ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN. 



while the vote against license was nearly 65,000. 

 This shows an increase in the Prohibition vote 

 of about 21,000 in the past two years the vote 

 of 1882 was less than 20,000, and that of 1884, 

 44,000. In the last election the Prohibitionists 

 carried thirty counties, and many of the more 

 ardent members are in favor of nominating a 

 full State ticket and making a strong fight for 

 the State officers. On Nov. 2 five Democratic 

 Congressmen were elected. 



Agricultural Wheel. At the invitation of the 

 President of the State Agricultural Wheel of 

 Arkansas, a conference of the State Agricult- 

 ural Wheels of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ar- 

 kansas was held at Litchfield, Ark., on the 

 28th and 29th of July. The result was the 

 formation of "The National Agricultural Wheel 

 of the United States of America," co consist of 

 delegates from the various State Agricultural 

 Wheels, and the framing of a constitution for 

 that body. The organization is secret. The 

 reasons for its formation and its objects are 

 set forth in the following preamble and ex- 

 tracts from the Constitution: 



Whereas, The general condition of our country im- 

 peratively demands unity of action on the part of 

 the laboring classes^ reformation in economy, and the 

 dissemination of principles best calculated to encour- 

 age and foster agricultural and mechanical pursuits : 



We hold to the principle that all monopolies are 

 dangerous to the best interest of our country. 



We hold to the principle that the labonng classes 

 have an inherent right to sell and buy when and 

 wherever their interests are best served, and patron- 

 ize none who dare, by word or action, oppose a just, 

 fair, and equitable exchange of the pioducts of our 

 labor. 



We denounce as unjust and unfair any set of men 

 who sell at large profits to g_ain the advantage over 

 the laboring classes, and obtain the product of their 

 labor at greatly reduced prices. 



Therefore we have formed the National Agricult- 

 ural Wheel of the United States of America, for the 

 purpose of organizing and directing the powers of the 

 industrial masses, but not as a political party. In 

 this organization are sentiments and measures for the 

 benefit of the whole people, yet it should be borne in 

 mind when exercising the right of suffrage that many 

 of the objects herein set forth can only be obtained 

 through legislation. 



The objects of the order shall be to unite fraternal- 

 ly all acceptable male persons over the age of eighteen 

 years who are engaged in the occupation of farming. 

 Also all mechanics who shall be actually engaged in 

 the pursuit of their respective trades : Provided. That 

 no proprietor of any manufacturing establishment 

 employing more than three hands shall be eligible to 

 membership ; and, provided further, there shall be 

 separate organizations for the white and colored. 



To give all possible moral and material aid in its 

 power to its members, and those depending on its 

 members, by holding instructive lectures, by encour- 

 aging each other in business, and by assisting each 

 other to obtain employment. 



The body adjourned to meet at McKenzie, 

 Tenn., on the second Tuesday of November, 

 1887, subject to the ratification of the State 

 Agricultural Wheels. 



ART. See FINE ARTS IN 1886. 



ARTHUR, Chester Alan, twenty-first President 

 of the United States, born in Fairfield, Frank- 

 lin County, Vt., Oct. 5, 1830; died in New 



York city, Nov. 18, 1886. He was the eldest 

 son, among nine children, of Rev. William Ar- 

 thur, who emigrated from Ireland at the age of 

 eighteen, published the "Antiquarian" for 

 several years, and was the author of " Family 

 Names " (New York, 1857). He was a Baptist, 

 and occupied pulpits in New York and other 

 cities. His wife was Malvina Stone, grand- 

 daughter of Uriah Stone, a New Hampshire 

 pioneer. Chester was prepared for college at 

 Union Village and at Schenectady, and en- 

 tered the sophomore class of Union College in 

 1845. He taught school during the first and 

 last years of his course, and after graduation, 

 at eighteen years of age, he fitted boys for col- 

 lege, at his home in Lansingburg, and became 

 principal of an academy at North Pownal, Vt. 

 In 1854 President Garfield, then a student at 

 Williams College, taught penmanship in this 

 academy. While teaching for a livelihood, 

 Mr. Arthur was pursuing a course of legal 

 studies, and in 1853 he went to New York 

 city and entered the office of Erastus D. Cul- 

 ver, was admitted to the bar, and became part- 

 ner in the firm of Culver, Parker, and Arthur. 

 Mr. Culver, who had been an anti-slavery 

 member of Congress, was a personal friend of 

 Dr. Arthur's, as was also Gerrit Smith ; and 

 from their recitals of the dragging through the 

 streets of Boston of William Lloyd Garrison, 

 and the indignities offered to many other anti- 

 slavery men and women, young Arthur im- 

 bibed a strong hatred to slavery and its effects. 

 He had ample opportunities to prove the 

 strength of his principles and welcomed them. 

 The first was in the famous Lemmon case, in 

 which a slaveholder named Jonathan Lem- 

 mon, wishing to take eight slaves to Texas, 

 took them first to New York from Norfolk, 

 intending to ship them thence, when Louis 

 Napoleon, a free colored man, petitioned for a 

 writ of habeas corpus, which was issued by 

 Judge Elijah Paine of the Superior Court of New 

 York city. In the trial that followed, Mr. 

 Culver and John Jay defended the slaves, and 

 H. D. Lapaugh and Henry L. Clinton ap- 

 peared for the master. The decision rendered 

 by Judge Paine was, that the slaves were made 

 free by being brought by their master into a 

 free State, and in December, 1857, the Supreme 

 Court affirmed Judge Paine's decision. Mr. 

 Arthur was an earnest friend of the slaves, 

 went to Albany to promote legislative action 

 in their behalf, and was one of their counsel, 

 William M. Evarts being also on that side 

 of the case, while Charles O'Conor was re- 

 tained by the slaveholder. Another case that 

 brought out Mr. Arthur in defense of the col- 

 ored people was in regard to the provision 

 that they should not ride in New York street- 

 cars, although no separate means of travel was 

 provided for them. One Sunday in 1855 a 

 colored woman named Lizzie Jennings, on her 

 way home from a Sunday-school, of which she 

 was superintendent, was ejected from a Fourth 

 Avenue car. Culver, Parker, and Arthur, 



