How a president's death helped kill Washington's "spoils system"
"To the victor belong the spoils." For decades in the 1800s, that phrase was more than a slogan; it was the official hiring policy of the U.S. government. "You win the election, you're entitled to put all your own people in there," said journalist and historian Scott Greenberger.
He says that under that "spoils system," the main job requirement for most federal employees was … loyalty.
It was a system inaugurated by Democratic President Andrew Jackson. "When he came in, he was – and this will sound familiar – he was afraid that sort of entrenched bureaucrats would resist his policies. And so, he cleaned everybody out."
Were people aghast at this? "I don't think they were aghast when it began," Greenberger said. "But by the time we get to this 1870s and the 1880s, it was the one of the top issues on the national agenda."
This was a period of abundant wealth and corruption in American politics. "It's a fascinating period with so many parallels to our own time," said Greenberger. But a fight was underway to replace the spoils system with the hiring of qualified government workers, regardless of their political views, whose job security did not depend on whoever was president. "Civil service reform," as it was known, may not sound sexy, but it was one the hottest political issues of the Gilded Age, even attracting the attention of America's foremost author.
In 1876, the same year he published "Tom Sawyer," Mark Twain participated in his first political rally in Hartford, Connecticut, said local historian Jason Scappaticci. It was a big deal: "He had voted, but he had never campaigned for anybody," he said.
After marching through downtown in support of Republican presidential nominee Rutherford B. Hayes, the legendary humorist called for an end to the spoils system. "We will not hire a blacksmith who never lifted a sledge," he said on September 30, 1876. "We will not hire a schoolteacher who does not know the alphabet … but when you come to our civil service, we serenely fill great numbers of our minor public offices with ignoramuses."
The speech landed on the front page of The New York Times. "That just goes to show how vital he is, how big his name is," said Mallory Howard, assistant curator at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford.
She's not surprised that Twain would have been so horrified by the spoils system: "I think he felt it was embarrassing putting people in office who are not prepared. I think it doesn't make sense to him."
Hayes made it to the White House, but little progress was made on civil service reform during his single term. Hayes was succeeded by President James Garfield, who ran on reform.
But only months after being sworn in, the spoils system exacted its most horrifying toll. Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled and delusional office-seeker named Charles Guiteau.
Guiteau had campaigned for Garfield, and believed that the president "owed" him. Worse still for reformers, Garfield's vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, suddenly elevated to the top job, had climbed the ranks of dirty machine politics, enjoying the fruits of the spoils system along the way.
"This was a nightmare scenario for the reformers," said Greenberger. "And then all of a sudden, here he is, he's President of the United States, and he expresses support for civil service reform, which shocked everybody."
Yes, in a surprising about-face, in 1883, President Chester A. Arthur – contrite, by some accounts, over the murder of Garfield – signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, the first of its kind in U.S. history. The law was strengthened over time, laying the groundwork for a professional bureaucracy responsible for everything from food safety to financial regulation.
Greenberger said, "It really paved the way for a more active federal government."
Of course, the federal government of the late 1800s, with about 50,000 employees, looked like a lot different than today's workforce of more than two million. And critics, including President Trump, believe the numbers – and the protections afforded those civil service workers – have gone too far. Hence, President Trump's executive order this past week aiming to make it easier to fire some federal workers. "We're getting rid of all of the cancer," he said.
Scott Greenberger says maybe the time has come for another debate about the role of the civil service: "Yes, you should be able to fire people who aren't doing their jobs. And the protections shouldn't be such that someone who's incompetent is allowed to stay in a job. At the same time, if you eliminate those protections entirely, then you go back to the sort of system that we had in the 19th century, where only political loyalists are serving these positions."
A system undone by an unlikely hero who most people don't even remember was president … one that even Mark Twain put on a pedestal. "It's funny that we hardly remember the guy today," Greenberger said. "But when he died, people, including Mark Twain said, 'Wow, that guy was the greatest president we'd ever had!'"
For more info:
- "The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur" by Scott Greenberger (Da Capo Press), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
- Scott Greenberger, executive editor, Stateline
- Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- Jason Scappaticci, "Bow Tie Historian"
Story produced by Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
More presidential history from Mo Rocca:
- The rise and fall of President Martin Van Buren
- Franklin Pierce: America's handsomest president?
- Mo Rocca with lively thoughts about our deceased presidents
- Time will tell: Historians on judging presidential leadership
- The Herbert Hoover you didn't know
- First families: A reunion of presidential relatives
- Painting the presidents
- Andrew Johnson: The unfortunate president
- Chester A. Arthur and the original "birther" controversy
- Worst president ever: The ignominy of James Buchanan
- How doctors killed President James Garfield
- The long and short of President William Henry Harrison
- James Polk and America's "Forgotten War" south of the border
- President John Tyler's great genes
- President Warren Harding: Sex, scandal and death in the White House
- Ulysses S. Grant's last battle
- The passions of Woodrow Wilson
- Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady and humanitarian
- Lady Bird Johnson, first lady and diarist
