<P> The Jackson administration attempted to explain this unprecedented purge as reform, or constructive turnover, aimed at creating a more efficient system where the chain of command of public employees all obeyed the higher entities of government . The hardest changed organization within the federal government proved to be the post office . The post office was the largest department in the federal government, and had even more personnel than the war department . In one year 423 postmasters were deprived of their positions, most with extensive records of good service . </P> <P> By the late 1860s, citizens began demanding civil service reform . Running under the Liberal Republican Party in 1872, they were soundly defeated by Ulysses S. Grant . </P> <P> After the assassination of James A. Garfield by a rejected office - seeker in 1881, the calls for civil service reform intensified . Moderation of the spoils system at the federal level came with the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis . While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job . The Pendleton Act's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the White House every election between 1884 and 1896 . After each election the outgoing President applied the Pendleton Act to jobs held by his political supporters . By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service and the spoils system was limited only to very senior positions . </P> <P> The separation between the political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the Hatch Act of 1939 which prohibited federal employees from engaging in many political activities . </P>

What event led to the end of the spoils system