: [POST-PUBLICATION CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Abram Garfield fought a fire with his brothers. In fact, he fought the fire with his neighbors.]
RAMTIN ARABLOUEI, HOST:
July 2, 1881. President James A. Garfield is about to board a train at the...
CANDICE MILLARD: Baltimore and Potomac Train Station, which is in Washington, D.C.
ARABLOUEI: He's headed to New Jersey with his sons to visit his ailing wife. It's about 9:30 a.m.
MILLARD: And what he doesn't know is there's a man named Charles Guiteau...
ARABLOUEI: Charles Guiteau.
MILLARD: ...Who has been stalking him for weeks.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield has no security detail with him.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: Garfield walks into the train station, and Guiteau almost immediately steps out of the shadows.
ARABLOUEI: With a pistol in his hand.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
ARABLOUEI: He fires two shots at President Garfield.
MILLARD: He shoots him once in his arm, and then he shoots him again in his back.
ARABLOUEI: One bullet gets lodged just below his pancreas.
MILLARD: There's this sort of moment of shock and silence. And then just the entire station just erupts and screams.
(SCREAMING)
MILLARD: Garfield is lying on this floor in a train station with two bullet holes in him.
ARABLOUEI: A group of men rush to President Garfield and grab him.
MILLARD: And they get this old horsehair and hay mattress, and they put Garfield on it, and they take him to a room above the train station.
ARABLOUEI: He's still alive, and a parade of local doctors arrive to look at his wounds.
MILLARD: Every doctor who comes sticks unsterilized fingers and instruments in his back again and again. I mean, it's incredibly, like, unbelievably painful, but also, obviously, introducing so much infection.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning, and it's best not to worry about either - James A. Garfield.
ARABLOUEI: Charles Guiteau, the man who shot President Garfield, is arrested right away at the train station.
MILLARD: He's immediately taken to a prison.
ARABLOUEI: And he wastes no time in telling police why he did it.
MILLARD: He believed that God had chosen him for a great purpose. So he thinks that he helped Garfield win the White House.
ARABLOUEI: Guiteau had delivered a single speech for Garfield's campaign. And when Garfield won the presidency, he believed he was owed a major government job in return. When he didn't receive it, he thought killing Garfield would make things right.
MILLARD: He was mentally ill, and he was delusional. He believed very happily and vigorously in the spoils system.
ARABLOUEI: The spoils system. That's referring to the way federal government jobs were filled at that time. Basically, when a new president would come into office, he'd dole out plum jobs, everything from postmen to cabinet secretaries, as a reward to people in his party, to his supporters, his loyalists. It was a controversial issue at the center of American politics, even then. And over the next several months after President Garfield's shooting in 1881, Americans would read the newspapers every day to find out the latest about his condition and the trial of Charles Guiteau. The fallout of the shooting on that hot day in July would forever change the very nature of the U.S. government. It's a story of redemption and corruption and how one event can bring the best and worst out of politicians. Ultimately, this is a story about the origins of the modern federal civil service, an institution that's today being fought over again.
RUND ABDELFATAH, HOST:
I'm Rund Abdelfatah.
ARABLOUEI: And I'm Ramtin Arablouei. On this episode of THROUGHLINE from NPR, the long shadow of 1881.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
OLLATUPO ISHALA: This is Ollatupo Ishala (ph) from Maryland, USA. You are listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR. Bye-bye.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ABDELFATAH: Hey, it's Rund. In our latest bonus episode, we hear from our producer Lawrence Wu about the world's first automatic machine gun and the lengths he took to find out exactly what it would have sounded like in a 19th century battle. Listen now and get sponsor-free listening for all of our episodes by signing up for THROUGHLINE+ at plus.npr.org/throughline.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Part 1 - From the Wilds of Ohio.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSTLING)
ARABLOUEI: Around 20 miles from Cleveland, a fire is burning. The year is 1833. It's three years since President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, aiming to force the last native populations from the state. Ohio is still largely undeveloped, and this part of the state is full of trees.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: The thickly wooded forest is the perfect tinder for the fire that is racing towards a lone log cabin, the Garfield family's home. The outcome seems inevitable, but Abram Garfield, the father of James Garfield, the country's future president, won't let everything he's saved and fought for disappear just like that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELING)
ARABLOUEI: Somehow, he does it. The cabin and his family survive. But days later, Abram gets very ill. On the brink of death, he turns to his wife, Eliza, and says...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Abram Garfield) I have planted four saplings in these woods. I leave them in your care.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)
ARABLOUEI: Four saplings, his children. James Garfield was the youngest.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: He was born into extreme poverty. He didn't have shoes until he was 4.
