[149] Republicans lost seats in the 1882 congressional elections, in which Democrats campaigned on the reform issue.[150] As a result, the lame-duck session of Congress was more amenable to civil service reform; the Senate approved Pendleton's bill 38–5 and the House soon concurred by a vote of 155–47.[151] Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16, 1883.[151] In just two years' time, an unrepentant Stalwart had become the president who ushered in long-awaited civil service reform.[151]

Arthur in 1884 (portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy)
At first, the act applied only to 10% of federal jobs and, without proper implementation by the president, it could have gone no further.[152] Even after he signed the act into law, its proponents doubted Arthur's commitment to reform.[152] To their surprise, he acted quickly to appoint the members of the Civil Service Commission that the law created, naming reformers Dorman Bridgman Eaton, John Milton Gregory, and Leroy D. Thoman as commissioners.[152] The chief examiner, Silas W. Burt, was a long-time reformer who had been Arthur's opponent when the two men worked at the New York Custom House.