Everything about Chester A Arthur totally explained
Chester Alan Arthur was the son of Irish born preacher William Arthur and Vermont born Malvina Stone Arthur. Most official references list him as having been born in
Fairfield in
Franklin County, Vermont on
October 5,
1829. But Arthur sometimes claimed to have been born in 1830. (The date is on his grave inscription and occurs in some reference works.) His father had initially migrated to Dunham, Québec, Canada, where he and his wife at one point owned a farm about north of the U.S. border. There has long been speculation that the future president was actually born in
Canada and that the family moved to Fairfield later. Given a lack of official documentation and the seeming confusion about the year of Arthur's birth, historians have been unable to rule this possibility out. Even if true, he was a natural-born citizen by virtue of his parents' citizenship, thus making him constitutionally eligible to serve as vice president or president. Some of his opponents circulated the Canada rumor during the 1880 election, but they couldn't prove it, and no proof has emerged since.
Arthur spent some of his childhood years living in
Perry, New York. One of Arthur's boyhood friends remembers Arthur's political abilities emerging at an early age:
When Chester was a boy, you might see him in the village street after a shower, watching the boys building a mud dam across the rivulet in the roadway. Pretty soon, he'd be ordering this one to bring stones, another sticks, and others sod and mud to finish the dam; and they'd all do his bidding without question. But he took good care not to get any of the dirt on his hands. (New York Evening Post, April 2, 1900)
Chester Arthur's Presidency was predicted by James Russel Webster, a Perry resident. A detailed account of this prediction is found in a self-written memorial for Webster. An excerpt from Webster's memorial;
"He first attended the Baptist church in Perry, the pastor there being "Elder Arthur", father of Chester A. Arthur. The latter was then a little boy, and Mr. Webster, once calling at his house, put upon his head of the lad, remarked, "this little boy may yet be President of the United States." Years after, calling at the White House, he related the circumstances to President Arthur, who replied that he well remembered the incident although the name of the man who thus predicted his future had long since passed from his memory; then standing up he added. "You may place your hand upon my head again."
Arthur attended public schools and later attended
Union College in
Schenectady, New York. There he became a member of
Psi Upsilon, North America's fifth oldest
college fraternity, and graduated in 1848. While living outside of
Hoosick Falls, New York, he went back to Union College and received his Master's degree in 1851.
Early career
Arthur became principal of North Pownal Academy in
North Pownal, Vermont in 1849. He studied law and was admitted to the
bar in 1854. Arthur commenced practice in
New York City. He was one of the attorneys who successfully defended
Elizabeth Jennings Graham, who was tried after being denied seating on a
bus due to her race. Arthur also took an active part in the reorganization of the state
militia.
During the
American Civil War, Arthur served as acting
quartermaster general of the state in 1861 and was widely praised for his service. He was later commissioned as
inspector general, and appointed quartermaster general with the rank of
brigadier general and served until 1862. After the war, he resumed the practice of law in New York City. With the help of Arthur's patron and
political boss Roscoe Conkling, Arthur was appointed by President
Ulysses Grant as Collector of the Port of New York from 1871 to 1878.
This was an extremely lucrative and powerful position at the time, and several of Arthur's predecessors had run afoul of the law while serving as collector. Honorable in his personal life and his public career, Arthur sided with the
Stalwarts in the Republican Party, which firmly believed in the
spoils system even as it was coming under vehement attack from reformers. He insisted upon honest administration of the
Customs House but nevertheless staffed it with more employees than it really needed, retaining some for their loyalty as party workers rather than for their skill as public servants.
The 1880 election and vice presidency
In 1878, Grant's successor,
Rutherford Hayes, attempted to reform the Customs House. He ousted Arthur, who resumed the practice of law in New York City. Conkling and his followers tried to win back power by the nomination of Grant for a third term at the
1880 Republican National Convention, but without success. Grant and
James G. Blaine deadlocked, and after 36 ballots, the convention turned to
dark horse James A. Garfield, a long time Congressman and General in the Civil War.
Knowing the election would be close, Garfield's people began asking a number of Stalwarts if they'd accept the second spot.
Levi P. Morton, on Conkling's advice, refused, but Arthur accepted, telling his furious leader, "This is a higher honor than I've ever dreamt of attaining. I'll accept!" Conkling and his Stalwart supporters reluctantly accepted the nomination of Arthur as vice president.
Arthur campaigned hard for his and Garfield's election, but it was a close contest, with the Garfield-Arthur ticket receiving a nationwide plurality of fewer than ten thousand votes.
After the election, Conkling began making demands of Garfield as to appointments, and the Vice President-elect supported his longtime patron against his new boss. According to Ira Rutkow's recent biography of Garfield, the new president disliked the vice president, and he wouldn't let him into his house.
Then, on
July 2 1881,
President Garfield was shot in the back by
Charles J. Guiteau, who shouted: "I am a
Stalwart of the Stalwarts... Arthur is president now!!" Arthur's shock at the assassination was augmented by his mortification at Guiteau's claim of political kinship. (
Madmen and Geniuses, Barzman, 1974)
Presidency 1881-1885
Assumption of office
President Arthur took the oath of office twice. The first time was just past midnight at his Lexington Avenue residence on
September 20 by
New York Supreme Court justice John R. Brady; the second time was upon his return to Washington two days later.
