Civil Service Reform Quotes
“Assessing” did not mean evaluating. It described a process where each civil servamt was “assessed” an amount of money—based on his salary—that was to be paid to the Political Party that appointed him. The specific corrupt process of “assessing” he described well in {629355}. Roosevelt had worked at the local, state and Federal levels of government. All had tolerated a great deal of this form of corruption. At the time this article was written, the Federal reforms had begun to take effect. Some states and local governments followed, but the average level of corruption being most at the local level, next at the state level, and least at the Federal level, as TR observed then was essentially the same into the 21st century. Government corruption was generally less, but relatively it was worst at the local level and least at the Federal level. At the end of the 20th century for example, every Kentucky County Commissioner except 1 was convicted and jailed for taking bribes and kickbacks from highway and road construction contractors. Corruption at the Federal Level was less.
The president was asked for a political favor which he was reluctant to grant. The requester observed that Arthur himself would have asked for the same thing:
We shall have a system where When Roosevelt became Police Commissioner, virtually every appointment, promotion, and disciplinary action was controlled politically. Nothing could be more shocking to the police and the politicians than Roosevelt’s statement. But he implemented that policy and the result developed into the finest urban police department in the country. The political influence however returned a few decades later.
At the time, Civil Service jobs were all appointed and the government employees could be fired at will regardless of whether the did their jobs well or not. The President and the Cabinet members spent huge amounts of time dealing with people looking for appointments (“place”)
and hearing complaints from civil servants who had been fired unjustly. Two years later, Congress passed the legislation. See 1.
While the George W. Bush administration polarized the civil service by appointing ideological zealots without regard to competence and qualifications, Conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard, had actually done the same thing before him.
Opposing Martin Van Buren's confirmation as Minister to Great Britain
The Civil Service Reformers of the time were so doctrinaire, that they attacked even supports when the supporters did not agree with everything. This was largely responsible for Cleveland losing the election.
Gingrich was commenting on the 2016 election results and the subsequent “resistance” from government employees. The statement in BOLD is a commonly cited quote; broader context is provided here.
