e and its abuse, not merely
as tending to strengthen one political party against the other, but as
building up the power of the Executive against the Legislative
Department. Nevertheless with all the denunciations of the leaders
and the avowals of the new President, it is not to be denied that the
Whigs as a party desired the dismissal of the office-holders appointed
by Jackson and Van Buren. From that time onward, although there was
much condemnation of the evil practice of removing good officers for
opinion's sake, each party as it came into power practiced it; and
prior to 1860 no movement was made with the distinct purpose of
changing this feature off the civil service.

The Administration of Mr. Lincoln was prevented by the public
exigencies from giving attention to any other measures than those
necessary for the preservation of the Union, and during the war no
change was made or suggested as to the manner of appointment or
removal. The first step towards it was announced in Congress on the
20th day of December, 1865, when Mr. Thomas A. Jenckes of Rhode Island
introduced a bill in the House "to regulate the civil service of the
United States." A few months later, in the same session, B. Gratz
Brown, then a senator from Missouri, submitted a resolution for "such
change in the civil service as shall secure appointments to the same
after previous examination by proper Boards, and as shall provide for
promotions on the score to merit or seniority." While he remained in
Congress Mr. Jenckes annually renewed his proposition for the
regulation of the civil service, but never secured the enactment of any
measure looking thereto.

Neither of the two great political parties recognized the subject as
important enough to be incorporated in their platforms, until 1872,
when the National convention of the Republican party declared that "any
system of the civil service under which the subordinate positions of
the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally
demoralizing, and we therefore demand a reform of the system by laws
which shall abolish the evils of patronage and make honesty,
efficiency, and fidelity essential qualifications for public positions,
without practically creating a life tenure of office." Thenceforward
the subject found a place in the creed of the party. But even prior to
this declaration of a political convention, Congress had on the 3d of
March, 1871, appended a section to an ap