ARABLOUEI: This is Candice Millard. She's the author of...
MILLARD: "Destiny Of The Republic."
ARABLOUEI: Which is all about the country's 20th president, James Garfield.
MILLARD: This guy was extraordinary, and he's been completely forgotten.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN LAUGHING)
ARABLOUEI: Raised by a widowed mother in Ohio.
MILLARD: He was our last president born in a log cabin.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield grew up surrounded by trees, and his thoughts were nowhere near the machinations of the White House. Instead, he dreamt of the sea.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) I remember especially "The Pirate's Own Book," which became a sort of Bible or general authority with me.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (Reading) A tropical climate is suited to a roving life, and liquor, as well as dissolute women being in great abundance to gratify him during his hours of relaxation, make this a congenial region for the lawless.
ARABLOUEI: As an adult, Garfield recalled how reading about the ocean, pirates and sailors fueled his nautical ambitions.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) I formed a determination to become a sailor.
ARABLOUEI: Although Garfield didn't even know how to swim, he set off at the age of 16 against the protests of his mother, who wanted him to get an education. He started working in Lake Erie's canals.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) I knew almost nothing about the water, except what I had read. The consequence was I fell into the canal just 14 times and had 14 almost miraculous escapes from drowning.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPLASH)
ARABLOUEI: After so many near drownings and then a terrible case of malaria, Garfield headed back home, where his mother and brother had been hatching a plan to get Garfield back in school.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: They saved a little bit of money. They put together $17 to be able to send him to college.
ARABLOUEI: So he enrolls at a local school, but it's expensive. He finished the term with just 6 cents to his name.
MILLARD: To help pay his tuition, he was a carpenter and a janitor.
ARABLOUEI: But he's brilliant, and just a few years after graduating, he returns to his local college.
MILLARD: They made him a professor of literature, mathematics and ancient languages.
ARABLOUEI: And not long after that, he became the college's president. And OK, I know, at this point, you're probably thinking this sounds a lot like the plot line for "Good Will Hunting." But this is real. This is really how it goes down for James Garfield.
MILLARD: He wrote an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. So he was also this amazing mathematician.
ARABLOUEI: For him, education was his path out of poverty and into a new life.
MILLARD: He was an incredible classicist. He knew Greek. He knew Latin. He knew huge sections of "The Aeneid" by heart in Latin. He was just off-the-charts brilliant. But honestly, what was more interesting to me and more important to me about Garfield than his brain was his heart.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield grew up in a devout Christian family, and that definitely influenced the way he saw the world.
MILLARD: He belonged to the disciples of Christ. That was very informative in his life. I think in their family, they really took seriously the idea of that you try to do the best not just for yourself and for your family, but for those around you and for civilization and for history.
ARABLOUEI: So when it came to the country's fierce debate over the ongoing system of slavery, Garfield had only one answer.
MILLARD: He was a fierce abolitionist.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) At such hours as this, I feel like throwing the whole current of my life into the work of opposing this great evil.
MILLARD: He was this incredibly powerful speaker - not shy and always happy to stand up for what he believed in.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield, who, by this point, had already become a lawyer and entered state politics, had won a seat in the Ohio Senate.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) So long must this circle of states be undivided, the bonds of union unbroken.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: And after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) The war will soon assume the shape of slavery and freedom. The world will understand it, and I believe the final outcome will redound to the good of humanity.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield knew war was probably inevitable.
MILLARD: He was never not going to fight in a war that at its heart was about abolishing slavery.
ARABLOUEI: So he joins the fight.
MILLARD: He's not a trained military strategist, but again, he is a thinker.
ARABLOUEI: They make him the leader of the 42nd regiment, which is tasked with fighting back the Confederate Army in Kentucky. It's a key state to win, and everyone knows it. President Abraham Lincoln hails from there and is widely reported to have said, I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAR HORN BLOWING)
ARABLOUEI: It all comes down to one battle - the battle of Middle Creek.
MILLARD: He was completely outnumbered by the Confederates.
