In his annual message of December 5, 1870, President Grant urged the attention of Congress to “a reform in the civil service of the country.” In accordance with this recommendation, the sundry civil appropriation act of March 3, 1871, authorized the President to prescribe regulations for admission to the civil service. A civil service commission was appointed, and for two years appropriations were made for its support. The continuance of the appropriations was urged by Grant, and again by President Hayes in his annual messages of 1879 and 1880, but without inducing congressional action. The assassination of President Garfield called public attention forcibly to the evils of the existing system of appointment and removal, and the annual message of President Arthur, December 6, 1881, brought the subject of civil service reform strongly before Congress. A bill "to regulate and improve the civil service was introduced in the Senate, December 6, 1881, by George H. Pendleton of Ohio, and on January 11, 1882, was referred, together with a bill "to prevent extortion from persons in the public service, and bribery and coercion by such persons," to the Committee on the Civil Service and Retrenchment. The bill was reported with amendments March 29, the committee report to accompany it not being submitted until May 15. The session closed without further action. The Pendleton bill was taken up December II and formed the principal subject of debate until the 27th, when, with various amendments, it passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to 5, 33 not voting. The bill was reported in the House without amendment January 4, 1883, read three times and passed, the final vote being 155 to 46, 88 not voting. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XXII, 403-407. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 47th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess., and the Cong. Record. Pendleton's report of May 15 is Senate Report 576. The annual reports of the Civil Service Commission are the primary authorities on the operation of the act; see also the Proceedings of the National Civil Service Reform League. The pamphlet and periodical literature is extensive. On the earlier history of the movement see House Report 47, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. (Jenckes's report); Senate Exec. Doc. 10, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., and Senate Exec. Doc. 53 (same in House Exec. Doc. 221), 43d Cong., 1st Sess. (commission reports); Senate Report 289, 44th Cong., 1st Sess. (Boutwell's report); House Exec. Doc. 1, Part 1, 46th Cong., 2d Sess. (Eaton's report); House Exec. Doc. 1, Part 8, ibid., and House Exec. Doc. 94, 46th Cong., 3d Sess. (New York regulations); Senate Report 872, 46th Cong., 3d Sess. (Pendleton's report). See also Senate Report 2373, 50th Cong., 1st Sess. An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States. Be it enacted That the President is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. Said commissioners shall hold no other official place under the United States. The President may remove any commissioner; and any vacancy in the position of commissioner shall be so filled by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of commissioners. * * * * SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners: FIRST. To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules shall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modifications thereof, into effect. SECOND. And, among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows: First, for open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and so far as may be shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed. Second, that all the offices, places, and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by sclections according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations. Third, appointments to the public service aforesaid in the de partments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. Every application for an examination shall contain, among other things, a statement, under oath, setting forth his or her actual bona fide residence at the time of making the application, as well as how long he or she has been a resident of such place. Fourth, that there shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid. Fifth, that no person in the public service is for that reason under any obligations to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so. Sixth, that no person in said service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body. Seventh, there shall be non-competitive examinations in all proper cases before the commission, when competent persons do not compete, after notice has been given of the existence of the vacancy, under such rules as may be prescribed by the commissioners as to the manner of giving notice. Eighth, that notice shall be given in writing by the appointing power to said commission of the persons selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the place of residence of such persons, of the rejection of any such persons after probation, of transfers, resignations, and removals, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said commission. And any necessary exceptions from said eight fundamental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in connection with such rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual reports of the commission. THIRD. Said commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the President, make regulations for, and have control of, such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same; and said commission shall keep minutes of its own proceedings. FOURTH. Said commission may make investigations concerning the facts, and may report upon all matters touching the enforcement and effects of said rules and regulations, and concerning the action of any examiner or board of examiners hereinafter provided for, and its own subordinates, and those in the public service, in respect to the execution of this act. FIFTH. Said commission shall make an annual report to the President for transmission to Congress, showing its own action, the rules and regulations and the exceptions thereto in force, the practical effects thereof, and any suggestions it may approve for the more effectual accomplishment of the purposes of this act. SEC. 3. That said commission is authorized to employ a chief examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be, under its direction, to act with the examining boards, so far as practicable, whether at Washington or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity, and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. . . . The commission shall have a secretary, to be appointed by the President. . . . It may, when necessary, employ a stenographer, and a messenger. The commission shall, at Washington, and in one or more places in each State and Territory where examinations are to take place, designate and select a suitable number of persons, not less than three, in the official service of the United States, residing in said State or Territory, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such persons serve, to be members of boards of examiners, and may at any time 'substitute any other person in said service living in such State or Territory in the place of any one so selected. Such boards of examiners shall be so located as to make it reasonably convenient and inexpensive for applicants to attend before them; and where there are persons to be examined in any State or Territory, examinations shall be held therein at least twice in each year. It shall be the duty of the collector, postmaster, and other officers of the United States, at any place outside of the District of Columbia where examinations are directed by the President or by said board to be held, to allow the reasonable use of the public buildings for holding such examinations, and in all proper ways to facilitate the same. SEC. 5. That any said commissioner, examiner, copyist, or messenger, or any person in the public service who shall willfully and corruptly, by himself or in co-operation with one or more other persons, defeat, deceive, or obstruct any person in respect of his or her right of examination according to any such rules or regulations, or who shall willfully, corruptly, and falsely mark, grade, estimate, or report upon the examination or proper standing of any person examined hereunder, or aid in so doing, or who shall willfully and corruptly make any false representations concerning the same or concerning the person examined, or who shall willfully and corruptly furnish to any person any special or secret information for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or chances of any person so examined, or to be examined, being appointed, employed, or promoted, shall for each such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than cne thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not less than ten days, nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. SEC. 6. That within sixty days after the passage of this act it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, in as near conformity as may be to the classification of certain clerks now existing under the one hundred and sixty-third section of the Revised Statutes, to arrange in classes the several clerks and persons employed by the collector, naval officer, surveyor, and appraisers, or either of them, or being in the public service, at their respective offices in each customs district where the whole number of said clerks and persons shall be all together as many as fifty. And thereafter, from time to time, on the direction of the President, said Secretary shall make the like classification or arrangement of clerks and persons so employed, in connection with any said office or offices, in any other customs district. And, upon like request, and for the purposes of this act, said Secretary shall arrange in |