Question

pls help

How did the spoils system affect president James Garfield and his successor Chester A. Arthur?

&th grade level pls

Answer 1

Short answer first:
- The spoils system is when politicians give government jobs to their friends and supporters instead of hiring people because they are qualified.
- The spoils system helped cause President James A. Garfield’s assassination.
- His successor, Chester A. Arthur, surprised people by supporting reform and helped pass a law that started hiring by merit instead of patronage.

A little more detail (8th-grade level):
- What the spoils system did: winners of elections rewarded supporters with government jobs. That often put unqualified people in important jobs and made government corruption worse.
- How it affected Garfield (President in 1881): Garfield wanted to reduce the power of the spoils system and give some jobs to qualified people. This split his own party and made angry politicians and job-seekers. A disappointed office-seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot Garfield in 1881 because he thought he had been promised a job and was denied. Garfield later died from his wounds.
- How it affected Chester A. Arthur (became president after Garfield died): Arthur had been part of the political machine that used the spoils system, so people expected him to keep it. Instead, after Garfield’s assassination and public anger about patronage, Arthur supported change. In 1883 he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which began hiring people for many government jobs based on tests and merit, not political favor.

Bottom line: The spoils system helped lead to Garfield’s death and then pushed the federal government to start reforming how it hired people — with Arthur unexpectedly becoming a leader of that reform.