Then he withdrew
all the troops. Without their aid the carpet- bag government could
not stand, and the white men of the South once more began to rule
in the South.
President Hayes also tried to lessen the evil of the "spoils
system." In this he met a good deal of opposition. But the system
of passing examinations was begun for some posts.
After the troublous times that had gone before this was a time of
peace, in which for the first time since the War North and South
seemed once more united.
In 1881 James Garfield became President. Like other Presidents
before him, his boyhood had been one of poverty and hard work. But
from doing odd labouring jobs, or tending barge horses on the Ohio
Canal, he had gradually worked upwards. He had been barge-boy,
farmer, carpenter, school teacher, lawyer and soldier, having in
the Civil War reached the rank of general. At thirty-two he entered
Congress, and there soon made his mark.
Now he had become President, and as soon as he took up his office
he was besieged by office seekers. They thronged his house, they
stopped him in the street, button-holed him in railway carriages.
They flattered, coaxed, threatened, and made his life a burden.
But in spite of all this worrying the new President determined to
do what he could to end the "spoils system," and appoint people only
for the sake of the public good.
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