Did I write to you asking your opinion on introducing the system of competitive examinations for minor offices in our civil department? I have such a bill drawn; but I am not sure if public opinion will sustain me.
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displacement of faithful officials and the appointment in their stead of party workers or his own favorites.1 He now made the first distinct and formal attempt ever made in Congress for the reform of the civil service,2 anticipating by two years the effort of Mr. Jenckes in the same direction,3 by introducing a bill, April 30, 1864, to provide a competitive system of examination for admission to and promotion in the civil service,—making merit and fitness the standard, to be determined by a board of examiners, and prohibiting removals except for good cause.4 The bill was Sumner's own conception, drawn without conference with or suggestion from any one.
It was not practicable to press it at the time, and at its author's suggestion it was laid on the table.
His various labors kept him from calling it up. This earliest recognition of a needed reform, since a subject of agitation in Congress and among the people, found favor at the time with a few leading journals5 and some advanced thinkers.
Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, B. R. Wood, of Albany, and Dr. Lieber6 wrote approving letters to the senator.
Josiah Quincy, now at the age of ninety-two, within a few weeks of his death, and no longer able to use his pen, sent by his daughter's hand his hearty commendation of the measure.
The Union League Club of New York appointed a committee to aid its passage.
Generally, however, Sumner's correspondents and the newspapers were silent on this subject, which was destined later to come to the front.
He was here, as often, a long way ahead of public sentiment.7 He wrote to Lieber, January 31:—
1 Ante, vol. II. p. 168; vol. III. p. 149.
2 He referred to it as the first effort in the direction, Dec. 4, 1871. Congressional Globe, p. 2.
3 Sumner wrote of Jenckes at a later period: ‘When I think of Mr. Jenckes's work in Congress, I feel that he should not give place except to a superlative character.’
4 Works, vol. VIII. pp. 452-457. He favored, Feb. 16, 1863, the ‘discarding personal and political favoritism’ in the selection of midshipmen, and was one of only six senators who voted to limit the existing power of members of Congress to select them at will. (Works, vol. VII. pp. 301, 302.) Sumner took occasion, April 21, 1869 (Works, vol. XIII. pp. 94-97), to discredit any rule or practice for apportioning appointments among the States according to their population.
5 National Intelligencer, May 10; New York Times, May 10; New York Evening Post, May 7; New York Independent, June 9.
6 Lieber's ‘Life and Letters,’ pp. 339, 345.
7 The Act of March 3, 1871, authorized a commission; and from that time the reform has held its place in the public attention.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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