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Chester A. Arthur

February 14, 2023

"Chester Alan Arthur" and "Chester Arthur" redirect here. For his son, see Chester Alan Arthur II. For his grandson, see Gavin Arthur.

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829[b] – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield. Arthur succeeded to the presidency upon Garfield's death in September 1881—two months after Garfield had been shot by an assassin.

Chester A. Arthur
Portrait by Charles Milton Bell, 1882
21st President of the United States
In office
September 19, 1881 – March 4, 1885
Vice PresidentNone[a]
Preceded byJames A. Garfield
Succeeded byGrover Cleveland
20th Vice President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881
PresidentJames A. Garfield
Preceded byWilliam A. Wheeler
Succeeded byThomas A. Hendricks
10th Chairman of the New York Republican Party
In office
September 11, 1879 – October 11, 1881
Preceded byJohn F. Smyth
Succeeded byB. Platt Carpenter
21st Collector of the Port of New York
In office
December 1, 1871 – July 11, 1878
Appointed byUlysses S. Grant
Preceded byThomas Murphy
Succeeded byEdwin Atkins Merritt
Engineer-in-Chief of the New York Militia
In office
January 1, 1861 – January 1, 1863
Preceded byGeorge F. Nesbitt
Succeeded byIsaac Vanderpoel[1]
Inspector General of the New York Militia
In office
April 14, 1862 – July 12, 1862
Preceded byMarsena R. Patrick
Succeeded byCuyler Van Vechten[1]
Quartermaster General of the New York Militia
In office
July 27, 1862 – January 1, 1863
Preceded byCuyler Van Vechten
Succeeded bySebastian Visscher Talcott[1]
Personal details
Born
Chester Alan Arthur

(1829-10-05)October 5, 1829
Fairfield, Vermont, U.S.
DiedNovember 18, 1886(1886-11-18) (aged 57)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeAlbany Rural Cemetery
Political partyRepublican (1854–1886)
Other political
affiliations		Whig (before 1854)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1859; died 1880)​
Children
Parent
Education
Profession
  • Lawyer
  • civil servant
Signature
Military service
Branch/serviceNew York Militia
Years of service1857–1863
RankBrigadier general
Unit
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the American Civil War. Following the war, he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political organization. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York. Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, and Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket as an Eastern Stalwart. Four months into his term, Garfield was shot by an assassin; he died 11 weeks later, and Arthur assumed the presidency.

At the outset, Arthur struggled to overcome a negative reputation as a Stalwart and product of Conkling's organization. To the surprise of reformers, he advocated and enforced the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He presided over the rebirth of the US Navy, but he was criticized for failing to alleviate the federal budget surplus which had been accumulating since the end of the Civil War. Arthur vetoed the first version of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, arguing that its twenty-year ban on Chinese immigrants to the United States violated the Burlingame Treaty, but he signed a second version, which included a ten-year ban.[3]

Suffering from poor health, Arthur made only a limited effort to secure the Republican Party's nomination in 1884, and he retired at the end of his term. Arthur's failing health and political temperament combined to make his administration less active than a modern presidency, yet he earned praise among contemporaries for his solid performance in office. Journalist Alexander McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe."[4] The New York World summed up Arthur's presidency at his death in 1886: "No duty was neglected in his administration, and no adventurous project alarmed the nation."[5] Mark Twain wrote of him, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."[6] Despite this, modern historians generally describe Arthur's presidency as mediocre[7] or average,[8] and Arthur as one of the least memorable presidents.[9]

Early life

Birth and family

 
Arthur's birthplace in Fairfield, Vermont

Chester Alan Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont.[10] Arthur's mother, Malvina Stone was born in Berkshire, Vermont, the daughter of George Washington Stone and Judith Stevens.[11] Her family was primarily of English and Welsh descent, and her maternal grandfather, Uriah Stone, had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.[10]

Arthur's father, William Arthur, was born in 1796 in Dreen, Cullybackey, County Antrim, Ireland to a Presbyterian family of Scots-Irish descent. William's mother was born Eliza McHarg and she married Alan Arthur.[12] William graduated from college in Belfast and immigrated to the Province of Lower Canada in 1819 or 1820.[13] Malvina Stone met William Arthur when Arthur was teaching school in Dunham, Quebec, near the Vermont border.[14] They married in Dunham on April 12, 1821, soon after meeting.[10]

The Arthurs moved to Vermont after the birth of their first child, Regina.[14] They quickly moved from Burlington to Jericho, and finally to Waterville, as William received positions teaching at different schools.[10] William Arthur also spent a brief time studying law, but while still in Waterville, he departed from both his legal studies and his Presbyterian upbringing to join the Free Will Baptists; he spent the rest of his life as a minister in that sect.[10] William Arthur became an outspoken abolitionist, which often made him unpopular with some members of his congregations and contributed to the family's frequent moves.[15]

In 1828, the family moved again, to Fairfield, where Chester Alan Arthur was born the following year; he was the fifth of nine children.[16][17] He was named "Chester" after Chester Abell,[18] the physician and family friend who assisted in his birth, and "Alan" for his paternal grandfather.[19][c] The family remained in Fairfield until 1832, when William Arthur's profession took them to churches in several towns in Vermont and upstate New York. The family finally settled in the Schenectady, New York area.[20]

Arthur had seven siblings who lived to adulthood:[21]

  • Regina (1822–1910), the wife of William G. Caw, a grocer, banker, and community leader of Cohoes, New York who served as town supervisor and village trustee[22]
  • Jane (1824–1842)[23]
  • Almeda (1825–1899), the wife of James H. Masten who served as postmaster of Cohoes and publisher of the Cohoes Cataract newspaper[24]
  • Ann (1828–1915), a career educator who taught school in New York and worked in South Carolina in the years immediately before and after the Civil War.[25]
  • Malvina (1832–1920), the wife of Henry J. Haynesworth who was an official of the Confederate government and a merchant in Albany, New York before being appointed as a captain and assistant quartermaster in the U.S. Army during Arthur's presidency[26]
  • William (1834–1915), a medical school graduate who became a career Army officer and paymaster, he was wounded during his Civil War service. William Arthur retired in 1898 with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel, and permanent rank of major.[27]
  • George (1836–1838)[28]
  • Mary (1841–1917), the wife of John E. McElroy, an Albany businessman and insurance executive, and Arthur's official White House hostess during his presidency[29]

The family's frequent moves later spawned accusations that Arthur was not a native-born citizen of the United States. When Arthur was nominated for vice president in 1880, a New York attorney and political opponent, Arthur P. Hinman, initially speculated that Arthur was born in Ireland and did not come to the United States until he was fourteen years old.[30] Had that been true, opponents might have argued that Arthur was ineligible for the vice presidency under the United States Constitution's natural-born-citizen clause.[31][d][32][e][33] When Hinman's original story did not take root, he spread a new rumor that Arthur was born in Canada.[30] This claim, too, failed to gain credence.[33][f][34]

Education

Arthur spent some of his childhood years living in the New York towns of York, Perry, Greenwich, Lansingburgh, Schenectady, and Hoosick.[35] One of his first teachers said Arthur was a boy "frank and open in manners and genial in disposition."[36] During his time at school, he gained his first political inclinations and supported the Whig Party. He joined other young Whigs in support of Henry Clay, even participating in a brawl against students who supported James K. Polk during the 1844 United States presidential election.[20] Arthur also supported the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish republican organization founded in America; he showed this support by wearing a green coat.[37] After completing his college preparation at the Lyceum of Union Village (now Greenwich) and a grammar school in Schenectady, Arthur enrolled at Union College there in 1845, where he studied the traditional classical curriculum.[20] He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity,[38] and as a senior he was president of the debate society and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.[37] During his winter breaks, he served as a teacher at a school in Schaghticoke.[37]

 
The home in Manhattan where Arthur spent most of his adulthood years

After graduating in 1848, Arthur returned to Schaghticoke and became a full-time teacher, and soon began to pursue an education in law.[39] While studying law, he continued teaching, moving closer to home by taking a job at a school in North Pownal, Vermont.[39] Coincidentally, future president James A. Garfield taught penmanship at the same school three years later, but the two did not cross paths during their teaching careers.[40] In 1852, Arthur moved again, to Cohoes, New York, to become the principal of a school at which his sister, Malvina, was a teacher.[40] In 1853, after studying at State and National Law School in Ballston Spa, New York, and then saving enough money to relocate, Arthur moved to New York City to read law at the office of Erastus D. Culver, an abolitionist lawyer and family friend.[41] When Arthur was admitted to the New York bar in 1854, he joined Culver's firm, which was subsequently renamed Culver, Parker, and Arthur.[42]

Early career

New York lawyer

 
Arthur as a young lawyer
 
Arthur married Ellen Herndon in 1859.

When Arthur joined the firm, Culver and New York attorney John Jay (the grandson of the Founding Father John Jay) were pursuing a habeas corpus action against Jonathan Lemmon, a Virginia slaveholder who was passing through New York with his eight slaves.[43] In Lemmon v. New York, Culver argued that, as New York law did not permit slavery, any slave arriving in New York was automatically freed.[43] The argument was successful, and after several appeals was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals in 1860.[43] Campaign biographers would later give Arthur much of the credit for the victory; in fact his role was minor, although he was certainly an active participant in the case.[44] In another civil rights case in 1854, Arthur was the lead attorney representing Elizabeth Jennings Graham after she was denied a seat on a streetcar because she was black.[44] He won the case, and the verdict led to the desegregation of the New York City streetcar lines.[44]

In 1856, Arthur courted Ellen Herndon, the daughter of William Lewis Herndon, a Virginia naval officer.[45] The two were soon engaged to be married.[46] Later that year, he started a new law partnership with a friend, Henry D. Gardiner, and traveled with him to Kansas to consider purchasing land and setting up a law practice there.[44] At that time, the state was the scene of a brutal struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces, and Arthur lined up firmly with the latter.[47] The rough frontier life did not agree with the genteel New Yorkers; after three or four months the two young lawyers returned to New York City, where Arthur comforted his fiancée after her father was lost at sea in the wreck of the SS Central America.[47] In 1859, they were married at Calvary Episcopal Church in Manhattan.[48] The couple had three children:

  • William Lewis Arthur (December 10, 1860 – July 7, 1863), died of "convulsions"
  • Chester Alan Arthur II (July 25, 1864 – July 18, 1937), married Myra Townsend, then Rowena Graves, father of Gavin Arthur
  • Ellen Hansbrough Herndon "Nell" Arthur Pinkerton (November 21, 1871 – September 6, 1915), married Charles Pinkerton

After his marriage, Arthur devoted his efforts to building his law practice, but also found time to engage in Republican party politics. In addition, he indulged his military interest by becoming Judge Advocate General for the Second Brigade of the New York Militia.[49]

Civil War

In 1861, Arthur was appointed to the military staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan as engineer-in-chief.[49] The office was a patronage appointment of minor importance until the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, when New York and the other northern states were faced with raising and equipping armies of a size never before seen in American history.[50] Arthur was commissioned as a brigadier general and assigned to the state militia's quartermaster department.[50] He was so efficient at housing and outfitting the troops that poured into New York City that he was promoted to inspector general of the state militia in March 1862, and then to quartermaster general that July.[51] He had an opportunity to serve at the front when the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment elected him commander with the rank of colonel early in the war, but at Governor Morgan's request, he turned it down to remain at his post in New York.[52] He also turned down command of four New York City regiments organized as the Metropolitan Brigade, again at Morgan's request.[52] The closest Arthur came to the front was when he traveled south to inspect New York troops near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in May 1862, shortly after forces under Major General Irvin McDowell seized the town during the Peninsula Campaign.[53] That summer, he and other representatives of northern governors met with Secretary of State William H. Seward in New York to coordinate the raising of additional troops, and he spent the next few months helping to enlist New York's quota of 120,000 men.[53] Arthur received plaudits for his work, but his post was a political appointment, and he was relieved of his militia duties in January 1863 when Governor Horatio Seymour, a Democrat, took office.[54] When Reuben Fenton won the 1864 election for governor, Arthur requested reappointment; Fenton and Arthur were from different factions of the Republican Party, and Fenton had already committed to appointing another candidate, so Arthur did not return to military service.[55]

Arthur returned to practicing law, and with the help of additional contacts made in the military, he and the firm of Arthur & Gardiner flourished.[56] Even as his professional life improved, however, Arthur and his wife experienced a personal tragedy as their only child, William, died suddenly that year at the age of two.[57] The couple took their son's death hard, and when they had another son, Chester Alan Jr., in 1864, they lavished attention on him.[58] They also had a daughter, Ellen, in 1871.[59] Both children survived to adulthood.[59]

Arthur's political prospects improved along with his law practice when his patron, ex-Governor Morgan, was elected to the United States Senate.[60] He was hired by Thomas Murphy, a Republican politician, but also a friend of William M. Tweed, the boss of the Tammany Hall Democratic organization. Murphy was also a hatter who sold goods to the Union Army, and Arthur represented him in Washington. The two became associates within New York Republican party circles, eventually rising in the ranks of the conservative branch of the party dominated by Thurlow Weed.[60] In the presidential election of 1864, Arthur and Murphy raised funds from Republicans in New York, and they attended the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.[61]

New York politician

Conkling's machine

 
The New York Custom House (formerly the Merchants' Exchange building at 55 Wall Street) was Arthur's office for seven years.

The end of the Civil War meant new opportunities for the men in Morgan's Republican machine, including Arthur.[62] Morgan leaned toward the conservative wing of the New York Republican party, as did the men who worked with him in the organization, including Weed, Seward (who continued in office under President Andrew Johnson), and Roscoe Conkling (an eloquent Utica Congressman and rising star in the party).[62] Arthur rarely articulated his own political ideas during his time as a part of the machine; as was common at the time, loyalty and hard work on the machine's behalf was more important than actual political positions.[63]

At the time, U.S. custom houses were managed by political appointees who served as Collector, Naval Officer, and Surveyor. In 1866, Arthur unsuccessfully attempted to secure the position of Naval Officer at the New York Custom House, a lucrative job subordinate only to the Collector.[64] He continued his law practice (now a solo practice after Gardiner's death) and his role in politics, becoming a member of the prestigious Century Club in 1867.[64] Conkling, elected to the United States Senate in 1867, noticed Arthur and facilitated his rise in the party, and Arthur became chairman of the New York City Republican executive committee in 1868.[65] His ascent in the party hierarchy kept him busy most nights, and his wife resented his continual absence from the family home on party business.[66]

Conkling succeeded to leadership of the conservative wing of New York's Republicans by 1868 as Morgan concentrated more time and effort on national politics, including serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Conkling machine was solidly behind General Ulysses S. Grant's candidacy for president, and Arthur raised funds for Grant's election in 1868.[67] The opposing Democratic machine in New York City, known as Tammany Hall, worked for Grant's opponent, former New York Governor Horatio Seymour; while Grant was victorious in the national vote, Seymour narrowly carried the state of New York.[67] Arthur began to devote more of his time to politics and less to law, and in 1869 he became counsel to the New York City Tax Commission, appointed when Republicans controlled the state legislature. He remained at the job until 1870 at a salary of $10,000 a year.[68][g] Arthur resigned after Democrats controlled by William M. Tweed of Tammany Hall won a legislative majority, which meant they could name their own appointee.[70] In 1871, Grant offered to name Arthur as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, replacing Alfred Pleasonton; Arthur declined the appointment.[71]

In 1870, President Grant gave Conkling control over New York patronage, including the Custom House at the Port of New York. Having become friendly with Murphy over their shared love of horses during summer vacations on the Jersey Shore, in July of that year, Grant appointed him to the Collector's position.[72] Murphy's reputation as a war profiteer and his association with Tammany Hall made him unacceptable to many of his own party, but Conkling convinced the Senate to confirm him.[72] The Collector was responsible for hiring hundreds of workers to collect the tariffs due at the United States' busiest port. Typically, these jobs were dispensed to adherents of the political machine responsible for appointing the Collector. Employees were required to make political contributions (known as "assessments") back to the machine, which made the job a highly coveted political plum.[73] Murphy's unpopularity only increased as he replaced workers loyal to Senator Reuben Fenton's faction of the Republican party with those loyal to Conkling's.[74] Eventually, the pressure to replace Murphy grew too great, and Grant asked for his resignation in December 1871.[74] Grant offered the position to John Augustus Griswold and William Orton, each of whom declined and recommended Arthur.[75] Grant then nominated Arthur, with the New York Times commenting, "his name very seldom rises to the surface of metropolitan life and yet moving like a mighty undercurrent this man during the last 10 years has done more to mold the course of the Republican Party in this state than any other one man in the country."[76]

