a party service, but upon his fitness to render a public service.  It would seem that the establishment in public practice of so obvious a principle should require no contest or agitation; and that the civil service should ever have been perverted and that a long struggle should be necessary to reform it, are to be explained only in connection with a modern party organization and a party machinery and usage which were entirely unforeseen by the framers of the Constitution.  The practice of the early administrations was reasonable and natural.  Washington required of applicants for places in the civil service proofs of ability, integrity, and fitness.  “Beyond this,” he said, “nothing with me is necessary or will be of any avail.”  Washington did not dream that party service should be considered as a reason for a public appointment.  John Adams followed the example of Washington.  Jefferson came into power at the head of a victorious party which had displaced its opponent after a bitter struggle.  The pressure for places was strong, but Jefferson resisted it, and he declared in a famous utterance that “the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he honest? is he capable? is he faithful to the Constitution?” Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams followed in the same practice so faithfully that a joint Congressional Committee was led to say in 1868 that, having consulted all accessible means of information, they had not learned of a single removal of a subordinate officer except for cause, from the beginning of Washington’s administration to the close of that of John Quincy Adams.

The change came in 1829 with the accession of Jackson.  The Spoils System was formally proclaimed in 1832.  In that year Martin Van Buren was nominated Minister to England, and, in advocating his confirmation, Senator Marcy, of New York, first used the famous phrase in reference to the public officers, “To the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.”

Since then every administration has succumbed, in whole or in part, to the Spoils System.  The movement for the reform of the civil service began in 1867-68, in the 39th and 40th Congresses in investigations and reports of a Joint Committee on Retrenchment.  The reports were made and the movement led by Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, a member of the House from Rhode Island.  These reports contained a mass of valuable information upon the evils of the spoils service.  In 1871 an Act, a section of an appropriation bill, was passed authorizing the President to prescribe rules for admission to the civil service, to appoint suitable persons to make inquiries and to establish regulations for the conduct of appointees.  Mr. George William Curtis was at the head of the Civil Service Commission appointed by General Grant under this Act, and on December 18, 1871, the Commission made a notable report, written by Mr. Curtis, on the evils of the present system and the need of reform.  In April, 1872, a set of rules was promulgated by