History of the United States II / Unit 5 USH2 0607 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
From Assassination to Reform
The idea
Garfield's successor, Chester Arthur, had risen through the spoils system himself, yet on January sixteenth, eighteen eighty-three, he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act. The act created a Civil Service Commission and required that certain federal jobs be filled through open, competitive examinations, awarded on merit. Digital History says only about ten percent of the government's one hundred thirty-two thousand civilian jobs were covered at first. Future presidents were barred from shrinking the list, so it could only grow.
In practice
An office seeker sitting an examination instead of presenting a letter from his party boss.
Where people slip
Cause and effect sit at adjacent numbers here. A man killed a president over a patronage job, and a president shaped by patronage signed the law that began to end it. The reform was small at the start and permanent in design: the list of merit jobs could lengthen but never shorten.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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