[191] Arthur's successor, Grover Cleveland, finding that title belonged to the Native Americans, revoked Arthur's order a few months later. That treaty allowed only a "reasonable" suspension of immigration. His mother, Malvina Stone Arthur, was born in New Hampshire. [180] Chandler scrapped costly outdated vessels, exclaiming he did his "best work in destroying the old navy. "[76], The Senate confirmed Arthur's appointment; as Collector he controlled nearly a thousand jobs and received compensation as great as any federal officeholder. [192] To rejuvenate his health outside the confines of Washington, Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883. Summary of President Chester Arthur for Kids: "Walrus" Summary: Chester Arthur (1829-1886), nicknamed the "Walrus" or "The Dude President", was the 21st American President and served in office from 1881-1885. Dignified, tall, and handsome, with clean-shaven chin and side-whiskers, Chester A. Arthur "looked like a President." The son of a Baptist preacher who had . [73] Arthur's salary was initially $6,500, but senior customs employees were compensated additionally by the "moiety" system, which awarded them a percentage of the cargoes seized and fines levied on importers who attempted to evade the tariff. "'Vice Breeds Crime' The 'Germs' of Mark . [179] Democrats turned against the "New Navy" projects and, when they won control of the 48th Congress, refused to appropriate funds for seven more steel warships. After exiting the White House in March 1885, Arthur returned to New York City to resume his legal career. [44] At that time, the state was the scene of a brutal struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces, and Arthur lined up firmly with the latter. [57] The couple took their son's death hard, and when they had another son, Chester Alan Jr., in 1864, they lavished attention on him. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes the twenty-first President of the United States The assassin, Guiteau, will be hanged on June 30, 1882. Chester Arthur (1829-1886), the 21st U.S. president, took office after the death of President James Garfield (1831-1881). Early in the Civil War he served as quartermaster general of New York state. The verdict in the Star-Route trial is rendered. He succeeded James Garfield who had been assassinated in 1881. A revised version of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which reduces the period of non-immigration to ten years but maintains the ban on Chinese citizenship, becomes law. [148] The second trial began in December 1882 and lasted until July 1883 and, again, did not result in a guilty verdict. Arthur became a member of the New York State Militia in the late 1850s, although he never saw combat. [205][q] The next morning, Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. Although Garfield initially survived the shooting, he battled infections and died two months later, at age 49, on September 19. Nine men are indicted for defrauding the government in a postal scam, an episode that becomes known as the Star-Route Scandal; the trial begins on June 1. "[221] As 2004 biographer Zachary Karabell wrote, although Arthur was "physically stretched and emotionally strained, he strove to do what was right for the country. Suffering from poor health, he did not run for reelection in 1884. Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886) 1829, Oct. 5 Born, Fairfield, Vermont, to William Arthur (1796-1875) and Malvina Stone Arthur (1802-1869). In 1904, Taft took on the role of secretary of war in the administration read more, New York City real estate developer and reality TV star Donald Trump (1946- ) served as Americas 45th president from January 2017-January 2021. [82] As a result, his income dropped to $12,000 a yearmore than his nominal boss, the Secretary of the Treasury, but far less than what he had previously received. Arthur was president from 1881-1885, and his presidency was mostly unremarkable, except for a few major events. [160] Republicans considered the law a success at the time, but later concluded that it contributed to their loss of seats in the elections of 1882. [128][l], While in Albany on July 2, Arthur learned that Garfield had been shot. Congress passes a bill repealing the 1862 test oath, which required office holders to swear they had never engaged in illegal or disloyal conduct. [37] During his winter breaks, he served as a teacher at a school in Schaghticoke. 