Pendleton Civil Service Act :: essays research papers

Pendleton cultivated Service ActSince the beginning of the government, pile gained and lost their jobs whenever a new president took procedure. These jobs were political pay-offs for people who supported them. Many people did not take their jobs too seriously because they knew they would be out of their office soon. As Henry Clay put it, government officials after an election are "like the inhabitants of Cairo when the plague breaks out no adept knows who is next to encounter the stroke of death." Over the years the f truths that were made and the problems that resulted became to a greater extent obvious. After an election you could open a newspaper and find legion(predicate) advertisements, which offered government jobs that were filled before the election. On January 16, 1883 the U.S. legislation established a law, which gave employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation that leads to corruption in the government system. Widespread globe deman d for reform in the government was stirred after the Civil War by accusations of incompetence, corruption, and theft in federal official departments. After a guy who was refused an office job that he was capable of assassinated professorship James A. Garfield in 1881, civilized service reform became a leading issue in the elections of 1882. In January 1883, Congress passed a comprehensive civil service bank note sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton, providing for the open selection of government employees and guaranteeing the good of citizens to compete for federal jobs without regard to politics, religion, race, or national origin. The new law covered only about 10 percent of the positions in the federal government, but nearly every president after Chester A. Arthur, who signed the bill into law, broadened its scope. By 1980 more than 90 percent of federal employees were protected by the act. The Pendleton Civil Service Act classified certain jobs, removed them from the ra nks, and mold up a Civil Service Commission to oversee a system based on merit and not political stance. The agency draws up the rules governing examinations for those positions that Congress places in the classified civil service.