Dorman Bridgeman Eaton

Who was Dorman Bridgeman Eaton?

Dorman Bridgeman Eaton was instrumental in American federal Civil Service reform. He was an American lawyer

Born at Hardwick, Vermont, he graduated at the University of Vermont in 1848 and at the Harvard Law School in 1850, and in the latter year was admitted to the bar in New York City. There he became associated in practice with William Kent, the son of the great chancellor, an edition of whose Commentaries he assisted in editing.

Eaton early became interested in municipal and civil service reform. He was conspicuous in the fight against Boss Tweed and his followers, by one of whom he was assaulted; he required a long period of rest, and went to Europe, where he studied the workings of the civil service in various countries. From 1873 to 1875 he was a member of the first United States Civil Service Commission.

In 1877, at the request of President Rutherford B. Hayes, he made a careful study of the British civil service, and three years later published Civil Service in Great Britain. He drafted the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883, and later became a member of the new commission established by it.