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Learn about the 1883 law that established the merit system for most federal government jobs in the United States. Find out how it ended the spoils system, who sponsored it, and what impact it had on politics and society.
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Feb 8, 2022 · The Pendleton Act established a merit-based system of selecting government officials and supervising their work. It was enacted after the assassination of President Garfield by a disgruntled job seeker and applied to most of the federal government positions today.
Learn about the 1883 law that created the merit system for federal jobs in the U.S. and ended the spoils system of political patronage. Find out how the act was passed, who sponsored it, and how it was expanded over time.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Drafting of The Pendleton Act
- Garfield’s Assassination and Its Influence on The Law
- The Civil Service Reformed
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The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was named for its primary sponsor, Senator George Pendleton, a Democrat from Ohio. But it was primarily written by a noted attorney and crusader for civil service reform, Dorman Bridgman Eaton (1823-1899). During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, Eaton had been the head of the first civil service commiss...
Presidents for decades had been annoyed by office-seekers. For instance, so many people looking for government jobs visited the White House during the administration of Abraham Lincoln that he built a special hallway he could use to avoid encountering them. And there are many stories about Lincoln complaining that he had to spend so much of his tim...
Proposals such as those put forward by Dorman Eaton were suddenly taken much more seriously. Under Eaton’s proposals, the civil service would award jobs based on merit examinations, and a civil service commission would oversee the process. The new law, essentially as drafted by Eaton, passed the Congress and was signed by President Chester Alan Art...
The Pendleton Act was a law passed in 1883 to end the political patronage system in the federal government. It established merit-based examinations and a civil service commission to award jobs and regulate the system.
The Pendleton Act is a federal law passed in 1883 that ended the spoils system of political patronage and established competitive examinations for hiring civil servants. It also created the United States Civil Service Commission and banned political activity by civil servants.
The Pendleton Act of 1883 established the merit system and the classified civil service in the federal government, based on fair and open competition, neutral examination, and protection from political influence. The chapter reviews the evolution of the federal merit system and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which introduced pay for performance programs for mid- and upper-level managers.
An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States by establishing a Civil Service Commission and competitive examinations. The act also defined the duties, powers, and compensation of the commission and its members, and provided for annual reports and investigations.
