What's a prez to do? Arthur and the civil service
Chester Arthur took office under the most unpropitious circumstances. Elected vice president on the Republican ticket with James Garfield in 1880, Arthur succeeded Garfield as president upon Garfield's delayed and agonizing death, following his shooting by Charles Guiteau. The assassin avowed his purpose to the authorities who arrested him. "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts,” he said, referring to the wing of the Republican party that opposed Garfield for promoting an end to the spoils system of federal patronage. Chester Arthur was a notorious Stalwart. “Arthur is president now!" proclaimed Guiteau.
The spoils system, so-called by William Marcy, a supporter of Andrew Jackson who gleefully endorsed it by saying, “To the victor belong the spoils,” applied the principle of democracy to the operation of the executive branch. Jackson's 1828 election followed the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Quincy Adams, a quarter century during which each president designated his successor, and each successor continued the employment practices of his predecessor. Federal jobs, most notably postmasterships, became sinecures within families, handed down from father to son. Jackson's defeat of Adams was a hostile takeover of the presidency, and Jackson had reason to believe those postmasters and other federal workers wished Adams had remained in office. More to the point, Jackson sought to reward the people who had helped him defeat Adams. To the extent federal employees implemented presidential policy, Jackson wanted to ensure they implemented his policy and not Adams’s.
So he replaced many of the federal office holders with new men. Those who lost their jobs howled, but the practice caught on, and rotation in office—a more polite label for the spoils system—became the norm.
It also became the bane of new presidents. Abraham Lincoln wondered aloud why anyone would want the job of president given all the demands for jobs made upon him. As the executive branch expanded, especially during the Civil War, the demands grew more numerous and onerous.
And the jobs grew more valuable. Federal spending skyrocketed during the Civil War, as it does during all wars. Contracts were let for all manner of goods and services. Entrepreneurs seeking contracts were tempted to bribe the government officials responsible for awarding them. Corruption became notorious during the Gilded Age, afflicting government as well as business and private life. Ulysses Grant's administration produced some spectacular scandals, including one that led to the only impeachment and conviction of a cabinet officer in American history.
James Garfield, then in Congress, was among those calling for reform. What the reformers wanted was a system that would remove most hiring for the government from the hands of elected officials. When a job was announced, applicants would take an examination to demonstrate their capacity for the job. Once hired, and once a probationary period had been successfully concluded, the federal worker would be more or less immune from firing without cause.
This was what the Stalwarts, who liked the system of political patronage and wanted to preserve it, opposed. And this was what, at least in part, prompted Guiteau’s shooting of Garfield.
Guiteau’s confession made Garfield a martyr to the cause of civil service reform, which became politically unstoppable. Rather than try to resist it, Arthur stepped to the front of the movement and led it forward. In 1883 he signed the Pendleton Act, which dramatically constrained the spoils system.
The act identified certain high level executive officials, starting with cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, who remained within the power of the president to appoint and replace, subject, per the Constitution, to Senate confirmation. But beyond that, the principle of permanence in office replaced rotation in office. Government workers could expect to keep their jobs as long as they did them competently.
New presidents breathed a sigh of relief, although the relief diminished over time as the sheer number of positions in the executive branch grew and grew. During the 20th century, positions still subject to presidential appointment caused headaches for new presidents comparable to those that afflicted Lincoln.
The new stability in the federal workforce contributed to its professionalization. Career civil service workers came to know their jobs better than their predecessors under the spoils system ever could have.
But like all things in life, this came with a cost. Critics of government found easy targets in office holders who were effectively unremovable. In time this gave rise to the concept of a “deep state," the body of permanent officials said to govern as they chose, impervious to the wishes of the people or the officials elected by the people.
Life is about trade-offs. The spoils system was accountable but prone to corruption. The civil service is more honest but less accountable. Chester Arthur surprisingly chose the latter, and we’re still living with his choice.