ARABLOUEI: So Garfield tries something bold.
MILLARD: He divided his regiment into three and had them come at them from three different directions.
ARABLOUEI: The Confederates felt like they were being swarmed on all sides.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: He tricked them.
ARABLOUEI: And it worked.
MILLARD: They thought that they were completely overwhelmed when the opposite was true.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: After the fighting ended, Garfield went out and surveyed the aftermath, and he saw...
MILLARD: A lot of young men spread out on a field. And at first, it looks as if they're sleeping. And then, you know, he realizes that they're dead. And the enormity of that, you know, stayed with him for the rest of his life.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: Ten months later, after his decisive win at the battle of Middle Creek, Garfield was elected to the U.S. Congress as a representative of Ohio. He had decided to keep fighting instead of reporting to D.C. But then...
MILLARD: Abraham Lincoln asks him to come back to serve because he said he needed him.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) I did this with great regret for I had hoped to not leave the field till every insurgent state had returned to its allegiance. But the president told me he dared not risk a single vote in the House.
ARABLOUEI: Lincoln knew that he needed men like Garfield to make sure important legislation was passed. And Garfield soon found out that he could achieve more for the union from his seat in Congress than at the helm of a battle.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) What legislation is necessary to secure equal justice to all loyal persons without regard to color at the nation's capital?
ARABLOUEI: During the war, he introduced a resolution that allowed Black people to walk freely through Washington, D.C., without any sort of pass or documentation - something that had long been required to prove their status as freedmen.
MILLARD: Yeah, he was a radical Republican. I mean, he was very much involved in the Freedmen's Bureau. And he has not great things to say about Lincoln.
ARABLOUEI: Wow.
MILLARD: He was frustrated with him because, you know, Lincoln's trying to keep everything together, but he's angry. And he felt that Lincoln had kind of dragged his feet and taken too long to release the Emancipation Proclamation.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOT)
ARABLOUEI: On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and killed.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) I am sick at heart, and it feel to be almost like sacrilege to talk of money or business now.
ARABLOUEI: Despite their differences, Garfield was devastated and more determined than ever to fight for Black Americans' right to vote.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) Let us not commit ourselves to the senseless and absurd dogma that the color of the skin shall be the basis of suffrage.
ARABLOUEI: And as always, people were captivated by him.
MILLARD: He was tall. He was strong. He was handsome. You know, he had this bigger-than-life personality. You know, he was just irresistible.
ARABLOUEI: And they listened.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) Have we given freedom to the Black man? What is freedom? Is it the bare privilege of not being chained, of not being bought and sold, branded and scourged? If this is all, then freedom is a bitter mockery.
ARABLOUEI: Coming up, Garfield's rising star puts him on an unlikely path to the White House, even though it's the last thing he wants.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LEANNE SPAGNOLA: My name is Leanne Spagnola (ph). I'm in Dallas, Texas, and you're listening to THROUGHLINE. Thank you, guys, for this podcast. I'm smarter because of it.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Part 2 - Trickle Becomes Stream.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: On June 2, 1880, the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, met in Chicago for its national convention.
MILLARD: There are 15,000 people there.
ARABLOUEI: They're going to choose the Republican ticket for the 1880 presidential election.
MILLARD: Everyone expects that Ulysses S. Grant is going to get this nomination.
ARABLOUEI: Ulysses S. Grant was the union's commanding general during the Civil War, a national hero who served two terms as president from 1869 to 1877.
MILLARD: He's hoping for a third term .
ARABLOUEI: Back then, there were no limits on how many times you could be president.
MILLARD: He's obviously still beloved, even though his past administrations have been sort of riddled with corruption.
ARABLOUEI: Corruption that partly came from the spoils system.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT GREENBERGER: The spoils system really is as old as democracy in this country.
ARABLOUEI: The spoils system is exactly what it sounds like. It's the idea that whoever wins the presidency should be able to fill all those federal government jobs with people who are loyal - to the winner goes the spoils. So this meant that jobs like postman or tax collector weren't filled by the most qualified person, but instead, the job was given out like a perk to party loyalists. It had been in use for decades at all levels of government. But when the Civil War happened, suddenly, the federal government grew exponentially to support the war effort, and there were a lot of jobs to be filled via the spoils system. The Republican Party, which controlled every branch of government at that point, used it to their advantage. But when the war ended, many people started to call the system out as corrupt and unfair. In fact...
