President Garfield's death aroused more public indignation than the reformers. Impatience now became anger. On December 6, 1881, Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio, chairman of the Senate committee on Civil Service Reform, introduced a reform bill. The spoils system was denounced by the press and from pulpits, but Congress, apparently underestimating the strength of the popular feeling, still dragged its feet on civil service legislation. On January 16, 1883, Senator's Pendleton's the epoch-making bill, marking the beginning of the merit system in Federal service was signed by President Chester A. Arthur.
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