Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
In the early morning hours of September 20, 1881, Vice President Chester A. Arthur took the oath of office as the 21st president of the United States in a private ceremony at his New York City home. The assassin’s bullet that wounded President James Garfield in July had claimed his life the day before.
Twenty-first President of the United States. Born at Fairfield, Vt.i Oct. 5, 1830. Died at New York Nov. 18, 1886. He graduated at Union College 1848. Lawyer, New York City. Appointed on the staff of Governor of New York 1861. Became Inspector-General and Quarter-masterGeneral of the troops 1862. Collector of the port of New York 1871-78 and 1880. Elected as Republican Vice-President of the United States from March, 1881, to Sept. of the same year, when he succeeded Garfield as President of the United States, Sept. 20, 1881, to March 4, 1885. The suppression of the coinage of the Standard Silver Dollar and the redemption of the Trade Dollar transpired during his term of office and the reduction of letter postage from 3 cents to 2 cents March, 1883. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination 1884. Buried Rural cemetery, Albany, NY.
Chester Alan Arthur was sworn in as the nation’s 21st President upon the death of President James Garfield in 1881. The son of a Baptist minister, Arthur was born in a small temporary parsonage in Fairfield, Vermont. He became a lawyer who advocated for civil rights and a major leader of the Republican Party in New York City. As President, he championed civil service reform.
Arthur was a spoils man and staunch supporter of Roscoe Conkling’s Republican machine in New York State as vice president. As president, he became a champion of civil service reform, encouraging government appointments based on merit and creating the Civil Service Commission. Although respected as president, he made too many enemies to win re-nomination and retired to his New York City home at the end of his single term. He died there two years later.
Born in 1829, Chester A. Arthur was the eldest son of a Baptist minister. The large family moved from church to church in the New York-Vermont border area when Arthur was growing up. He worked his way through Union College in Schenectady, New York. After graduating with honors in 1848, he taught school and studied law in his free time. In 1853, he moved to New York City, passed the bar, and joined a law firm managed by family friends. At about this time, he moved into his Lexington Avenue residence. His strong anti-slavery views soon led him to join the new Republican Party. In 1859, Chester Arthur married Ellen Lewis Herndon.
Arthur suspended his legal practice to serve in the Civil War. He resumed his practice after the war and became more involved in Republican politics. He steadily advanced in the ranks of Senator Roscoe Conkling's powerful political machine. In 1871, President Grant rewarded Arthur’s political loyalty by appointing him to an important patronage job, collector of customs for the Port of New York. Although he filled most positions on merit, he padded the rolls with unnecessary appointments and expected political appointees to support the party. In 1878, Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes removed Arthur from office, in part to demonstrate his commitment to civil service reform, but also to pursue his ongoing feud with Conkling’s Stalwart faction of the Republican Party. When Arthur became vice president under James A. Garfield, he continued to support the Stalwarts, even when that brought him into conflict with the president.
After President Garfield's death, Arthur privately took the oath of office in his New York home in the wee hours of the morning; he repeated the oath two days later at the United States Capitol. Still grieving over his wife’s death the previous year, Arthur was the second vice president to become president because of an assassination.
As president, Arthur surprised everybody by rising above partisanship. He turned against the Stalwarts and worked to unify his party, made many non-partisan appointments, and continued the work of Presidents Hayes and Garfield for civil service reform. He supported the prosecution of a series of fraud cases in the Post Office Department. In 1883, he signed the Pendleton Act, which removed some Federal jobs from the spoils list, forbade compulsory donations from office holders, and authorized the creation of a bi-partisan Civil Service Commission to enforce the law. Patronage did not end in 1883, but the Pendleton Act was a landmark in creating a professional, non-partisan civil service.
Arthur tried, unsuccessfully, to lower tariffs. He thought the budget surpluses they created encouraged Congress to approve unnecessary, politically motivated "pork-barrel" projects. He managed to reduce the surplus somewhat by using some of it to pay off part of the national debt. The protectionist Tariff Act that Congress passed over his opposition in 1883 cost the Republican Party the support of many western and southern farmers. In 1882, Arthur vetoed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended immigration from China for 10 years, but Congress overrode his veto.
In December 1884, Arthur marked the beginning of the age of electricity by turning on machinery at the North, Central and South American world’s fair in New Orleans by pushing a button at the White House. Two months later, he dedicated the finally completed Washington Monument.
Although Arthur had a fatal kidney disease, he ran for the presidential nomination as his term was ending in 1884, but he was not nominated. He was a respected and popular president, but had alienated too many people in his own party. In 1885, Chester Arthur retired to his residence in New York City. That same year, he failed to win the Republican nomination for senator from New York. He planned to resume his legal practice, but soon became ill and never recovered his strength. He died at his home in November 1886.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