The Senate confirmed Arthur's appointment; as Collector he controlled nearly a thousand jobs and received compensation as great as any federal officeholder.[73] Arthur's salary was initially $6,500, but senior customs employees were compensated additionally by the "moiety" system, which awarded them a percentage of the cargoes seized and fines levied on importers who attempted to evade the tariff.[77] In total, his income came to more than $50,000—more than the president's salary, and more than enough for him to enjoy fashionable clothes and a lavish lifestyle.[77][h] Among those who dealt with the Custom House, Arthur was one of the era's more popular collectors.[78] He got along with his subordinates and, since Murphy had already filled the staff with Conkling's adherents, he had few occasions to fire anyone.[79] He was also popular within the Republican party as he efficiently collected campaign assessments from the staff and placed party leaders' friends in jobs as positions became available.[66] Arthur had a better reputation than Murphy, but reformers still criticized the patronage structure and the moiety system as corrupt.[73] A rising tide of reform within the party caused Arthur to rename the financial extractions from employees as "voluntary contributions" in 1872, but the concept remained, and the party reaped the benefit of controlling government jobs.[80] In that year, reform-minded Republicans formed the Liberal Republican party and voted against Grant, but he was re-elected in spite of their opposition.[81] Nevertheless, the movement for civil service reform continued to chip away at Conkling's patronage machine; in 1874 Custom House employees were found to have improperly assessed fines against an importing company as a way to increase their own incomes, and Congress reacted, repealing the moiety system and putting the staff, including Arthur, on regular salaries.[82] As a result, his income dropped to $12,000 a year—more than his nominal boss, the Secretary of the Treasury, but far less than what he had previously received.[82]

Clash with Hayes

 
A cartoon depicting President Rutherford B. Hayes kicking Arthur out of the New York Custom House

Arthur's four-year term as Collector expired on December 10, 1875, and Conkling, then among the most powerful politicians in Washington, arranged his protégé's reappointment by President Grant.[83] In 1876, Conkling was a candidate for president at the 1876 Republican National Convention, but the nomination was won by reformer Rutherford B. Hayes on the seventh ballot.[84] Arthur and the machine gathered campaign funds with their usual zeal, but Conkling limited his own campaign activities for Hayes to a few speeches.[85] Hayes's opponent, New York Governor Samuel J. Tilden, carried New York and won the popular vote nationwide, but after the resolution of several months of disputes over twenty electoral votes (from Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina), Hayes was declared the winner.[86]

Hayes entered office with a pledge to reform the patronage system; in 1877, he and Treasury Secretary John Sherman made Conkling's machine the primary target.[85] Sherman ordered a commission led by John Jay to investigate the New York Custom House.[87] Jay, with whom Arthur had collaborated in the Lemmon case two decades earlier, suggested that the Custom House was overstaffed with political appointments, and that 20% of the employees were expendable.[88] Sherman was less enthusiastic about the reforms than Hayes and Jay, but he approved the commission's report and ordered Arthur to make the personnel reductions.[89] Arthur appointed a committee of Custom House workers to determine where the cuts were to be made and, after a written protest, carried them out.[90] Notwithstanding his cooperation, the Jay Commission issued a second report critical of Arthur and other Custom House employees, and subsequent reports urging a complete reorganization.[90]

Hayes further struck at the heart of the spoils system by issuing an executive order that forbade assessments, and barred federal office holders from "...tak[ing] part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns."[91] Arthur and his subordinates, Naval Officer Alonzo B. Cornell and Surveyor George H. Sharpe, refused to obey the president's order; Sherman encouraged Arthur to resign, offering him appointment by Hayes to the consulship in Paris in exchange, but Arthur refused.[92] In September 1877, Hayes demanded the three men's resignations, which they refused to give.[93] Hayes then submitted the appointment of Theodore Roosevelt Sr., L. Bradford Prince, and Edwin Merritt (all supporters of Conkling's rival William M. Evarts) to the Senate for confirmation as their replacements.[94] The Senate's Commerce Committee, chaired by Conkling, unanimously rejected all the nominees; the full Senate rejected Roosevelt by a vote of 31–25[95] and similarly turned down the nomination of Prince by the same margin, later confirming Merritt only because Sharpe's term had expired.[96]

Arthur's job was spared only until July 1878, when Hayes took advantage of a Congressional recess to fire him and Cornell, replacing them with the recess appointment of Merritt and Silas W. Burt.[97][i] Hayes again offered Arthur the position of consul general in Paris as a face-saving consolation; Arthur again declined, as Hayes knew he probably would.[99] Conkling opposed the confirmation of Merritt and Burt when the Senate reconvened in February 1879, but Merritt was approved by a vote of 31–25, as was Burt by 31–19, giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory.[100] Arthur immediately took advantage of the resulting free time to work for the election of Edward Cooper as New York City's next mayor.[101] In September 1879 Arthur became Chairman of the New York State Republican Executive Committee, a post in which he served until October 1881.[102][103] In the state elections of 1879, he and Conkling worked to ensure that the Republican nominees for state offices would be men of Conkling's faction, who had become known as Stalwarts.[104] They were successful, but narrowly, as Cornell was nominated for governor by a vote of 234–216.[104] Arthur and Conkling campaigned vigorously for the Stalwart ticket and, owing partly to a splintering of the Democratic vote, were victorious.[105] Arthur and the machine had rebuked Hayes and their intra-party rivals, but Arthur had only a few days to enjoy his triumph when, on January 12, 1880, his wife died suddenly while he was in Albany organizing the political agenda for the coming year.[106] Arthur felt devastated, and perhaps guilty, and never remarried.[107]

Election of 1880

Main article: 1880 United States presidential election
 
Garfield–Arthur campaign poster

Conkling and his fellow Stalwarts, including Arthur, wished to follow up their 1879 success at the 1880 Republican National Convention by securing the presidential nomination for their ally, ex-President Grant.[108] Their opponents in the Republican party, known as Half-Breeds, concentrated their efforts on James G. Blaine, a senator from Maine who was more amenable to civil service reform.[108] Neither candidate commanded a majority of delegates and, deadlocked after thirty-six ballots, the convention turned to a dark horse, James A. Garfield, an Ohio Congressman and Civil War general who was neither Stalwart nor Half-Breed.[109]

Garfield and his supporters knew they would face a difficult election without the support of the New York Stalwarts and decided to offer one of them the vice presidential nomination.[110] Levi P. Morton, the first choice of Garfield's supporters, consulted with Conkling, who advised him to decline, which he did.[111] They next approached Arthur, and Conkling advised him to also reject the nomination, believing the Republicans would lose.[112] Arthur thought otherwise and accepted. According to a purported eyewitness account by journalist William C. Hudson, Conkling and Arthur argued, with Arthur telling Conkling, "The office of the Vice-President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining."[112][j] Conkling eventually relented, and campaigned for the ticket.[115]

As expected, the election was close. The Democratic nominee, General Winfield Scott Hancock was popular and having avoided taking definitive positions on most issues of the day, he had not offended any pivotal constituencies.[116] As Republicans had done since the end of the Civil War, Garfield and Arthur initially focused their campaign on the "bloody shirt"—the idea that returning Democrats to office would undo the victory of the Civil War and reward secessionists.[117]

 
1880 electoral vote results

With the war fifteen years in the past and Union generals at the head of both tickets, the tactic was less effective than the Republicans hoped.[117] Realizing this, they adjusted their approach to claim that Democrats would lower the country's protective tariff, which would allow cheaper manufactured goods to be imported from Europe, and thereby put thousands out of work.[118] This argument struck home in the swing states of New York and Indiana, where many were employed in manufacturing.[118] Hancock did not help his own cause when, in an attempt to remain neutral on the tariff, he said that "[t]he tariff question is a local question", which only made him appear uninformed about an important issue.[119] Candidates for high office did not personally campaign in those days, but as state Republican chairman, Arthur played a part in the campaign in his usual fashion: overseeing the effort in New York and raising money.[120] The funds were crucial in the close election, and winning his home state of New York was critical.[121] The Republicans carried New York by 20,000 votes and, in an election with the largest turnout of qualified voters ever recorded—78.4%—they won the nationwide popular vote by just 7,018 votes.[121] The Electoral College result was more decisive—214 to 155—and Garfield and Arthur were elected.[121]

Vice presidency (1881)

Main article: Inauguration of Chester A. Arthur
 
Arthur taking the oath of office as administered by Judge John R. Brady at Arthur's home in New York City, September 20, 1881

After the election, Arthur worked in vain to persuade Garfield to fill certain positions with his fellow New York Stalwarts—especially that of the Secretary of the Treasury; the Stalwart machine received a further rebuke when Garfield appointed Blaine, Conkling's arch-enemy, as Secretary of State.[122] The running mates, never close, detached as Garfield continued to freeze out the Stalwarts from his patronage. Arthur's status in the administration diminished when, a month before inauguration day, he gave a speech before reporters suggesting the election in Indiana, a swing state, had been won by Republicans through illegal machinations.[123] Garfield ultimately appointed a Stalwart, Thomas Lemuel James, to be Postmaster General, but the cabinet fight and Arthur's ill-considered speech left the President and Vice President clearly estranged when they took office on March 4, 1881.[124]

The Senate in the 47th United States Congress was divided among 37 Republicans, 37 Democrats, one independent (David Davis) who caucused with the Democrats, one Readjuster (William Mahone), and four vacancies.[125] Immediately, the Democrats attempted to organize the Senate, knowing that the vacancies would soon be filled by Republicans.[125] As vice president, Arthur cast tie-breaking votes in favor of the Republicans when Mahone opted to join their caucus.[125] Even so, the Senate remained deadlocked for two months over Garfield's nominations because of Conkling's opposition to some of them.[126] Just before going into recess in May 1881, the situation became more complicated when Conkling and the other senator from New York, Thomas C. Platt, resigned in protest of Garfield's continuing opposition to their faction.[127]

With the Senate in recess, Arthur had no duties in Washington and returned to New York City.[128] Once there, he traveled with Conkling to Albany, where the former senator hoped for a quick re-election to the Senate, and with it, a defeat for the Garfield administration.[128][k] The Republican majority in the state legislature was divided on the question, to Conkling and Platt's surprise, and an intense campaign in the statehouse ensued.[128][l]

While in Albany on July 2, Arthur learned that Garfield had been shot.[128] The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau was a deranged office-seeker who believed that Garfield's successor would appoint him to a patronage job. He proclaimed to onlookers: "I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be President!"[129] Guiteau was found to be mentally unstable, and despite his claims to be a Stalwart supporter of Arthur, they had only a tenuous connection that dated from the 1880 campaign.[130] Twenty-nine days before his execution for shooting Garfield, Guiteau composed a lengthy, unpublished poem claiming that Arthur knew the assassination had saved "our land [the United States]". Guiteau's poem also states he had (incorrectly) presumed that Arthur would pardon him for the assassination.[131]

More troubling was the lack of legal guidance on presidential succession: as Garfield lingered near death, no one was sure who, if anyone, could exercise presidential authority.[132] Also, after Conkling's resignation, the Senate had adjourned without electing a president pro tempore, who would normally follow Arthur in the succession.[132] Arthur was reluctant to be seen acting as president while Garfield lived, and for the next two months there was a void of authority in the executive office, with Garfield too weak to carry out his duties, and Arthur reluctant to assume them.[133] Through the summer, Arthur refused to travel to Washington and was at his Lexington Avenue home when, on the night of September 19, he learned that Garfield had died.[133] Judge John R. Brady of the New York Supreme Court administered the oath of office in Arthur's home at 2:15 a.m. on September 20. Later that day he took a train to Long Branch to pay his respects to Garfield and to leave a card of sympathy for his wife, afterwards returning to New York City. On September 21, he returned to Long Branch to take part in Garfield's funeral, and then joined the funeral train to Washington.[134] Before leaving New York, he ensured the presidential line of succession by preparing and mailing to the White House a proclamation calling for a Senate special session. This step ensured that the Senate had legal authority to convene immediately and choose a Senate president pro tempore, who would be able to assume the presidency if Arthur died. Once in Washington he destroyed the mailed proclamation and issued a formal call for a special session.[135]

Presidency (1881–1885)

Main article: Presidency of Chester A. Arthur

Taking office

Arthur arrived in Washington, D.C. on September 21.[136] On September 22, he re-took the oath of office, this time before Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite. Arthur took this step to ensure procedural compliance; there had been a lingering question about whether a state court judge (Brady) could administer a federal oath of office.[137][m] He initially took up residence at the home of Senator John P. Jones, while a White House remodeling he had ordered was carried out, including addition of an elaborate fifty-foot glass screen by Louis Comfort Tiffany.[138]

 
On the threshold of office, what have we to expect of him? In an 1881 Puck cartoon, Arthur faces the cabinet after President Garfield was shot.

Arthur's sister, Mary Arthur McElroy, served as White House hostess for her widowed brother;[138] Arthur became Washington's most eligible bachelor and his social life became the subject of rumors, though romantically, he remained singularly devoted to the memory of his late wife.[139] His son, Chester Jr., was then a freshman at Princeton University and his daughter, Nell, stayed in New York with a governess until 1882; when she arrived, Arthur shielded her from the intrusive press as much as he could.[139]

Arthur quickly came into conflict with Garfield's cabinet, most of whom represented his opposition within the party. He asked the cabinet members to remain until December, when Congress would reconvene, but Treasury Secretary William Windom submitted his resignation in October to enter a Senate race in his home state of Minnesota.[140] Arthur then selected Charles J. Folger, his friend and fellow New York Stalwart as Windom's replacement.[140][n] Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh was next to resign, believing that, as a reformer, he had no place in an Arthur cabinet.[142] Despite Arthur's personal appeal to remain, MacVeagh resigned in December 1881 and Arthur replaced him with Benjamin H. Brewster, a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician reputed to have reformist leanings.[142] Blaine, nemesis of the Stalwart faction, remained Secretary of State until Congress reconvened and then departed immediately.[143] Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine's place, but the President chose Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, a Stalwart recommended by ex-President Grant.[143] Frelinghuysen advised Arthur not to fill any future vacancies with Stalwarts, but when Postmaster General James resigned in January 1882, Arthur selected Timothy O. Howe, a Wisconsin Stalwart.[144] Navy Secretary William H. Hunt was next to resign, in April 1882, and Arthur attempted a more balanced approach by appointing Half-Breed William E. Chandler to the post, on Blaine's recommendation.[144] Finally, when Interior Secretary Samuel J. Kirkwood resigned that same month, Arthur appointed Henry M. Teller, a Colorado Stalwart to the office.[144] Of the Cabinet members Arthur had inherited from Garfield, only Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln remained for the entirety of Arthur's term.[144]

Civil service reform

 
Arthur in 1881 (portrait by Ole Peter Hansen Balling)

In the 1870s, a scandal was exposed, in which contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the connivance of government officials (including Second Assistant Postmaster General Thomas J. Brady and former senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey).[145] Reformers feared Arthur, as a former supporter of the spoils system, would not commit to continuing the investigation into the scandal.[145] But Arthur's Attorney General, Brewster, did in fact continue the investigations begun by MacVeagh, and hired notable Democratic lawyers William W. Ker and Richard T. Merrick to strengthen the prosecution team and forestall the skeptics.[146] Although Arthur had worked closely with Dorsey before his presidency, once in office he supported the investigation and forced the resignation of officials suspected in the scandal.[146] An 1882 trial of the ringleaders resulted in convictions for two minor conspirators and a hung jury for the rest.[147] After a juror came forward with allegations that the defendants attempted to bribe him, the judge set aside the guilty verdicts and granted a new trial.[147] Before the second trial began, Arthur removed five federal office holders who were sympathetic with the defense, including a former senator.[148] The second trial began in December 1882 and lasted until July 1883 and, again, did not result in a guilty verdict.[148] Failure to obtain a conviction tarnished the administration's image, but Arthur did succeed in putting a stop to the fraud.[148]

Garfield's assassination by a deranged office seeker amplified the public demand for civil service reform.[149] Both Democratic and Republican leaders realized that they could attract the votes of reformers by turning against the spoils system and, by 1882, a bipartisan effort began in favor of reform.[149] In 1880, Democratic Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio introduced legislation that required selection of civil servants based on merit as determined by an examination.[149] This legislation greatly expanded similar civil service reforms attempted by President Franklin Pierce 30 years earlier. In his first annual presidential address to Congress in 1881, Arthur requested civil service reform legislation and Pendleton again introduced his bill, but Congress did not pass it.[149] Republicans lost seats in the 1882 congressional elections, in which Democrats campaigned on the reform issue.[150] As a result, the lame-duck session of Congress was more amenable to civil service reform; the Senate approved Pendleton's bill 38–5 and the House soon concurred by a vote of 155–47.[151] Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16, 1883.[151] In just two years' time, an unrepentant Stalwart had become the president who ushered in long-awaited civil service reform.[151]

 
Arthur in 1884 (portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy)

At first, the act applied only to 10% of federal jobs and, without proper implementation by the president, it could have gone no further.[152] Even after he signed the act into law, its proponents doubted Arthur's commitment to reform.[152] To their surprise, he acted quickly to appoint the members of the Civil Service Commission that the law created, naming reformers Dorman Bridgman Eaton, John Milton Gregory, and Leroy D. Thoman as commissioners.[152] The chief examiner, Silas W. Burt, was a long-time reformer who had been Arthur's opponent when the two men worked at the New York Custom House.[153] The commission issued its first rules in May 1883; by 1884, half of all postal officials and three-quarters of the Customs Service jobs were to be awarded by merit.[153] That year, Arthur expressed satisfaction with the new system, praising its effectiveness "in securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and pretensions of rival candidates for public employment."[154]

Surplus and the tariff

 
Engraved portrait of Arthur as president (Bureau of Engraving and Printing)