10. They existed from the 1870s until Arthur became president in 1881, at which point Conkling was no longer a force, and Arthur had reformed the Civil Service. [55], Arthur returned to practicing law, and with the help of additional contacts made in the military, he and the firm of Arthur & Gardiner flourished. The act also forbade workers from being fired for political reasons and prohibited compulsory political donations from employees. [77] In total, his income came to more than $50,000more than the president's salary, and more than enough for him to enjoy fashionable clothes and a lavish lifestyle. [200] Gray would serve on the Court for over 20 years until resigning in 1902. Recognizing the disgraceful state of the U.S. Navy, Arthur signs a bill appropriating funds for the Navy's first steel vessels. Arthur took this step to ensure procedural compliance; there had been a lingering question about whether a state court judge (Brady) could administer a federal oath of office. [197] He kept up a token effort, believing that to drop out would cast doubt on his actions in office and raise questions about his health, but by the time the convention began in June, his defeat was assured. Although he campaigned for Garfield and helped get him elected, Arthur broke with Garfield after the election. [52] He also turned down command of four New York City regiments organized as the Metropolitan Brigade, again at Morgan's request. Chester A. Arthur, James A. Garfield's vice president, had received all his political jobs--including the vice presidency--in return for his loyalty to the Republican Party. Displayed in the 1953 reconstruction of the boyhood home of Chester A. Arthur, the exhibit panels examine the life and career of the 21 st President of the United States, who was born in Vermont on October 5, 1829. [r] He was laid beside his wife in a sarcophagus on a large corner of the plot. "[36] During his time at school, he gained his first political inclinations and supported the Whig Party. In the presidential election later. Chester A. Arthur 's tenure as the 21st president of the United States began on September 19, 1881, when he succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of President James A. Garfield, and ended on March 4, 1885. [33][f][34], Arthur spent some of his childhood years living in the New York towns of York, Perry, Greenwich, Lansingburgh, Schenectady, and Hoosick. The bill passed both houses narrowly on March 3, 1883, the last full day of the 47th Congress; Arthur signed the measure into law, with no effect on the surplus. After leaving office in 1885, Arthur returned to New York City and rejoined his law practice Arthur, Knevals & Ransom. Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. Put simply, he performed well in office, defying his state-based reputation as a slick machine politician. Chester A. Arthur, former machine politician, became a reformer in the Presidency. biography Chester Alan Arthur was born in the village of Fairfield, Vt., Oct. 5, 1829. The original designer, John Roebling, died of an infection caused by an injury he received only days after having secured permission to begin his project. 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. [68][g] Arthur resigned after Democrats controlled by William M. Tweed of Tammany Hall won a legislative majority, which meant they could name their own appointee. He graduated from Union College in 1848, taught school, was admitted to the bar and practiced law in New York City. He proclaimed to onlookers: "I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be President! Quick Facts Also Known As: Chester Alan Arthur Died At Age: 57 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Ellen Herndon father: William Arthur mother: Malvina Stone siblings: Mary McElroy Born Country: United States Lawyers Presidents political ideology: Republican Died on: November 18, 1886 place of death: New York, United States Cause of Death: Cerebral Hemorrhage As president from 1881 to 1885, Arthur advocated for civil service reform. [100] Arthur immediately took advantage of the resulting free time to work for the election of Edward Cooper as New York City's next mayor. Arthur was unable to convince Congress to adopt the idea during his administration but, in 1887, the Dawes Act changed the law to favor such a system. [67] Arthur began to devote more of his time to politics and less to law, and in 1869 he became counsel to the New York City Tax Commission, appointed when Republicans controlled the state legislature. [1] The most important events of his administration were the passage of the Tariff Act of 1883 and of the "Edmunds Law" prohibiting polygamy in the territories, and the completion of three great transcontinental railwaysthe Southern Pacific, the Northern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa F. [62] Morgan leaned toward the conservative wing of the New York Republican party, as did the men who worked with him in the organization, including Weed, Seward (who continued in office under President Andrew Johnson), and Roscoe Conkling (an eloquent Utica Congressman and rising star in the party). Chester Alan Arthur, one of the few men to serve his entire presidency without ever being elected to office (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Gerald Ford were the others), died on this day in 1886. Twenty-first President, 1881-1885. Nicknamed the Gentleman Boss and Elegant Arthur, he reportedly owned 80 pairs of pants. [145] Reformers feared Arthur, as a former supporter of the spoils system, would not commit to continuing the investigation into the scandal. [44] He won the case, and the verdict led to the desegregation of the New York City streetcar lines.