Policies
Arthur was aware of the factions and rivalries of the Republican Party, as well as the controversies of
cronyism versus
civil service reform. Entering the presidency, Arthur believed that the only way to garner the nation's approval was to be independent from both factions. Arthur determined to go his own way once in the
White House. He wound up replacing every member of Garfield's Cabinet except for Secretary of War
Robert Todd Lincoln.
He became a man of fashion in his manner of dress and in his associates; he was often seen with the elite of
Washington, D.C., New York city and Newport. To the indignation of the Stalwarts, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan
Civil Service Commission which stopped big businesses from giving out rebates and pooling with other companies, forbade levying political assessments against officeholders, and provided for a "classified system" that made certain government positions obtainable only through competitive written examinations. The system protected employees against removal for political reasons.
Acting independently of party dogma, Arthur also tried to lower
tariff rates so the government wouldn't be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue. Congress raised about as many rates as it trimmed, but Arthur signed the Tariff Act of 1883 anyway. Aggrieved Westerners and Southerners looked to the
Democratic Party for redress, and the tariff began to emerge as a major political issue between the two parties.
The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal
immigration law. Arthur approved a measure in 1882 excluding
paupers, criminals, and the mentally ill. Congress also suspended
Chinese immigration for ten years with the
Chinese Exclusion Act, later making the restriction permanent.
In 1884, the
International Meridian Conference was held in Washington at President Arthur's behest. This established the
Greenwich Meridian which is still in use today.
President Arthur demonstrated that he was above not only factions within the
Republican Party, but possibly the party itself. Perhaps, in part, he felt able to do this because of the well-kept secret he'd known since a year after he succeeded to the Presidency, that he was suffering from
Bright's Disease, a fatal kidney disease. This accounted for his failure to aggressively seek the Republican nomination for President in 1884.
Nevertheless, Arthur was the last incumbent President to submit his name for renomination and fail to obtain it.
Arthur sought a full term as President in
1884, but lost the Republican party's presidential nomination to former
Speaker of the House and
Secretary of State James G. Blaine of
Maine. Blaine, however, lost the election to
Democrat Grover Cleveland of
New York.
Significant events during presidency
Administration and Cabinet
Supreme Court appointments
Samuel Blatchford - 1882
Horace Gray - 1882
States admitted to the Union
None
Social and personal life
Arthur married Ellen "Nell" Lewis Herndon on October 25, 1859. She was the only child of Elizabeth Hansbrough and Captain William Lewis Herndon USN. She was a favorite niece of Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, USN of the United States Naval Observatory where her father had worked.
In 1860, Chester Arthur and "Nell" had a son, William Lewis Herndon Arthur, who was named after Ellen's father. This son died at age two of a brain disease. Another son, Chester Alan Arthur II, was born in 1864, and a girl, named Ellen Hansbrough Herndon after her mother, in 1871. Ellen Arthur died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880, at the early age of 42, only twenty months before Arthur became President. Arthur stated that he'd never remarry and, while in the White House, asked his sister Mary, the wife of writer John E. McElroy, to assume certain social duties and help care for his daughter. President Arthur also had a memorial to his beloved "Nell"—a stained glass window was installed in St. John's Episcopal Church within view of his office and had the church light it at night so he could look at it. The memorial remains to this day.
Arthur is remembered as one of the most society-conscious presidents, earning the nickname "the Gentleman Boss" for his style of dress and courtly manner. Professor Marina Margaret Heiss at the University of Virginia lists Arthur as an example of an INTJ personality.
Upon taking office, Arthur didn't move into the White House immediately. He insisted upon its redecoration and had 24 wagonloads of furniture, some including pieces dating back to John Adams' term, carted away and burned. Former president Rutherford B. Hayes bought two wagonloads of furniture which today are at his home Spiegel Grove. Arthur then commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany to replace them with new pieces. A famous designer now best-known for his stained glass, Tiffany was among the foremost designers of the day.
Arthur was a fisherman who belonged to the Restigouche Salmon Club and once reportedly caught an 80-pound bass off the coast of Rhode Island.
Widely popular by the end of his presidency, four young women (ignorant of Arthur's pronouncement that he'd never marry again) proposed to him on the day he left office. He was sometimes called "Elegant Arthur" for his commitment to fashionable attire and was said to have "looked like a president." He reportedly kept 80 pairs of pants in his wardrobe and changed pants several times a day. He was called "Chet" by family and friends, and by his middle name, with the stress on the second syllable ("Al-AN").
Post presidency
Arthur served as President through March 4, 1885. Upon leaving office, he returned to New York City. He encouraged the notion that he might run for the U.S. Senate in 1886, but was unable to gather enough support from his former Stalwart colleagues. In any event, his health failed rapidly and he died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at 5:10 a.m. on Thursday, November 18, 1886, at the age of 57. Arthur suffered from Bright's disease, and his death was most likely related to a history of hypertension.
His post presidency was the second shortest, longer only than that of James Polk (excluding presidents who died in office).
Chester was buried next to Ellen in the Arthur family plot in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York, in a large sarcophagus on a large corner plot that contains the graves of many of his family members and ancestors.
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