With high revenue held over from wartime taxes, the federal government had collected more than it spent since 1866; by 1882 the surplus reached $145 million.[155] Opinions varied on how to balance the budget; the Democrats wished to lower tariffs, in order to reduce revenues and the cost of imported goods, while Republicans believed that high tariffs ensured high wages in manufacturing and mining. They preferred the government spend more on internal improvements and reduce excise taxes.[155] Arthur agreed with his party, and in 1882 called for the abolition of excise taxes on everything except liquor, as well as a simplification of the complex tariff structure.[156] In May of that year, Representative William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania introduced a bill to establish a tariff commission;[156] the bill passed and Arthur signed it into law but appointed mostly protectionists to the committee. Republicans were pleased with the committee's make-up but were surprised when, in December 1882, they submitted a report to Congress calling for tariff cuts averaging between 20 and 25%. The commission's recommendations were ignored, however, as the House Ways and Means Committee, dominated by protectionists, provided a 10% reduction.[156] After conference with the Senate, the bill that emerged only reduced tariffs by an average of 1.47%. The bill passed both houses narrowly on March 3, 1883, the last full day of the 47th Congress; Arthur signed the measure into law, with no effect on the surplus.[157]

Congress attempted to balance the budget from the other side of the ledger, with increased spending on the 1882 Rivers and Harbors Act in the unprecedented amount of $19 million.[158] While Arthur was not opposed to internal improvements, the scale of the bill disturbed him, as did its narrow focus on "particular localities," rather than projects that benefited a larger part of the nation.[158] On August 1, 1882, Arthur vetoed the bill to widespread popular acclaim;[158] in his veto message, his principal objection was that it appropriated funds for purposes "not for the common defense or general welfare, and which do not promote commerce among the States."[159] Congress overrode his veto the next day[158] and the new law reduced the surplus by $19 million.[160] Republicans considered the law a success at the time, but later concluded that it contributed to their loss of seats in the elections of 1882.[161]

Foreign affairs and immigration

 
A political cartoon from 1882, criticizing Chinese exclusion

During the Garfield administration, Secretary of State James G. Blaine attempted to invigorate United States diplomacy in Latin America, urging reciprocal trade agreements and offering to mediate disputes among the Latin American nations.[162] Blaine, venturing a greater involvement in affairs south of the Rio Grande, proposed a Pan-American conference in 1882 to discuss trade and an end to the War of the Pacific being fought by Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.[162] Blaine did not remain in office long enough to see the effort through, and when Frederick T. Frelinghuysen replaced him at the end of 1881, the conference efforts lapsed.[163] Frelinghuysen also discontinued Blaine's peace efforts in the War of the Pacific, fearing that the United States might be drawn into the conflict.[163] Arthur and Frelinghuysen continued Blaine's efforts to encourage trade among the nations of the Western Hemisphere; a treaty with Mexico providing for reciprocal tariff reductions was signed in 1882 and approved by the Senate in 1884.[164] Legislation required to bring the treaty into force failed in the House, however, rendering it a dead letter.[164] Similar efforts at reciprocal trade treaties with Santo Domingo and Spain's American colonies were defeated by February 1885, and an existing reciprocity treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaii was allowed to lapse.[165]

The 47th Congress spent a great deal of time on immigration, and at times was in accord with Arthur.[166] In July 1882 Congress easily passed a bill regulating steamships that carried immigrants to the United States.[166] To their surprise, Arthur vetoed it and requested revisions, which they made and Arthur then approved.[166] He also signed in August of that year the Immigration Act of 1882, which levied a 50-cent tax on immigrants to the United States, and excluded from entry the mentally ill, the intellectually disabled, criminals, or any other person potentially dependent upon public assistance.[167]

A more contentious debate materialized over the status of Chinese immigrants; in January 1868, the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese into the country. As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873, Chinese immigrants were blamed for depressing workmen's wages; in reaction Congress in 1879 attempted to abrogate the 1868 treaty by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, but President Hayes vetoed it.[168] Three years later, after China had agreed to treaty revisions, Congress tried again to exclude working class Chinese laborers; Senator John F. Miller of California introduced another Chinese Exclusion Act that blocked entry of Chinese laborers for a twenty-year period.[169] The bill passed the Senate and House by overwhelming margins, but this as well was vetoed by Arthur, who concluded the 20-year ban to be a breach of the renegotiated treaty of 1880. That treaty allowed only a "reasonable" suspension of immigration. Eastern newspapers praised the veto, while it was condemned in the Western states. Congress was unable to override the veto, but passed a new bill reducing the immigration ban to ten years. Although he still objected to this denial of entry to Chinese laborers, Arthur acceded to the compromise measure, signing the Chinese Exclusion Act into law on May 6, 1882.[169][170] The Chinese Exclusion Act attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travelers. It was widely evaded.[171][o]

Naval resurgence

 
The "Squadron of Evolution" at anchor in 1889, after Yorktown had been added: Chicago, Yorktown, Boston, Atlanta

In the years following the Civil War, American naval power declined precipitously, shrinking from nearly 700 vessels to just 52, most of which were obsolete.[172] The nation's military focus over the fifteen years before Garfield and Arthur's election had been on the Indian wars in the Western United States, rather than the high seas, but as the region was increasingly pacified, many in Congress grew concerned at the poor state of the Navy.[173] Garfield's Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt advocated reform of the Navy.[174]

In his 1881 annual message, Arthur advocated a stronger Navy.[175] He gave full authority to his new Secretary of Navy William E. Chandler, Hunt's successor. Chandler, an aggressive administrator, purged the Navy of wood-and-canvas warship supporters and created the Naval War College.[175]

Chandler appointed an advisory board to prepare a report on modernization, whose goal was to create a Navy that would protect America thousands of miles away, rather than just coastal waters.[176] Based on the suggestions in the report, Congress appropriated funds, signed into law by Arthur, for the construction of three steel protected cruisers (Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago) and an armed dispatch-steamer (Dolphin), collectively known as the ABCD Ships or the Squadron of Evolution.[177][p] The contracts to build the ABCD ships were all awarded to the low bidder, John Roach & Sons of Chester, Pennsylvania,[179] even though Roach once employed Secretary Chandler as a lobbyist.[179] Democrats turned against the "New Navy" projects and, when they won control of the 48th Congress, refused to appropriate funds for seven more steel warships.[179] Even without the additional ships, the state of the Navy improved when, after several construction delays, the last of the new ships entered service in 1889.[180] Chandler scrapped costly outdated vessels, exclaiming he did his "best work in destroying the old navy."[175]

Greely polar expedition rescue (1884)

Further information: Lady Franklin Bay Expedition
 
Six Greely polar expedition survivors. The honor of the U.S. Navy saved.

By 1883, the ill-fated crew of the U.S. Army 1881 Greely scientific polar expedition was stranded at Fort Conger on Lady Franklin Bay. On July 7, 1881, the Greely crew had left New Foundland, headed northward on the private whaling ship the Proteus. In August 1881, the crew arrived at Lady Franklin Bay without incident or blockage from ice flows. However, after the Proteus dropped off the men and ample provisions, the ship immediately departed and left the expedition to fend for themselves. The men built Fort Conger as a place of refuge and scientific study. Two U.S. supply efforts, in 1882 and 1883, to reach the Greely party, ended in dismal failure.[181] The first, on July 8, 1882, led by William Beebe, on the private steamship Neptune, left St. John's, but was trapped by ice and forced to turn around. On June 29, 1883, the second left St. John's, with two ships, the Proteus, commanded by First Lieutenant Ernest Garlington, U.S. 7th Calvary, and the steam gunboat USS Yantic. The Proteus was crushed by an ice pack, whose stranded crew was rescued by the USS Yantic. Afterward, Garlington abandoned the mission to save Greely and the crew at Fort Conger.[182]

On September 1, 1883, with no relief in sight, Greely and his party left the safety of Fort Conger on small boats, over rough ice-capped waters, and made a permanent base, Camp Clay, at Cape Sabine, on Pim Island, off the eastern shores of the Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, where rations had been placed by the British a few years earlier. However, an attempt by two of Greely's men failed to retrieve the vital food cache over a long distance. Without food or game, the men began to slowly starve to death.[183][184] On December 17, 1883, President Arthur established a joint Army-Navy commission to make recommendations to Secretary of War Lincoln and Secretary of Navy Chandler on how to rescue the Greely party. Secretary Lincoln actively cooperated with Secretary Chandler in organizing the Greely rescue expedition.[185] Chandler was determined to accomplish a successful rescue of Greely and to restore the honor of the U.S. Navy. Chandler assigned Commander Winfield Schley to command the 1884 Greely Relief Mission. Chandler spared no expense in the rescue effort and had purchased one of the finest sealers afloat, the USS Bear, from Scottish owner Walter Grieve, for $100,000. This was done without authorization, prior to Arthur signing into law the much delayed Greely relief bill.[186][187]

Chandler vigorously demanded that all of his subordinates in the Naval Department be committed to the relief of the Greely expedition and he drew support from Navy officers. On July 17, 1884, after rescuing the Greely party, Schey arrived at Saint John's, New Foundland and telegraphed to Chandler that the rescue operation was successful. Of the seven rescued, Joseph Elison died on July 8th following multiple amputations. Evidence suggested that the men had survived through cannibalism.[188] In his fourth annual address to the nation Arthur devoted two paragraphs to the Greely rescue and concluded that "[The] organization and conduct of this relief expedition reflects great credit upon all who contributed to its success."[189]

Civil rights

 
Readjuster Party leader William Mahone pressed civil rights in Virginia

Like his Republican predecessors, Arthur struggled with the question of how his party was to challenge the Democrats in the South and how, if at all, to protect the civil rights of black southerners.[190] Since the end of Reconstruction, conservative white Democrats (or "Bourbon Democrats") had regained power in the South, and the Republican party dwindled rapidly as their primary supporters in the region, blacks, were disenfranchised.[190] One crack in the solidly Democratic South emerged with the growth of a new party, the Readjusters, in Virginia.[191] Having won an election in that state on a platform of more education funding (for black and white schools alike) and abolition of the poll tax and the whipping post, many northern Republicans saw the Readjusters as a more viable ally in the South than the moribund southern Republican party.[191] Arthur agreed, and directed the federal patronage in Virginia through the Readjusters rather than the Republicans.[191] He followed the same pattern in other Southern states, forging coalitions with independents and Greenback Party members.[191] Some black Republicans felt betrayed by the pragmatic gambit, but others (including Frederick Douglass and ex-Senator Blanche K. Bruce) endorsed the administration's actions, as the Southern independents had more liberal racial policies than the Democrats.[192] Arthur's coalition policy was only successful in Virginia, however, and by 1885 the Readjuster movement began to collapse with the election of a Democratic president.[193]

Other federal action on behalf of blacks was equally ineffective: when the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), Arthur expressed his disagreement with the decision in a message to Congress, but was unable to persuade Congress to pass any new legislation in its place.[194] Arthur did, however, effectively intervene to overturn a court-martial ruling against a black West Point cadet, Johnson Whittaker, after the Judge Advocate General of the Army, David G. Swaim, found the prosecution's case against Whittaker to be illegal and based on racial bias.[195] The administration faced a different challenge in the West, where the LDS Church was under government pressure to stop the practice of polygamy in Utah Territory.[196] Garfield had believed polygamy was criminal behavior and was morally detrimental to family values, and Arthur's views were, for once, in line with his predecessor's.[196] In 1882, he signed the Edmunds Act into law; the legislation made polygamy a federal crime, barring polygamists both from public office and the right to vote.[196]

Native American policy

 
Portrait of Arthur by Eastman Johnson (1887)

The Arthur administration was challenged by changing relations with western Native American tribes.[197] The American Indian Wars were winding down, and public sentiment was shifting toward more favorable treatment of Native Americans. Arthur urged Congress to increase funding for Native American education, which it did in 1884, although not to the extent he wished.[198] He also favored a move to the allotment system, under which individual Native Americans, rather than tribes, would own land. Arthur was unable to convince Congress to adopt the idea during his administration but, in 1887, the Dawes Act changed the law to favor such a system.[198] The allotment system was favored by liberal reformers at the time, but eventually proved detrimental to Native Americans as most of their land was resold at low prices to white speculators.[199] During Arthur's presidency, settlers and cattle ranchers continued to encroach on Native American territory.[200] Arthur initially resisted their efforts, but after Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller, an opponent of allotment, assured him that the lands were not protected, Arthur opened up the Crow Creek Reservation in the Dakota Territory to settlers by executive order in 1885.[200] Arthur's successor, Grover Cleveland, finding that title belonged to the Native Americans, revoked Arthur's order a few months later.[200]

Health, travel, and 1884 election

 
Arthur on an expedition in Yellowstone National Park along with Philip Sheridan and Robert Todd Lincoln

Shortly after becoming president, Arthur was diagnosed with Bright's disease, a kidney ailment now referred to as nephritis.[201] He attempted to keep his condition private, but by 1883 rumors of his illness began to circulate; he had become thinner and more aged in appearance, and struggled to keep the pace of the presidency.[201] To rejuvenate his health outside the confines of Washington, Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883.[202] The vacation had the opposite effect, and Arthur suffered from intense pain before returning to Washington.[202] Later that year, on the advice of Missouri Senator George Graham Vest, he visited Yellowstone National Park.[203] Reporters accompanied the presidential party, helping to publicize the new National Park system.[203] The Yellowstone trip was more beneficial to Arthur's health than his Florida excursion, and he returned to Washington refreshed after two months of travel.[204]

As the 1884 presidential election approached, James G. Blaine was considered the favorite for the Republican nomination, but Arthur, too, contemplated a run for a full term as president.[205] In the months leading up to the 1884 Republican National Convention, however, Arthur began to realize that neither faction of the Republican party was prepared to give him their full support: the Half-Breeds were again solidly behind Blaine, while Stalwarts were undecided; some backed Arthur, with others considering Senator John A. Logan of Illinois.[205] Reform-minded Republicans, friendlier to Arthur after he endorsed civil service reform, were still not certain enough of his reform credentials to back him over Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, who had long favored their cause.[205] Business leaders supported him, as did Southern Republicans who owed their jobs to his control of the patronage, but by the time they began to rally around him, Arthur had decided against a serious campaign for the nomination.[206] He kept up a token effort, believing that to drop out would cast doubt on his actions in office and raise questions about his health, but by the time the convention began in June, his defeat was assured.[206] Blaine led on the first ballot, and by the fourth ballot he had a majority.[207] Arthur telegraphed his congratulations to Blaine and accepted his defeat with equanimity.[207] He played no role in the 1884 campaign, which Blaine would later blame for his loss that November to the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland.[208]

Administration and cabinet

 
Official White House portrait of Chester A. Arthur (Daniel Huntington)

Judicial appointments

Main article: Chester A. Arthur judicial appointments

Arthur made appointments to fill two vacancies on the United States Supreme Court. The first vacancy arose in July 1881 with the death of Associate Justice Nathan Clifford, a Democrat who had been a member of the Court since before the Civil War.[209] Arthur nominated Horace Gray, a distinguished jurist from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace him, and the nomination was easily confirmed.[209] Gray would serve on the Court for over 20 years until resigning in 1902.[210] The second vacancy occurred when Associate Justice Ward Hunt retired in January 1882. Arthur first nominated his old political boss, Roscoe Conkling; he doubted that Conkling would accept, but felt obligated to offer a high office to his former patron.[209] The Senate confirmed the nomination but, as expected, Conkling declined it,[209] the last time a confirmed nominee declined an appointment.[211] Senator George Edmunds was Arthur's next choice, but he declined to be considered.[212] Instead, Arthur nominated Samuel Blatchford, who had been a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for the prior four years.[209] Blatchford accepted, and his nomination was approved by the Senate within two weeks.[209] Blatchford served on the Court until his death in 1893.

