Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur
Portrait by Abraham Bogardus, c. 1880
21st President of the United States
In office September 19, 1881 – March 4, 1885
Vice President	None[a]
Preceded by	James A. Garfield
Succeeded by	Grover Cleveland
20th Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881
President	James A. Garfield
Preceded by	William A. Wheeler
Succeeded by	Thomas A. Hendricks
10th Chairman of the New York Republican Party
In office September 11, 1879 – October 11, 1881
Preceded by	John F. Smyth
Succeeded by	B. Platt Carpenter
21st Collector of the Port of New York
In office December 1, 1871 – July 11, 1878
Appointed by	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	Thomas Murphy
Succeeded by	Edwin Atkins Merritt
Engineer-in-Chief of the New York Militia
In office January 1, 1861 – January 1, 1863
Preceded by	George F. Nesbitt
Succeeded by	Isaac Vanderpoel[1]
Inspector General of the New York Militia
In office April 14, 1862 – July 12, 1862
Preceded by	Marsena R. Patrick
Succeeded by	Cuyler Van Vechten[1]
Quartermaster General of the New York Militia
In office July 27, 1862 – January 1, 1863
Preceded by	Cuyler Van Vechten
Succeeded by	Sebastian Visscher Talcott[1]
Personal details
Born	Chester Alan Arthur (1829-10-05)October 5, 1829 Fairfield, Vermont, U.S.
Died	November 18, 1886(1886-11-18) (aged 57) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York
Political party	Republican (1854–1886)
Other political affiliations	Whig (before 1854)
Spouse	Ellen Herndon ​ ​ (m. 1859; died 1880)​
Children	William Chester II Ellen
Parent	William Arthur (father)
Relatives	Gavin Arthur (grandson)
Education	Union College (BA) State and National Law School
Profession	Lawyer civil servant
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	New York Militia
Years of service	1857–1863
Rank	Brigadier general
Unit	Second Brigade, New York Militia Staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan
Battles/wars	American Civil War Peninsula campaign

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829^[b] – November 18, 1886) was the 21st president of the United States, serving from 1881 to 1885. He was a Republican lawyer from New York who previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield. Assuming the presidency after Garfield's assassination, Arthur's presidency saw the largest expansion of the U.S. Navy, the end of the so-called "spoils system", and the implementation of harsher restrictions for migrants entering from abroad.

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.^[4] 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."^[5] 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."^[6] Mark Twain wrote of him, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."^[7] Evaluations by modern historians generally rank Arthur as a mediocre or average president.^[8][9] Arthur has also been described as one of the least memorable presidents.^[10]

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