By laws enacted in 1853 and 1855, and now in substance incorporated in the Revised Statutes, the practice of arbitrary appointments to the several subordinate grades in the great Departments was condemned, and examinations as to capacity, to be conducted by departmental boards of examiners, were provided for and made conditions of admission to the public service.  These statutes are a decision by Congress that examinations of some sort as to attainments and capacity are essential to the well-being of the public service.  The important questions since the enactment of these laws have been as to the character of these examinations, and whether official favor and partisan influence or common right and merit were to control the access to the examinations.  In practice these examinations have not always been open to worthy persons generally who might wish to be examined.  Official favoritism and partisan influence, as a rule, appear to have designated those who alone were permitted to go before the examining boards, subjecting even the examiners to a pressure from the friends of the candidates very difficult to resist.  As a consequence the standard of admission fell below that which the public interest demanded.  It was also almost inevitable that a system which provided for various separate boards of examiners, with no common supervision or uniform method of procedure, should result in confusion, inconsistency, and inadequate tests of capacity, highly detrimental to the public interest.  A further and more radical change was obviously required.

In the annual message of December, 1870, my predecessor declared that—­

There is no duty which so much embarrasses the Executive and heads of Departments as that of appointments, nor is there any such arduous and thankless labor imposed on Senators and Representatives as that of finding places for constituents.  The present system does not secure the best men, and often not even fit men, for public place.  The elevation and purification of the civil service of the Government will be hailed with approval by the whole people of the United States.

Congress accordingly passed the act approved March 3, 1871, “to regulate the civil service of the United States and promote the efficiency thereof,” giving the necessary authority to the Executive to inaugurate a civil-service reform.

Acting under this statute, which was interpreted as intended to secure a system of just and effectual examinations under uniform supervision, a number of eminently competent persons were selected for the purpose, who entered with zeal upon the discharge of their duties, prepared with an intelligent appreciation of the requirements of the service the regulations contemplated, and took charge of the examinations, and who in their capacity as a board have been known as the “Civil Service Commission.”  Congress for two years appropriated the money needed for the compensation and for the expense of carrying on the work of the Commission.