Post-presidency (1885–1886)

 
Chester A. Arthur statue at Madison Square in New York City, Bissell 1898

Arthur left office in 1885 and returned to his New York City home. Two months before the end of his term, several New York Stalwarts approached him to request that he run for United States Senate, but he declined, preferring to return to his old law practice at Arthur, Knevals & Ransom.[213] His health limited his activity with the firm, and Arthur served only of counsel. He took on few assignments with the firm and was often too ill to leave his house.[214] He managed a few public appearances until the end of 1885.[214]

Death

 
Arthur's grave at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York

After spending the summer of 1886 in New London, Connecticut, he returned home where he became seriously ill, and on November 16, ordered nearly all of his papers, both personal and official, burned.[214][q] The next morning, Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. He died the following day, on November 18, at the age of 57.[214] On November 22, a private funeral was held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, attended by President Cleveland and ex-President Hayes, among other notables.[216] Arthur was buried with his family members and ancestors in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.[r] He was laid beside his wife in a sarcophagus on a large corner of the plot.[214] In 1889, a monument was placed on Arthur's burial plot by sculptor Ephraim Keyser of New York, consisting of a giant bronze female angel figure placing a bronze palm leaf on a granite sarcophagus.[218]

Arthur's post-presidency was the second-shortest of all presidents who lived past their presidencies, after that of James K. Polk who died just three months after leaving office.[219]

Legacy

Several Grand Army of the Republic posts were named for Arthur, including Goff, Kansas,[220] Lawrence, Nebraska,[221] Medford, Oregon,[222] and Ogdensburg, Wisconsin.[223] On April 5, 1882, Arthur was elected to the District of Columbia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) as a Third Class Companion (insignia number 02430[224]), the honorary membership category for militia officers and civilians who made significant contributions to the war effort.[225]

Union College awarded Arthur the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1883.[226]

In 1898, the Arthur memorial statue—a fifteen-foot (4.6 m), bronze figure of Arthur standing on a Barre Granite pedestal—was created by sculptor George Edwin Bissell and installed at Madison Square, in New York City.[227] The statue was dedicated in 1899 and unveiled by Arthur's sister, Mary Arthur McElroy.[227] At the dedication, Secretary of War Elihu Root described Arthur as, "...wise in statesmanship and firm and effective in administration," while acknowledging that Arthur was isolated in office and unloved by his own party.[227]

Arthur's unpopularity in life carried over into his assessment by historians and his reputation after leaving office disappeared.[228] By 1935, historian George F. Howe said that Arthur had achieved "an obscurity in strange contrast to his significant part in American history."[229] By 1975, however, Thomas C. Reeves would write that Arthur's "appointments, if unspectacular, were unusually sound; the corruption and scandal that dominated business and politics of the period did not tarnish his administration."[230] As 2004 biographer Zachary Karabell wrote, although Arthur was "physically stretched and emotionally strained, he strove to do what was right for the country."[228] Indeed, Howe had earlier surmised, "Arthur adopted [a code] for his own political behavior but subject to three restraints: he remained to everyone a man of his word; he kept scrupulously free from corrupt graft; he maintained a personal dignity, affable and genial though he might be. These restraints ... distinguished him sharply from the stereotype politician."[231]

Arthur's townhouse, the Chester A. Arthur Home, was sold to William Randolph Hearst.[232] Since 1944 it has been the location of Kalustyan's Spice Emporium.[233]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Arthur was Vice President under James A. Garfield and became President upon Garfield's death on September 19, 1881. This was prior to the adoption of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, and a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration.
  2. ^ Some older sources list the date as October 5, 1830,[2] but biographer Thomas C. Reeves confirms that this is incorrect: Arthur claimed to be a year younger "out of simple vanity."
  3. ^ Arthur pronounced his middle name with the accent on the second syllable.[16]
  4. ^ Even if he had been born in Canada, Arthur might have still claimed to be a "natural born citizen" based on his mother having been born in and recently resided in the United States.
  5. ^ The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution applies that clause, which specifically restricts presidential eligibility, to would-be vice presidents: "No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President."
  6. ^ Among the facts that argue against Hinman's theories are the entries for Chester A. Arthur in several U.S. Censuses from before he was politically prominent, which list his birthplace as Vermont, and the entry of his birth in the Arthur family Bible, which also indicates Vermont as his birthplace. In addition, contemporary newspaper articles, including the 1871 stories about his appointment as Collector of the Port of New York, all indicate that he was born in Vermont, though some incorrectly give his birthplace as Burlington. Hinman failed to explain why Arthur would have fabricated these records and the biographical information he provided to newspapers to conceal a Canadian birth when the only thing being born in Canada might possibly affect was Arthur's eligibility for the presidency, which no one at the time of his birth or in the years between his birth and his nomination for vice president in 1880 had any reason to think he would aspire to.
  7. ^ $10,000 in 1870 is equal to $214,289 in present terms.[69]
  8. ^ $50,000 in 1871 is equal to $1.13 million in present terms.[69]
  9. ^ Charles K. Graham filled Merritt's former position.[98]
  10. ^ Biographer George Howe takes this exchange at face value,[113] but later biographers suspect it may be apocryphal.[114]
  11. ^ Before the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Senators were elected by state legislatures.
  12. ^ Conkling and Pratt were ultimately denied re-election, being succeeded by Elbridge G. Lapham and Warner Miller, respectively.
  13. ^ One presidential oath was administered by a state court judge, also in New York City by a New York State judge: Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York, administered the first presidential oath to George Washington at Federal Hall in 1789 (there were yet no federal judges). The only other presidential oath administered by someone other than a Federal justice or judge, the first swearing in of Calvin Coolidge in 1923 (by his father John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., a justice of the peace and notary public, in the family home), was also re-taken in Washington due to questions about the validity of the first oath. This second oath taking was done in secret, and did not become public knowledge until Harry M. Daugherty revealed it in 1932.
  14. ^ Arthur first offered the post to Edwin D. Morgan, who had been his patron in New York; Morgan was confirmed by the Senate, but declined on the grounds of age. He died in 1883.[141]
  15. ^ The portion of the law denying citizenship to Chinese-American children born in the United States was later found unconstitutional in United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898.
  16. ^ Earlier in 1874, during the Grant administration, Congress approved funds to rebuild four monitors (Puritan, Amphitrite, Monadnock, and Terror), which had lain uncompleted since 1877.[178]
  17. ^ A small number of Arthur's papers survived and passed to his grandson, Gavin Arthur (born Chester Alan Arthur III), who allowed Arthur's biographer, Thomas C. Reeves, to examine them in the 1970s.[215]
  18. ^ On his grave marker, his birth year is incorrectly given as 1830.[217]

References

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Bibliography

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  • Weisberger, Bernard A. (2002). Henry F. Graff (ed.). The Presidents A Reference History James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Charles Scribners's Sons.

Articles

  • Bastert, Russell H. (March 1956). "Diplomatic Reversal: Frelinghuysen's Opposition to Blaine's Pan-American Policy in 1882". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 42 (4): 653–671. doi:10.2307/1889232. JSTOR 1889232.
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  • Hutchinson, C.P. (April 1947). "The Present Status of Our Immigration Laws and Policies". The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. 25 (2): 161–173. doi:10.2307/3348178. JSTOR 3348178.
  • Jampoler, Andrew C.A. (August 2010). "Disaster at Lady Franklin Bay". Naval History Magazine. Vol. 24, no. 4. U.S. Naval Institute. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  • Marszalek, John F. Jr. (August 1971). "A Black Cadet At West Point". American Heritage. 22 (5). Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  • Peskin, Allan (Winter 1984). "Who Were the Stalwarts? Who Were Their Rivals? Republican Factions in the Gilded Age". Political Science Quarterly. 99 (4): 703–716. doi:10.2307/2150708. JSTOR 2150708.
  • Reeves, Thomas C. (Summer 1972). "The Search for the Chester Alan Arthur Papers". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 55 (4): 310–319. JSTOR 4634741.
  • Reeves, Thomas C. (July 1, 1970). "The Diaries of Malvina Arthur: Windows Into The Past of Our 21st President" (PDF). Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society. Montpelier, VT: Vermont Historical Society. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  • Reeves, Thomas C. (Autumn 1970). "The Mystery of Chester Alan Arthur's Birthplace" (PDF). Vermont History. 38 (4). Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  • Schwartz, Sybil (Autumn 1978). "In Defense of Chester Arthur". The Wilson Quarterly. 2 (4): 180–184. JSTOR 40255548.
  • Stuart, Paul (September 1977). "United States Indian Policy: From the Dawes Act to the American Indian Policy Review Commission". Social Service Review. 51 (3): 451–463. doi:10.1086/643524. JSTOR 30015511. S2CID 143506388.
  • Theriault, Sean M. (February 2003). "Patronage, the Pendleton Act, and the Power of the People". The Journal of Politics. 65 (1): 50–68. doi:10.1111/1468-2508.t01-1-00003. JSTOR 3449855. S2CID 153890814.
  • Todd, A. L. (June 1960). "Ordeal In The Arctic". American Heritage. Vol. 11, no. 4. Retrieved December 27, 2022.

Newspapers

  • "Afternoon Dispatches: Pleasanton". The Tribune. Lawrence, KS. July 9, 1871. p. 2.
  • "Republican State Committee: Gen. Chester A. Arthur Elected Chairman – Campaign Plans". The Sun. New York, NY. September 12, 1879. p. 2.
  • "Organization of the Republican State Committee". Boston Post. Boston, MA. October 12, 1881. p. 1.
  • "The New Administration; President Arthur Formally Inaugurated" (PDF). The New York Times. September 22, 1881. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  • "The Loyal Legion: Meeting Last Night; President Arthur Elected to Membership". National Republican. Washington, DC. April 6, 1882 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Leading Officials: The Three Principal Officers in the Nebraska Posts". Omaha Daily Bee. Omaha, NE. August 30, 1891 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "In the Encampment at the Reunion at Ashland". Medford Mail. Medford, OR. September 23, 1892 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Meeting of C. A. Arthur Post, No. 411". The Goffs Advocate. Goff, KS. January 26, 1893 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Monuments At Albany" (PDF). The New York Times. January 7, 1894.
  • "Sister of Arthur Dead: Mrs. Regina M. Caw Was Born In Dunham, Canada in 1822". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. November 17, 1910. p. 3.
  • "Sister of Late President Arthur Dies at Age of 87". Burlington Free Press. Burlington, VT. April 12, 1915. p. 1.
  • Jenks, J. E. (March 6, 1915). "Obituary, Major William Arthur". Army and Navy Register. Washington, DC.
  • "Mrs. John E. McElroy Dead: Sister of Late President Arthur Succumbs in Atlantic City". Washington Times. Washington, DC. January 9, 1917. p. 9.

Other websites

  • Dolton, Trisha (July 12, 2013). "Another Sister for Chester: Almeda Arthur Masten". Greenwich History. Greenwich, NY: Greenwich Town Historian.
  • "Supreme Court Nominations, present-1789". U.S. Senate. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  • National GAR Records Program (2005). "Historical Summary of Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Posts by State: Wisconsin" (PDF). garrecords.org. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
  • Rhode Island Commandery (2009). "From the Headquarters Desk". Original Civil War Officer Members of MOLLUS. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.
  • "Chester A. Arthur Fourth Annual Message". The American Presidency Project. December 1, 1884. Retrieved January 25, 2023.

Further reading

  • Aubin, J. Harris (1906). Register of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Boston, MA: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of Massachusetts. p. 20.
  • Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
  • Department of Oregon, Grand Army of the Republic (1919). Journal of the Annual Encampment. Salem, OR: State Publishing Department.
  • Greenberger, Scott S. (2017). The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur. Da Capo. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-30-682389-3.
  • McCrory, Thomas J. (2005). Department of Wisconsin, Grand Army of the Republic. Black Earth, WI: Trails Books. ISBN 1-931599-28-9.
  • Werner, Edgar A. (1889). The New-York Civil List. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co. pp. 170–171.
  • Waxman, Olivia B. (February 16, 2018). "Chester A. Arthur Is the Most Forgotten President in U.S. History, According to Science". Time. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  • "Blatchford, Samuel M." Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved July 27, 2011.

