ecure his own nomination for the
presidency, and passed without debate and apparently without any
adequate conception of its full effect) opened the doors of the service
to all the evils of the "spoils system." The foremost statesmen of the
time were not slow to perceive the baleful possibilities of this
legislation, Jefferson,[1] Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton and many
others being recorded as condemning and deploring it in the strongest
terms. The transition to the "spoils system" was not, however,
immediate, and for the next nine years the practice of reappointing all
meritorious officers was practically universal; but in 1829 this
practice ceased, and the act of 1820 lent the sanction of law to the
system of proscriptions which followed, which was a practical
application of the theory that "to the victor belong the spoils of the
enemy." In 1836 the provisions of this law, which had at first been
confined mainly to officers connected with the collection of revenue,
were extended to include also all postmasters receiving a compensation
of $1000 per annum or more. It rapidly became the practice to regard all
these four years' tenure offices as agencies not so much for the
transaction of the public business as for the advancement of political
ends. The revenue service from being used for political purposes merely
came to be used for corrupt purposes as well, with the result that in
one administration frauds were practised upon the government to the
extent of $75,000,000. The corrupting influences permeated the whole
body politic. Political retainers were selected for appointment not on
account of their ability to do certain work but because they were
followers of certain politicians; these "public servants" acknowledged
no obligation except to those politicians, and their public duties, if
not entirely disregarded, were negligently and inefficiently performed.
Thus grew a saturnalia of spoils and corruption which culminated in the
assassination of a president.

Law of 1883.

Acute conditions, not theories, give rise to reforms. In the
congressional election of November 1882, following the assassination of
President Garfield as an incident in the operation of the spoils system,
the voice of the people commanding reform was unmistakable. Congress
assembled in December 1882, and during the same month a bill looking to
the improvement of the civil service, which had been pending in the
Senate for nearly two years, was