[44]. [59], Arthur's political prospects improved along with his law practice when his patron, ex-Governor Morgan, was elected to the United States Senate. [152] The chief examiner, Silas W. Burt, was a long-time reformer who had been Arthur's opponent when the two men worked at the New York Custom House. With great fanfare, the granite monument marking what was believed to have been the site of Chester A. Arthur's birth was dedicated in 1903 on land granted to the State of Vermont by Peter Bent Brigham Northrop. [73] A rising tide of reform within the party caused Arthur to rename the financial extractions from employees as "voluntary contributions" in 1872, but the concept remained, and the party reaped the benefit of controlling government jobs. [43] Campaign biographers would later give Arthur much of the credit for the victory; in fact his role was minor, although he was certainly an active participant in the case. [50] Arthur was commissioned as a brigadier general and assigned to the state militia's quartermaster department. He also oversaw the establishment of the Naval War College and the Office of Naval Intelligence. In 1855, he successfully represented Elizabeth Jennings Graham (1830-1901), a black woman who had been denied a seat on a Manhattan streetcar due to her race. Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the twenty-second President of the United States. [182] Having won an election in that state on a platform of more education funding (for black and white schools alike) and abolition of the poll tax and the whipping post, many northern Republicans saw the Readjusters as a more viable ally in the South than the moribund southern Republican party. Arthur approves a bill to appoint a tariff commission; the commission eventually recommends tariff reductions. He is the only president to date who served two non-consecutive terms, and also the only Democratic president to win election during the period of Republican read more, Departing from the monarchical tradition of Britain, the founding fathers of the United States created a system in which the American people had the power and responsibility to select their leader. Illustration published in The New Eclectic History of the United States by M. E . Create your account. [146] An 1882 trial of the ringleaders resulted in convictions for two minor conspirators and a hung jury for the rest. The murder trial of Charles Guiteau begins. I feel like its a lifeline. In 1856, Arthur courted Ellen Herndon, the daughter of William Lewis Herndon, a Virginia naval officer. The family finally settled in the Schenectady, New York area. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! It is estimated that more than twenty men were killed during the construction of the bridge, although records are debatable. [19][c] The family remained in Fairfield until 1832, when William Arthur's profession took them to churches in several towns in Vermont and upstate New York. The territory had been ceded to the United States by Russia in an 1867 treaty. The President Chester Arthur Timeline provides a brief record of events in the order of their occurrence. When he became president after Garfield's assassination, Arthur surprised his party in 1883 by signing the Pendleton Act, which . [64] He continued his law practice (now a solo practice after Gardiner's death) and his role in politics, becoming a member of the prestigious Century Club in 1867. "[91] Arthur and his subordinates, Naval Officer Alonzo B. Cornell and Surveyor George H. Sharpe, refused to obey the president's order; Sherman encouraged Arthur to resign, offering him appointment by Hayes to the consulship in Paris in exchange, but Arthur refused. [155] Arthur agreed with his party, and in 1882 called for the abolition of excise taxes on everything except liquor, as well as a simplification of the complex tariff structure. Major Events During Arthur's Presidency As president, Chester A. Arthur achieved four major things: Civil Service Reform Limiting Immigration Building a Modern Navy Arthur also. He served four terms in Congress but left in 1843 to mount an unsuccessful run for the governorship of New read more. Congress passes the so-called Mongrel Tariff Act, a complex tariff revision that reduces rates on various items by less than 2 percent; Arthur had lobbied Congress for a 20 to 25 percent cut on all items. Arthur practiced law in New York City. When New Yorkers elected Democrat Horatio Seymour governor in November 1862, Arthur lost his position to a member of the other party. [97][i] Hayes again offered Arthur the position of consul general in Paris as a face-saving consolation; Arthur again declined, as Hayes knew he probably would. [216], Union College awarded Arthur the honorary degree of LL.D. [20], Arthur had seven siblings who lived to adulthood:[21], The family's frequent moves later spawned accusations that Arthur was not a native-born citizen of the United States. [200] Arthur nominated Horace Gray, a distinguished jurist from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace him, and the nomination was easily confirmed. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Physician keeps Presidents disease secret, Proclamation against settlement in Oklahoma, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity. Hallmarked Chester. [148] Failure to obtain a conviction tarnished the administration's image, but Arthur did succeed in putting a stop to the fraud. 