External links

February 14, 2023
chester, arthur, chester, alan, arthur, chester, arthur, redirect, here, chester, alan, arthur, grandson, gavin, arthur, chester, alan, arthur, october, 1829, november, 1886, american, lawyer, politician, served, 21st, president, united, states, from, 1881, 18. Chester Alan Arthur and Chester Arthur redirect here For his son see Chester Alan Arthur II For his grandson see Gavin Arthur Chester Alan Arthur October 5 1829 b November 18 1886 was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885 He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A Garfield Arthur succeeded to the presidency upon Garfield s death in September 1881 two months after Garfield had been shot by an assassin Chester A ArthurPortrait by Charles Milton Bell 188221st President of the United StatesIn office September 19 1881 March 4 1885Vice PresidentNone a Preceded byJames A GarfieldSucceeded byGrover Cleveland20th Vice President of the United StatesIn office March 4 1881 September 19 1881PresidentJames A GarfieldPreceded byWilliam A WheelerSucceeded byThomas A Hendricks10th Chairman of the New York Republican PartyIn office September 11 1879 October 11 1881Preceded byJohn F SmythSucceeded byB Platt Carpenter21st Collector of the Port of New YorkIn office December 1 1871 July 11 1878Appointed byUlysses S GrantPreceded byThomas MurphySucceeded byEdwin Atkins MerrittEngineer in Chief of the New York MilitiaIn office January 1 1861 January 1 1863Preceded byGeorge F NesbittSucceeded byIsaac Vanderpoel 1 Inspector General of the New York MilitiaIn office April 14 1862 July 12 1862Preceded byMarsena R PatrickSucceeded byCuyler Van Vechten 1 Quartermaster General of the New York MilitiaIn office July 27 1862 January 1 1863Preceded byCuyler Van VechtenSucceeded bySebastian Visscher Talcott 1 Personal detailsBornChester Alan Arthur 1829 10 05 October 5 1829Fairfield Vermont U S DiedNovember 18 1886 1886 11 18 aged 57 New York City U S Resting placeAlbany Rural CemeteryPolitical partyRepublican 1854 1886 Other politicalaffiliationsWhig before 1854 SpouseEllen Herndon m 1859 died 1880 wbr ChildrenWilliamChester IIEllenParentWilliam Arthur father EducationUnion College BA State and National Law SchoolProfessionLawyercivil servantSignatureMilitary serviceBranch serviceNew York MilitiaYears of service1857 1863RankBrigadier generalUnitSecond Brigade New York Militia Staff of Governor Edwin D MorganBattles warsAmerican Civil WarArthur was born in Fairfield Vermont grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the American Civil War Following the war he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling s political organization President Ulysses S Grant appointed him to the post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871 and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party In 1878 President Rutherford B Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880 and Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket as an Eastern Stalwart Four months into his term Garfield was shot by an assassin he died 11 weeks later and Arthur assumed the presidency At the outset Arthur struggled to overcome a negative reputation as a Stalwart and product of Conkling s organization To the surprise of reformers he advocated and enforced the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act He presided over the rebirth of the US Navy but he was criticized for failing to alleviate the federal budget surplus which had been accumulating since the end of the Civil War Arthur vetoed the first version of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act arguing that its twenty year ban on Chinese immigrants to the United States violated the Burlingame Treaty but he signed a second version which included a ten year ban 3 Suffering from poor health Arthur made only a limited effort to secure the Republican Party s nomination in 1884 and he retired at the end of his term Arthur s failing health and political temperament combined to make his administration less active than a modern presidency yet he earned praise among contemporaries for his solid performance in office Journalist Alexander McClure wrote No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur and no one ever retired more generally respected alike by political friend and foe 4 The New York World summed up Arthur s presidency at his death in 1886 No duty was neglected in his administration and no adventurous project alarmed the nation 5 Mark Twain wrote of him It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur s administration 6 Despite this modern historians generally describe Arthur s presidency as mediocre 7 or average 8 and Arthur as one of the least memorable presidents 9 Contents 1 Early life 1 1 Birth and family 1 2 Education 2 Early career 2 1 New York lawyer 2 2 Civil War 3 New York politician 3 1 Conkling s machine 3 2 Clash with Hayes 4 Election of 1880 5 Vice presidency 1881 6 Presidency 1881 1885 6 1 Taking office 6 2 Civil service reform 6 3 Surplus and the tariff 6 4 Foreign affairs and immigration 6 5 Naval resurgence 6 5 1 Greely polar expedition rescue 1884 6 6 Civil rights 6 7 Native American policy 6 8 Health travel and 1884 election 6 9 Administration and cabinet 6 10 Judicial appointments 7 Post presidency 1885 1886 7 1 Death 8 Legacy 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Bibliography 12 1 Books 12 2 Articles 12 3 Newspapers 12 4 Other websites 13 Further reading 14 External linksEarly life EditBirth and family Edit Arthur s birthplace in Fairfield Vermont Chester Alan Arthur was born in Fairfield Vermont 10 Arthur s mother Malvina Stone was born in Berkshire Vermont the daughter of George Washington Stone and Judith Stevens 11 Her family was primarily of English and Welsh descent and her maternal grandfather Uriah Stone had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution 10 Arthur s father William Arthur was born in 1796 in Dreen Cullybackey County Antrim Ireland to a Presbyterian family of Scots Irish descent William s mother was born Eliza McHarg and she married Alan Arthur 12 William graduated from college in Belfast and immigrated to the Province of Lower Canada in 1819 or 1820 13 Malvina Stone met William Arthur when Arthur was teaching school in Dunham Quebec near the Vermont border 14 They married in Dunham on April 12 1821 soon after meeting 10 The Arthurs moved to Vermont after the birth of their first child Regina 14 They quickly moved from Burlington to Jericho and finally to Waterville as William received positions teaching at different schools 10 William Arthur also spent a brief time studying law but while still in Waterville he departed from both his legal studies and his Presbyterian upbringing to join the Free Will Baptists he spent the rest of his life as a minister in that sect 10 William Arthur became an outspoken abolitionist which often made him unpopular with some members of his congregations and contributed to the family s frequent moves 15 In 1828 the family moved again to Fairfield where Chester Alan Arthur was born the following year he was the fifth of nine children 16 17 He was named Chester after Chester Abell 18 the physician and family friend who assisted in his birth and Alan for his paternal grandfather 19 c The family remained in Fairfield until 1832 when William Arthur s profession took them to churches in several towns in Vermont and upstate New York The family finally settled in the Schenectady New York area 20 Arthur had seven siblings who lived to adulthood 21 Regina 1822 1910 the wife of William G Caw a grocer banker and community leader of Cohoes New York who served as town supervisor and village trustee 22 Jane 1824 1842 23 Almeda 1825 1899 the wife of James H Masten who served as postmaster of Cohoes and publisher of the Cohoes Cataract newspaper 24 Ann 1828 1915 a career educator who taught school in New York and worked in South Carolina in the years immediately before and after the Civil War 25 Malvina 1832 1920 the wife of Henry J Haynesworth who was an official of the Confederate government and a merchant in Albany New York before being appointed as a captain and assistant quartermaster in the U S Army during Arthur s presidency 26 William 1834 1915 a medical school graduate who became a career Army officer and paymaster he was wounded during his Civil War service William Arthur retired in 1898 with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel and permanent rank of major 27 George 1836 1838 28 Mary 1841 1917 the wife of John E McElroy an Albany businessman and insurance executive and Arthur s official White House hostess during his presidency 29 The family s frequent moves later spawned accusations that Arthur was not a native born citizen of the United States When Arthur was nominated for vice president in 1880 a New York attorney and political opponent Arthur P Hinman initially speculated that Arthur was born in Ireland and did not come to the United States until he was fourteen years old 30 Had that been true opponents might have argued that Arthur was ineligible for the vice presidency under the United States Constitution s natural born citizen clause 31 d 32 e 33 When Hinman s original story did not take root he spread a new rumor that Arthur was born in Canada 30 This claim too failed to gain credence 33 f 34 Education Edit Arthur spent some of his childhood years living in the New York towns of York Perry Greenwich Lansingburgh Schenectady and Hoosick 35 One of his first teachers said Arthur was a boy frank and open in manners and genial in disposition 36 During his time at school he gained his first political inclinations and supported the Whig Party He joined other young Whigs in support of Henry Clay even participating in a brawl against students who supported James K Polk during the 1844 United States presidential election 20 Arthur also supported the Fenian Brotherhood an Irish republican organization founded in America he showed this support by wearing a green coat 37 After completing his college preparation at the Lyceum of Union Village now Greenwich and a grammar school in Schenectady Arthur enrolled at Union College there in 1845 where he studied the traditional classical curriculum 20 He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity 38 and as a senior he was president of the debate society and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa 37 During his winter breaks he served as a teacher at a school in Schaghticoke 37 The home in Manhattan where Arthur spent most of his adulthood years After graduating in 1848 Arthur returned to Schaghticoke and became a full time teacher and soon began to pursue an education in law 39 While studying law he continued teaching moving closer to home by taking a job at a school in North Pownal Vermont 39 Coincidentally future president James A Garfield taught penmanship at the same school three years later but the two did not cross paths during their teaching careers 40 In 1852 Arthur moved again to Cohoes New York to become the principal of a school at which his sister Malvina was a teacher 40 In 1853 after studying at State and National Law School in Ballston Spa New York and then saving enough money to relocate Arthur moved to New York City to read law at the office of Erastus D Culver an abolitionist lawyer and family friend 41 When Arthur was admitted to the New York bar in 1854 he joined Culver s firm which was subsequently renamed Culver Parker and Arthur 42 Early career EditNew York lawyer Edit Arthur as a young lawyer Arthur married Ellen Herndon in 1859 When Arthur joined the firm Culver and New York attorney John Jay the grandson of the Founding Father John Jay were pursuing a habeas corpus action against Jonathan Lemmon a Virginia slaveholder who was passing through New York with his eight slaves 43 In Lemmon v New York Culver argued that as New York law did not permit slavery any slave arriving in New York was automatically freed 43 The argument was successful and after several appeals was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals in 1860 43 Campaign biographers would later give Arthur much of the credit for the victory in fact his role was minor although he was certainly an active participant in the case 44 In another civil rights case in 1854 Arthur was the lead attorney representing Elizabeth Jennings Graham after she was denied a seat on a streetcar because she was black 44 He won the case and the verdict led to the desegregation of the New York City streetcar lines 44 In 1856 Arthur courted Ellen Herndon the daughter of William Lewis Herndon a Virginia naval officer 45 The two were soon engaged to be married 46 Later that year he started a new law partnership with a friend Henry D Gardiner and traveled with him to Kansas to consider purchasing land and setting up a law practice there 44 At that time the state was the scene of a brutal struggle between pro slavery and anti slavery forces and Arthur lined up firmly with the latter 47 The rough frontier life did not agree with the genteel New Yorkers after three or four months the two young lawyers returned to New York City where Arthur comforted his fiancee after her father was lost at sea in the wreck of the SS Central America 47 In 1859 they were married at Calvary Episcopal Church in Manhattan 48 The couple had three children William Lewis Arthur December 10 1860 July 7 1863 died of convulsions Chester Alan Arthur II July 25 1864 July 18 1937 married Myra Townsend then Rowena Graves father of Gavin Arthur Ellen Hansbrough Herndon Nell Arthur Pinkerton November 21 1871 September 6 1915 married Charles PinkertonAfter his marriage Arthur devoted his efforts to building his law practice but also found time to engage in Republican party politics In addition he indulged his military interest by becoming Judge Advocate General for the Second Brigade of the New York Militia 49 Civil War Edit In 1861 Arthur was appointed to the military staff of Governor Edwin D Morgan as engineer in chief 49 The office was a patronage appointment of minor importance until the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 when New York and the other northern states were faced with raising and equipping armies of a size never before seen in American history 50 Arthur was commissioned as a brigadier general and assigned to the state militia s quartermaster department 50 He was so efficient at housing and outfitting the troops that poured into New York City that he was promoted to inspector general of the state militia in March 1862 and then to quartermaster general that July 51 He had an opportunity to serve at the front when the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment elected him commander with the rank of colonel early in the war but at Governor Morgan s request he turned it down to remain at his post in New York 52 He also turned down command of four New York City regiments organized as the Metropolitan Brigade again at Morgan s request 52 The closest Arthur came to the front was when he traveled south to inspect New York troops near Fredericksburg Virginia in May 1862 shortly after forces under Major General Irvin McDowell seized the town during the Peninsula Campaign 53 That summer he and other representatives of northern governors met with Secretary of State William H Seward in New York to coordinate the raising of additional troops and he spent the next few months helping to enlist New York s quota of 120 000 men 53 Arthur received plaudits for his work but his post was a political appointment and he was relieved of his militia duties in January 1863 when Governor Horatio Seymour a Democrat took office 54 When Reuben Fenton won the 1864 election for governor Arthur requested reappointment Fenton and Arthur were from different factions of the Republican Party and Fenton had already committed to appointing another candidate so Arthur did not return to military service 55 Arthur returned to practicing law and with the help of additional contacts made in the military he and the firm of Arthur amp Gardiner flourished 56 Even as his professional life improved however Arthur and his wife experienced a personal tragedy as their only child William died suddenly that year at the age of two 57 The couple took their son s death hard and when they had another son Chester Alan Jr in 1864 they lavished attention on him 58 They also had a daughter Ellen in 1871 59 Both children survived to adulthood 59 Arthur s political prospects improved along with his law practice when his patron ex Governor Morgan was elected to the United States Senate 60 He was hired by Thomas Murphy a Republican politician but also a friend of William M Tweed the boss of the Tammany Hall Democratic organization Murphy was also a hatter who sold goods to the Union Army and Arthur represented him in Washington The two became associates within New York Republican party circles eventually rising in the ranks of the conservative branch of the party dominated by Thurlow Weed 60 In the presidential election of 1864 Arthur and Murphy raised funds from Republicans in New York and they attended the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 61 New York politician EditConkling s machine Edit The New York Custom House formerly the Merchants Exchange building at 55 Wall Street was Arthur s office for seven years The end of the Civil War meant new opportunities for the men in Morgan s Republican machine including Arthur 62 Morgan leaned toward the conservative wing of the New York Republican party as did the men who worked with him in the organization including Weed Seward who continued in office under President Andrew Johnson and Roscoe Conkling an eloquent Utica Congressman and rising star in the party 62 Arthur rarely articulated his own political ideas during his time as a part of the machine as was common at the time loyalty and hard work on the machine s behalf was more important than actual political positions 63 At the time U S custom houses were managed by political appointees who served as Collector Naval Officer and Surveyor In 1866 Arthur unsuccessfully attempted to secure the position of Naval Officer at the New York Custom House a lucrative job subordinate only to the Collector 64 He continued his law practice now a solo practice after Gardiner s death and his role in politics becoming a member of the prestigious Century Club in 1867 64 Conkling elected to the United States Senate in 1867 noticed Arthur and facilitated his rise in the party and Arthur became chairman of the New York City Republican executive committee in 1868 65 His ascent in the party hierarchy kept him busy most nights and his wife resented his continual absence from the family home on party business 66 Conkling succeeded to leadership of the conservative wing of New York s Republicans by 1868 as Morgan concentrated more time and effort on national politics including serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee The Conkling machine was solidly behind General Ulysses S Grant s candidacy for president and Arthur raised funds for Grant s election in 1868 67 The opposing Democratic machine in New York City known as Tammany Hall worked for Grant s opponent former New York Governor Horatio Seymour while Grant was victorious in the national vote Seymour narrowly carried the state of New York 67 Arthur began to devote more of his time to politics and less to law and in 1869 he became counsel to the New York City Tax Commission appointed when Republicans controlled the state legislature He remained at the job until 1870 at a salary of 10 000 a year 68 g Arthur resigned after Democrats controlled by William M Tweed of Tammany Hall won a legislative majority which meant they could name their own appointee 70 In 1871 Grant offered to name Arthur as Commissioner of Internal Revenue replacing Alfred Pleasonton Arthur declined the appointment 71 In 1870 President Grant gave Conkling control over New York patronage including the Custom House at the Port of New York Having become friendly with Murphy over their shared love of horses during summer vacations on the Jersey Shore in July of that year Grant appointed him to the Collector s position 72 Murphy s reputation as a war profiteer and his association with Tammany Hall made him unacceptable to many of his own party but Conkling convinced the Senate to confirm him 72 The Collector was responsible for hiring hundreds of workers to collect the tariffs due at the United States busiest port Typically these jobs were dispensed to adherents of the political machine responsible for appointing the Collector Employees were required to make political contributions known as assessments back to the machine which made the job a highly coveted political plum 73 Murphy s unpopularity only increased as he replaced workers loyal to Senator Reuben Fenton s faction of the Republican party with those loyal to Conkling s 74 Eventually the pressure to replace Murphy grew too great and Grant asked for his resignation in December 1871 74 Grant offered the position to John Augustus Griswold and William Orton each of whom declined and recommended Arthur 75 Grant then nominated Arthur with the New York Times commenting his name very seldom rises to the surface of metropolitan life and yet moving like a mighty undercurrent this man during the last 10 years has done more to mold the course of the Republican Party in this state than any other one man in the country 76 The Senate confirmed Arthur s appointment as Collector he controlled nearly a thousand jobs and received compensation as great as any federal officeholder 73 Arthur s salary was initially 6 500 but senior customs employees were compensated additionally by the moiety system which awarded them a percentage of the cargoes seized and fines levied on importers who attempted to evade the tariff 77 In total his income came to more than 50 000 more than the president s salary and more than enough for him to enjoy fashionable clothes and a lavish lifestyle 77 h Among those who dealt with the Custom House Arthur was one of the era s more popular collectors 78 He got along with his subordinates and since Murphy had already filled the staff with Conkling s adherents he had few occasions to fire anyone 79 He was also popular within the Republican party as he efficiently collected