Chester Arthur

I

Introduction

Chester Arthur (1829-1886), 21st president of the United States (1881-1885), who gained the presidency when President James A. Garfield (1881) was assassinated. Arthur rose above loyalty to his political party to enact the first comprehensive U.S. civil service legislation. The act signaled a new era of reform in national politics, but lost Arthur the support of his party, and after completing Garfield's term he was forced to retire from public life.

II

Early Life

Chester Alan Arthur was born on October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont. He was the oldest son of William Arthur, an Irish-born Baptist minister and schoolteacher, and Malvina Stone Arthur. The family lived in several towns in Vermont and northern New York before they moved to Saratoga County, New York, in 1839. Young Arthur attended an academy at Union Village (now Greenwich), New York. At the academy and later in college, he was not considered an outstanding student. He was described as “genial in disposition” and “not an unusual member of his class ... an average boy.”

After Arthur graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1848, he studied law and taught in a local school. In 1852 he was appointed principal of an academy near Albany, New York, and a year later he moved to New York City to work in the law office of Erastus D. Culver, a friend of his father. In 1854 Arthur passed the bar exam and received his license to practice law. He quickly gained a reputation as a supporter of civil rights for blacks, and in 1855 won a case that guaranteed the rights of blacks to ride any streetcar in New York City. In 1856 he opened his own law practice.

III

Early Career

The young attorney was a striking figure. He was tall, with black eyes and brown hair, ruddy cheeks, and a high forehead. He went to the best tailors, always wore the latest fashions, and was considered well informed and amusing. He fell in love with Ellen Lewis Herndon, daughter of a naval officer, and they were married in 1859. The couple had a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Chester Alan, Jr.

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One of Arthur's first encounters with politics came in 1844 when he joined other boys “shouting” in the streets for the Whig Party presidential candidate, Henry Clay. When Arthur first took a professional interest in politics, it was as a member of that party. In 1854 he attended the Anti-Nebraska Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. The convention was called to protest against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had increased tensions between the North and the South by reopening the possibility of new slave-holding states. The people attending the convention laid the groundwork for the creation of the New York Republican Party, which was firmly opposed to the expansion of slave-holding territory.

In 1856 Arthur led the Fifteenth Ward Young Men's Frémont Vigilance Committee, which supported John C. Frémont as the Republican candidate for president of the United States. From then on, Arthur was an active member of the Republican Party.

In 1860 Arthur campaigned in New York City for presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. He also worked for the reelection of Edwin D. Morgan as governor of New York, and when Morgan won he appointed Arthur engineer in chief of his military staff, an honorary post.

Arthur took on considerable responsibility, however, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. President Lincoln placed Governor Morgan in command of the New York volunteers for the Union Army, and the state was expected to recruit and equip the soldiers. Morgan first named Arthur inspector general, then quartermaster general, of the state militia. He supervised the equipping of more than 220,000 volunteers before 1863, when he resigned after a Democrat was elected governor.

After his return to private life, Arthur resumed his law practice in New York City and remained active in politics, making himself indispensable to the state Republican political machine run by U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling. Political machines organized voters for the support of a candidate, and under what was called the spoils system, the most dedicated, loyal workers expected to be awarded government jobs in return for their services to the machine. In 1868 Conkling and his lieutenants supported General Ulysses S. Grant as the Republican candidate for president, and in 1871, Conkling persuaded President Grant to appoint Arthur collector of customs for the port of New York.

The New York Customhouse was a great political appointment. It handled about two-thirds of all U.S. customs receipts and had more than 1000 employees, each of whom owed his job to his allegiance to the Republican Party. While Arthur was the customs collector, the customhouse became a “fueling station” for Conkling's machine, and Arthur became the undisputed political leader of New York City. Although Arthur was personally honest, he overstaffed the customhouse with members of the Republican Party who worked diligently for the election of Republicans but were seldom seen at the customhouse itself.

In 1877 Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes, who had pledged civil service reform during his election campaign, ordered an investigation of the customhouse by an independent commission. Arthur and two aides were asked to resign “... for having regarded their offices as of subordinate importance to their partisan work.” Assured of Conkling's support in the Senate, Arthur and his associates refused. Hayes waited until the Congress of the United States adjourned in the summer of 1878 and then fired Arthur, giving the customs job to someone else who was later approved by the Senate. Arthur once again returned to his law practice in New York City.

A

Election of 1880

At the nominating convention of 1880 the Republican Party was split between Conkling's Stalwarts, strong believers in party loyalty above all else, and U.S. Senator James G. Blaine's Half-Breeds, those who believed in minor political reforms. The Stalwarts wanted to nominate former President Grant for a third term, while the Half-Breeds supported Blaine. The two factions were so evenly matched that neither candidate could gain the necessary majority. As a compromise, the party agreed on U.S. Senator James A. Garfield of Ohio, a Half-Breed. To gain the support of Conkling and his Stalwarts, the convention chose Arthur as the candidate for vice president.

In the campaign, the Democrats attacked Arthur's record as customs collector and his association with the Conkling political machine. Nevertheless, Garfield and Arthur won the election, taking majorities in most of the Northern states and in the electoral college. The total popular vote was very close. The Republicans won by less than 10,000 votes. Arthur was sworn in as vice president on March 4, 1881.