The Pendleton Civil Service Act, Trump and a Real President

On October 21, Donald Trump signed yet another executive order.  The order, named “Schedule F” (for so many reasons, none of which I can or need delineate here) gives Trump the right to fire federal employees he deems disloyal. Schedule F also strips hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their due process rights and protections.  It also does away with merit-based hiring.   Essentially, Trump is trying to revert to the spoils system that was in place until a decade after the Civil War.  
     These machinations fly in the face of one of my favorites Presidents, Chester A. Arthur.  Arthur is also one of the most mediocre occupants of the Oval Office. But Arthur promoted and signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act on January 16, 1883.  In that moment, he created the Civil Service System and assured merit-based employment in the federal government.  The Pendleton Act originally covered only 10% of all federal employees, but almost every President since Arthur has expanded the act so by 1980 almost 90% of all federal employees were covered by Civil Service.  
     Up to the creation of the Pendleton Act, the ruling party passed out federal jobs to friends, cronies, and stooges.  Such a system did nothing to promote a work ethic or reward performance.  If your guy won, you had your job, if he lost—well—you were on the street.  It was a bitter and cynical time.  The spoils system also played a role in Chet Arthur ending up with the one job he did not, under any circumstances, want.
     Chester A. Arthur, our 21st President, was a New Yorker who had never held elective office.  In fact, he was considered a joke, a buffoon, possibly a criminal and certainly a fool.  He was a last-minute addition to the 1880 presidential ticket headed by James A. Garfield, a nomination made to satisfy dubious political machinations.  Arthur worked for the New York City political machine called Tammany Hall. Whatever Roscoe Conkling and the Tammany machine needed, good ole “Chet” would provide.  Votes.  Favors. Dirt.  Chet delivered.  Arthur was dutiful in all aspects of his work.  He also developed tastes that reflected an income never dreamed of for the son of a Vermont Baptist preacher.
     To bring together divisive political factions, Arthur was elevated to Vice President under James A. Garfield.  Nobody counted on Garfield being shot by Charles Guiteau, a crazy, obsessed political jobseeker, hoping to cash in on the spoils system.  Suddenly, Chester A. Arthur, the least qualified man ever to be elevated to the Presidency (up to that time) was now the first gentleman of the land.
     So why is Chester A. Arthur one of my favorite presidents?
     It seems that Arthur was touched by the awesome solemnity of the Oval Office.  To the consternation and ever-lasting rancor of Tammany Hall, Arthur turned his back on his corrupt friends. He wouldn’t even allow them in the White House.  The man who had toed every party line drawn for him moved beyond partisan politics.  In 1883 he signed the landmark Pendleton Civil Service Act.  He also tried to lower tariffs and vetoed the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883.  
     Suffering from Bright’s disease, Arthur chose not to run for office and died in 1886 at age 57.  
     So here we have it.  In 1880, a New Yorker without political experience was thrust into the most powerful office in the land.  His response was to rise above his past and become an honest broker of the public trust.  Now, 140 years later we have another New Yorker, much like Chester A. Arthur but without his intrinsic moral core, trying to do away with the Pendleton Civil Service Act.  
     I believe Michelle Obama is correct when she says that the Presidency does not make you who you are, it reveals who you are.  Chester A. Arthur was an honorable man.  Donald Trump is just a schedule F.  
     Through it all, I keep the faith.