campaign assessments from the staff and placed party leaders friends in jobs as positions became available 66 Arthur had a better reputation than Murphy but reformers still criticized the patronage structure and the moiety system as corrupt 73 A rising tide of reform within the party caused Arthur to rename the financial extractions from employees as voluntary contributions in 1872 but the concept remained and the party reaped the benefit of controlling government jobs 80 In that year reform minded Republicans formed the Liberal Republican party and voted against Grant but he was re elected in spite of their opposition 81 Nevertheless the movement for civil service reform continued to chip away at Conkling s patronage machine in 1874 Custom House employees were found to have improperly assessed fines against an importing company as a way to increase their own incomes and Congress reacted repealing the moiety system and putting the staff including Arthur on regular salaries 82 As a result his income dropped to 12 000 a year more than his nominal boss the Secretary of the Treasury but far less than what he had previously received 82 Clash with Hayes Edit A cartoon depicting President Rutherford B Hayes kicking Arthur out of the New York Custom House Arthur s four year term as Collector expired on December 10 1875 and Conkling then among the most powerful politicians in Washington arranged his protege s reappointment by President Grant 83 In 1876 Conkling was a candidate for president at the 1876 Republican National Convention but the nomination was won by reformer Rutherford B Hayes on the seventh ballot 84 Arthur and the machine gathered campaign funds with their usual zeal but Conkling limited his own campaign activities for Hayes to a few speeches 85 Hayes s opponent New York Governor Samuel J Tilden carried New York and won the popular vote nationwide but after the resolution of several months of disputes over twenty electoral votes from Florida Louisiana Oregon and South Carolina Hayes was declared the winner 86 Hayes entered office with a pledge to reform the patronage system in 1877 he and Treasury Secretary John Sherman made Conkling s machine the primary target 85 Sherman ordered a commission led by John Jay to investigate the New York Custom House 87 Jay with whom Arthur had collaborated in the Lemmon case two decades earlier suggested that the Custom House was overstaffed with political appointments and that 20 of the employees were expendable 88 Sherman was less enthusiastic about the reforms than Hayes and Jay but he approved the commission s report and ordered Arthur to make the personnel reductions 89 Arthur appointed a committee of Custom House workers to determine where the cuts were to be made and after a written protest carried them out 90 Notwithstanding his cooperation the Jay Commission issued a second report critical of Arthur and other Custom House employees and subsequent reports urging a complete reorganization 90 Hayes further struck at the heart of the spoils system by issuing an executive order that forbade assessments and barred federal office holders from tak ing part in the management of political organizations caucuses conventions or election campaigns 91 Arthur and his subordinates Naval Officer Alonzo B Cornell and Surveyor George H Sharpe refused to obey the president s order Sherman encouraged Arthur to resign offering him appointment by Hayes to the consulship in Paris in exchange but Arthur refused 92 In September 1877 Hayes demanded the three men s resignations which they refused to give 93 Hayes then submitted the appointment of Theodore Roosevelt Sr L Bradford Prince and Edwin Merritt all supporters of Conkling s rival William M Evarts to the Senate for confirmation as their replacements 94 The Senate s Commerce Committee chaired by Conkling unanimously rejected all the nominees the full Senate rejected Roosevelt by a vote of 31 25 95 and similarly turned down the nomination of Prince by the same margin later confirming Merritt only because Sharpe s term had expired 96 Arthur s job was spared only until July 1878 when Hayes took advantage of a Congressional recess to fire him and Cornell replacing them with the recess appointment of Merritt and Silas W Burt 97 i Hayes again offered Arthur the position of consul general in Paris as a face saving consolation Arthur again declined as Hayes knew he probably would 99 Conkling opposed the confirmation of Merritt and Burt when the Senate reconvened in February 1879 but Merritt was approved by a vote of 31 25 as was Burt by 31 19 giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory 100 Arthur immediately took advantage of the resulting free time to work for the election of Edward Cooper as New York City s next mayor 101 In September 1879 Arthur became Chairman of the New York State Republican Executive Committee a post in which he served until October 1881 102 103 In the state elections of 1879 he and Conkling worked to ensure that the Republican nominees for state offices would be men of Conkling s faction who had become known as Stalwarts 104 They were successful but narrowly as Cornell was nominated for governor by a vote of 234 216 104 Arthur and Conkling campaigned vigorously for the Stalwart ticket and owing partly to a splintering of the Democratic vote were victorious 105 Arthur and the machine had rebuked Hayes and their intra party rivals but Arthur had only a few days to enjoy his triumph when on January 12 1880 his wife died suddenly while he was in Albany organizing the political agenda for the coming year 106 Arthur felt devastated and perhaps guilty and never remarried 107 Election of 1880 EditMain article 1880 United States presidential election Garfield Arthur campaign poster Conkling and his fellow Stalwarts including Arthur wished to follow up their 1879 success at the 1880 Republican National Convention by securing the presidential nomination for their ally ex President Grant 108 Their opponents in the Republican party known as Half Breeds concentrated their efforts on James G Blaine a senator from Maine who was more amenable to civil service reform 108 Neither candidate commanded a majority of delegates and deadlocked after thirty six ballots the convention turned to a dark horse James A Garfield an Ohio Congressman and Civil War general who was neither Stalwart nor Half Breed 109 Garfield and his supporters knew they would face a difficult election without the support of the New York Stalwarts and decided to offer one of them the vice presidential nomination 110 Levi P Morton the first choice of Garfield s supporters consulted with Conkling who advised him to decline which he did 111 They next approached Arthur and Conkling advised him to also reject the nomination believing the Republicans would lose 112 Arthur thought otherwise and accepted According to a purported eyewitness account by journalist William C Hudson Conkling and Arthur argued with Arthur telling Conkling The office of the Vice President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining 112 j Conkling eventually relented and campaigned for the ticket 115 As expected the election was close The Democratic nominee General Winfield Scott Hancock was popular and having avoided taking definitive positions on most issues of the day he had not offended any pivotal constituencies 116 As Republicans had done since the end of the Civil War Garfield and Arthur initially focused their campaign on the bloody shirt the idea that returning Democrats to office would undo the victory of the Civil War and reward secessionists 117 1880 electoral vote results With the war fifteen years in the past and Union generals at the head of both tickets the tactic was less effective than the Republicans hoped 117 Realizing this they adjusted their approach to claim that Democrats would lower the country s protective tariff which would allow cheaper manufactured goods to be imported from Europe and thereby put thousands out of work 118 This argument struck home in the swing states of New York and Indiana where many were employed in manufacturing 118 Hancock did not help his own cause when in an attempt to remain neutral on the tariff he said that t he tariff question is a local question which only made him appear uninformed about an important issue 119 Candidates for high office did not personally campaign in those days but as state Republican chairman Arthur played a part in the campaign in his usual fashion overseeing the effort in New York and raising money 120 The funds were crucial in the close election and winning his home state of New York was critical 121 The Republicans carried New York by 20 000 votes and in an election with the largest turnout of qualified voters ever recorded 78 4 they won the nationwide popular vote by just 7 018 votes 121 The Electoral College result was more decisive 214 to 155 and Garfield and Arthur were elected 121 Vice presidency 1881 EditMain article Inauguration of Chester A Arthur Arthur taking the oath of office as administered by Judge John R Brady at Arthur s home in New York City September 20 1881 After the election Arthur worked in vain to persuade Garfield to fill certain positions with his fellow New York Stalwarts especially that of the Secretary of the Treasury the Stalwart machine received a further rebuke when Garfield appointed Blaine Conkling s arch enemy as Secretary of State 122 The running mates never close detached as Garfield continued to freeze out the Stalwarts from his patronage Arthur s status in the administration diminished when a month before inauguration day he gave a speech before reporters suggesting the election in Indiana a swing state had been won by Republicans through illegal machinations 123 Garfield ultimately appointed a Stalwart Thomas Lemuel James to be Postmaster General but the cabinet fight and Arthur s ill considered speech left the President and Vice President clearly estranged when they took office on March 4 1881 124 The Senate in the 47th United States Congress was divided among 37 Republicans 37 Democrats one independent David Davis who caucused with the Democrats one Readjuster William Mahone and four vacancies 125 Immediately the Democrats attempted to organize the Senate knowing that the vacancies would soon be filled by Republicans 125 As vice president Arthur cast tie breaking votes in favor of the Republicans when Mahone opted to join their caucus 125 Even so the Senate remained deadlocked for two months over Garfield s nominations because of Conkling s opposition to some of them 126 Just before going into recess in May 1881 the situation became more complicated when Conkling and the other senator from New York Thomas C Platt resigned in protest of Garfield s continuing opposition to their faction 127 With the Senate in recess Arthur had no duties in Washington and returned to New York City 128 Once there he traveled with Conkling to Albany where the former senator hoped for a quick re election to the Senate and with it a defeat for the Garfield administration 128 k The Republican majority in the state legislature was divided on the question to Conkling and Platt s surprise and an intense campaign in the statehouse ensued 128 l While in Albany on July 2 Arthur learned that Garfield had been shot 128 The assassin Charles J Guiteau was a deranged office seeker who believed that Garfield s successor would appoint him to a patronage job He proclaimed to onlookers I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be President 129 Guiteau was found to be mentally unstable and despite his claims to be a Stalwart supporter of Arthur they had only a tenuous connection that dated from the 1880 campaign 130 Twenty nine days before his execution for shooting Garfield Guiteau composed a lengthy unpublished poem claiming that Arthur knew the assassination had saved our land the United States Guiteau s poem also states he had incorrectly presumed that Arthur would pardon him for the assassination 131 More troubling was the lack of legal guidance on presidential succession as Garfield lingered near death no one was sure who if anyone could exercise presidential authority 132 Also after Conkling s resignation the Senate had adjourned without electing a president pro tempore who would normally follow Arthur in the succession 132 Arthur was reluctant to be seen acting as president while Garfield lived and for the next two months there was a void of authority in the executive office with Garfield too weak to carry out his duties and Arthur reluctant to assume them 133 Through the summer Arthur refused to travel to Washington and was at his Lexington Avenue home when on the night of September 19 he learned that Garfield had died 133 Judge John R Brady of the New York Supreme Court administered the oath of office in Arthur s home at 2 15 a m on September 20 Later that day he took a train to Long Branch to pay his respects to Garfield and to leave a card of sympathy for his wife afterwards returning to New York City On September 21 he returned to Long Branch to take part in Garfield s funeral and then joined the funeral train to Washington 134 Before leaving New York he ensured the presidential line of succession by preparing and mailing to the White House a proclamation calling for a Senate special session This step ensured that the Senate had legal authority to convene immediately and choose a Senate president pro tempore who would be able to assume the presidency if Arthur died Once in Washington he destroyed the mailed proclamation and issued a formal call for a special session 135 Presidency 1881 1885 EditMain article Presidency of Chester A Arthur Taking office Edit Arthur arrived in Washington D C on September 21 136 On September 22 he re took the oath of office this time before Chief Justice Morrison R Waite Arthur took this step to ensure procedural compliance there had been a lingering question about whether a state court judge Brady could administer a federal oath of office 137 m He initially took up residence at the home of Senator John P Jones while a White House remodeling he had ordered was carried out including addition of an elaborate fifty foot glass screen by Louis Comfort Tiffany 138 On the threshold of office what have we to expect of him In an 1881 Puck cartoon Arthur faces the cabinet after President Garfield was shot Arthur s sister Mary Arthur McElroy served as White House hostess for her widowed brother 138 Arthur became Washington s most eligible bachelor and his social life became the subject of rumors though romantically he remained singularly devoted to the memory of his late wife 139 His son Chester Jr was then a freshman at Princeton University and his daughter Nell stayed in New York with a governess until 1882 when she arrived Arthur shielded her from the intrusive press as much as he could 139 Arthur quickly came into conflict with Garfield s cabinet most of whom represented his opposition within the party He asked the cabinet members to remain until December when Congress would reconvene but Treasury Secretary William Windom submitted his resignation in October to enter a Senate race in his home state of Minnesota 140 Arthur then selected Charles J Folger his friend and fellow New York Stalwart as Windom s replacement 140 n Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh was next to resign believing that as a reformer he had no place in an Arthur cabinet 142 Despite Arthur s personal appeal to remain MacVeagh resigned in December 1881 and Arthur replaced him with Benjamin H Brewster a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician reputed to have reformist leanings 142 Blaine nemesis of the Stalwart faction remained Secretary of State until Congress reconvened and then departed immediately 143 Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine s place but the President chose Frederick T Frelinghuysen of New Jersey a Stalwart recommended by ex President Grant 143 Frelinghuysen advised Arthur not to fill any future vacancies with Stalwarts but when Postmaster General James resigned in January 1882 Arthur selected Timothy O Howe a Wisconsin Stalwart 144 Navy Secretary William H Hunt was next to resign in April 1882 and Arthur attempted a more balanced approach by appointing Half Breed William E Chandler to the post on Blaine s recommendation 144 Finally when Interior Secretary Samuel J Kirkwood resigned that same month Arthur appointed Henry M Teller a Colorado Stalwart to the office 144 Of the Cabinet members Arthur had inherited from Garfield only Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln remained for the entirety of Arthur s term 144 Civil service reform Edit Arthur in 1881 portrait by Ole Peter Hansen Balling In the 1870s a scandal was exposed in which contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the connivance of government officials including Second Assistant Postmaster General Thomas J Brady and former senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey 145 Reformers feared Arthur as a former supporter of the spoils system would not commit to continuing the investigation into the scandal 145 But Arthur s Attorney General Brewster did in fact continue the investigations begun by MacVeagh and hired notable Democratic lawyers William W Ker and Richard T Merrick to strengthen the prosecution team and forestall the skeptics 146 Although Arthur had worked closely with Dorsey before his presidency once in office he supported the investigation and forced the resignation of officials suspected in the scandal 146 An 1882 trial of the ringleaders resulted in convictions for two minor conspirators and a hung jury for the rest 147 After a juror came forward with allegations that the defendants attempted to bribe him the judge set aside the guilty verdicts and granted a new trial 147 Before the second trial began Arthur removed five federal office holders who were sympathetic with the defense including a former senator 148 The second trial began in December 1882 and lasted until July 1883 and again did not result in a guilty verdict 148 Failure to obtain a conviction tarnished the administration s image but Arthur did succeed in putting a stop to the fraud 148 Garfield s assassination by a deranged office seeker amplified the public demand for civil service reform 149 Both Democratic and Republican leaders realized that they could attract the votes of reformers by turning against the spoils system and by 1882 a bipartisan effort began in favor of reform 149 In 1880 Democratic Senator George H Pendleton of Ohio introduced legislation that required selection of civil servants based on merit as determined by an examination 149 This legislation greatly expanded similar civil service reforms attempted by President Franklin Pierce 30 years earlier In his first annual presidential address to Congress in 1881 Arthur requested civil service reform legislation and Pendleton again introduced his bill but Congress did not pass it 149 Republicans lost seats in the 1882 congressional elections in which Democrats campaigned on the reform issue 150 As a result the lame duck session of Congress was more amenable to civil service reform the Senate approved Pendleton s bill 38 5 and the House soon concurred by a vote of 155 47 151 Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16 1883 151 In just two years time an unrepentant Stalwart had become the president who ushered in long awaited civil service reform 151 Arthur in 1884 portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy At first the act applied only to 10 of federal jobs and without proper implementation by the president it could have gone no further 152 Even after he signed the act into law its proponents doubted Arthur s commitment to reform 152 To their surprise he acted quickly to appoint the members of the Civil Service Commission that the law created naming reformers Dorman Bridgman Eaton John Milton Gregory and Leroy D Thoman as commissioners 152 The chief examiner Silas W Burt was a long time reformer who had been Arthur s opponent when the two men worked at the New York Custom House 153 The commission issued its first rules in May 1883 by 1884 half of all postal officials and three quarters of the Customs Service jobs were to be awarded by merit 153 That year Arthur expressed satisfaction with the new system praising its effectiveness in securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and pretensions of rival candidates for public employment 154 Surplus and the tariff Edit Engraved portrait of Arthur as president Bureau of Engraving and Printing With high revenue held over from wartime taxes the federal government had collected more than it spent since 1866 by 1882 the surplus reached 145 million 155 Opinions varied on how to balance the budget the Democrats wished to lower tariffs in order to reduce revenues and the cost of imported goods while Republicans believed that high tariffs ensured high wages in manufacturing and mining They preferred the government spend more on internal improvements and reduce excise taxes 155 Arthur agreed with his party and in 1882 called for the abolition of excise taxes on everything except liquor as well as a simplification of the complex tariff structure 156 In May of that year Representative William D Kelley of Pennsylvania introduced a bill to establish a tariff commission 156 the bill passed and Arthur signed it into law but appointed mostly protectionists to the committee Republicans were pleased with the committee s make up but were surprised when in December 1882 they submitted a report to Congress calling for tariff cuts averaging between 20 and 25 The commission s recommendations were ignored however as the House Ways and Means Committee dominated by protectionists provided a 10 reduction 156 After conference with the Senate the bill that emerged only reduced tariffs by an average of 1 47 The bill passed both houses narrowly on March 3 1883 the last full day of the 47th Congress Arthur signed the measure into law with no effect on the surplus 157 Congress attempted to balance the budget from the other side of the ledger with increased spending on the 1882 Rivers and Harbors Act in the unprecedented amount of 19 million 158 While Arthur was not opposed to internal improvements the scale of the bill disturbed him as did its narrow