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President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877) spoke out in favor of civil service reform, and rejected demands in late 1872 by Pennsylvania senator Simon Cameron and governor John Hartranft to suspend the rules and make patronage appointments.
President Grant was the first U.S. President to recommend a professional civil service, successfully pass the initial legislation through Congress in 1871, and appointed the members for the first United States Civil Service Commission. The temporary Commission recommended administering competitive exams and issuing regulations on the hiring and ...
Grant addressed the continuing need for civil-service reform, advocating for standardized rules to ensure merit-based appointments and to shield public servants from political pressures. He also called for improvements in judicial processes in the Utah Territory, where legal issues had paralyzed governance.
He also proposed civil service reforms, criticizing the patronage system. "The present system does not secure the best men, and often not even fit men, for public place," he remarked, calling for a merit-based approach to appointments. [1] On economic matters, Grant pointed to a reduction in taxes and a closer approach to a specie-based currency.
The movement for Civil Service reform reflected two distinct objectives: to eliminate the corruption and inefficiencies in a non-professional bureaucracy and to check the power of President Johnson. Although many reformers after the Election of 1868 looked to Grant to ram Civil Service legislation through Congress, he refused, saying:
On March 3, 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the first U.S. civil service reform legislation, which had been passed by Congress. [1] The act created the United States Civil Service Commission, that was implemented by President Grant and funded for two years by Congress lasting until 1874.
Ulysses S. Grant's standing among the presidents has improved in recent years, with critically acclaimed biographies by Ron Chernow and others offering a new perspective on his time in the White ...
In 1871 he was appointed, by President Ulysses S. Grant, to chair the commission on the reform of the civil service. Its report was the foundation of every effort since made for the purification and regulation of the service and for the destruction of political patronage.