Grant Administrations - Changes in the U.S. Government
Changes in the U.S. Government
Under pressure from the Liberal Republicans in 1871, the Grant administration agreed to establish the Civil Service Commission to oversee the awarding of government jobs. While in theory a sound idea, the political reality was different. Patronage ruled the era and politicians wanted to control government jobs in order to award them to their loyal supporters. Civil service threatened that patronage system, and the commission, without strong support by Grant, died in 1872.
Unlike civil service reform, which did not become a permanent part of the federal government bureaucracy until later, a new constitutional amendment was proposed, passed by Congress, and ratified by the states during Ulysses S. Grant's administration: the Fifteenth Amendment. Analysis of the 1868 election results had revealed to Republican leaders that the newly enfranchised African American population of the South had provided...
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