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Black Codes
After the Civil War, former Confederate states passed laws known as "black codes" that restricted the rights of former slaves.
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Ellis Island
More than 20 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island on their way to a new life in the United States.
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John Jay
(1745-1829), member of the Continental Congress, diplomat, and first chief justice, U.S. Supreme Court.
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Tenure of Office Act
(March 2, 1867), in the post-Civil War period of U.S. history, law forbidding the president to remove civil officers without senatorial consent.
(Jan. 16, 1883), landmark U.S. legislation establishing the tradition and mechanism of permanent federal employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation (the spoils system).
Widespread public demand for civil service reform was stirred after the Civil War by mounting incompetence, graft, corruption, and theft in federal departments and agencies. After Pres. James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker, civil service reform became a leading issue in the midterm elections of 1882. In January 1883, Congress passed a comprehensive civil service bill sponsored by Sen. George H. Pendleton of Ohio, providing for the open selection of government employees—to be administered by a Civil Service Commission—and guaranteeing the right of citizens to compete for federal appointment without regard to politics, religion, race, or national origin. Only about 10 percent of the positions in the federal government were covered by the new law, but nearly every president after Chester A. Arthur, who signed the bill into law, broadened its scope. By 1980 more than 90 percent of federal employees were protected by the act.
Copyright © 1994-2011 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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This Day in History
May 28
Lead Story
Appeal for Amnesty campaign launches, 1961
On this day in 1961, the British newspaper The London Observer publishes British lawyer Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" on its front…
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