focus on particular localities rather than projects that benefited a larger part of the nation 158 On August 1 1882 Arthur vetoed the bill to widespread popular acclaim 158 in his veto message his principal objection was that it appropriated funds for purposes not for the common defense or general welfare and which do not promote commerce among the States 159 Congress overrode his veto the next day 158 and the new law reduced the surplus by 19 million 160 Republicans considered the law a success at the time but later concluded that it contributed to their loss of seats in the elections of 1882 161 Foreign affairs and immigration Edit A political cartoon from 1882 criticizing Chinese exclusion During the Garfield administration Secretary of State James G Blaine attempted to invigorate United States diplomacy in Latin America urging reciprocal trade agreements and offering to mediate disputes among the Latin American nations 162 Blaine venturing a greater involvement in affairs south of the Rio Grande proposed a Pan American conference in 1882 to discuss trade and an end to the War of the Pacific being fought by Bolivia Chile and Peru 162 Blaine did not remain in office long enough to see the effort through and when Frederick T Frelinghuysen replaced him at the end of 1881 the conference efforts lapsed 163 Frelinghuysen also discontinued Blaine s peace efforts in the War of the Pacific fearing that the United States might be drawn into the conflict 163 Arthur and Frelinghuysen continued Blaine s efforts to encourage trade among the nations of the Western Hemisphere a treaty with Mexico providing for reciprocal tariff reductions was signed in 1882 and approved by the Senate in 1884 164 Legislation required to bring the treaty into force failed in the House however rendering it a dead letter 164 Similar efforts at reciprocal trade treaties with Santo Domingo and Spain s American colonies were defeated by February 1885 and an existing reciprocity treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaii was allowed to lapse 165 The 47th Congress spent a great deal of time on immigration and at times was in accord with Arthur 166 In July 1882 Congress easily passed a bill regulating steamships that carried immigrants to the United States 166 To their surprise Arthur vetoed it and requested revisions which they made and Arthur then approved 166 He also signed in August of that year the Immigration Act of 1882 which levied a 50 cent tax on immigrants to the United States and excluded from entry the mentally ill the intellectually disabled criminals or any other person potentially dependent upon public assistance 167 A more contentious debate materialized over the status of Chinese immigrants in January 1868 the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese into the country As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873 Chinese immigrants were blamed for depressing workmen s wages in reaction Congress in 1879 attempted to abrogate the 1868 treaty by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act but President Hayes vetoed it 168 Three years later after China had agreed to treaty revisions Congress tried again to exclude working class Chinese laborers Senator John F Miller of California introduced another Chinese Exclusion Act that blocked entry of Chinese laborers for a twenty year period 169 The bill passed the Senate and House by overwhelming margins but this as well was vetoed by Arthur who concluded the 20 year ban to be a breach of the renegotiated treaty of 1880 That treaty allowed only a reasonable suspension of immigration Eastern newspapers praised the veto while it was condemned in the Western states Congress was unable to override the veto but passed a new bill reducing the immigration ban to ten years Although he still objected to this denial of entry to Chinese laborers Arthur acceded to the compromise measure signing the Chinese Exclusion Act into law on May 6 1882 169 170 The Chinese Exclusion Act attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years with exceptions for diplomats teachers students merchants and travelers It was widely evaded 171 o Naval resurgence Edit The Squadron of Evolution at anchor in 1889 after Yorktown had been added Chicago Yorktown Boston Atlanta In the years following the Civil War American naval power declined precipitously shrinking from nearly 700 vessels to just 52 most of which were obsolete 172 The nation s military focus over the fifteen years before Garfield and Arthur s election had been on the Indian wars in the Western United States rather than the high seas but as the region was increasingly pacified many in Congress grew concerned at the poor state of the Navy 173 Garfield s Secretary of the Navy William H Hunt advocated reform of the Navy 174 In his 1881 annual message Arthur advocated a stronger Navy 175 He gave full authority to his new Secretary of Navy William E Chandler Hunt s successor Chandler an aggressive administrator purged the Navy of wood and canvas warship supporters and created the Naval War College 175 Chandler appointed an advisory board to prepare a report on modernization whose goal was to create a Navy that would protect America thousands of miles away rather than just coastal waters 176 Based on the suggestions in the report Congress appropriated funds signed into law by Arthur for the construction of three steel protected cruisers Atlanta Boston and Chicago and an armed dispatch steamer Dolphin collectively known as the ABCD Ships or the Squadron of Evolution 177 p The contracts to build the ABCD ships were all awarded to the low bidder John Roach amp Sons of Chester Pennsylvania 179 even though Roach once employed Secretary Chandler as a lobbyist 179 Democrats turned against the New Navy projects and when they won control of the 48th Congress refused to appropriate funds for seven more steel warships 179 Even without the additional ships the state of the Navy improved when after several construction delays the last of the new ships entered service in 1889 180 Chandler scrapped costly outdated vessels exclaiming he did his best work in destroying the old navy 175 Greely polar expedition rescue 1884 Edit Further information Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Six Greely polar expedition survivors The honor of the U S Navy saved By 1883 the ill fated crew of the U S Army 1881 Greely scientific polar expedition was stranded at Fort Conger on Lady Franklin Bay On July 7 1881 the Greely crew had left New Foundland headed northward on the private whaling ship the Proteus In August 1881 the crew arrived at Lady Franklin Bay without incident or blockage from ice flows However after the Proteus dropped off the men and ample provisions the ship immediately departed and left the expedition to fend for themselves The men built Fort Conger as a place of refuge and scientific study Two U S supply efforts in 1882 and 1883 to reach the Greely party ended in dismal failure 181 The first on July 8 1882 led by William Beebe on the private steamship Neptune left St John s but was trapped by ice and forced to turn around On June 29 1883 the second left St John s with two ships the Proteus commanded by First Lieutenant Ernest Garlington U S 7th Calvary and the steam gunboat USS Yantic The Proteus was crushed by an ice pack whose stranded crew was rescued by the USS Yantic Afterward Garlington abandoned the mission to save Greely and the crew at Fort Conger 182 On September 1 1883 with no relief in sight Greely and his party left the safety of Fort Conger on small boats over rough ice capped waters and made a permanent base Camp Clay at Cape Sabine on Pim Island off the eastern shores of the Johan Peninsula Ellesmere Island where rations had been placed by the British a few years earlier However an attempt by two of Greely s men failed to retrieve the vital food cache over a long distance Without food or game the men began to slowly starve to death 183 184 On December 17 1883 President Arthur established a joint Army Navy commission to make recommendations to Secretary of War Lincoln and Secretary of Navy Chandler on how to rescue the Greely party Secretary Lincoln actively cooperated with Secretary Chandler in organizing the Greely rescue expedition 185 Chandler was determined to accomplish a successful rescue of Greely and to restore the honor of the U S Navy Chandler assigned Commander Winfield Schley to command the 1884 Greely Relief Mission Chandler spared no expense in the rescue effort and had purchased one of the finest sealers afloat the USS Bear from Scottish owner Walter Grieve for 100 000 This was done without authorization prior to Arthur signing into law the much delayed Greely relief bill 186 187 Chandler vigorously demanded that all of his subordinates in the Naval Department be committed to the relief of the Greely expedition and he drew support from Navy officers On July 17 1884 after rescuing the Greely party Schey arrived at Saint John s New Foundland and telegraphed to Chandler that the rescue operation was successful Of the seven rescued Joseph Elison died on July 8th following multiple amputations Evidence suggested that the men had survived through cannibalism 188 In his fourth annual address to the nation Arthur devoted two paragraphs to the Greely rescue and concluded that The organization and conduct of this relief expedition reflects great credit upon all who contributed to its success 189 Civil rights Edit Readjuster Party leader William Mahone pressed civil rights in Virginia Like his Republican predecessors Arthur struggled with the question of how his party was to challenge the Democrats in the South and how if at all to protect the civil rights of black southerners 190 Since the end of Reconstruction conservative white Democrats or Bourbon Democrats had regained power in the South and the Republican party dwindled rapidly as their primary supporters in the region blacks were disenfranchised 190 One crack in the solidly Democratic South emerged with the growth of a new party the Readjusters in Virginia 191 Having won an election in that state on a platform of more education funding for black and white schools alike and abolition of the poll tax and the whipping post many northern Republicans saw the Readjusters as a more viable ally in the South than the moribund southern Republican party 191 Arthur agreed and directed the federal patronage in Virginia through the Readjusters rather than the Republicans 191 He followed the same pattern in other Southern states forging coalitions with independents and Greenback Party members 191 Some black Republicans felt betrayed by the pragmatic gambit but others including Frederick Douglass and ex Senator Blanche K Bruce endorsed the administration s actions as the Southern independents had more liberal racial policies than the Democrats 192 Arthur s coalition policy was only successful in Virginia however and by 1885 the Readjuster movement began to collapse with the election of a Democratic president 193 Other federal action on behalf of blacks was equally ineffective when the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in the Civil Rights Cases 1883 Arthur expressed his disagreement with the decision in a message to Congress but was unable to persuade Congress to pass any new legislation in its place 194 Arthur did however effectively intervene to overturn a court martial ruling against a black West Point cadet Johnson Whittaker after the Judge Advocate General of the Army David G Swaim found the prosecution s case against Whittaker to be illegal and based on racial bias 195 The administration faced a different challenge in the West where the LDS Church was under government pressure to stop the practice of polygamy in Utah Territory 196 Garfield had believed polygamy was criminal behavior and was morally detrimental to family values and Arthur s views were for once in line with his predecessor s 196 In 1882 he signed the Edmunds Act into law the legislation made polygamy a federal crime barring polygamists both from public office and the right to vote 196 Native American policy Edit Portrait of Arthur by Eastman Johnson 1887 The Arthur administration was challenged by changing relations with western Native American tribes 197 The American Indian Wars were winding down and public sentiment was shifting toward more favorable treatment of Native Americans Arthur urged Congress to increase funding for Native American education which it did in 1884 although not to the extent he wished 198 He also favored a move to the allotment system under which individual Native Americans rather than tribes would own land Arthur was unable to convince Congress to adopt the idea during his administration but in 1887 the Dawes Act changed the law to favor such a system 198 The allotment system was favored by liberal reformers at the time but eventually proved detrimental to Native Americans as most of their land was resold at low prices to white speculators 199 During Arthur s presidency settlers and cattle ranchers continued to encroach on Native American territory 200 Arthur initially resisted their efforts but after Secretary of the Interior Henry M Teller an opponent of allotment assured him that the lands were not protected Arthur opened up the Crow Creek Reservation in the Dakota Territory to settlers by executive order in 1885 200 Arthur s successor Grover Cleveland finding that title belonged to the Native Americans revoked Arthur s order a few months later 200 Health travel and 1884 election Edit Arthur on an expedition in Yellowstone National Park along with Philip Sheridan and Robert Todd Lincoln Shortly after becoming president Arthur was diagnosed with Bright s disease a kidney ailment now referred to as nephritis 201 He attempted to keep his condition private but by 1883 rumors of his illness began to circulate he had become thinner and more aged in appearance and struggled to keep the pace of the presidency 201 To rejuvenate his health outside the confines of Washington Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883 202 The vacation had the opposite effect and Arthur suffered from intense pain before returning to Washington 202 Later that year on the advice of Missouri Senator George Graham Vest he visited Yellowstone National Park 203 Reporters accompanied the presidential party helping to publicize the new National Park system 203 The Yellowstone trip was more beneficial to Arthur s health than his Florida excursion and he returned to Washington refreshed after two months of travel 204 As the 1884 presidential election approached James G Blaine was considered the favorite for the Republican nomination but Arthur too contemplated a run for a full term as president 205 In the months leading up to the 1884 Republican National Convention however Arthur began to realize that neither faction of the Republican party was prepared to give him their full support the Half Breeds were again solidly behind Blaine while Stalwarts were undecided some backed Arthur with others considering Senator John A Logan of Illinois 205 Reform minded Republicans friendlier to Arthur after he endorsed civil service reform were still not certain enough of his reform credentials to back him over Senator George F Edmunds of Vermont who had long favored their cause 205 Business leaders supported him as did Southern Republicans who owed their jobs to his control of the patronage but by the time they began to rally around him Arthur had decided against a serious campaign for the nomination 206 He kept up a token effort believing that to drop out would cast doubt on his actions in office and raise questions about his health but by the time the convention began in June his defeat was assured 206 Blaine led on the first ballot and by the fourth ballot he had a majority 207 Arthur telegraphed his congratulations to Blaine and accepted his defeat with equanimity 207 He played no role in the 1884 campaign which Blaine would later blame for his loss that November to the Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland 208 Administration and cabinet Edit Official White House portrait of Chester A Arthur Daniel Huntington The Arthur cabinetOfficeNameTermPresidentChester A Arthur1881 85Vice Presidentnone1881 85Secretary of StateJames G Blaine1881Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen1881 85Secretary of the TreasuryWilliam Windom1881Charles J Folger1881 84Walter Q Gresham1884Hugh McCulloch1884 85Secretary of WarRobert Todd Lincoln1881 85Attorney GeneralWayne MacVeagh1881Benjamin H Brewster1881 85Postmaster GeneralThomas Lemuel James1881Timothy O Howe1881 83Walter Q Gresham1883 84Frank Hatton1884 85Secretary of the NavyWilliam H Hunt1881 82William E Chandler1882 85Secretary of the InteriorSamuel J Kirkwood1881 82Henry M Teller1882 85Judicial appointments Edit Main article Chester A Arthur judicial appointments Arthur made appointments to fill two vacancies on the United States Supreme Court The first vacancy arose in July 1881 with the death of Associate Justice Nathan Clifford a Democrat who had been a member of the Court since before the Civil War 209 Arthur nominated Horace Gray a distinguished jurist from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace him and the nomination was easily confirmed 209 Gray would serve on the Court for over 20 years until resigning in 1902 210 The second vacancy occurred when Associate Justice Ward Hunt retired in January 1882 Arthur first nominated his old political boss Roscoe Conkling he doubted that Conkling would accept but felt obligated to offer a high office to his former patron 209 The Senate confirmed the nomination but as expected Conkling declined it 209 the last time a confirmed nominee declined an appointment 211 Senator George Edmunds was Arthur s next choice but he declined to be considered 212 Instead Arthur nominated Samuel Blatchford who had been a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for the prior four years 209 Blatchford accepted and his nomination was approved by the Senate within two weeks 209 Blatchford served on the Court until his death in 1893 Post presidency 1885 1886 Edit Chester A Arthur statue at Madison Square in New York City Bissell 1898 Arthur left office in 1885 and returned to his New York City home Two months before the end of his term several New York Stalwarts approached him to request that he run for United States Senate but he declined preferring to return to his old law practice at Arthur Knevals amp Ransom 213 His health limited his activity with the firm and Arthur served only of counsel He took on few assignments with the firm and was often too ill to leave his house 214 He managed a few public appearances until the end of 1885 214 Death Edit Arthur s grave at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands New York After spending the summer of 1886 in New London Connecticut he returned home where he became seriously ill and on November 16 ordered nearly all of his papers both personal and official burned 214 q The next morning Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness He died the following day on November 18 at the age of 57 214 On November 22 a private funeral was held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City attended by President Cleveland and ex President Hayes among other notables 216 Arthur was buried with his family members and ancestors in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands New York r He was laid beside his wife in a sarcophagus on a large corner of the plot 214 In 1889 a monument was placed on Arthur s burial plot by sculptor Ephraim Keyser of New York consisting of a giant bronze female angel figure placing a bronze palm leaf on a granite sarcophagus 218 Arthur s post presidency was the second shortest of all presidents who lived past their presidencies after that of James K Polk who died just three months after leaving office 219 Legacy EditSeveral Grand Army of the Republic posts were named for Arthur including Goff Kansas 220 Lawrence Nebraska 221 Medford Oregon 222 and Ogdensburg Wisconsin 223 On April 5 1882 Arthur was elected to the District of Columbia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States MOLLUS as a Third Class Companion insignia number 02430 224 the honorary membership category for militia officers and civilians who made significant contributions to the war effort 225 Union College awarded Arthur the honorary degree of LL D in 1883 226 In 1898 the Arthur memorial statue a fifteen foot 4 6 m bronze figure of Arthur standing on a Barre Granite pedestal was created by sculptor George Edwin Bissell and installed at Madison Square in New York City 227 The statue was dedicated in 1899 and unveiled by Arthur s sister Mary Arthur McElroy 227 At the dedication Secretary of War Elihu Root described Arthur as wise in statesmanship and firm and effective in administration while acknowledging that Arthur was isolated in office and unloved by his own party 227 Arthur s unpopularity in life carried over into his assessment by historians and his reputation after leaving office disappeared 228 By 1935 historian George F Howe said that Arthur had achieved an obscurity in strange contrast to his significant part in American history 229 By 1975 however Thomas C Reeves would write that Arthur s appointments if unspectacular were unusually sound the corruption and scandal that dominated business and politics of the period did not tarnish his administration 230 As 2004 biographer Zachary Karabell wrote although Arthur was physically stretched and emotionally strained he strove to do what was right for the country 228 Indeed Howe had earlier surmised Arthur adopted a code for his own political behavior but subject to three restraints he remained to everyone a man of his word he kept scrupulously free from corrupt graft he maintained a personal dignity affable and genial though he might be These restraints distinguished him sharply from the stereotype politician 231 Arthur s townhouse the Chester A Arthur Home was sold to William Randolph Hearst 232 Since 1944 it has been the location of Kalustyan s Spice Emporium 233 See also Edit American Civil War portal Biography portal United States portal Politics portal New York City portal New York state portal Law portalList of presidents of the United