multiplying public offices for party spoils. The quarrel between
Congress and President Johnson over removals, and the Tenure of
Office Act, focused popular attention on the constitutional
question of appointment and removal, and the recklessness of the
political manager during Grant's two terms disgusted the
thoughtful citizen.

The first attempts to apply efficiency to the civil service had
been made when pass examinations were used for sifting candidates
for clerkships in the Treasury Department in 1853, when such
tests were prescribed by law for the lowest grade of clerkships.
The head of the department was given complete control over the
examinations, and they were not exacting. In 1864 Senator Sumner
introduced a bill "to provide for the greater efficiency of the
civil service." It was considered chimerical and dropped.

Meanwhile, a steadfast and able champion of reform appeared in
the House, Thomas A. Jenckes, a prominent lawyer of Rhode Island.
A bill which he introduced in December, 1865, received no
hearing. But in the following year a select joint committee was
charged to examine the whole question of appointments,
dismissals, and patronage. Mr. Jenckes presented an elaborate
report in May, 1868, explaining the civil service of other
countries. This report, which is the corner stone of American
civil service reform, provided the material for congressional
debate and threw the whole subject into the public arena. Jenckes
in the House and Carl Schurz in the Senate saw to it that ardent
and convincing defense of reform was not wanting. In compliance
with President Grant's request for a law to "govern not the
tenure, but the manner of making all appointments," a rider was