36 



ARNIM, HARRY VON. 



ARTHUR, CHESTER A. 



nating Jane 30, 1880, was 39,241 ; the number 

 received during the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1881, being an increase of 40 per cent over the 

 previous fiscal year, and of 147 per cent over 

 the annual average of the previous ten years. 



At the commencement of the fiscal year 6,964 

 cases remained unanswered, making 62,004 

 cases to be disposed of during the year. Search 

 was made and replies furnished to the proper 

 authorities in 40,596 of these cases, leaving 

 21,408 unanswered cases on hand on the 1st of 

 July, 1881. 



ARNIM, Count HARRY vox, ex-embassa- 

 dor of Prussia at Paris, died at Nice, May 

 19th. He was born of an influential family 

 of the Prussian aristocracy in Pomerania, in 

 1824. His uncle, who had adopted him, was 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs. He embarked in 

 a diplomatic career at an early age. In 1864 

 he first won celebrity as envoy to Rome, 

 gaining special credit by his attitude toward 

 the (Ecumenical Council. He was summoned 

 to Versailles in 1871 to aid in settling terms 

 of peace with the French, and took a leading 



art in the negotiations which resulted in the 

 reaty of Frankfort. In June, 1872, he was 

 appointed embassador to Paris. Differences 

 of opinion, which had long existed between 

 him and the German Chancellor, led to his re- 

 call and assignment to Constantinople in April, 

 1874. The publication of his Roman dis- 

 patches caused his dismissal from the service. 

 The polemical discussion to which he chal- 

 lenged Prince Bismarck was answered by his 

 prosecution and sentence to imprisonment on 

 the charge of having filched state documents 

 from the archives of the German embassy at 

 Paris. He had previously removed himselt 

 beyond the jurisdiction of the German courts. 

 A pamphlet published anonymously, in which 

 he sought to trace evidences of the personal 

 spite of the Chancellor in his former prosecu- 

 tion, led to a new indictment, and his sentence 

 to five years of penal servitude for leze-majesty 

 and insults to the Chancellor and the Foreign 

 Office. In pamphlets published in 1878 he 

 criticised in a calm and dignified tone the ag- 

 gressive policy of the German Government 

 against the Catholic Church, arguing that Prus- 

 sia should have aimed to establish a national 

 Catholic Church in Germany. In later years 

 he desired to return to Germany and stand his 

 trial for high-treason, the sentence for which 

 crime hung suspended over him; but the 

 authorities refused to appoint a new trial. 



ARTHUR, CHESTER AXAN, elected Vice- 

 President in 1880; became President of the 

 United States on the death of James A. Gar- 

 field, September 19, 1881. He was born in 

 Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont, October 

 5, 1830, the eldest of two sons of the Rev. Dr. 

 "William Arthur. He had four sisters older 

 and two younger than himself. His father, a 

 Baptist clergyman, at the age of eighteen, emi- 

 grated from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ire- 

 land. He was a graduate of Belfast University. 



Devoting himself to literature, he published 

 for several years "The Antiquarian," and was 

 the author of a work on " Family Names " 

 which displayed great erudition of a peculiar 

 kind. He was pastor of the Calvary Baptist 

 Church in Albany, New York, from 1855 to 

 1865 ; and died in Newtonville, near that city, 

 October 27, 1875. The second son, William 

 Arthur, distinguished himself in the Union 

 army during the late war, and is now a pay- 

 master in the regular army, with the rank of 

 major. A thorough course in the best schools 

 of Union Village and Schenectady, with a 

 careful training in the classics by his father, 

 enabled the President to enter Union College 

 at the early age of fifteen. He graduated high 

 in his class in 1848. He commenced the study 

 of law at Fowler's law school in Ballston Spa. 

 During his college course he supported himself 

 in part by teaching, and after his graduation 

 he continued in that occupation several years, 

 meanwhile devoting himself to the study of 

 law. In 1853 he went to New York and en- 

 tered the law-office of ex-Judge E. D. Culver, 

 was admitted to the bar the same year, and 

 began the practice of law. In 1859 he was 

 married to Ellen Lewis Ilerndon, of Fredericks- 

 burg, Virginia, a daughter of Captain William 

 Lewis Herndon, who heroically remained at 

 his post and went down with his ship, .the 

 Central America, in 1857. His widow was 

 the recipient of a gold medal, voted by Con- 

 gress, in recognition of his bravery. Mrs. Ar- 

 thur died in January, 1880, leaving two chil- 

 dren, Chester Alan, aged fifteen, and Ellen 

 Herndon, aged eight years. Mr. Arthur dis- 

 tinguished himself early in his profession as the 

 champion of the legal rights of the colored 

 race. His first notable case was the Lemmon 

 slave case, in which he was the attorney for the 

 people, William M. Evarts being the leading 

 counsel. They maintained that eight slaves, 

 with whom Jonathan Lemmon, of Virginia, at- 

 tempted to pass through New York on his way 

 to Texas, were rendered free by the act of the 

 master in voluntarily bringing them into free 

 territory. Judge Paine, before whom the case 

 was tried on a writ of habeas corpus, ordered 

 the slaves released, affirming that they could 

 not be held in servitude in New York, nor re- 

 turned to bondage under the provisions of the 

 fugitive-slave law. This decision was sus- 

 tained by the Supreme Court of New York, 

 and by the Court of Appeals, where Charles 

 O'Conor was employed by the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral of Virginia to argue the case. In 1856 

 Mr. Arthur was counsel for Lizzie Jennings, a 

 colored girl, who had been forcibly ejected 

 from a street-car in New York city, after pay- 

 ing her fare. A verdict against the company 

 was obtained, and the equal rights of colored 

 people in public vehicles established. 



Mr. Arthur early took an active interest in 

 politics as a Henry Clay Whig, and was a del- 

 egate to the convention, at Saratoga, which 

 founded the Republican party of New York. 



