era of weak presidents

• Gilded age presidents - Rutherford B.Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and William Mckinley
• James Garfield assassinated by mentally unwell religious fanatic Charles Guiteau
• Garfield won the 1880 Presidential election
• Garfield's Presidential victory in 1880 was the fourth consecutive republican victory since 1868
• Benjamin Harrison was known as the "human iceberg" for his notoriously cold personality
• pork barrel politics - when politicians passed laws to dole out federal funds to reward favoured people or regions who had backed them