Editing James G. Blaine (section)

=== Garfield's assassination ===
[[File:AssasinationPresGarfield.JPG|thumb|Blaine (left) was present at Garfield's assassination.]]

On July 2, 1881, Blaine and Garfield were walking through the Sixth Street Station of the [[Baltimore and Potomac Railroad]] in Washington when [[Assassination of James A. Garfield|Garfield was shot by]] [[Charles J. Guiteau]],{{sfnm|Peskin||1pp=595–597|Russell||2pp=385–386}} a crazed office seeker who had made repeated demands for Blaine and other State Department officials to appoint him to a consulship for which he was grossly unqualified. On May 14, 1881, Guiteau had encountered Blaine just outside the State Department. Guiteau's request for a position in the US Consul's office in France was met by an angry rebuke from Blaine: "Never speak to me about the Paris Consulship again as long as you live!" 

Guiteau, a self-professed Stalwart, believed that after assassinating the President, he would strike a blow to unite the two factions of the Republican Party, allowing him to ingratiate himself with Vice President Arthur and receive his coveted position.{{sfn|Peskin|pp=589–590}} Guiteau was overpowered and arrested immediately, while Garfield lingered for two and a half months before he died on September 19, 1881. Guiteau was convicted of killing Garfield and hanged on June 30, 1882.{{sfn|Peskin|pp=606–607}}

Garfield's death was not just a personal tragedy for Blaine; it also meant the end of his dominance of the cabinet, and the end of his foreign policy initiatives.{{sfnm|Crapol||1pp=81–82|Russell||2p=386}} With Arthur's ascent to the presidency, the Stalwart faction now held sway, and Blaine's days at the State Department were numbered.{{sfnm|Crapol||1pp=81–82|Russell||2p=386}} While Arthur asked all of the cabinet members to postpone their resignations until Congress recessed that December, Blaine nonetheless tendered his resignation on October 19, 1881, but he agreed to remain in office until December 19, when his successor would be in place.{{sfnm|Russell||1p=388|Reeves||2pp=255–257}}

Blaine's replacement was [[Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen|Frederick T. Frelinghuysen]], a [[New Jersey]] Stalwart;{{sfnm|Russell||1p=388|Reeves||2pp=255–257}} while Arthur and Frelinghuysen undid much of Blaine's work, cancelling the call for a Pan-American conference and stopping the effort to end the War of the Pacific, they did continue the drive for tariff reductions, signing a reciprocity treaty with [[Mexico]] in 1882.{{sfnm|Doenecke||1pp=173–175|Reeves||2pp=398–399}}