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Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 21st President of the United States. Arthur was a member of the Republican Party and worked as a lawyer before becoming the 20th vice president under James Garfield. While Garfield was mortally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, he did not die until September 19, at which time Arthur was sworn in as president, serving until March 4, 1885.
Before entering elected politics, Arthur was a member of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and a political protégé of Roscoe Conkling, rising to Collector of Customs for the Port of New York, a position to which he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
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Quotations
Experience has shown that the trade of the East is the key to national wealth and influence.
Veto message of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).
The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
Veto message of Rivers and Harbor Bill (1882)
I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort to arms by the benignant processes of civilization.
Second annual message (1882)
Men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken.
Said upon the death of President Garfield., Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 8 (1897).
What a pleasant lot of fellows they are. What a pity they have so little sense about politics. If they lived North the last one of them would be Republicans.
Quoted in Recollections of Thirteen Presidents, John S. Wise (1906).
The office of the Vice-President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining.
Quoted in Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter, William C. Hudson (1911).
Encyclopedia
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 21st President of the United States. Arthur was a member of the Republican Party and worked as a lawyer before becoming the 20th vice president under James Garfield. While Garfield was mortally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, he did not die until September 19, at which time Arthur was sworn in as president, serving until March 4, 1885.
Before entering elected politics, Arthur was a member of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and a political protégé of Roscoe Conkling, rising to Collector of Customs for the Port of New York, a position to which he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant. He was then removed by the succeeding president, Rutherford B. Hayes, in an effort to reform the patronage system in New York.
To the chagrin of the Stalwarts, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. He avoided old political cronies and eventually alienated his old mentor Conkling. Public pressure, heightened by the assassination of Garfield, forced an unwieldy Congress to heed the President. Arthur's primary achievement was the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. The passage of this legislation earned Arthur the moniker "The Father of Civil Service" and a favorable reputation among historians.
Publisher Alexander K. McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired… more generally respected." Author Mark Twain, deeply cynical about politicians, conceded, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."
Early life and education
Chester Alan Arthur was the son of Irish born preacher William Arthur and Vermont born Malvina Stone Arthur. Malvina's grandfather, Uriah Stone, fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolution and named his son, Malvina's father, George Washington Stone. Malvina's mother was part Native American.
Most official references list Arthur as having been born in Fairfield in Franklin County, Vermont on October 5, 1829. However, some time in the 1870s Arthur changed it to 1830 to make himself seem a year younger. His father had initially migrated to Dunham, Lower Canada, where he and his wife at one point owned a farm about north of the U.S. border. There has long been speculation that the future president was actually born in Canada and that the family moved to Fairfield later. If Arthur had been born in Canada, a minority opinion is that he would not have been a natural-born citizen, even though his mother was a U.S. citizen, and would have been constitutionally ineligible to serve as vice president or president. During the 1880 U.S presidential election a New York attorney, Arthur P. Hinman, was hired to explore rumors of Arthur's foreign birth. Hinman alleged that Arthur was born in Ireland and did not come to the United States until he was fourteen years old. When that story failed to take root Hinman came forth with a new story that Arthur was born in Canada. This claim also fell on deaf ears.
Arthur spent some of his childhood years living in Perry, New York. One of Arthur's boyhood friends remembers Arthur's political abilities emerging at an early age:
When Chester was a boy, you might see him in the village street after a shower, watching the boys building a mud dam across the rivulet in the roadway. Pretty soon, he would be ordering this one to bring stones, another sticks, and others sod and mud to finish the dam; and they would all do his bidding without question. But he took good care not to get any of the dirt on his hands. (New York Evening Post, April 2, 1900)
Chester Arthur's Presidency was predicted by James Russel Webster, a Perry resident. A detailed account of this prediction is found in a self-written memorial for Webster. An excerpt from Webster's memorial:
He first attended the Baptist church in Perry, the pastor there being "Elder Arthur", father of Chester A. Arthur. The latter was then a little boy, and Mr. Webster, once calling at his house, put upon his head of the lad, remarked, "this little boy may yet be President of the United States." Years after, calling at the White House, he related the circumstances to President Arthur, who replied that he well remembered the incident although the name of the man who thus predicted his future had long since passed from his memory; then standing up he added. "You may place your hand upon my head again."
