WI... President James Garfield had not been assassinated?

[Josh Gonik]

How would President James Garfield have continued in his office
if he had not been shot by an assassin at a train station?
Would Chester Arthur have remained in politics after finishing
his term as Vice President?
-Dana

Garfield is re-elected in 1884 (winning all of his 1880 U.S. states + NJ and + possibly Virginia, pushes through civil service reform afterwards (it would take a little longer without the public sympathy due to Guiteau's shooting), and the 1888 U.S. Presidential election would be a tossup. I'm not sure if Garfield would have been willing to modernize the U.S. Navy like Arthur began doing.

[WolfBear]

How would President James Garfield have continued in his office
if he had not been shot by an assassin at a train station?
Would Chester Arthur have remained in politics after finishing
his term as Vice President?
-Dana

I want to raise an interesting issue here: Might a surviving Garfield Administration have mediated peace in the War of the Pacific?

If so, could it get the final peace treaty to be less harsh for Peru than it was in our TL?

Basically, I know that Garfield's Secretary of State Blaine was very interested in making peace between Peru and Chile in the War of the Pacific but that Garfield was assassinated and Blaine lost his job before Blaine was really able to see what he could do in regards to this.

[WolfBear]

I am surprised no one has replied to this.

Well, let's face it--most Gilded Age presidents of the US are not generally
regarded as having earth-shaking importance. If Garfield hadn't been
assassinated, civil service reform might be somewhat delayed. As in OTL, the
1884 presidential election would be very close (the parties being very
closely balanced between 1874 and 1894), but I rather doubt Garfield could
win a second consecutive term--nobody between Grant and McKinley was able to
do so. If Grover Cleveland wins the 1884 election, it's hard to see any
long-lasting effects of Garfield having survived, except "butterfly" ones.
--
David Tenner

Please keep in mind, though, that Blaine only lost New York in 1884 by either 1,047 or 1,149 votes, and Blaine was widely perceived as being corrupt.

I know that Conkling's lack of support would have still hurt Garfield in 1884 (like it did with Blaine in 1884 in our TL), but wouldn't Garfield's cleaner image have secured an extra 1,150+ votes in New York for him in 1884 in this TL?

[Insane Ranter]

You could argue that it wasn't the assassins bullet that killed him... But Doctors dirty fingers!


Either way you want him to live.