Pendleton Civil Service Act Have you ever thought about working for the government? Maybe you’ve fantasized about being an FBI agent or being an ambassador to a foreign country one day. Now, imagine that someone who is protecting our country as an FBI agent was taking bribes, but couldn’t get fired because his brother was friends with a senator. Now, imagine you can’t get promoted to the job you want, no matter how hard you try, because you are not friends with the right people. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? While today we regard fair hiring practices as a given, in the late 1880s, the spoils system was pervasive in government. The spoils system is one in which elected officials reward friends and family members with highly desirable jobs. The term is derived from the phrase “to the victor go the spoils.” In 1883, the United States passed a federal law that all government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, rather than the spoils system. Inspired by the assassination of President Garfield, the Pendleton Civil Service Act was meant to weed out graft and corruption and it forever changed how our government is run. Search Terms: Rutherford B. Hayes; Chester A. Arthur; James Garfield; Senator George Hunt Pendleton; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; William McKinley; Herbert Welsh; Theodore Roosevelt; Civil Service Commission; Pennsylvania Merit System Recommended Collections: An Open Letter to President Harrison By Henry Charles Lea Call # Vb* .9 Ari Hoogenboom, “Pennsylvania in the Civil Service Reform Movement,” Pennsylvania History 28 (1961): 268-78. Letter from Wayne MacVeagh to Edward Sayres & Purposes of the Civil Service Reform Association Edward Stalker Sayres Collection Collection#1369 Pennsylvania Civil Service Reform League papers Collection#1436 Herbert Welsh collection Collection#0702 *Additional information can be found about Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Senator George Hunt Pendleton and Civil Service Reform can be found in the PC1 card catalog. Other Sources of Information: Grover Cleveland Library – Speeches and Writings – www.groverclevelandlibrary.org The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center – Online Texts – Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, Volumes III & IV – www.rbhayes.org Pennsylvania State Archives – 350 North Street, Harrisburg, PA – www.portal.state.pa.us Philadelphia City Archives – 3101 Market St., Philadelphia – www.phila.gov .