He went to prep school at the academy in Union Village, and then to the Lyceum, where he was known as Chet. During his time at Lyceum Arthur joined other young Whigs in support of Henry Clay and even participated in a melee against those opposed to Clay.
Arthur attended Union College in 1845 where he studied the traditional classics. As a senior there in 1848, at age 18, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and president of the debate society. He often donned a green coat to show his support for the Fenian Brotherhood.
While living outside of Hoosick Falls, New York, he went back to Union College and received his Master's degree in 1851.
Early career
Arthur became principal of North Pownal Academy in North Pownal, Vermont in 1849. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1854. Arthur commenced practice in New York City. He was one of the attorneys who successfully represented Elizabeth Jennings Graham, whose lawsuit after being denied seating on a streetcar due to her race contributed to the desegregation of New York City public transportation. Arthur also took an active part in the reorganization of the state militia.
During the American Civil War, Arthur served as acting quartermaster general of the state in 1861 and was widely praised for his service. He was later commissioned as Inspector General, and appointed quartermaster general with the rank of brigadier general and served until 1862. After the war, he resumed the practice of law in New York City. With the help of Arthur's patron and political boss Roscoe Conkling, Arthur was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as Collector of the Port of New York from 1871 to 1878.
This was an extremely lucrative and powerful position at the time, and several of Arthur's predecessors had run afoul of the law while serving as collector. Honorable in his personal life and his public career, Arthur sided with the Stalwarts in the Republican Party, which firmly believed in the spoils system even as it was coming under vehement attack from reformers. He insisted upon honest administration of the Customs House but nevertheless staffed it with more employees than it really needed, retaining some for their loyalty as party workers rather than for their skill as public servants.
The 1880 election and vice presidency
In 1878, Grant's successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, attempted to reform the Customs House. He ousted Arthur, who resumed the practice of law in New York City. Conkling and his followers tried to win back power by the nomination of Grant for a third term at the 1880 Republican National Convention, but without success. Grant and James G. Blaine deadlocked, and after 36 ballots, the convention turned to dark horse James A. Garfield, a long time Congressman and General in the Civil War.
Knowing the election would be close, Garfield's people began asking a number of Stalwarts if they would accept the second spot. Levi P. Morton, on Conkling's advice, refused, but Arthur accepted, telling his furious leader, "This is a higher honor than I have ever dreamt of attaining. I shall accept!" Conkling and his Stalwart supporters reluctantly accepted the nomination of Arthur as vice president.
Arthur campaigned hard for his and Garfield's election, but it was a close contest, with the Garfield-Arthur ticket receiving a nationwide plurality of fewer than ten thousand votes.
After the election, Conkling began making demands of Garfield as to appointments, and the Vice President–elect supported his longtime patron against his new boss. According to Ira Rutkow's recent biography of Garfield, the new president disliked the vice president, and he would not let him into his house.
Then, on July 2, 1881, President Garfield was shot in the back by Charles J. Guiteau, who shouted: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts... Arthur is president now!" Arthur's shock at the assassination was augmented by his mortification at Guiteau's claim of political kinship. (Madmen and Geniuses, Barzman, 1974) Garfield initially survived the shooting, but due to a combination of infections and the poor medical care of the time, he gradually deteriorated and died on September 19.
Presidency 1881–1885
Assumption of office
President Arthur took the oath of office twice. The first time was at his Lexington Avenue residence, when it was given just past midnight on September 20. The oath was given by New York Supreme Court justice John R. Brady. The second time was two days later after he returned to Washington. This time it was given in the Capitol by Chief Justice of the United States Morrison Waite. This was to avoid any dispute over whether the oath was valid if given by a state official. (A similar situation later occurred with Calvin Coolidge.)
