Pendleton, George Hunt (1825-1889), a United States senator, sponsored the Pendleton Act, which created the civil service system in 1883. He also sponsored a proposal in 1867 to pay off the U.S. national debt with paper money rather than gold. A Democrat from Ohio, Pendleton served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1857 to 1865 and in the Senate from 1879 to 1885. He was the Democratic Party’s candidate for Vice President in 1864, but he lost the election. From 1885 to 1889, Pendleton served as minister to Germany. Pendleton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 29 1825. He died on Nov. 24, 1889.
