idential candidate. The Democrats nominated the
hero of Gettysburg, the brave and renowned General W. S. Hancock, of
Pennsylvania, and William H. English, of Indiana. Garfield was elected,
receiving 214 electoral votes against 155 for Hancock. Hancock carried
every southern State; Garfield every northern State except New Jersey,
Nevada, and California.

[1881]

President Garfield had hardly entered upon his high duties when he was
cut down by the hand of an assassin. On the morning of July 2, 1881, the
President entered the railway station at Washington, intending to take
an eastern trip. Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker, crept
up behind him and fired two bullets at him, one of which lodged in his
back. The President died on September 19th, after weeks of suffering.
Vice-President Arthur succeeded to the presidency, and had an uneventful
but respectable administration.

[1882]

Guiteau's trial began in November and lasted more than two months. The
defence was insanity. The assassin maintained that he was inspired to
commit the deed, and that it was a political necessity. The "stalwart"
Republicans, headed by Senator Conkling, had quarrelled with the
President over certain appointments unacceptable to the New York
senator; Guiteau pretended to think the removal of Mr. Garfield
necessary to the unity of the party and the salvation of the country.
The prosecution showed that Guiteau had long been an unprincipled
adventurer, greedy for notoriety; that he first conceived of killing the
President after his hopes of office were finally destroyed; and that he
had planned the murder several weeks in advance. Guiteau was found
guilty, and executed at Washington on June 30, 1882. The autopsy showed
no disease of the brain.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
James A. Garfield.
From a photograph by C. M. Bell, Washington, D. C.

[1881]

Although it had no logical connection with the "spoils" system, the
assassination of President Garfield called the attention of the whole
country to the crying need of reform in the civil service. Ever since
the days of President Jackson, in 1829, appointments to the minor
federal offices had been used for the payment of party debts and to keep
up partisan interest. This practice incurred the deep condemnation of
Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and others, but no practical steps toward reform
were taken till 1871. The abuses of the spoils system had then become so
flagrant that Congres