Presidents in the post-Civil War era were less powerful than presidents of the twentieth century. Until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt in 1901-1909, the president was more involved in party politics and patronage than in making and enforcing public policy. He also had little influence over appropriations and expenditures. Governmental bureaus and departments were much more attuned to Congress—specifically to the powerful House Appropriations Committee —than to the White House. The chief responsibility of the president in these years was patronage, or the filling of federal positions. Patronage took enormous amounts of time, and the president had little staff to help him make appointments to as many as one hundred thousand positions. President James A. Garfield, a Republican, complained in 1881 that "All these years I have been dealing with ideas, . . . and here I am considering all day whether A...