Cabinet
Arthur requested that Garfield's cabinet and appointees delay their resignations until Congress convened in December. However, shortly after this request Treasury Secretary William Windom and Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh submitted their resignations. Ulysses S. Grant recommended John Jacob Astor III to be the new Treasury Secretary, but Arthur preferred Edwin D. Morgan. Morgan declined the offer twice, but Arthur submitted it to the Senate anyway, and Morgan was confirmed. Morgan, age 72, still refused. The cabinet position was then awarded to stalwart Charles J. Folger (October 27). MacVeagh's replacement, Benjamin Harris Brewster, another stalwart, was confirmed two months later.
Although Secretary of State Blaine agreed to delay his resignation, he changed his mind in mid-October. Conkling felt he himself was the obvious choice to replace Blaine, but Arthur felt such nepotism would disgrace the presidency and selected Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, another stalwart, recommended by Grant.
The next to resign was Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James, whom Arthur had tried to renominate. Arthur nominated Timothy O. Howe, another stalwart and a long-time friend. For Secretary of the Navy, Arthur nominated William E. Chandler, a recommendation from Blaine which gave some factional balance to the administration. Grant, who had recommended Edward Fitzgerald Beale, was upset by the Chandler pick and never fully forgave Arthur for the offense.
Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War was the only member of the Garfield cabinet to continue under Arthur.
Policies
Arthur was aware of the factions and rivalries of the Republican Party, as well as the controversies of cronyism versus civil service reform. Entering the presidency, Arthur believed that the only way to garner the nation's approval was to be independent from both factions. Arthur was determined to go his own way once in the White House. He wound up replacing every member of Garfield's Cabinet except the Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln.
He became a man of fashion in his manner of dress and in his associates; he was often seen with the elite of Washington, D.C., New York City, and Newport. To the indignation of the Stalwarts, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission which forbade levying political assessments against officeholders and provided for a "classified system" that made certain government positions obtainable only through competitive written examinations. The system protected employees against removal for political reasons.
Acting independently of party dogma, Arthur also tried to lower tariff rates so the government would not be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue. Congress raised about as many rates as it trimmed, but Arthur signed the Tariff Act of 1883 anyway. Aggrieved Westerners and Southerners looked to the Democratic Party for redress, and the tariff began to emerge as a major political issue between the two parties.
The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and the mentally ill. Congress also suspended Chinese immigration for ten years with the Chinese Exclusion Act, later making the restriction permanent.
In 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, D.C. at President Arthur's behest. This established the Greenwich Meridian and international standardized time, both in use today.
President Arthur demonstrated that he was above not only factions within the Republican Party, but possibly the party itself. Perhaps, in part, he felt able to do this because of the well-kept secret he had known since a year after he succeeded to the Presidency, that he was suffering from Bright's disease, a fatal kidney disease. This accounted for his failure to seek the Republican nomination for President aggressively in 1884.
Nevertheless, Arthur was the last incumbent President to submit his name for renomination and fail to obtain it.
Arthur sought a full term as President in 1884, but lost the Republican party's presidential nomination to former Speaker of the House and Secretary of State James G. Blaine of Maine. Blaine, however, lost the general election to Democrat Grover Cleveland of New York.
Significant events during presidency
Administration and Cabinet
Judicial appointments
Supreme Court appointments
Other courts
In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Arthur appointed four judges to the United States circuit courts, and thirteen judges to the United States district courts.
Social and personal life
Arthur married Ellen "Nell" Lewis Herndon on October 25, 1859. She was the only child of Elizabeth Hansbrough and Captain William Lewis Herndon USN. She was a favorite niece of Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, USN of the United States Naval Observatory where her father had worked.
