the  rate  of  $4,000  a 
year,  and  he  shall  be  paid  his  necessary  travelling  expenses  incurred 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duty. 

The  commission  is  also  "authorized  to  employ  a  stenographer  and 
copyist,  who  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  salary  of  $i,6oo  a  year, 
and  he  may  be  removed  and  a  successor  appointed  as  is  provided  as 
to  the  chief  examiner.  The  commission  may  also  engage  the 
services  of  a  messenger,  at  a  salary  of  $600  a  year,  and  may  dismiss 
the  same  at  pleasure. 

The  commission  may,  at  Washington,  and  in  any  other  part  of 
the  country  where  examinations  are  to  take  place,  designate  and  select 
a  suitable'  number  of  persons  in  the  official  service  of  the  United 
States,  after  consulting  the  head  of  the  department  or  office  in  which 
such  person  serves,  to  be  members  of  boards  of  examiners,  and  may 
at  any  time  substitute  any  other  person  in  such  service  in  the  place 
of  any  one  so  selected. 

And  any  person  so  selected  shall  be  entitled,  during  the  period  he 
shall  serve  on  any  such  board,  to  receive  a  compensation  for  such 
service  at  a  rate  not  exceeding  $500  a  year  in  addition  to  his  regular 
salary  in  the  public  service;  the  amount  of  such  additional  compen- 
sation to  be  approved  by  the  president,  but  the  whole  of  such  addi- 
tional compensation  which  shall  be  authorized  to  be  paid  in  any  one 
year  to  all  the  examiners  shall  not  exceed  $io,oo3.  It  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  collector,  postmaster,  and  other  officers  of  the  United 
States,  at  any  place  outside  the  District  of  Columbia  where  examina- 
tions are  directed  by  the  president  or  by  said  board  to  be  held,  to  allow 
the  reasonable  use  of  the  public  buildings  for  holding  such  examina- 
tions, and  in  all  proper  ways  to  facilitate  the  same. 

Sect.  4.  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  the  interior 
to  cause  suitable  and  convenient  rooms  and  accommodations  to  be 
assigned  or  provided,  and  to  be  furnished,  heated,  and  lighted,  at 


70  APPENDIX. 


the  city  of  Washington,  for  carrying  on  the  work  of  said  commission 
and  said  examinations,  and  to  cause  the  necessary  stationery  and 
other  articles  to  be  supplied,  and  the  necessary  printing  to  be  done 
for  said  commission.  And  the  cost  and  expense  thereof,  and  the 
several  salaries,  compensations,  and  necessary  expenses  hereinbefore 
mentioned,  upon  the  same  being  stated  in  detail  and  verified  by 
affidavit,  shall  be  paid  from  any  money  in  the  treasury  not  other- 
wise appropriated. 

Sect.  5.  That  any  said  commissioner,  examiner,  copyist,  or 
any  person  in  the  public  service,  who  shall  wilfully  and  corruptly, 
by  himself  or  in  cooperation  with  one  or  more  other  persons,  defeat, 
deceive,  or  obstruct  any  person,  in  respect  of  his  or  her  right  of  ex- 
amination according  to  any  such  rules  or  regulations,  or  who  shall 
wilfully,  corruptly,  and  falsely  mark,  grade,  estimate,  or  report 
upon  the  examination  or  proper  standing  of  any  person  examined 
hereunder,  or  aid  in  so  doing,  or  who  shall  wiffully  and  corruptly 
make  any  false  representations  concerning  the  same,  or  concern- 
ing the  person  examined,  or  who  shall  wilfully  and  cerruptlj'- 
furnish  to  any  person  any  special  or  secret  information  for  the  pur- 
pose of  either  improving  or  injuring  the  prospect  or  chances  of  any 
person  so  examined,  or  to  be  examined,  being  appointed,  employed, 
or  promoted,  shall  for  each  such  offence  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, 
and,  upon  conviction  thereof,  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not  less 
than  $100  nor  more  than  $1,000,  or  by  imprisonment  not  less  than 
ten  days  nor  more  than  one  year,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  impris- 
onment. 

