ARTHUR 



In the Republican national convention of 

 1880 Arthur was a delegate-at-large from New 

 York, and worked hard for the nomination of 

 General Grant for a third term. Garfield, 

 however, was nominated for President, but the 

 Grant-Conkling faction were allowed to name 

 Arthur as candidate for Vice-President (for 

 details of the campaign and election, see GAR- 

 FIELD, JAMES ABRAM). Immediately after his 

 inauguration as Vice-President Arthur sided 

 with Conkling against the President in the 

 great fight over the patronage in New York 

 (see CONKLING, ROSCOE). The assassination of 

 Garfield occurred in July; he died in Septem- 

 ber, and on September 19, 1881, Arthur became 

 President of the United States. 



The Administration of Arthur. The death 

 of Garfield at the hands of a disappointed 

 oflBcenseeker gave a new impetus to the move- 

 ment for civil service reform. A National 

 Civil Service Reform League was organized 

 under the presidency of George William Curtis, 

 and in 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton 

 Civil Service Act, which provided for a classi- 

 fied list of government employees and promo- 

 tion after competitive examination. Though 

 previously an advocate of the spoils system, 

 President Arthur gave the new system his 

 earnest support. 



The Tariff. For a decade after 1879 the 

 United States had a steadily-growing surplus 

 in the treasury. This condition led first to 

 extravagant and wasteful appropriations, such 

 as the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1882, which 

 Congress passed over the President's veto. 

 This bill appropriated about $18,000,000 for 

 "improvements" which were nothing more or 

 less than sops handed to the voters of certain 

 districts to influence the reelection of Repre- 

 sentatives. The second effect of the surplus 

 was to strengthen the demand for tariff reduc- 

 tion. The report of a preliminary commission 

 recommended a reduction in duties of twenty 

 to twenty-five per cent, but the law of 1883, 

 when finally approved, actually increased the 

 most important revenue-producing duties. It 

 did make large reductions in internal revenue 

 taxes, but was unsatisfactory to both parties. 



Other Legislation. Two other important laws 

 deserve consideration, the Edmunds Anti- 

 Polygamy Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act, 

 both passed in 1882. The Edmunds Act pro- 

 hibited polygamy in territories of the United 

 States, and was directed principally at Mor- 

 mons (which see). The Chinese Exclusion Act 

 was passed as the result of the agitation against 



394 ARTHUR 



cheap foreign labor, which it was claimed 

 would prevent American workmen from obtain? 

 ing a living wage. It forbade the immigration 

 of Chinese for ten years, and prohibited nat- 

 uralization of Chinamen already in the United 

 States. 



Prosperity of the South and West. The 

 industrial progress of the New South was 

 demonstrated at the Atlanta Cotton Exposi- 

 tion in 1881 and the New Orleans Cotton Cen- 

 tennial Exposition in 1884. The cotton crop 

 had increased from fewer 'than 5,000,000 bales 

 a year to more than 8,000,000, and the South 

 had also begun to raise greater quantities of 

 wheat, corn, early fruits and vegetables. There 

 was also a marked advance in manufactures, 

 and in Alabama mining suddenly became a 

 great industry. The West, too, was making 

 rapid strides, and three transcontinental rail- 

 roads were completed. Previously the Union 

 Pacific had been the only great road to the 

 Pacific coast, but now there were completed 

 the Southern Pacific in 1881, the Northern 

 Pacific in 1883, and the Atchison, Topeka & 

 Santa Fe in the same year. 



Miscellaneous Events. Arthur's administra- 

 tion was marked by at least two events whose 

 results now are taken as a matter of course 

 by every American. One of these was the 

 reduction of the postage on letters from three 

 cents to two cents an ounce; the other was 

 the adoption of the system of standard time 

 (which see)'. The Brooklyn Bridge, at the time 

 of its completion regarded as one of the 

 wonders of the world, was opened in 1883, and 

 Alaska was established as a territory in 1884. 

 An event of national importance was the or- 

 ganization of the American Red Cross Society 

 in 1881, under the presidency of Miss Clara 

 Barton. 



Presidential Campaign of 1884- President 

 Arthur did not entirely escape the consequences 

 of his long association with partisan politics in 

 New York state. His intimate friend ' and 

 Secretary of the Treasury, Charles J. Folger, 

 was defeated for governor of New York in 

 1882, largely as a protest against the methods 

 of the Republican party managers. In 1884 

 Arthur allowed his name to be presented to 

 the Republican convention, but he was easily 

 defeated by James G. Blaine. This defeat was 

 due not primarily to any faults attributed to 

 Arthuf, but rather to the ambitions of other 

 Republicans. The Democrats nominated for 

 President the governor of New York, Grover 

 Cleveland, who had defeated Folger in 1882. 



