PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND - CIVIL APPOINTMENT SIGNED 12/04/1885 CO-SIGNED BY: DANIEL MANNING - HFSID 43178

GROVER CLEVELAND and DANIEL MANNING
1885 Cleveland appointment exemplifies push for merit-based civil service reforms.
Partly Printed DS: "Grover Cleveland" as 22nd U.S. President and "Daniel Manning" as Secretary of the Treasury. 1p, 16½x13½. Washington, 1885 December 4. In part: "Know Ye, That John M. Morton, having been suspended from his office as Surveyor of Customs for the District of San Francisco, in the State of California…I do designate Wiley J. Tinnin to perform the duties of said suspended officer; subject to all provisions of law applicable thereto…."  President GROVER CLEVELAND signed this appointment of WILEY J. TINNIN as Surveyor of Customs for San Francisco, California on December 4, 1885. During the first year of his administration, Cleveland replaced or suspended numerous civil service workers - including JOHN M. MORTON - who had been appointed during the years when the spoils system was widely used. His actions resulted in a controversy with the United States Senate over these dismissals; the opposing Senate - ruled by a Republican majority - demanded justification which Cleveland refused to submit claiming that the President had sole discretion in the removal of government personnel. The Senate conceded, and Cleveland doubled the civil service workers employed by merit rather than by political-party favoritism. Creased. ¼-inch stain in upper left blank area. Overall, fine condition. Framed to an overall size of 33¾x22½.