Sect.  6.  Within  sixty  days  after  the  passage  of  this  act  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  as  near  conformity  as 
may  be  to  the  classification  of  certain  clerks  now  existing  under  the 
163d  section  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  to  arrange  in  classes  the  sev- 
eral clerks  and  persons  employed  by  the  collector,  naval  officer,  sur- 
veyor, and  appraisers,  or  either  of  them,  or  being  in  the  public 
service,  at  their  respective  offices  in  each  customs  district  where  the 
whole  number  of  said  clerks  and  persons  shall  be  all  together  as 
many  as  fifty.  And  thereafter,  from  time  to  time,  on  the  request  of 
the  president,  said  secretary  shall  make  the  like  classification  or 
arrangement  of  clerks  and  persons  so  employed,  in  connection  with 
any  said  office  or  offices,  in  any  other  customs  district.  And  upon 
like  request,  and  for  the  purposes  of  this  act,  said  secretary  shall 
arrange  in  one  or  more  of  said  classes  or  of  existing  classes,  any 
other  clerks,  agents,  or  persons  employed  under  his  department  in 
any  said  district  not  now  classified ;  and  every  such  arrangement  and 
classification,  upon  being  made,  shall  be  reported  to  the  president. 

Second.  Within  said  sixty  daj^s  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  post- 
master-general, in  general  conformity  to  said  163d  section,  to  sep- 
arately arrange  in  classes  the  several  clerks  and  persons  employed, 
or  in  the  public  service,  at  each  post-office  or  under  any  postmaster 
of  the   United  States  where  the  whole  number  of  said  clerks  and 


I 


THE    PENDLETON    BILL.  71 

persons  shall  together  amount  to  as  many  as  fifty.  And  thereafter, 
from  time  to  time,  on  the  request  of  the  president,  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  postmaster-general  to  arrange  in  like  classes  the  clerks 
and  persons  so  employed  in  the  postal  service  in  connection  with 
any  other  post-offices ;  and  every  such  arrangement  and  classifica- 
tion, upon  being  made,  shall  be  reported  to  the  president. 

Third.  That  from  time  to  time  said  secretary,  the  postmaster- 
general,  and  each  of  the  heads  of  departments  mentioned  in  the 
158th  section  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  and  each  head  of  an  office, 
shall,  on  the  request  of  the  president,  and  for  facilitating  the  execu- 
tion of  this  act,  respectively  revise  any  then  existing  classification 
or  arrangement  of  those  in  their  respective  departments  and  offices, 
and  shall,  for  the  purpose  of  the  examinations  herein  provided  for, 
include  in  one  or  more  of  such  classes,  so  far  as  practicable,  subor- 
dinate places,  clerks  and  officers  in  the  public  service,  pertaining  to 
their  respective  departments  not  before  classified  for  examination. 

Sect.  7.  After  the  expiration  of  four  months  from  the  passage 
of  this  act  no  officer  or  clerk  shall  be  appointed,  and  no  person  shall 
be  employed  to  enter  or  be  promoted  in  either  of  the  said  classes 
now  existing,  or  that  may  be  arranged  hereunder  pursuant  to  said 
rules,  until  he  has  passed  an  examination,  or  is  shown  to  be 
specially  exempted  from  such  examination  in  conformity'  herewith. 

But  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  to  take  from 
those  honorably  discharged  from  the  military  or  naval  service  any 
preference  conferred  by  the  1754th  section  of  the  Revised  Statutes, 
nor  to  take  from  the  president  any  authority  not  inconsistent  with 
this  act  conferred  by  the  1753d  section  of  said  statutes ;  nor  shall 
any  otiicer  not  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  government,  or  any 
person  merely  employed  as  a  laborer  or  workman,  be  required  to  be 
classified  hereunder;  nor,  unless  by  direction  of  the  senate,  shall 
any  person  who  has  been  nominated  for  confirmation  by  the  senate 
be  required  to  be  classified  or  to  pass  an  examination. 


INDEX 


Abuses i5)  51 

Administrations,  Changes  of        ....         .  40,  41,  50 

Akerman,  Hon.  A.  T.  (attorney-general) ii 

Appointments  to  office  ....  6,  10-12,  36-37,  40,  43-45 
"  Aristocracy  (An)  of  office-holders,"  alleged      .         .         .      7-8,62 

Arthur,  President  C.  A. 27 

Assassination  of  President  Garfield  ....  20,  22,  34,  54 
Assessments,  Political  ........       35,  41 

Associations,  Civil-service  reform 38,  55 

Attorneys-General,  Official  opinions  of        ...         .        ii-i2 

Beard,  Alanson  W.  (collector  of  the  port  of  Boston)  .  .  17 
Bills.     (The  Jenckes  bills) 32 

—  (The  Pendleton  bill) 67 

—  (The  Willis  bill) 7,  32,  41 

Boston  Civil-service  Reform  Association 55 

Boston  Custom  House  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .        17,  65 

Business  community.  Sentiment  of  16, 18,  19,  20,  28,  29,  34,  54,  55,  65 
Business-like  methods   .....  19,  20,  24-29,  30-31 

Cabinet  officers 19-23,  41 

Caucus,  The 9 

Chace,  Hon.  J 53 

Changes  of  officers  for  political  reasons  7,  18,  36-37,  40,  41,  50-51 

Church  Congress  at  Providence,  1881 36,  55 

Civil-service  commission  .....  11,12,31,33,48 
Civil-service  Reform  Associations  .....'  38,  55 
Clerks  under  operation  of  Pendleton  bill     .         .         .         .         -33 

Coercion,  Prevention  of 7,  32,  41 

Collectors,  Four  years'  term  of     .         .         .         .         .         .         "36 

Commissions.     See  Civil-service  commission. 

