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.