MILLARD: Within the Republican Party, you had this deep divide. There were the Stalwarts...
ARABLOUEI: Stalwarts.
MILLARD: ...Who believed that the spoils system was great, and it made a lot of sense, and they needed to protect it to keep it going.
ARABLOUEI: And then there were what some people derisively called...
MILLARD: Half-Breeds, who believed that it was essentially corrupt and needed to be reformed.
ARABLOUEI: The term half-breed was an insulting way to describe someone of mixed Native and European descent. And the Stalwarts used that term to insult Republicans who criticized the spoils system, meaning they were only half Republican.
GREENBERGER: It's hard for Americans in the 21st century to understand how civil service reform could be, like, the number one issue at the top of the national agenda, but it was in the late 1870s.
ARABLOUEI: This is...
GREENBERGER: Scott Greenberger.
ARABLOUEI: He's the executive editor of a news site called Stateline and has written extensively about this time in American politics. He says going into the 1880 election, the spoils system...
GREENBERGER: Was the major issue.
ARABLOUEI: So at the convention, Ulysses S. Grant was the candidate for the Stalwart faction. His opponent, the candidate for the spoils system reformers, was a guy named John Sherman.
MILLARD: And he desperately wanted this nomination.
ARABLOUEI: The custom at that time was for candidates to not attend the convention and to have someone else give a speech on their behalf, making the argument for why they would be the right candidate. No one wanted to appear too thirsty for the presidency. So Grant sends...
MILLARD: Sort of the king of the Stalwarts. He was this man called Roscoe Conkling...
ARABLOUEI: Roscoe Conkling.
MILLARD: ...And he was a senior senator from New York.
ARABLOUEI: He also had control over the New York City Custom House, where most of America's imported goods came in, where custom taxes on those goods were collected. They were a form of tariffs.
MILLARD: So bringing in tons of money. He has a lot of power.
ARABLOUEI: And he used that power to make sure Republicans stayed in power.
GREENBERGER: He is very pro-reconstruction and pro-civil rights, but he is also a great defender of the spoils system. In his view, when a new party comes in, whoever won the election, the president should be able to put his people in the position. So in that sense, it's not unlike the argument - in fact, it's the same argument - that the Trump administration is making now. Which is that, OK, the people elected me, and my job as the executive is to implement the policies that I've been elected to implement, and therefore, why shouldn't my people be in those positions?
ARABLOUEI: Conkling argued that the spoils system was the most realistic way for the Republican Party to achieve its goals, like civil rights for Black Americans, expanding access to education and building more railroads.
GREENBERGER: He said, people disparage our political machine, but a machine is just something that gets things done.
ARABLOUEI: So that's the person giving this speech for the Stalwarts - Conkling. And Sherman, the Half-Breed's faction candidate, the person he chooses to give his speech, is none other than James A. Garfield.
MILLARD: So he goes to Chicago, and he's up all night the night before.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: On the fourth day of the convention - Saturday - speeches were given on behalf of each candidate. Roscoe Conkling takes the stage.
MILLARD: And it was fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As Roscoe Conkling) I rise in behalf of the state of New York to propose a nomination with which the country and the Republican Party can grandly win.
MILLARD: Just fantastic.
ARABLOUEI: Conkling was in his bag - fiery and direct. He presented Grant as a noble war hero.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As Roscoe Conkling) Never defeated in war or at peace, his name is the most illustrious borne by any living man.
(CHEERING)
MILLARD: And he's got everybody completely worked up, and they're pounding their fists, and they're stomping their feet, and they're cheering.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As Roscoe Conkling) He never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the people will never betray or desert him.
ARABLOUEI: The crowd is going nuts. They are cheering...
MILLARD: For Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant.
ARABLOUEI: Conkling finishes his speech, and the cheering just continues.
MILLARD: And in the middle of this, Garfield has to get up and give the nominating address for John Sherman.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a might people are to be measured and by which their final actions will be determined.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: And he's a completely different person from Roscoe Conkling. He's quiet and intellectual and thoughtful, but he's very, very powerful.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) Twenty-five years ago, this republic was bearing and wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity with traffic in the bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of our people.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield praises the great effort it took to erase slavery from the United States. He calls to renew that spirit.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) At that crisis, the Republican Party was born. Then, after the storms of battle, were heard the calm words of peace spoken by the conquering nation.
