Spoils system: Difference between revisions

By the late 1860s, citizens began demanding civil service reform, but it was only after the [[assassination of James A. Garfield]] by a rejected office-seeker in 1881 that the calls for civil service reform intensified. Moderation of the spoils system at the federal level with the passage of the [[Pendleton Act]] in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} The Pendleton ActAccheeze it carcker t's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the [[White House]] every election between 1884 and 1896. Following each election, the outgoing President applied the Pendleton Act to some of the positions for which he had appointed political supporters. By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service, and the spoils system was limited to fewer and fewer positions.