ARTHUR 



393 



ARTHUR 



lieutenants. Through the tragic death of Gar- 

 field, Arthur became President. 



Previously, even as Vice-President, he had 

 won an unenviable reputation for his activity 

 in partisan politics, and he was commonly con- 

 sidered a clever lawyer and politician who was 

 working chiefly for his own interests. To his 

 credit, however, stands the record of his Presi- 

 dential administration, for the new responsi- 

 bilities thrust upon him worked a great change- 

 in his character. Though his term was not 

 marked by brilliance or events of dramatic 

 significance, Arthur proved himself one of the 

 fairest, most honest and fearless of Presidents. 

 So clear is the division in his career that his 

 life is best treated in two sections. 



Early Life and Rise to Power. Chester Alan 

 Arthur was born on October 5, 1830, at Fair- 

 field, Vt. William Arthur (1796-1875), his 

 father, a native of County Antrim, Ireland, 

 was a teacher and Baptist minister who seemed 

 unable to remain for long in any community; 

 he lived at various times in Vermont and in 

 Quebec. These family wanderings nearly cost 

 his son the Presidency, for in 1880 it was 

 charged that Arthur was really born in Canada. 

 It is now evident, however, that Fairfield was 

 his birthplace. His mother was an American, 

 Malvina Stone, who was living in Canada 

 when she met and married William Arthur. 



Young Chester seems to have suffered noth- 

 ing from the family wanderings, and at the 

 age of fifteen entered Union College, Schenec- 

 tady, N. Y., as a sophomore. After his gradua- 

 tion with honors in 1848, he taught school for 

 several years, using all his spare time to study 

 law. In 1853 he entered a law office in New 

 York City, and within the next six or seven 

 years won for himself a leading position at 

 the bar. He was associate counsel for the 

 state in the Lemmon case, in which the state 

 courts held that negro slaves brought into 

 New York, even while on the way from one 

 slave state to another, became free as soon 

 as they set foot in New York. In another 

 famous case he won equal rights for negroes 

 and whites in the street cars of New York City. 



For two decades he was a successful prac- 

 . lawyer, and at the same time was active 

 "lic-aii politics. During the first two 

 years of th \Y ir of Secession h r. mlcred 

 excellent service as inspector and 



quartermaster . f the New York troops. 



After the war h nmtinued his political activi- 

 ties, worked for the election of Grant to ih. 

 Presidency, and was rewarded in 1871 with the 



position of collector of the port of New York. 

 The customs service was honeycombed with 

 dishonesty and inefficiency; appointment to it 

 was usually a reward for votes delivered at a 

 previous election. General Arthur was opposed 

 to civil service reform, and managed his office 

 according to the time-honored principle, "To 

 the victors belong the spoils." It is true, how- 

 ever, that Arthur made fewer removals and 

 appointments for political reasons than any 

 of his immediate predecessors, and his busi- 

 ness management was never questioned. 



When President Hayes in 1877 undertook the 

 reform of the civil service he began with the 

 New York Customs House. The report of 

 an investigating commission recommended 

 numerous changes in its organization, and 

 President Hayes demanded the resignation of 

 Arthur and his two principal subordinates. 

 Although Arthur admitted the existence of the 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 



I'tcsi.i) nt. who by the assassination of 

 President Jamea A. GarfteM. I ....nu the fourth 

 sldeift of the United States. 



he refused to resign because he frit n<> 

 personal guilt. Tin- abuses were the result, he 

 claim. -.1, of a system for winch h- should not. 



' Manic. Arthur w:is vigorously de- 

 fended by Senator Conkling, but during a 

 recess of the Senate he was removed by the 

 President, on July 11, 1878. Early in 1879 this 

 action was approved by the Senate, after vio- 

 lent controversy. 



