Chester A. Arthur (1829 - 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the twenty-first president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. [1] A product of the New York Republican patronage machine, he became president on the death of James A. Garfield and confounded expectations by signing the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which curtailed the spoils system he had once administered. [2] He also began the modernisation of the United States Navy and signed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Early life and education
Chester Alan Arthur was born on 5 October 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont, the son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from Ireland and who was an outspoken abolitionist. The family moved frequently through Vermont and New York State as his father took up successive pulpits. [1]
Arthur graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1848, taught school and briefly attended the State and National Law School before completing his legal training in a New York City law office. He was admitted to the bar in 1854.
Law and the New York machine
As a young lawyer Arthur worked on civil rights cases, including the Lemmon slave case, which confirmed the freedom of enslaved people brought into New York State, and a suit brought by Elizabeth Jennings Graham after she was ejected from a segregated streetcar, a victory that helped desegregate New York's public transport. [2]
During the Civil War he served as quartermaster general of the State of New York, organising supply and accommodation for troops passing through the state. Afterwards he became a central figure in the Republican organisation led by Senator Roscoe Conkling, the "Stalwart" faction that defended the patronage system. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, a post controlling hundreds of appointments and substantial fee income. President Rutherford B. Hayes, pursuing civil service reform, suspended him from the office in 1878 after an investigation into its management. [3]
Vice presidency and accession
At the 1880 Republican convention Arthur was placed on the ticket as vice-presidential nominee alongside James A. Garfield in order to conciliate the Stalwart wing, and the ticket won narrowly. Garfield was shot in Washington on 2 July 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker who declared himself a Stalwart, and died on 19 September. Arthur was sworn in the following day. [1]
Presidency
Garfield's assassination made patronage reform an urgent national question, and Arthur, to the surprise of allies and critics alike, supported it. In January 1883 he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which created the Civil Service Commission and required competitive examinations for a portion of federal posts, laying the foundation of the modern American civil service. [2]
He vetoed an 1882 bill that would have barred Chinese immigration for twenty years, but signed a revised measure imposing a ten-year exclusion - the Chinese Exclusion Act - the first federal law to bar a group of immigrants by nationality. He also vetoed a Rivers and Harbors bill as wasteful, though Congress overrode him, and presided over the Tariff of 1883. His administration funded the first steel-hulled warships of what became the modern United States Navy. [3]
Later life and assessment
Arthur had been diagnosed with Bright's disease, a fatal kidney condition, which he concealed from the public. He made only a token effort to secure the Republican nomination in 1884, which went to James G. Blaine. He left office in March 1885 and died in New York City on 18 November 1886 following a cerebral haemorrhage. [1]
Historians generally rank Arthur in the middle of the presidential field, and biographers have focused on the contrast between his career as a machine operator and his conduct in office. [2]
