On July 2 , 1881 , Charles J. Guiteau , a disaffected and mentally unstable political office seeker , assassinated President James Garfield . This highlighted how much the patronage problem had gotten out of control , and shifted public opinion , convincing the United States that the President of the United States had more important things to do than to engage in patronage . Congress was eventually spurred to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 , which created a Civil Service Commission and advocated a merit system for selecting government employees
assassinated
Assassination of James A. Garfield
Political appointments in the United States