During the Gilded Age, patronage was a huge part of each pre…
During the Gilded Age, patronage was a huge part of each presidential administration and each president was beset with thousands of office seekers, many of which would grow embittered if they were denied a lucrative office. This was the case for James Garfield. A few months into his presidency, on July 2, 1881, he was shot twice by a mentally disturbed man he had denied a federal office named . The wounds (one in the arm and the other in the back) initially did not appear to be very serious; however, Garfield’s doctors were unable to find the bullet in his back and their unsanitary probing efforts likely caused a series of infections that worsened Garfield’s health. 80 days after being shot, he died from an infection relating to the gunshot wounds.