Answer: During the Gilded Age, politics were riddled with corruption as presidents awarded government positions to political supporters through the patronage or spoils system. Although several presidents made limited efforts toward reforming the spoils system, it was not until disappointed office-seeker Charles Guiteau assassinated president James Garfield in 1881 that civil service reform garnered widespread support. The Pendleton Civil Service Act was the first significant piece of anti-patronage legislation. The act created the Civil Service Commission to regulate and limit patronage positions.
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