Editing Spoils system (section)

==Reform==
[[File:The seven stages of the office seeker - Clay, fecit. LCCN2004665351.jpg|thumb|"The seven stages of the office seeker," 1852]]
By the late 1860s, citizens began demanding civil service reform, but it was only after the 1881 [[assassination of James A. Garfield]] by [[Charles J. Guiteau]] as revenge for the latter being denied a [[Consul (representative)|consulship]] that the calls for civil service reform intensified.<ref>Harris, J. C. (2012). An office or your life. ''Archives of General Psychiatry'', ''69''(11), 1098. {{doi|10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.110}}</ref> Moderation of the spoils system at the federal level with the passage of the [[Pendleton Act]] in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} The Pendleton Act's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the [[White House]] every election between 1884 and 1896. Following each election, the outgoing President applied the Pendleton Act to some of the positions for which he had appointed political supporters. By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service, and the spoils system was limited to fewer and fewer positions.

Although state patronage systems and numerous federal positions were unaffected by the law, Karabell argues that the Pendleton Act was instrumental in the creation of a professional civil service and the rise of the modern [[Bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] state.{{sfn|Karabell|pp=108–111}} The law also caused major changes in campaign finance, as the parties were forced to look for new sources of campaign funds, such as wealthy donors.{{sfn|White|2017|pp=467–468}}

The separation between political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the [[Hatch Act of 1939]] which prohibited federal employees from engaging in many political activities.

The spoils system survived much longer in many states, counties and municipalities, such as the [[Tammany Hall]] [[political machine|machine]], which survived until the 1950s when [[New York City]] reformed its own civil service. [[Illinois]] modernized its bureaucracy in 1917 under [[Frank Lowden]], but [[Chicago]] held on to patronage in city government until the city agreed to end the practice in the [[Shakman Decrees]] of 1972 and 1983. Some federal positions such as ambassadorships have continued to be assigned to political supporters into the present day, leading to criticism that they remain part of the spoils system.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2013/02/high-time-to-end-our-diplomatic-spoils-system/ |title=High Time to End Our Diplomatic Spoils System &#124; American Diplomacy Est 1996 |format= |work= |accessdate=}}</ref>