ARTHUR 



ARTHUR 



In the campaign that followed there was 

 much bitterness and charges and counter- 

 charges filled the air. The political issues 

 were subordinated to the personalities of the 

 candidates. The results of the election are 

 summarized below: 



In 1881, the year that both Garfield and 

 Arthur were inaugurated, immigration broke 

 all records. In the next year there were 788,992 

 arrivals, more than in any year till 1903, and 

 more than in several years since then. 



The Northern Pacific, the second of Amer- 



RESULT IN ELECTORAL COLLEGE 



VOTE 



Arthur, defeated for the nomination, gave 

 his support to Elaine, although the two men 

 had been political foes for years. At the end 

 of his term Arthur retired to New York City, 

 where he died on November 18, 1886. 



Other Items of Interest. When President 

 Arthur signed the bill making Alaska a terri- 

 tory, that region was still thought of as 

 "Seward's Folly." It then had only 400 whites 

 in its population; in 1910 it had increased to 

 over 36,000. 



The two-cent postage rate at first applied 

 only to letters of a half-ounce or less. In the 

 next administration the limit was made one 

 ounce, as it stands now. The reduction from 

 three cents did not lessen the post office reve- 

 nues, even in the first year. 



Another venture of President Arthur's Post- 

 office Department was the introduction of 

 postal notes, which were abandoned in 1894. 



ica's transcontinental railroads, was completed 

 in 1883. 



While Arthur was Vice-President his party 

 had a bare majority in the lower house and 

 depended on his own vote in the Senate. 

 After the elections of 1882 there was a Demo- 

 cratic majority of more than eighty in the 

 House and a Republican majority of four in 

 the Senate. 



President Arthur was tall and well-formed, a 

 man of such distinguished presence as to be 

 noteworthy in any assemblage. 



His friends and family were devoted to him, 

 and his kindly, affable manner won him the 

 enthusiastic regard of those who knew him less 

 well. 



He took the oath of office as President in his 

 own home on Lexington Avenue, New York 

 City, but later he repeated it in the Vice- 

 President's room of the Capitol at Washington. 