Competitive  examinations     .         .         12,  14-16,  18,  20-29,  42-43>  49 

Congress,  Action  of       .         .         .         .         .         .       n?  12,  49,  63-66 

Congressmen,  Sentiments  of  .  .  .  41-42,  52-53,  55,  63-66 
Constitutional  provision  as  to  appointments  .  .  .  10-12 
Constitutionality  of  civil-service  reform       .         .         .  10-12,  62 

Constructive  features  of  the  reform 46-51 

72 


INDEX. 


75 


Consular  appointments . 
Contributions  by  office-holders 
Conventions,  Political  . 
Cost  of  administration  reduced 
"  Courtesy  of  the  senate"     . 
Cox,  Hon.  J.  D.      . 
Curtis,  George  William 
Custom-houses 


Dawes,  Senator  H.  L.  . 

Definite  plans  of  reform 

Democratic  nature  of  the  reform 

Departments,  Executive 

Destructive,  Not     . 

Drills  and  tests  in  New  York  Post  Office 

Duties  of  civil-service  commissioners  . 


Page- 

34-35,  47 
.     41 

•  55,  56 
16,  19,  20 

•  6,43-45 
13,  41 

2Q-2I,  33,  34,  39,  41,  50,  53,  54 
12,   14-17,  27-28,  29,  41,  44,  51,  65 


35r  42,  46;  52,  53,  61,  62,  64,  65 

30-3& 

5-9,  48,  65 

10-11,33,  41 

33»  46-51 

.     26 

31-32 


Eaton,  Dorman  B.  6,  12,  14,   15,   16,   17,   18,  26-30,  36,  40,  42, 

47-48,  61-63 

Edmunds,  Senator  G.  F .43 

Eliot,  President  C.  W.,  of  Harvard  University    .         .         .         -57 
England.     See  Great  Britain. 

European  governments .        47-4S 

Examinations,  Competitive  .         .         12,  14-16,  18,  20-29,  42-43»  49 

"  Examinations,  Pass" 18 

Examinations,  Topics  of 24-26 

Examining  board ii,  12 

Executive,  Functions  of  the  .         .         .         .         10,  11,  40,  41,  43-45 

Executive  departments i9-23>  39-4^ 

Existing  legislation 11,12,49 

Expense,  Provision  for 3i>  42 


Fixed  term  of  office 

Four  years'  term  (for  collectors,  etc.) 


•    3^ 
36-37 


Garfield,  President  J.  A.,  10,  19,  20,  22,  40-42,  44-45,  51,  54,  56-59 

Grant,  President  U.  S 39,  44 

Great  Britain,  Civil  service  of       ...         .     7-8,  13,  26,  47-49 
Growth  of  public  sentiment 53-54,  56 

Hayes,  President  R.  B 13,  14,  18,  20,  27,  39,  48 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur 43-47,48-49,51,62 

*'  Higher  officers,"  not  under  provisions  of  Pendleton  bill  .        33-35 
Hoar"^  Senator  G.  F 43,  64 


Impracticable,  Not 
Indefinite,  Not 
Ingalls,  Senator  J.  J. 
Interior  Department 


13-23,  61 

•       30-38 

.        .        .    63 

13-14,  22,  41,  53 


74 


INDEX. 


James,  Hon.  Thomas  L. 
Jenckes,  Hon.  Thomas  A. 
Johnson,  President  A.   . 
Justice,  Department  of  . 


KiRKWooD,  Hon.  S.  J.  . 

Law  of  1820.     (Four  years'  term) 
Legare,  Hon.  H.  S.   (attorney-general) 
Legislation,  Efforts  at,  1867  to  1881 
Legislation,  Existing     . 
Legislation  not  unnecessary 
Legislation  (The)  of  1871 
Legislative  department 

Life  tenure 

**  Literary"  nature  of  the  examination 
Literature  of  civil-service  reform  . 
Long,  Hon.  John  D.      .         .         . 


