REFORM IN THE CIVIL SERVICE. 



691 



1868), going over the whole subject, and point- 

 ing out the evils of the old system. The tes- 

 timony of public officers was pretty nearly 

 unanimous that the appointees recommended 

 by Congressmen were the least diligent and effi- 

 cient ; and that an equal amount of work could 

 be performed by a less number of persons, 

 and that the efficiency of the service would be 

 increased if all new appointments were to be 

 made to the lowest grade only, out of candidates 

 that should pass a rigid test examination, and 

 if candidates for promotion should pass a simi- 

 lar test examination. As a remedy for the fla- 

 grant evils of patronage, the committee pre- 

 sented a bill providing for a department of the 

 civil service, of which the Vice-President of 

 the United States should be the head, and for 

 a board of Civil- Service Commissioners, of 

 which the same officer should be chairman, 

 which should conduct the examinations under 

 the act and determine any case of alleged mis- 

 conduct or inefficiency in any public officer. 

 It also broadly provided that all appointments 

 of all civil officers, except postmasters and offi- 

 cers confirmed by the Senate, should be made 

 from those standing highest in competitive ex- 

 aminations, open to all citizens of the United 

 States of the requisite age, health, and charac- 

 ter. But the warnings and recommendations 

 of the committee passed unheeded. 



Nothing further was done till 1871, when 

 the growing evils of patronage again aroused 

 the public mind. In March of that year an 

 amendment was tacked on to an appropriation 

 bill in the Senate, authorizing the President 

 "to prescribe such rules and regulations for 

 the admission of persons into the civil serv- 

 ice of the United States as will best promote 

 the efficiency thereof, and ascertain the fitness 

 of each candidate, in respect to age, health, 

 character, knowledge, and ability for the 

 branch of the service into which he seeks to 

 enter." It also authorized the President to 

 employ suitable persons to conduct these in- 

 quiries. These provisions were adopted on 

 the positive recommendation of President 

 Grant. Under this act a Civil-Service Com- 

 mission was appointed, of which George Will- 

 iam Curtis was chairman. 



An important constitutional question arose at 

 the very outset whether the President might 

 regulate the exercise of the appointing power 

 of the heads of departments, so as to restrict 

 appointments to a class of persons whose quali- 

 fications and fitness should have been deter- 

 mined by an examination instituted independent 

 of the appointing power. The Attorney-General 

 held that, while the head of a department could 

 not be required to appoint the person standing 

 highest in a competitive examination, yet the 

 selection might be limited to a class, though 

 he could not say how small the class might be 

 made. The commission fixed upon three per- 

 sons as a sufficiently large class, and required in 

 their rules that that number of names should be 

 presented for each place. 



Dec. 18, 1871, the commission submitted a 

 report, accompanied by a set of rules for the 

 improvement of the civil service. These rules 

 provided that all vacancies in the lowest grade 

 should be filled by the open competitive ex- 

 amination of applicants, conducted by a board 

 of three examiners for each department ; that 

 all vacancies in upper grades should be filled by 

 competition among those in the lower grades ; 

 that three persons should be certified for each 

 vacancy ; and that all original appointments 

 should be made for a probationary period of 

 six months. Further regulations, promulgated 

 in April, 1872, prescribed the mode of select- 

 ing postmasters, the chief officers of the cus- 

 toms, consuls, and similar officers. 



The new system was put in force in the de- 

 partments in Washington in June, 1872, and 

 in August of the same year it was extended to 

 the Custom-House and Sub-Treasury in the city 

 of New York. In the spring of 1873 Mr. Cur- 

 tis resigned the chairmanship of the commis- 

 sion, and was succeeded by Dorman B. Eaton. 

 An additional set of regulations was promul- 

 gated by President Grant in August. These 

 regulations provided for the division of the 

 country into five civil-service districts, in each 

 of which examinations were to be held from 

 time to time by a chief examiner, to be em- 

 ployed or designated by the President. Ed- 

 ward O. Graves was designated for this serv- 

 ice, and a series of examinations under the 

 new regulations was held in the various dis- 

 tricts in the following winter. The chief 

 examiner reported in January, 1874, that, in 

 all, 184 examinations had been held for the 

 departmental service, of which 62 were for 

 admission to the service, and 122 for promo- 

 tion ; and that 3,817 candidates had been ex- 

 amined, and 710 vacancies filled, of which 282 

 were in the lowest grades and 428 in upper 

 grades, ranging in importance from woman- 

 clerkships at $900 a year to the deputy-comp- 

 trollership of the currency. In the following 

 April the commission submitted to the Presi- 

 dent an exhaustive report, accompanied by 

 statements from the heads of the various offices 

 for which examinations had been held. The 

 testimony was overwhelming in favor of the 

 new system, especially as applied to original 

 appointments. The heads of the executive de- 

 partments agreed in saying that the new sys- 

 tem had " given persons of superior capacity 

 and character to the service of the Govern- 

 ment, and had excluded unworthy applicants " ; 

 had " developed more energy in the discharge 

 of duty," and had "diminished the solicitation 

 and pressure for office," as well as "the in- 

 trigue and pressure for the removal of worthy 

 persons." Notwithstanding this ample demon- 

 stration of the merits of the new system, Con- 

 gress refused the modest appropriation that the 

 President had asked for the work of the com- 

 mission for the next fiscal year. The chief ex- 

 aminer ceased his functions June 30, 1874, and 

 no district examinations were held after that 



