rvice
than it was receiving, the Department was at liberty to increase the
service, hasten speed, and raise the pay without a re-letting of the
contract. During the latter seventies the growth of settlement
throughout the remoter West had justified a large increase in star-route
costs, but James discovered not only legitimate increase but collusive
fraud. The official in charge, in collusion with former Congressmen who
"knew the ropes," and with the mail contractors, had awarded original
contracts to low bidders who had no intention of fulfilling their bids.
After the letting of contracts the compensation had been increased
without investigation or reference to actual needs.

The unearned profits had been shared by the promoters and the dishonest
officials, and some of it had gone into the Republican campaign fund. A
former Senator, Dorsey by name, who was indicted for fraud in 1882, had
been Secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1880, and had
been hurried to Indiana to save that State. He did this so effectively
that his friends gave him a dinner, which Arthur attended, and at which
the allusions to his methods in Indiana were but loosely veiled. Brady,
the official in the Post-Office, had collected the usual assessments on
federal office-holders for Garfield's campaign fund. When he and others
were threatened with criminal prosecution they produced letters by which
they hoped to prove that Garfield was cognizant of and had approved
their financial methods. How far they might have succeeded in blackening
the President and stopping his prosecutions must remain unknown, for he
was shot on July 2, 1881, while on his way to a college celebration, and
died on September 19.

The murderer of Garfield declared to the policeman who arrested him, "I
am a Stalwart and want Arthur for President." It was soon learned that
he was a disappointed candidate for office, and irresponsible Washington
gossip soon had it that Garfield's friends wanted him to hang, while
Arthur's thought he was only insane. The murderer's sister, in an
incoherent book based on his story, asserted, "Yes, the 'Star-Route'
business killed Garfield! The claim, 'The Stalwarts are my friends,'
hung Guiteau!" He was perhaps insane, and was certainly irresponsible,
but his crime, coming simultaneously with the notoriety of the
star-route frauds and the demands of Conkling, emphasized the pettiness
of factions and the need for a reform in the civil servi