Page 
14,  17-20,  25,  27,  28,  31,  53 
.    32 
.    44 
.     22 


s  alleged 


22,  23,  41 

36-37 
.     12 

•     31 

II,  12,  37,  49 

39-45,  63-66 

II,  32,  33 

10,  39,  41,  42 

•       35,  36 

.       24,  25 

.       31, 55 
.        .    65 


MacVeagh,  Hon.  W 12,  22 

Massachusetts  Republican  platform,  18S1     .         .         .  11,56,64 

Merritt,  Edwin  A.  (late  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York)  14,  15,  16, 

17,  27,  28,  29,  53 
Misconceptions  of  the  proposed  reform  .  .  .  .  35,  6i 
Moderation  of  the  proposed  reform       ....  35,  49-50 

Murphy,  Thomas 15,  16 

Navy  Department 22 

Necessity  for  legislation 39-45 

New  York,  Number  of  clerks  in 33 

New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce        ....  16,  17,  28 

New  York  Civil-service  Reform  Association  .  .  .  14,  55 
New  York  Custom  House  .  .  12,  14-17,27-28,29,41,44,51 
New  York  Post  Office    .        .        .        .        .14,  17-19,  25,  26,  27,  41 

Newport  conference  of  1881 38 

Nominations  to  office lo-ii,  43-45 

Number  of  employes 33 

Objections  to  civil-service  reform 60-62 

Office,  Tenure  of .        •    14,  33,  35*37 

Office-holders 8,  36 

Offices,  Number  of  (under  provisions  of  Pendleton  bill)  .  .  33 
Office-seekers,  .  8,  20-21,  22,  34,  39,  40,  41,  42,  45,  52,  53,  54,  65 
Omissions  in  Pendleton  bill 33-37 

Parties,  PoliticaL        .......  32,50,55,56 

Partisan  appointments 50-51 

*' Pass  examinations"    . 18 

Patronage 5,  3i»  48,  50-5» 


INDEX.  75 


Page 

Pearson,  Henry  G.,  postmaster  of  New  York      .        .        .        .28 

Pendleton,  Senator  G.  H 30,  65 

Pendleton  bill        .        .        .         .7,  30-38,  49,  50,  62,  63,  64,  65,  67 

Politicians,  Professional 56,  59-60 

Post-offices 14,  17-19,  20,  25,  26,  27,  41,  65 

Post-office  Department ........        19-20 

Practical  nature  of  civil-service  reform         .  13-23,  30-31,  37,  6i 

Prerogative  of  the  President .         .         .         .         10,  11,40,41,43-45 

President,  The        .         .         .         .         .         .         10,  11,  40,  41,  43-45 

Primary  meetings 6-7 

Probation 28,  29,  49,  65 

Promotion 14,  24,  31,  32 

Providence  Board  of  Trade 24 

Public  sentiment 38,  52-66 

Publications  on  civil-service  reform      ......     55 

Removals  for  political  reasons     .        .        7,  18,  36-37,  40,  41,  50-51 

Representative  government 8,  66 

Republican  party 56 

Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States ii>  32 

Rice,  Hon.  W.  W 64 

Robertson,  W.  H.  (collector  of  the  port  of  New  York)       .         .     17 

Robinson,  Hon.  G.  D 29,  42 

Rotation  in  office 8,  24,  36 

ScHURZ,  Hon.  C 13,  14,  20,  41,  50,  53,  6t 

Senate,  Functions  of  the 10 

Senatorial  "  courtesy  " 6,43-45 

Soldiers  and  sailors.     (Provisions  of  Revised  Statutes)      .         .     12 

Specific  plan  of  civil-service  reform 30-38 

"  Spoils  system"  .        5-9,  10,  17,  18,  21,  24,  39-43,  48,  50-51,  58-60 

State  Department 22 

Statesmanship 56-60 

Statistics 16,  18,  19,  20,  26 

Statute  of  1 87 1 II,  32>33 

Statutes.     See  Revised  Statutes 11,  32 

Tenure  of  office i4>  33>  35-37 

Tenure  of  office  act  of  1867 44 

Tenure  of  commissioners 32 

Thayer,  Adin 9 

♦♦Theoretical  reformers" 61 

Treasury  Department 6,  13,  20-22,  27 

Unbusiness-like,  Not 24-29 

Unconstitutional,  Not 10-12 

Undemocratic,  Not 5"9»  48,  65 

Unnecessary,  Not 39*45 


INDEX. 


Page 

War  Department 22 

Washington,  Number  of  clerks  in 33 

Washington,  President  George 43 

Webster,  Daniel 36-37,  65 

Willis  bill 7,  32,  41 

Windom,  Hon.  William 12,  20-22,  27 

Appendix  —  Pendleton  bill .        .        .        .        .        .        .        '67 


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