In 1860, Chester Arthur and "Nell" had a son, William Lewis Herndon Arthur, who was named after Ellen's father. This son died at age two of a brain disease. Another son, Chester Alan Arthur II, was born in 1864, and a girl, named Ellen Hansbrough Herndon after her mother, in 1871. Ellen Arthur died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880, at the early age of 42, only twenty months before Arthur became President. Arthur stated that he would never remarry and, while in the White House, asked his sister Mary, the wife of writer John E. McElroy, to assume certain social duties and help care for his daughter. President Arthur also had a memorial to his beloved "Nell"—a stained glass window was installed in St. John's Episcopal Church within view of his office and had the church light it at night so he could look at it. The memorial remains to this day.
Arthur is remembered as one of the most society-conscious presidents, earning the nickname "the Gentleman Boss" for his style of dress and courtly manner. Professor Marina Margaret Heiss at the University of Virginia lists Arthur as an example of an INTJ personality.
Upon taking office, Arthur did not move into the White House immediately. He insisted upon its redecoration and had 24 wagonloads of furniture, some including pieces dating back to John Adams' term, carted away and sold at public auction. Former president Rutherford B. Hayes bought two wagonloads of furniture which today are at his home Spiegel Grove. Arthur then commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany to replace them with new pieces. A famous designer now best-known for his stained glass, Tiffany was among the foremost designers of the day.
Arthur was a fisherman who belonged to the Restigouche Salmon Club and once reportedly caught an 80-pound bass off the coast of Rhode Island.
By the end of his presidency, Arthur had acquired wide personal popularity. On the day he left office, four young women (ignorant of Arthur's pledge not to marry again) offered to marry him. He was sometimes called "Elegant Arthur" for his commitment to fashionable attire and was said to have "looked like a president." He reportedly kept 80 pairs of pants in his wardrobe and changed pants several times a day. He was called "Chet" by family and friends, and by his middle name, with the stress on the second syllable ("Al-AN").
Physical health
As president Arthur alleviated his stress by taking late evening walks that usually began after 1 AM. He rarely went to bed before 2 AM. However, by the summer of 1882 Arthur was often ill and exhausted, and by the beginning of 1883 he looked emaciated and aged. That March he had attacks from hypertensive heart disease and glomerulonephritis. Officially, Arthur was said to have a cold. In April he took a vacation to Florida for some rest. The trip was cut short when he was hit with severe pain. The White House criticized the media's sensationalism on the matter and blamed the illness on over exposure and seasickness. In October it was revealed to the press that Arthur had been diagnosed that summer with Bright's disease. In a private conversation shortly after James G. Blaine's nomination for the 1884 presidential election Arthur confided in Frank B. Conger that his disease was in an advanced stage and he only had a few months to live, and by the end of his presidency Arthur's health had deteriorated significantly.
Post presidency
Arthur served as President through March 4, 1885. Upon leaving office, he returned to New York City to serve as counsel to his old law firm. However, he was often indisposed because of his Bright's disease. He managed a few public appearances but none after the end of 1885. After summering in New London, Connecticut he returned (October 1) quite ill. On November 16, by his order, nearly all of his papers, personal and official, were burned. The next morning he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. He died the next day. His post presidency was the second shortest, longer only than that of James Polk who died 104 days after leaving office.
On November 22, a private funeral was held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. His pallbearers were Walter Q. Gresham, Robert Todd Lincoln, William E. Chandler, Frank Hatton, Benjamin H. Brewster, Philip Sheridan, Cornelius Rea Agnew, Cornelius Newton Bliss, Robert G. Dun, George H. Sharpe, Charles Lewis Tiffany and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Also in attendance were president Grover Cleveland, former president Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Franklin Butler, Chief Justice Morrison Waite, Justices Samuel Blatchford and John Marshall Harlan, Roscoe Conkling and James G. Blaine.
Chester was buried next to Ellen in the Arthur family plot in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York, in a large sarcophagus on a large corner plot that contains the graves of many of his family members and ancestors. Sculptor Ephraim Keyser designed the sarcophagus.
See also
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