James A. Garfield's short presidency was dominated by the continuing fight over political patronage and attempts to institute a series of reforms, reflecting the extent to which corruption in federal employment and contracts had nearly immobilized the federal government by the early 1880s.

Background.

The last American president to be born in a log cabin, James Abram Garfield was born on 19 November 1831 in a remote area of northern Ohio, near the communities of North Union and Kirkland. For a brief time in 1848 he worked as a canal boy, trudging along towpaths with the horses that pulled the barges. After Garfield, who could not swim, had to be rescued from the canal fourteen times in the space of six weeks, he decided to enroll in Geauga Academy in Chester, Ohio. In November 1849 Garfield left the academy and began teaching at rural schools and working as...