Question

Explain the importance of the spoils system in gilded age politics and how the garfield assassination led to the beginning of the civil service

Answer 1

The Spoils System is a practice where the victorious party rewards its supporters with government jobs or appointing them to government positions. It was the ‘norm’ from the Presidency of Andrew Jackson right up to the end of President’s Garfield’s administration. Well, President Garfield was killed by a man named Charles J. Guiteau, a mentally-ill man who believed he had helped the president win the election and so expected to be rewarded. Guiteau was not given a gov’t post and so plotted to kill the president and was successful. The assassination helped usher Civil Service Reform in the country.