Institutional racism reforms of the spoils system in place since the 1830s, and abuses of the post-war Grant-Jacksonian era; when Congress authorized the president to appoint a Civil Service Commission and prescribe regulations for admission to public service. A dis-satisfied office-seeker assassinated President Garfield in 1881 and Congress was motivated to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 which firmly established civil service. During reconstruction, this enabled the federal government to provide jobs for newly freed blacks in the south (primarily the Postal Service) where no other employment opportunities existed for them. Since the inception of the merit system in
SS Ozama (1881) with most of the ship relatively intact and sitting upright." SS Ozama (1881) The American steamer Ozama, 1028 tons, was the former British steamer "Craigallion", built by Ramage & Ferguson in 1881 at Leith, Scotland. She had a colorful history, with a mutiny and gunrunning. She was shipwrecked twice, the first time in 1885 in the Bahamas, and the last in 1894 on the outer shoal of Cape Romain, South Carolina. She was named for the Ozama River in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, which was one of her regular ports of call. This steamer was definitely a powerful and well