Chester A. Arthur

(1829-1886), twenty-first president of the United States. Born in Vermont, Arthur graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and taught school before moving to New York City, where he was admitted to the bar in 1854.

An antislavery Whig, Arthur joined the Republican party at its birth. He was appointed engineer in chief on the New York governor's military staff in 1861 and then became quartermaster general of New York because of his honesty and efficiency. He served until the Republicans lost the governorship in 1862. After the Civil War, Arthur helped build Roscoe Conkling's political organization as collector of the Port of New York, where he was responsible for collecting two-thirds of the nation's tariff revenue. Arthur mastered the tariff laws and within the limits imposed by the spoils system brought some efficiency to the customhouse. Nevertheless, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed him from office in 1878, believing that partisan considerations were his central concern.

Out of office but not out of politics, Arthur became chairman of the New York Republican State Committee and in 1880 was nominated for the vice presidency to balance the ticket headed by James A. Garfield. The Republicans won the election, but after Garfield was assassinated, Arthur became president in September 1881.

To the surprise of his many detractors, Arthur was an able chief executive. In damning him as a mere machine politician, his critics ignored the fact that he was an intelligent man who had run the largest federal office in the country. Despite a tendency to procrastinate, Arthur grew in the presidency and was able to meet its demands. He never became a born-again civil service reformer, but preferred instead an efficient partisan government service to one selected by open competitive examinations. It took the Republican defeat in state and congressional elections in 1882 to induce him to support the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883), the most important legislation passed during his administration. Drawing on his expertise, Arthur condemned the existing tariff. But when he failed to convince Congress to make the 20 to 25 percent reduction his tariff commission advocated, he signed the aptly named “Mongrel” Tariff into law (1883). Arthur vetoed the outrageous pork-barrel rivers and harbors bill of 1882 (a thinly disguised raid on the Treasury), only to see Congress pass it over his veto. He signed legislation excluding Chinese laborers from the United States, supported appropriations to modernize the navy, and personally supervised a sumptuous refurbishing of the White House.

Arthur was a dandy in dress and a gourmand at the table, but he was neither happy nor healthy when president. He grieved over the death in 1880 of his wife and suffered the debilitating effects of Bright's disease, particularly after 1882. As part of his effort to hide his condition from the public, he did nothing to stop those striving to nominate him in 1884. Their efforts failed, however, partly because he lacked charisma and partly because he was too much of a spoils politician to win reform support, yet too sound an administrator to suit party regulars.

Justus D. Doenecke, The Presidencies of James A. Garfield & Chester A. Arthur (1981); Thomas C. Reeves, Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur (1975).

ARI HOOGENBOOM

The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.