1.The best biography of Chester Arthur remains Thomas C. Reeves, Gentleman Boss: The Life and Times of Chester Alan Arthur (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975). Secretary of State James G. Blaine resigns due to political differences between himself and President Arthur. [163] Arthur and Frelinghuysen continued Blaine's efforts to encourage trade among the nations of the Western Hemisphere; a treaty with Mexico providing for reciprocal tariff reductions was signed in 1882 and approved by the Senate in 1884. The following material is what I have learned in American Government for only but one year, I have still learned more than what I already knew at the beginning of my high school career. Following a funeral in Manhattan, the former president was buried beside his wife in the Arthur family plot in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. 238 lessons. [99] Conkling opposed the confirmation of Merritt and Burt when the Senate reconvened in February 1879, but Merritt was approved by a vote of 3125, as was Burt by 3119, giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory. Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, and Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket as an Eastern Stalwart. At the outset, Arthur struggled to overcome a slightly negative reputation, which stemmed from his early career in politics as part of New York's Republican political machine. Congress was unable to override the veto, but passed a new bill reducing the immigration ban to ten years. 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. During the Civil read more, Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), who served as the 22nd and 24th U.S. president, was known as a political reformer. [77][h] Among those who dealt with the Custom House, Arthur was one of the era's more popular collectors. [143] Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine's place, but the President chose Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, a Stalwart recommended by ex-President Grant. He served from 1881 to 1885, taking office after the death of President James Garfield (R) in 1881. [48] The couple had three children: After his marriage, Arthur devoted his efforts to building his law practice, but also found time to engage in Republican party politics. Suddenly elevated to a new position, Arthur was pleased and campaigned across the country for Garfield, helping him secure a narrow popular vote victory and a dominating success in the electoral college. [205] In 1889, a monument was placed on Arthur's burial plot by sculptor Ephraim Keyser of New York, consisting of a giant bronze female angel figure placing a bronze palm leaf on a granite sarcophagus. [142] Despite Arthur's personal appeal to remain, MacVeagh resigned in December 1881 and Arthur replaced him with Benjamin H. Brewster, a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician reputed to have reformist leanings. [60] He was hired by Thomas Murphy, a Republican politician, but also a friend of William M. Tweed, the boss of the Tammany Hall Democratic organization. [157], Congress attempted to balance the budget from the other side of the ledger, with increased spending on the 1882 Rivers and Harbors Act in the unprecedented amount of $19 million. [125] Immediately, the Democrats attempted to organize the Senate, knowing that the vacancies would soon be filled by Republicans. Early in the summer of 1857, Chester Arthur, a young lawyer from New York City, accompanied by his partner, Henry D. Gardiner, came to Kansas to settle and grow up with the country. During his childhood, he moved seven times. Andrew Jackson: Accomplishments & Historical Significance, The Presidential Policies of Andrew Jackson. "[5] Mark Twain wrote of him, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration. [139] His son, Chester Jr., was then a freshman at Princeton University and his daughter, Nell, stayed in New York with a governess until 1882; when she arrived, Arthur shielded her from the intrusive press as much as he could. Copyright 2022. [202] Senator George Edmunds was Arthur's next choice, but he declined to be considered. The most important events of his administration were the passage of the Tariff Act of 1883 and of the "Edmunds Law" prohibiting polygamy in the territories, and the completion of three great transcontinental railways -- the Southern Pacific, the Northern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Arthur and Governor Cleveland walked across the bridge along with the 7th regiment as part of the celebration. Taking office after the death of President James Garfield ( r ) in 1881 amp ; Ransom eventually! Been ceded to the bar and practiced law in New York area an unsuccessful run for the rest James!, knowing that the vacancies would soon be filled by Republicans nicknamed the Gentleman Boss Elegant. A brief record of events in the order of their occurrence teacher at a in! George Edmunds was Arthur 's administration would serve on the Court for over 20 until. 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