Pendleton Civil Service Act

About the Author

Born in Hardwick, Vermont, in 1823 to a Unitarian minister, Dorman Bridgeman Eaton was a longtime advocate of civil service reform. He attended Harvard Law School and became a lawyer in New York City. While he was there he joined the Citizens Association, a group dedicated to social and political reform. As chairman of the group's legislative committee, Eaton drafted a bill to establish the Metropolitan Fire Commission to replace volunteer firefighters with professionals. Buoyed by success, Eaton and the association next tackled the city's health care problems and political issues. Eaton firmly believed that New York City's elected and appointed officials were unable to do their jobs because they feared that they could be ousted soon or that they might estrange the people who had voted for them. Writing exhaustively on the subject in publications such as the New York Times and Atlantic Monthly, he felt that public occupations should be filled with experts who had passed a competitive exam.

In 1873 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Eaton head of the newly created Civil Service Commission. Eaton worked to make progress in civil service reform, but just two years later the commission was dismantled by Grant after Congress refused to appropriate funds. Eaton, however, was not deterred in his quest for reform. In 1877 he organized the first civil service reform association in the country, the New York Civil Service Reform Association. Though the commission was inactive, Eaton continued in his role as commissioner, serving without compensation for presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur. In 1880 Eaton traveled to England to study the British Civil Service system. His book on the subject, Civil Service in Great Britain, became an instant success. During this time, he also assessed New York City's post office as well as the New York Custom House.

In early 1882, Senator George Hunt Pendleton of Ohio drafted a bill to reform the federal civil service. Composing a similar document for the New York Civil Service Reform Association, Eaton persuaded Senator Pendleton to use the association's proposal rather than his own. When Congress passed the bill in January 1883, President Arthur appointed Eaton to administer it. Eaton oversaw the enforcement of the Pendleton Act until he resigned in 1886 to go back home to New York City. In 1899 he published The Government of Municipalities, which summarized his activities as a reformer. He remained a staunch supporter of reform movements until his death later that year.