MILLARD: There were a lot of reporters there, and I've read every single article about this, and they all describe this hall just slowly becoming mesmerized.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) This is our only revenge, that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution to shine like stars forever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and justice that all men, white or Black, shall be free and shall stand equal before the law.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: In the middle of all this, he pauses, and...
MILLARD: He says...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) And now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want?
MILLARD: Someone in the crowd shouts, we want Garfield.
(CHEERING)
MILLARD: And everybody just goes crazy. And he's trying to quiet them down. And he literally says, you know, my friends, my friends, please, I ask you, quiet down so you can hear what I have to say.
ARABLOUEI: He was there to get John Sherman the nomination. So he's horrified that instead of cheering his name, they're saying Garfield.
MILLARD: He finishes his nominating address, and he sits down. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, someone stands up and gives one of their votes to Garfield. And he was like, what? And he stands up, and he objects, but they shout him down.
ARABLOUEI: When the balloting begins, things proceed normally at first.
MILLARD: Then round after round, more and more and more votes start coming for him. Again, he's not a candidate.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield does not want to be the nominee.
MILLARD: But this trickle becomes a stream, becomes a river, and then just this flood of votes.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: And Garfield suddenly finds himself the Republican nominee for president of the United States.
ARABLOUEI: Garfield is in total shock.
MILLARD: Over the next few days, it's not just shock that he feels. It's grief, because he knows that if he does then become president, he's going to have to give up so many of the things he loves.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: Meanwhile, Roscoe Conkling, the guy who gave this speech supporting Grant's nomination, he was not happy.
MILLARD: He's furious.
ARABLOUEI: And suddenly he feels like his interests are threatened.
MILLARD: But they need him for the general election. They need his help.
ARABLOUEI: So Garfield and his allies start looking to smooth things over with the Stalwarts.
MILLARD: And what they decide on is that he - they're going to use his man.
ARABLOUEI: Conkling's protege.
MILLARD: Chester Arthur, who will be Garfield's running mate.
ARABLOUEI: Chester Arthur was a man who had never held office, yet here he was being placed on the ticket as vice president as a way to appease the Stalwarts. And he was an unlikely running mate for Garfield. He was from Vermont but moved to New York City as a young man to chase fame and fortune.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENBERGER: Arthur, actually, as a young man, was involved in the case that ended up desegregating New York City's streetcars.
ARABLOUEI: He was a progressive, and he was also great at schmoozing it up with the elites in the city.
GREENBERGER: He was considered to be extraordinarily handsome. He was tall. He had those terrific mutton-chop sideburns.
ARABLOUEI: Like a Civil War-era Great Gatsby.
GREENBERGER: Sort of the backslapping guy, who was interested in staying up all night drinking and smoking cigars. That was Chester Arthur.
ARABLOUEI: During the Civil War, he met a number of political leaders. And after the war ended, he used those connections to become a lobbyist.
GREENBERGER: From there, he became a very important part of the New York political machine.
ARABLOUEI: Roscoe Conkling took him under his wing and helped him become the head of the New York Custom House, where he got very involved in the spoils system.
GREENBERGER: There were close to a thousand patronage jobs there, and it was very, very important to the New York Republican machine - the statewide machine - to be able to reward its supporters with jobs at the Custom House.
ARABLOUEI: Classic spoils system.
GREENBERGER: He's fully invested in the spoils system. He's a creature of the spoils system.
MILLARD: He was completely loyal to Conkling.
GREENBERGER: So this is Chester Arthur on the eve of the 1880 Republican Convention.
ARABLOUEI: So you can imagine Arthur is very surprised when he's asked to join the Republican ticket with Garfield.
GREENBERGER: He was an emotional person, and he was flabbergasted.
ARABLOUEI: But...
GREENBERGER: He says, you know what? This is the greatest honor that anyone has ever given me, and I'm going to do it.
ARABLOUEI: And he does it. They do it. Garfield and Arthur - the divided ticket - they win the election. But obviously, it's still awkward, especially for Garfield.
MILLARD: The person closest to him in his administration is his sort of sworn enemy.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: And the tension rises even more when Garfield dedicates a part of his inauguration speech to calling for reform of the spoils system.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.
