How did the spoils system affect President James Garfield and his successor Chester A. Arthur?
(I'M PROBABLY NOR RIGHT BUT I TRIED, can someone check?) I believe that the answer is that spoils system had allowed President James Garfield to make influence for his successor Chester.
well that was no help
Heather was no help.
The spoils system did indeed have an impact on President James Garfield and his successor, Chester A. Arthur. However, instead of allowing Garfield to make influence for Arthur, it actually played a significant role in Garfield's assassination.
To understand this, let's start with what the spoils system is. The spoils system refers to the practice of rewarding loyal political supporters with government positions or jobs. It was prevalent during the 19th century in the United States. When a new president took office, they would often replace a large number of government officials with their own supporters, regardless of their qualifications or abilities.
In 1881, James Garfield became the 20th President of the United States. He was a reform-minded Republican who sought to eliminate corruption and reform the civil service system. However, the spoils system was deeply ingrained in American politics at the time, and he faced opposition from a faction within his own party called the Stalwarts, who were strong proponents of the spoils system.
James Garfield's assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, was a disillusioned office-seeker who believed that he was entitled to a government job due to his support for Garfield during the presidential campaign. When Guiteau was repeatedly denied a position, he became resentful and obsessed, ultimately leading him to shoot President Garfield in July 1881.
The assassination of President Garfield had a profound impact on his successor, Chester A. Arthur. Arthur himself had been associated with the Stalwart faction and had been appointed as the Vice President partly due to his support for the spoils system.
However, following Garfield's assassination, public sentiment turned against the spoils system. The incident served as a catalyst for civil service reform. Chester A. Arthur, deeply affected by the tragedy of Garfield's death, supported efforts to reform the spoils system and advocated for the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883. This act established a merit-based civil service system in the United States, which aimed to select government employees based on their qualifications rather than political affiliation.
So, in summary, the spoils system played a significant role in the assassination of President James Garfield by an angry office-seeker. This event, in turn, influenced Chester A. Arthur to support civil service reform and move away from the spoils system.
The failure of the spoils system brought on tragic consequences when in 1881 a frustrated office-seeker shot President James Garfield (1881) in a train station. Garfield's successor, Chester Arthur (1881–1885), though himself a creature of the spoils system, worked to dismantle it. The Pendleton Act of 1883 initiated reform of the system by establishing a federal Civil Service Commission and creating a class of government workers (14,000 out of a total of 100,000) who now had to take an examination to be awarded a government job. Though limited in size, the Civil Service Commission grew in later years.
The system was further refined in the twentieth century. To further separate civil service from politics, the Hatch Act (1940) forbid civil servants from political campaigning. The Hatch Act was revised in 1993 to allow most civil servants to participate in political activity on their personal time. Measures like the Civil Service Commission and the Hatch Act have been successful in limiting the use of the spoils system in the political process, but they haven't eradicated the practice. The spoils system is still (unofficially) practiced in some federal, state, and local government offices.