Charles Guiteau Shoots President Garfield Over Patronage Denial

Charles J. Guiteau shoots President James A. Garfield at 9:30 AM on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., less than four months into Garfield’s presidency. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office-seeker who distributed copies of a speech promoting Garfield in the 1880 election, believes his campaigning was vital to Garfield’s victory and that the president owes him a diplomatic post in Europe. After months of failed attempts to solicit a patronage reward, including visits to both the White House and State Department where Secretary of State James Blaine angrily tells him “Do not ever mention the Paris consulship to me again,” Guiteau purchases a revolver and begins stalking the president. The assassination demonstrates that the spoils system—the practice of distributing government jobs to political supporters—has created a culture where denied patronage-seekers view political violence as a rational response to perceived betrayal.

Guiteau considers himself a loyal Republican and becomes convinced that Garfield is going to destroy the Republican Party by abolishing the patronage system. The assassin decides the only solution is to remove Garfield and elevate Vice President Chester A. Arthur to the presidency, believing this will save the party and that he will be revered for his actions. The assassination is not merely the product of a demented megalomaniac but has its origins in the domestic politics of the time. The political culture of the 1860s and 1870s—where the “spoils system” popularized during Andrew Jackson’s presidency had become institutionalized—leads directly to the president’s death. Jackson’s practice of removing federal bureau chiefs, marshals, attorneys and other officers to replace them with party loyalists had evolved into an expectation that electoral victory entitled supporters to government employment.

Garfield lingers for 80 days before dying on September 19, 1881, from infections caused both by the bullet wound and by his doctors’ repeated probing with unsterilized instruments. Guiteau, so sure he would be celebrated, is hanged on June 30, 1882, two days before the first anniversary of his attack. The assassination triggers enormous public outcry against the spoils system of hiring. Many Americans blame patronage appointments for Garfield’s shooting, and his death rallies support for civil service reform. The National Civil Service Reform League takes advantage of the president’s assassination by distributing a letter nationwide connecting the “recent murderous attack” to promote reform legislation.

The tragedy leads to passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, signed into law by President Arthur on January 16, 1883, establishing merit-based hiring for federal positions and creating the Civil Service Commission. However, the Act’s most significant long-term consequence may be unintended: by reducing party organizations’ reliance on government employee contributions, the Pendleton Act shifts the burden of party fundraising to corporate interests. By 1888, roughly 40 percent of Republican national campaign funds come from manufacturing and business interests, with state parties even more reliant on corporate funding. Money from corporations, banks, railroads, and other businesses fills party coffers, with numerous corporations reportedly making donations of $50,000 or more. The assassination thus produces a reform that eliminates one form of corruption—patronage-based hiring—while accelerating another: corporate capture of both political parties through campaign finance. The spoils system dies, but corporate plutocracy rises in its place.