MILLARD: He had freed men and former slave owners in the crowd before him, tears in their eyes, you know? Because there's so much promise and possibility for this still very young country.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As James A. Garfield) For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who are entrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong.
ARABLOUEI: But not everyone was inspired by his message of reform.
MILLARD: Conkling is not going to back down, and he's got his man right there in the White House.
ARABLOUEI: Chester Arthur, the new vice president.
MILLARD: While Garfield is trying to set up his administration, Conkling is pulling every single person that Garfield's like, OK, maybe this guy. Conkling gets to them first and pulls him into his apartment, which they had nicknamed the morgue, and terrifies them and threatens them.
ARABLOUEI: He basically tells them, don't take a job with Garfield if you want a future in the Republican Party.
MILLARD: Person after person starts backing out. Like, I thought I wanted that position in your administration, Garfield, but I am sorry. I can't take it.
ARABLOUEI: President Garfield is getting sabotaged by Conkling and the Stalwarts, and on top of all that, he has to face the realities of the spoils system every single day in the White House.
MILLARD: At that time, people didn't think that there should be any protections for the president or any separation from the president.
ARABLOUEI: So every day, random people would walk into the White House and queue to ask the president for a job.
MILLARD: Say you want to be in charge of your post office in your little town, go to the White House and make your case to the president himself.
ARABLOUEI: And Garfield hated it.
MILLARD: This is what made life hell, really, for Garfield when he was president. He specifically said, I don't know why anyone would ever want to be president.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: The man who shot President Garfield on July 2, 1881 - a man named Charles Guiteau - he was one of these office seekers.
MILLARD: Guiteau was Garfield's opposite in every way. He had failed at everything he had tried.
ARABLOUEI: He once started a newspaper. That failed.
MILLARD: He had tried to be a lawyer.
ARABLOUEI: At one point, he was a member of a cult, basically a free-love commune.
MILLARD: They had nicknamed him Charles Get Out.
ARABLOUEI: He had campaigned for Garfield in 1880, which he felt entitled him to a big government job as a reward.
MILLARD: I should be given the ambassadorship to France. And so, you know, no background, no qualifications, but that's the spoils system, he thinks.
ARABLOUEI: So then he starts...
MILLARD: Writing to the White House, saying, yes, this is what I've done, and this is what I'd like in return.
ARABLOUEI: He doesn't get a response. And so, Guiteau starts showing up to the White House almost daily to personally ask Garfield for a job.
MILLARD: At one point, he even walks into the president's office with Garfield there.
ARABLOUEI: He doesn't get the job offer he wanted. So he's furious and getting desperate.
MILLARD: He doesn't have any money. He's moving from boarding house to boarding house.
ARABLOUEI: He's becoming hungrier and more delusional.
MILLARD: He thinks God wants him to kill the president, to make Chester Arthur president, to get the Stalwarts in office.
ARABLOUEI: He buys a pistol, and for weeks, he stalks President Garfield, looking for the right moment to strike.
MILLARD: He reads that Garfield is going to be in the train station on July 2, and so he goes there, and he's waiting for him when Garfield arrives.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As Charles Guiteau) I am a Stalwart of Stalwarts. Arthur is president now.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: These are the words Charles Guiteau screamed after shooting Garfield.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: Meanwhile, Vice President Chester Arthur is in New York with Roscoe Conkling.
GREENBERGER: Someone tells them what has happened, that Garfield's been shot. And Arthur's reaction is he basically just collapses in the chair. He can't even believe that this has happened.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENBERGER: Not only is he shocked and upset that the president of the United States has been shot, he is fearful that people are talking about him as a suspect, that he and Conkling might be involved in this somehow.
ARABLOUEI: Conkling has a different reaction.
MILLARD: He's like, great, this is our opportunity. Garfield will die. You'll become president, and I can run things again. But Chester Arthur has an opposite reaction. He's grief-stricken.
ARABLOUEI: And the American people...
MILLARD: Are furious. They think that Conkling and Chester Arthur were behind it, which they weren't, but they think that. And they think that Chester Arthur is just waiting in the wings. But strangely, the opposite is happening.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: Coming up, the letters that changed the American civil service forever.
ALENE RACEY: Hi, I'm Alene Racey (ph) calling from San Jose, California, and you're listening to THROUGHLINE.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Part 3 - Metamorphosis.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) To the Honorable Chester A. Arthur, the people are bowed in grief, but do you realize it? Not so much because he is dying as because you are his successor.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: As President Garfield lies in the White House, an infection spreading through his body, Vice President Chester Arthur starts getting a series of letters.
