Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829[b] – November 18, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He was a Republican lawyer from New York who briefly served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield. Arthur assumed the presidency after Garfield's death on September 19, 1881, and served the remainder of his term until March 4, 1885.
"Chester Alan Arthur" and "Chester Arthur" redirect here. For his son, see Chester Alan Arthur II. For his grandson, see Gavin Arthur.
Chester A. Arthur
None[a]
James A. Garfield
John F. Smyth
George F. Nesbitt
Isaac Vanderpoel[1]
Cuyler Van Vechten[1]
Cuyler Van Vechten
Sebastian Visscher Talcott[1]
November 18, 1886 (aged 57)
New York City, U.S.
Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York, U.S.
Republican (1854–1886)
Whig (before 1854)
- William
- Chester II
- Ellen
- William Arthur (father)
Gavin Arthur (grandson)
- Lawyer
- civil servant
1857–1863
- Second Brigade, New York Militia
- Staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan
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 as 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, following bitter disputes between Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes over control of patronage in New York, Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system. In June 1880, the extended contest between Grant, identified with the Stalwarts, and James G. Blaine, the candidate of the Half-Breed faction, led to the compromise selection of Ohio's Garfield for president. Republicans then nominated Arthur for vice president to balance the ticket geographically and to placate Stalwarts disappointed by Grant's defeat. Garfield and Arthur won the 1880 presidential election and took office in March 1881. Four months into his term, Garfield was shot by an assassin; he died 11 weeks later, and Arthur assumed the presidency.
As president, Arthur presided over the rebirth of the U.S. 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] He appointed Horace Gray and Samuel Blatchford to the Supreme Court. He also enforced the Immigration Act of 1882 to impose more restrictions on immigrants and the Tariff of 1883 to attempt to reduce tariffs. Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, which came as a surprise to reformers who held a negative reputation of Arthur as a Stalwart and product of Conkling's organization.
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] Evaluations by modern historians generally rank Arthur as a mediocre or average president.[7][8] Arthur has also been described as one of the least memorable presidents.[9]
Presidential dollar coin of Arthur, minted in 2012
Several Grand Army of the Republic posts were named for Arthur, including Goff, Kansas,[212] Lawrence, Nebraska,[213] Medford, Oregon,[214] and Ogdensburg, Wisconsin.[215] 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[216]), the honorary membership category for militia officers and civilians who made significant contributions to the war effort.[217]
Union College awarded Arthur the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1883.[218]
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.[219] The statue was dedicated in 1899 and unveiled by Arthur's sister, Mary Arthur McElroy.[219] 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.[219]
In 1938, fifty-two years after Arthur's death, the U.S. Post Office issued a definitive stamp in his honor.[220] Arthur appeared on a U.S. one dollar coin in 2012.[221]
Arthur's general unpopularity during his presidency carried over into his assessment by various historians, and his reputation after leaving office mostly disappeared.[222] By 1935, historian George F. Howe said that Arthur had achieved "an obscurity in strange contrast to his significant part in American history".[223] 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."[224] As 2004 biographer Zachary Karabell wrote, although Arthur was "physically stretched and emotionally strained, he strove to do what was right for the country."[222] 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."[225]
Arthur's townhouse, the Chester A. Arthur Home, was sold to William Randolph Hearst.[226] Since 1944 it has been the location of Kalustyan's Spice Emporium.[227]
