The Pendleton Act created a salaried Civil Service Commission to replace the old U.S. Civil Service Commission, which had been defunded in the Grant administration. It was to craft exams for the selection of officials in certain classified government positions. The Pendleton Act also prohibited contributions from office holders, thus choking off a key conduit of patronage.60 The results were not what reformers intended. Rarely has a law so failed to achieve its stated objectives while creating a set of unanticipated consequences.