GREENBERGER: From this mysterious woman in New York.
ARABLOUEI: A 31-year-old single woman.
MILLARD: She was just this invalid, shut-in.
GREENBERGER: But she is a political junkie who clearly knows all about Chester Arthur and his background and how he grew up.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) Your kindest opponents say, Arthur will try to write, adding gloomily, he won't succeed, though. Making a man president cannot change him.
ARABLOUEI: Her name is Julia Sand.
GREENBERGER: They've never met before.
ARABLOUEI: At first, it seems that she, like most of the country, doesn't have high hopes for Arthur. But then she writes...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) But making a man president can change him. Great emergencies awaken generous traits, which have lain dormant half a life. If there is a spark of true nobility in you, now is the occasion to let it shine.
GREENBERGER: So she really - she zeroes in on what he's feeling.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) Your past you know best what it has been. You have lived for worldly things. Fairly or unfairly, you have won them. You are rich, powerful. Tomorrow, perhaps, you will be president. What is it all worth?
GREENBERGER: She urges him. And she says, listen, you can now make up for all these years of shady machine politics by doing the right thing, by championing civil service reform, by finally solving this issue that has resulted inevitably in this horrible event - the shooting of Garfield. You are the guy.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) Faith in your better nature forces me to write you, but not to beg you to resign. Do what is more difficult and more brave - reform.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: Meanwhile, Garfield's condition is getting worse. Doctor after doctor visits him. Even Alexander Graham Bell brings his prototype for a metal detector to help doctors find where the bullets were lodged.
MILLARD: This goes on for months.
GREENBERGER: It's the front page of the newspapers every day.
MILLARD: It was just horrific.
ARABLOUEI: By August, it becomes clear to Garfield and his doctors that he's probably not going to recover. Garfield demands to be taken out of the White House. He wants to go to the sea.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAIN)
MILLARD: So they get a train, and they got the inside of one of the train cars, and they totally change it out. They put his bed in there, and they take him to New Jersey.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MILLARD: One of the most touching scenes is when they get to the house that's on the - on a hill, and the train tracks don't go up the hill. They stop. And all these people who are there waiting, they themselves lift this train car and pull it up the last few feet to the door of this house, to try to save him some more misery.
ARABLOUEI: He spends the next several days there by the beach with his wife and family, staring out at the ocean.
MILLARD: And that's where he dies. He died in September - September 19.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)
ARABLOUEI: A few days later, Chester Arthur is sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, and Julia Sand never stops believing in him. She kept sending him letters.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Julia Sand) Nothing can be more beautiful than the manner in which you have borne yourself through this long, hard ordeal.
ARABLOUEI: Less than a year after becoming president, Arthur visited Julia Sand at her home.
GREENBERGER: He just showed up on her doorstep in Manhattan one day. He came and said, you know what? You don't fully understand how hard it is to be in my position. You know, you criticize me for some things. You expect me to be an angel, and it's impossible to be an angel in this job. But I really do appreciate these letters, and they've meant a lot to me.
MILLARD: She believed in him, and I think it was that belief, you know, that helped him find the strength to try to do the right thing at last.
ARABLOUEI: Not long after he became president, Chester Arthur turned his back on his old mentor, Roscoe Conkling.
GREENBERGER: For the vice presidency, I'm indebted to you and my, you know, role in the party. But for the presidency, I'm indebted to Almighty God. I'm in charge of the country, and I need to serve all the American people and not just the political machine. So the first surprising thing that Arthur did was in his first annual message, which is what we now call the State of the Union.
TOM MACH: Chester Arthur does what nobody thought he would do.
GREENBERGER: He surprised everyone by endorsing civil service reform.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As Chester Arthur) Congress should deem it advisable at the present session to establish competitive tests for admission to the service. No doubts such as have been suggested shall deter me from giving the measure my earnest support.
MACH: Chester Arthur, the Stalwart of Stalwarts, says we need to do something about this.
ARABLOUEI: It's a total 180 that tips the scales in favor of civil service reform, and there's already an Ohio senator who's been working on the issue.
MACH: George Pendleton.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARABLOUEI: George Pendleton was a prominent Democrat. And at that time, many Democrats were openly sympathetic to the former Confederacy.
