Political appointments in the United States federal government until 1883. In 1820 Congress limited federal administrators to four-year terms, which led to constant turnover; by the 1860s and the Civil War, patronage had led to widespread inefficiency and political corruption. Although it used to be confined to cabinet positions, department heads, and foreign ambassadorships, by the 1860s patronage had spread to low-level government positions. This meant that when the incumbent political party lost a presidential election, the federal government underwent wholesale turnover. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau, a disaffected and mentally unstable political office seeker, assassinated President James Garfield. This highlighted how much the
The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin The Fifth Assassin is a novel written by Brad Meltzer which follows the adventures of archivist Beecher White as he discovers a connection linking the four successful presidential assassins with a modern-day killer who is recreating their crimes. According to WorldCat, the book is in 1887 libraries More than two-dozen would-be assassins have targeted Presidents of the United States. Only four were successful: John Wilkes Booth, Charles J. Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Archivist Beecher White - hero of the #1 New York Times bestseller "The Inner Circle" - uncovers a new assassin in Washington,