Featured January 2, 2026 2025 in review: The Partnership steps up to safeguard the civil service Back to Blog Celebrating 143 years of the merit-based civil service: The Pendleton Act Date January 16, 2026 Authors Jacqueline Maffucci, Ph.D. Tags Congress Watching Netflix’s “Death by Lightning,” a historical drama focused on the election and assassination of President James Garfield, was not only entertaining, but it left me wanting to better understand the first major civil service reform in U.S. history: the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883. The act, prompted when an office-seeker assassinated Garfield for being refused a position in his administration, marked America’s first step toward a nonpartisan, professional civil service. Previously, the federal workforce was a product of the patronage system, which rewarded party supporters, friends and family for their loyalty to the president and his political party by giving them government jobs with little regard for qualifications or experience. Up until the 1880s, it was common for these jobs to be traded as currency to advance administration priorities, and the beneficiaries also funded political parties through predetermined assessments that were deducted from their wages. The merit system is a cornerstone of democracy and effective governance. It was formally adopted because the patronage system bred corruption and did not serve Americans well. This is a lesson well worth revisiting as the administration increasingly adopts loyalty as a key factor in personnel decisions, including moving to strip many thousands of civil servants of their merit system protections through this executive order and other pending regulations. The adoption of a patronage system of employment President George Washington began his administration emphasizing capability and honesty as standards for placement in his administration, and successive presidents followed this to varying degrees. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson redefined these standards toward political loyalty, adopting the patronage system, which remained for many decades. The result was frequent workforce turnover driven by politics rather than merit, as each new administration replaced the existing federal workforce with its own political appointees. Changes to the workforce drove conversations of reform Prior to the Civil War, a less professional, more political federal workforce posed fewer challenges because it was relatively small and positions were largely limited to clerical and postal roles. However, after the Civil War, territorial expansion, population increase and industrialization drove rapid government growth, expanded federal workforce responsibilities and exposed the shortcomings of the patronage system. In 1816, the federal government employed less than 5,000 people; by 1871 that workforce had grown tenfold to over 50,000 people, and just a decade later it exceeded 100,000. As government revenue and expenditures grew, so too did public frustration with mismanaged federal facilities. Government staffing also increasingly consumed the president’s time. These pressures shifted the national conversation in the 1860s toward civil service reform. An assassination and a reform effort led to the Pendleton Act of 1883 Congressman Thomas Jenckes, R-R.I., introduced the first civil service reform bill in 1865. Congressional hearings in the 1870s provided more evidence that the patronage system supported an unskilled and corrupt labor force and became a source of embarrassment for the federal government. In 1871, a modified version of the Jenckes bill was passed into law, establishing the Grant Civil Service Commission to advise President Ulyssess S. Grant on civil service reform. While Congress defunded the Commission in 1875, civil service reform became a platform for both political parties in subsequent years, and interest groups and the public increasingly called for lasting change. The assassination of President Garfield in 1881 by a disgruntled would-be patronage seeker catapulted this issue to the forefront, making way for Senator George H. Pendleton, D-Ohio, to introduce the Pendleton Act. President Chester Arthur signed it into law in 1883. While the law initially applied to only 10% of federal jobs, it eventually came to encompass roughly 90% by the 1950s. Embracing lessons from history If you’ve ever wondered why we describe the modern civil service as nonpartisan and professional, the answer lies in its origin. The early federal workforce was built on party loyalty rather than merit; this was ultimately a corrupt and ineffective system that didn’t work for Americans. While today’s merit-based civil service largely serves the public well, the framework supporting it still needs reform. Learning from our history means preserving a professional workforce while modernizing the system that sustains it—an effort that should be a bipartisan priority for delivering effective federal services in the decades to come. Explore our Government for a New Era initiative to learn more about the Partnership’s vision to build a more effective, responsive and accountable government.
