1) Trump has waged a war against the Swamp, but he wasn't the first.

2) In 1880, James Garfield came into office as a Half Breed--one of those who wanted to fix the corrupt "Spoils System" started by Martin van Buren and Andrew Jackson.

3) The burdens had gotten massive.

4) Abraham Lincoln had lines of job-seekers waiting outside his office as the Civil War raged.

5) Reformers wanted "civil service," whereby many government jobs would be given to the most fit based on civil service exams. They would not be subject to a new administration's whim.

6) Garfield ran on, in essence, "draining the Swamp" of the spoils system. His opponents were known as "Stalwarts," who wanted to keep things as they were.

7) Like Trump, Garfield had to make some compromises in his appointees, including his veep, Chester A. Arther--a Stalwart.

8) After fewer than six months in office, Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a disaffected job seeker. After he shot Garfield, Guiteau brashly proclaimed "I am a Stalwart and Arthur shall be president."

9) There was one small problem.

10) Chester Arthur proved to be as potent a "reformer" as Garfield ever seemed to be. He signed the key Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act that required most government job-seekers take a Civil Service test to show their fitness for a job and advancement in the ranks.

11) Garfield paid with his life for challenging the swamp.

12) It would take "the last good DemoKKKrat," Grover Cleveland, to finally make severe inroads into the pension and spoils systems in the 1890s.