MACH: Pendleton did believe that Africans were inferior to white Americans.
ARABLOUEI: This is Tom Mach. He's a history professor at Cedarville University and the author of "Gentleman George Hunt Pendleton: Party Politics And Ideological Identity In Nineteenth-century America."
MACH: He believed that slavery was a state issue.
ARABLOUEI: Pendleton was not a progressive like Garfield or Arthur, but he did agree with them on one thing.
MACH: He is concerned about the spoils system. And the system's become elitist once again, and the only way to fix that is to reform civil service.
ARABLOUEI: And in order to do something about it, he has to go beyond his own party for support.
MACH: Much of his party opposed him in the civil service reform. There is no question that most of his support comes from across the aisle.
ARABLOUEI: ...From Republicans. He puts together a civil service reform bill that would come to be called the Pendleton Act. It did things like set up a test for all federal government job seekers.
MACH: You had to pass the exam in order to be able to be considered for a government job. This is the concept of civil service by merit. If you're going to be working in the accounting office of the Treasury Department, you can actually keep a ledger.
ARABLOUEI: At this time, it was a revolutionary idea. You get the government job because of your ability, not just party loyalty. The spoils system was so entrenched in American politics, it was going to be hard to pass this bill. But President Garfield's death galvanized a movement for reform that couldn't be stopped.
MACH: It finally gets passed in both houses of Congress in 1883.
ARABLOUEI: And shortly after, on January 16, 1883, a little over a year after Garfield's death, President Chester Arthur signed the Pendleton Act into law.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENBERGER: It was most definitely the beginning of the professional civil service that we have now. And in subsequent decades, they added civil service protections for more workers, and it grew and grew and grew.
ARABLOUEI: At first, the Pendleton Act only covered about 10% of federal jobs - a few thousand federal workers. But as time went on, it expanded to eventually cover the vast majority of the federal workforce, which now measures in the millions.
GREENBERGER: These people who are professional civil servants, many of whom have been there for decades through administrations - Democratic and Republican - they serve the American people. They're not serving whoever happens to be in the White House. And they have expertise. And yes, they're supposed to be implementing the laws faithfully. But their jobs are not to advance the agenda of any party or a particular president.
ARABLOUEI: Less than a year after he shot President Garfield, Charles Guiteau was executed. His madness had driven the country into mourning and inadvertently sparked a chain of events that would alter the future of the federal government of the United States.
MILLARD: It doesn't always take a big event to change the course of history, right? It can be something as small as one man's madness...
ARABLOUEI: One woman's faith.
MILLARD: ...One man's sort of personal ambition...
ARABLOUEI: And one man's death.
MILLARD: ...To completely change the course of history.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ABDELFATAH: And that's it for this week's show. I'm Rund Abdelfatah.
ARABLOUEI: I'm Ramtin Arablouei. And you've been listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ABDELFATAH: This episode was produced by me.
ARABLOUEI: ...And me and...
LAWRENCE WU, BYLINE: Lawrence Wu.
JULIE CAINE, BYLINE: Julie Caine.
ANYA STEINBERG, BYLINE: Anya Steinberg.
CASEY MINER, BYLINE: Casey Miner.
CRISTINA KIM, BYLINE: Cristina Kim.
DEVIN KATAYAMA, BYLINE: Devin Katayama.
IRENE NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Irene Noguchi.
ARABLOUEI: Voiceover work for this episode was done by Micah Baskir (ph), Ashley Stracke (ph), Emmanuel Martinez and Ari Steinberg (ph). Thank you to Johannes Doerge, Edith Chapin, Luis Clemens, Tony Cavin and Collin Campbell. This episode was mixed by Maggie Luthar.
ABDELFATAH: Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes...
NAVID MARVI: Navid Marvi.
SHO FUJIWARA: Sho Fujiwara.
ANYA MIZANI: Anya Mizani.
ARABLOUEI: Fact-checking for this episode was done by Andrea Lopez-Cruzado. And before we go, we have to shout out the book by Scott Greenberger, one of our guests on the show, called "The Unexpected President: The Life And Times Of Chester A. Arthur." And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at throughline@npr.org. And make sure you follow us on Apple, Spotify or the NPR app. That way, you'll never miss an episode.
ABDELFATAH: Thanks for listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.