States List of presidents of the United States by previous experience Arthur Cottage ancestral home Cullybackey County Antrim Northern Ireland Julia SandNotes Edit Arthur was Vice President under James A Garfield and became President upon Garfield s death on September 19 1881 This was prior to the adoption of the Twenty fifth Amendment in 1967 and a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration Some older sources list the date as October 5 1830 2 but biographer Thomas C Reeves confirms that this is incorrect Arthur claimed to be a year younger out of simple vanity Arthur pronounced his middle name with the accent on the second syllable 16 Even if he had been born in Canada Arthur might have still claimed to be a natural born citizen based on his mother having been born in and recently resided in the United States The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution applies that clause which specifically restricts presidential eligibility to would be vice presidents No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President Among the facts that argue against Hinman s theories are the entries for Chester A Arthur in several U S Censuses from before he was politically prominent which list his birthplace as Vermont and the entry of his birth in the Arthur family Bible which also indicates Vermont as his birthplace In addition contemporary newspaper articles including the 1871 stories about his appointment as Collector of the Port of New York all indicate that he was born in Vermont though some incorrectly give his birthplace as Burlington Hinman failed to explain why Arthur would have fabricated these records and the biographical information he provided to newspapers to conceal a Canadian birth when the only thing being born in Canada might possibly affect was Arthur s eligibility for the presidency which no one at the time of his birth or in the years between his birth and his nomination for vice president in 1880 had any reason to think he would aspire to 10 000 in 1870 is equal to 214 289 in present terms 69 50 000 in 1871 is equal to 1 13 million in present terms 69 Charles K Graham filled Merritt s former position 98 Biographer George Howe takes this exchange at face value 113 but later biographers suspect it may be apocryphal 114 Before the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Senators were elected by state legislatures Conkling and Pratt were ultimately denied re election being succeeded by Elbridge G Lapham and Warner Miller respectively One presidential oath was administered by a state court judge also in New York City by a New York State judge Robert Livingston Chancellor of New York administered the first presidential oath to George Washington at Federal Hall in 1789 there were yet no federal judges The only other presidential oath administered by someone other than a Federal justice or judge the first swearing in of Calvin Coolidge in 1923 by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr a justice of the peace and notary public in the family home was also re taken in Washington due to questions about the validity of the first oath This second oath taking was done in secret and did not become public knowledge until Harry M Daugherty revealed it in 1932 Arthur first offered the post to Edwin D Morgan who had been his patron in New York Morgan was confirmed by the Senate but declined on the grounds of age He died in 1883 141 The portion of the law denying citizenship to Chinese American children born in the United States was later found unconstitutional in United States v Wong Kim Ark in 1898 Earlier in 1874 during the Grant administration Congress approved funds to rebuild four monitors Puritan Amphitrite Monadnock and Terror which had lain uncompleted since 1877 178 A small number of Arthur s papers survived and passed to his grandson Gavin Arthur born Chester Alan Arthur III who allowed Arthur s biographer Thomas C Reeves to examine them in the 1970s 215 On his grave marker his birth year is incorrectly given as 1830 217 References Edit a b c The New York Civil List pp 170 171 Howe p 5 Sturgis Amy H 2003 Presidents from Hayes Through McKinley Westport CT Greenwood Press pp 83 84 ISBN 978 0 3133 1712 5 Alexander K McClure Colonel Alexander K McClure s recollections of Half a Century 1902 p 115 online Reeves 1975 p 423 Feldman p 95 Brinkley Douglas 2015 American Heritage History of the United States Newbury NH New Word City p 274 ISBN 978 1 6123 0857 9 via Google Books Schlesinger Arthur M Jr October 12 2004 Rating the Presidents Washington to Clinton PBS org Arlington VA James Randy 2019 Top 10 Forgettable Presidents Fail to the Chief Chester A Arthur Time New York NY a b c d e Reeves 1975 p 4 Howe p 4 Hambley p 103 Reeves 1975 p 4 Reeves amp July 1 1970 p 179 a b Reeves Autumn 1970 p 294 Howe p 7 Reeves 1975 p 6 a b Reeves 1975 p 5 Howe pp 5 25 28 29 Vermont Bureau of Publicity p 84 Reeves 1975 p 436 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 7 8 Hudson p 246 Sister of Arthur Dead Feldman p 13 Dolton Burlington Free Press Reeves amp July 1 1970 p 184 Jenks p 310 Reeves Autumn 1970 p 295 Mrs John E McElroy Dead a b Bushnell Mark September 25 2016 Then Again A Vermont politician faces the birthers VT Digger Montpelier VT Karabell pp 53 54 Fisher p 28 a b Reeves 1975 pp 202 203 Reeves Autumn 1970 pp 292 293 Ferris 1999 p 127 Howe p 7 a b c Reeves 1975 p 9 Notable Alumni Chester A Arthur Distinguished Alumni Indianapolis IN Psi Upsilon Fraternity September 11 2019 Retrieved August 18 2022 a b Reeves 1975 p 10 a b Reeves 1975 p 11 Karabell p 12 Reeves 1975 p 14 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 14 15 a b c d Reeves 1975 p 16 Reeves 1975 pp 19 20 Karabell p 14 a b Reeves 1975 pp 17 18 Reeves 1975 p 21 a b Howe pp 18 19 a b Howe pp 20 21 Reeves 1975 pp 22 23 Reeves 1975 pp 24 25 a b Howe p 25 a b Howe pp 26 27 Reeves 1975 pp 28 29 Reeves 1975 p 30 Reeves 1975 p 33 Howe pp 30 31 Reeves 1975 pp 33 34 Howe pp 29 30 Reeves 1975 pp 34 35 Reeves 1975 p 35 a b Reeves 1975 p 84 a b Reeves 1975 p 37 Reeves 1975 p 38 a b Karabell p 17 Reeves 1975 p 39 Howe p 37 a b Reeves 1975 pp 40 41 Reeves 1975 pp 42 45 a b Reeves 1975 pp 71 73 a b Reeves 1975 p 48 Reeves 1975 pp 49 50 Howe p 42 a b 1634 1699 McCusker J J 1997 How Much Is That in Real Money A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States Addenda et Corrigenda PDF American Antiquarian Society 1700 1799 McCusker J J 1992 How Much Is That in Real Money A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States PDF American Antiquarian Society 1800 present Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Consumer Price Index estimate 1800 Retrieved April 16 2022 Howe p 42 The Tribune 1871 p 2 a b Reeves 1975 pp 51 53 Howe pp 44 45 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 61 67 Schwartz p 182 a b Reeves 1975 pp 57 58 Doyle amp Swaney p 188 Reeves 1975 p 60 Howe pp 46 47 a b Reeves 1975 pp 59 63 85 86 Reeves 1975 p 68 Reeves 1975 pp 69 70 Reeves 1975 pp 76 77 Reeves 1975 pp 78 79 a b Reeves 1975 pp 79 84 Howe p 49 Reeves 1975 pp 87 89 Reeves 1975 pp 95 96 Karabell pp 26 27 a b Reeves 1975 pp 100 105 Reeves 1975 pp 106 107 Hoogenboom pp 318 319 Hoogenboom pp 322 325 Reeves 1975 pp 118 119 Howe pp 68 69 Reeves 1975 pp 119 120 a b Reeves 1975 pp 121 122 Hoogenboom pp 322 325 Reeves 1975 p 121 Reeves 1975 pp 121 123 Reeves 1975 p 123 Hoogenboom p 352 Reeves 1975 pp 125 126 To Consent to the Nomination of Theodore Roosevelt as Collector of Customs at New York GovTrack us Retrieved February 8 2022 Hoogenboom pp 353 355 Reeves 1975 pp 126 131 Hoogenboom pp 370 371 Reeves 1975 pp 136 137 Hoogenboom p 370 Hoogenboom p 354 Hoogenboom pp 382 384 Reeves 1975 pp 138 148 Howe p 85 The Sun Boston Post a b Reeves 1975 pp 153 155 Peskin p 704 Reeves 1975 pp 153 155 Howe pp 96 99 Reeves 1975 pp 158 159 Karabell pp 38 39 Howe pp 98 99 Karabell pp 38 39 a b Reeves 1975 pp 160 165 Reeves 1975 pp 177 178 Howe pp 107 108 Karabell pp 39 40 Karabell p 41 Reeves 1975 p 178 Howe pp 107 108 a b Reeves 1975 pp 179 181 Howe p 109 Reeves 1975 p 179 Karabell pp 40 41 Reeves 1975 pp 190 194 Jordan pp 292 305 a b Reeves 1975 pp 194 196 Jordan pp 294 295 a b Reeves 1975 pp 196 197 Jordan pp 297 302 Reeves 1975 p 196 Jordan p 301 Reeves 1975 pp 198 202 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 203 204 Reeves 1975 pp 205 207 Reeves 1975 pp 213 216 Karabell pp 52 53 Reeves 1975 pp 216 219 Karabell pp 54 56 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 220 223 Reeves 1975 pp 223 230 Reeves 1975 pp 230 233 a b c d Reeves 1975 pp 233 237 Howe pp 147 149 Karabell p 59 Reeves 1975 p 237 Reeves 1975 pp 238 241 Doenecke pp 53 54 Charles Guiteau s reasons for assassinating President Garfield 1882 Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History www gilderlehrman org Archived from the original on August 7 2018 Retrieved August 10 2018 a b Reeves 1975 pp 241 243 Howe pp 152 154 a b Reeves 1975 pp 244 248 Karabell pp 61 63 McCabe p 764 Reeves 1975 pp 247 248 The New York Times 1881 Doenecke pp 53 54 Reeves 1975 p 248 a b Reeves 1975 pp 252 253 268 269 a b Reeves 1975 pp 275 276 a b Howe p 160 Reeves 1975 p 254 Reeves 1975 p 254 a b Howe p 161 Reeves 1975 pp 254 255 a b Howe pp 160 161 Reeves 1975 pp 255 257 a b c d Howe pp 162 163 Reeves 1975 pp 257 258 a b Doenecke pp 93 95 Reeves 1975 pp 297 298 a b Reeves 1975 pp 299 300 Howe p 182 a b Reeves 1975 pp 301 302 Howe pp 185 189 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 303 305 Howe pp 189 193 a b c d Reeves 1975 pp 320 324 Doenecke pp 96 97 Theriault pp 52 53 56 Doenecke pp 99 100 Theriault pp 57 63 a b c Reeves 1975 p 324 Doenecke pp 101 102 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 325 327 Doenecke pp 102 104 a b Howe pp 209 210 Arthur Chester A 1884 Fourth State of the Union Address Wikisource The Free Library Retrieved July 15 2011 a b Reeves 1975 pp 328 329 Doenecke p 168 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 330 333 Doenecke pp 169 171 Reeves 1975 pp 334 335 a b c d Reeves 1975 pp 280 282 Doenecke p 81 Reeves 1975 p 281 Lewis A Kimmel Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy 1789 1958 Washington D C The Brooking Institute 1959 Cited in Dworsky The temptation to squander money was overwhelming the Rivers and Harbors Act passed over President Arthur s veto in 1882 demonstrated how strongly it lay upon the Congress Howe pp 196 197 Reeves 1975 pp 281 282 Karabell p 90 a b Doenecke pp 55 57 Reeves 1975 pp 284 289 a b Doenecke pp 129 132 Reeves 1975 pp 289 293 Bastert pp 653 671 a b Doenecke pp 173 175 Reeves 1975 pp 398 399 409 Doenecke pp 175 178 Reeves 1975 pp 398 399 407 410 a b c Howe pp 168 169 Doenecke p 81 Hutchinson p 162 Howe p 169 Reeves 1975 pp 277 278 Hoogenboom pp 387 389 a b Reeves 1975 pp 278 279 Doenecke pp 81 84 David L Anderson The Diplomacy of Discrimination Chinese Exclusion 1876 1882 California History 57 1 1978 pp 32 45 DOI 10 2307 25157814 Erika Lee At America s Gates Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era 1882 1943 U of North Carolina Press 2003 Reeves 1975 p 337 Doenecke p 145 Reeves 1975 pp 338 341 amp Doenecke pp 145 147 Doenecke pp 147 149 a b c Weisberger 2002 p 277 Weisberger 2002 p 277 amp Doenecke pp 147 149 Weisberger 2002 p 277 Reeves 1975 pp 342 343 Abbot pp 346 347 Reeves 1975 pp 342 343 Abbot pp 346 347 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 343 345 Doenecke pp 149 151 Reeves 1975 pp 349 350 Doenecke pp 152 153 Jampoler August 2010 Jampoler August 2010 Todd June 1960 Jampoler August 2010 Jampoler August 2010 Todd June 1960 Jampoler August 2010 Jampoler August 2010 Chester A Arthur Fourth Annual Message December 1 1884 a b Reeves 1975 pp 306 308 Doenecke pp 105 108 a b c d Reeves 1975 pp 307 309 Ayers pp 46 47 Reeves 1975 pp 310 313 Ayers pp 47 48 Doenecke pp 112 114 Marszalek passim a b c Doenecke pp 84 85 Doenecke pp 85 89 a b Doenecke pp 89 92 Reeves 1975 pp 362 363 Doenecke p 91 Stuart pp 452 454 a b c Doenecke pp 89 90 Reeves 1975 pp 362 363 a b Reeves 1975 pp 317 318 Howe pp 243 244 a b Reeves 1975 pp 355 359 Howe pp 244 246 a b Reeves 1975 pp 364 367 Howe pp 247 248 Karabell pp 124 125 Reeves 1975 pp 366 367 a b c Reeves 1975 pp 368 371 Howe pp 254 257 a b Reeves 1975 pp 373 375 Doenecke pp 181 182 a b Reeves 1975 pp 380 381 Howe pp 264 265 Reeves 1975 pp 387 389 Howe pp 265 266 a b c d e f Reeves 1975 pp 260 261 Howe p 195 Hall Timothy L 2001 Supreme Court Justices A Biographical Dictionary New York New York Facts on File pp 186 189 ISBN 978 0 8160 4194 7 Retrieved December 31 2018 Supreme Court Nominations Doenecke p 76 Reeves 1975 pp 412 414 a b c d e Reeves 1975 pp 416 418 Reeves 1972 passim Reeves 1975 pp 418 419 Hunter Jeff October 20 2020 President Chester Arthur s birthday WTEN The New York Times 1894 Pinheiro John October 4 2016 James K Polk Life After the Presidency Miller Center Miller Center Retrieved May 14 2019 Meeting of C A Arthur Post No 411 p 1 Leading Officials p 13 In the Encampment at the Reunion at Ashland p 3 GAR Posts by State Wisconsin p 12 Original Civil War Officer Members of MOLLUS The Loyal Legion p 1 University of the State of New York pp 21 22 a b c Reeves 1975 p 419 a b Karabell p 139 Howe p 288 Reeves 1975 p 420 Howe p 290 Hook Eileen M 1986 Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument Visitor Center Interpretive Plan Sacramento CA California State Department of Parks and Recreation p 235 via Google Books Roberts Sam December 7 2014 Where a President Took the Oath Indifference May Become Official The New York Times New York NY Bibliography EditBooks Edit Abbot Willis J 1896 The Naval History of the United States Vol 2 Peter Fenelon Collier OCLC 3453791 Ayers Edward L 2007 1992 The Promise of the New South Life After Reconstruction New York Oxford University Press USA ISBN 978 0 19 532688 8 Doyle Burton T Swaney Homer H 1881 Lives of James A Garfield and Chester A Arthur Washington D C Rufus H Darby Doenecke Justus D 1981 The Presidencies of James A Garfield and Chester A Arthur Lawrence Kansas University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0 7006 0208 7 Feldman Ruth Tenzer 2006 Chester A Arthur Twenty First Century Books ISBN 978 0 8225 1512 8 Ferris Gary W 1999 Presidential Places A Guide to the Historic Sites of U S Presidents Chicago IL R R Donnelly and Sons ISBN 978 0 89587 176 3 Fisher Louis 2014 The Law of the Executive Branch Presidential Power New York NY Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 985621 3 Hambley Del 2008 Presidential Footprints Indianapolis IN Dog ear Publishing ISBN 978 159858 800 2 Hoogenboom Ari 1995 Rutherford Hayes Warrior and President Lawrence Kansas University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0 7006 0641 2 Howe George F 1966 1935 Chester A Arthur A Quarter Century of Machine Politics New York F Ungar Pub Co ASIN B00089DVIG Hudson David L 2012 The Handy Presidents Answer Book Canton MI Visible Ink Press p 246 ISBN 978 1 57859 317 0 Jordan David M 1988 Winfield Scott Hancock A Soldier s Life Bloomfield Indiana Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 36580 4 Karabell Zachary 2004 Chester Alan Arthur New York Henry Holt amp Co ISBN 978 0 8050 6951 8 McCabe James D 1881 Our Martyred President The Life and Public Services of Gen James A Garfield National Publishing Company Reeves Thomas C 1975 Gentleman Boss The Life of Chester A Arthur New York Alfred A Knopf ISBN 978 0 394 46095 6 Rhodes James Ford History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 1877 1896 1919 online complete old factual and heavily political by winner of Pulitzer Prize University of the State of New York 1883 Annual Report of the Board of Regents Vol 96 Albany NY Weed Parsons amp Company Vermont Bureau of Publicity 1913 Vermont The Land of Green Mountains Montpelier VT Vermont Secretary of State Weisberger Bernard A 2002 Henry F Graff ed The Presidents A Reference History James A Garfield and Chester A Arthur Charles Scribners s Sons Articles Edit Bastert Russell H March 1956 Diplomatic Reversal Frelinghuysen s Opposition to Blaine s Pan American Policy in 1882 The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 42 4 653 671 doi 10 2307 1889232 JSTOR 1889232 Chester A Arthur New York City Statues Archived from the original on October 13 2012 Retrieved October 18 2012 Hutchinson C P April 1947 The Present Status of Our Immigration Laws and Policies The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 25 2 161 173 doi 10 2307 3348178 JSTOR 3348178 Jampoler Andrew C A August 2010 Disaster at Lady Franklin Bay Naval History Magazine Vol 24 no 4 U S Naval Institute Retrieved December 25 2022 Marszalek John F Jr August 1971 A Black Cadet At West Point American Heritage 22 5 Retrieved September 1 2018 Peskin Allan Winter 1984 Who Were the Stalwarts Who Were Their Rivals Republican Factions in the Gilded Age Political Science Quarterly 99 4 703 716 doi 10 2307 2150708 JSTOR 2150708 Reeves Thomas C Summer 1972 The Search for the Chester Alan Arthur Papers The Wisconsin Magazine of History 55 4 310 319 JSTOR 4634741 Reeves Thomas C July 1 1970 The Diaries of Malvina Arthur Windows Into The Past of Our 21st President PDF Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society Montpelier VT Vermont Historical Society Retrieved September 1 2018 Reeves Thomas C Autumn 1970 The Mystery of Chester Alan Arthur s Birthplace PDF Vermont History 38 4 Retrieved September 1 2018 Schwartz Sybil Autumn 1978 In Defense of Chester Arthur The Wilson Quarterly 2 4 180 184 JSTOR 40255548 Stuart Paul September 1977 United States Indian Policy From the Dawes Act to the American Indian Policy Review Commission Social Service Review 51 3 451 463 doi 10 1086 643524 JSTOR 30015511 S2CID 143506388 Theriault Sean M February 2003 Patronage the Pendleton Act and the Power of the People The Journal of Politics 65 1 50 68 doi 10 1111 1468 2508 t01 1 00003 JSTOR 3449855 S2CID 153890814 Todd A L June 1960 Ordeal In The Arctic American Heritage Vol 11 no 4 Retrieved December 27 2022 Newspapers Edit Afternoon Dispatches Pleasanton The Tribune Lawrence KS July 9 1871 p 2 Republican State Committee Gen Chester A Arthur Elected Chairman Campaign Plans The Sun New York NY September 12 1879 p 2 Organization of the Republican State Committee Boston Post Boston MA October 12 1881 p 1 The New Administration President Arthur Formally Inaugurated PDF The New York Times September 22 1881 Retrieved January 14 2016 The Loyal Legion Meeting Last Night President Arthur Elected to Membership National Republican Washington DC April 6 1882 via Newspapers com Leading Officials The Three Principal Officers in the Nebraska Posts Omaha Daily Bee Omaha NE August 30 1891 via Newspapers com In the Encampment at the Reunion at Ashland Medford Mail Medford OR September 23 1892 via Newspapers com Meeting of C A Arthur Post No 411 The Goffs Advocate Goff KS January 26 1893 via Newspapers com Monuments At Albany PDF The New York Times January 7 1894 Sister of Arthur Dead Mrs Regina M Caw Was Born In Dunham Canada in 1822 The Washington Post Washington DC November 17 1910 p 3 Sister of Late President Arthur Dies at Age of 87 Burlington Free Press Burlington VT April 12 1915 p 1 Jenks J E March 6 1915 Obituary Major William Arthur Army and Navy Register Washington DC Mrs John E McElroy Dead Sister of Late President Arthur Succumbs in Atlantic City Washington Times Washington DC January 9 1917 p 9 Other websites Edit Dolton Trisha July 12 2013 Another Sister for Chester Almeda Arthur Masten Greenwich History Greenwich NY Greenwich Town Historian Supreme Court Nominations present 1789 U S Senate Retrieved February 11 2012 National GAR Records Program 2005 Historical Summary of Grand Army of the Republic GAR Posts by State Wisconsin PDF garrecords org Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Rhode Island Commandery 2009 From the Headquarters Desk Original Civil War Officer Members of MOLLUS Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Chester A Arthur Fourth Annual Message The American Presidency Project December 1 1884 Retrieved January 25 2023 Further reading EditAubin J Harris 1906 Register of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Boston MA Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Commandery of Massachusetts p 20 Brooks Tim Marsh Earle F 2007 The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 Present New York NY Ballantine Books ISBN 978 0 345 49773 4 Department of Oregon Grand Army of the Republic 1919 Journal of the Annual Encampment Salem OR State Publishing Department Greenberger Scott S 2017 The Unexpected President The Life and Times of Chester A Arthur Da Capo p xii ISBN 978 0 30 682389 3 McCrory Thomas J 2005 Department of Wisconsin Grand Army of the Republic Black Earth WI Trails Books ISBN 1 931599 28 9 Werner Edgar A 1889 The New York Civil List Albany NY Weed Parsons amp Co pp 170 171 Waxman Olivia B February 16 2018 Chester A Arthur Is the Most Forgotten President in U S History According to Science Time Retrieved September 1 2018 Blatchford Samuel M Biographical Directory of Federal Judges Federal Judicial Center Retrieved July 27 2011 External links EditChester A Arthur at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource United States Congress Chester A Arthur id A000303 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Works by Chester A Arthur at Project Gutenberg Works by Chester A Arthur at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Essays on Chester Arthur and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs Chester Arthur A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress Life Portrait of Chester A Arthur from C SPAN s American Presidents Life Portraits August 6 1999 Life and Career of Chester A Arthur presentation by Zachary Karabell at the Kansas City Public Library May 23 2012 Chester A Arthur s Presidency a video by History com Remarks at the Grave of Chester Alan Arthur Albany Rural Cemetery October 5 2019 by historianDavid Pietrusza Chester A Arthur s Personal Manuscripts from Shapell org Scene from Futurama episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid on YouTube Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Chester A Arthur amp oldid 1139228265, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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