Chester A. Arthur

1
Chester A. Arthur
2
Overview

• Twenty-First President
• 1881-1885
• Political Party Republican
• The A is for Alan

3
His Life

• Born October 5, 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont
• Died November 18, 1886 in New York, New York
• Married Ellen Lewis Herndon (1837-1880), on
  October 25, 1859
• Three Children
• William Lewis Herndon Arthur (1860-63)
• Chester Alan Arthur (1864-1937)
• Ellen Herndon Arthur (1871-1915)
• Religion Episcopalian
• Graduated from Union College (1848)

4
Nicknames

• "The Gentleman Boss"
• "Elegant Arthur"
• Arthur was given these nicknames because he loved
  to spend money, and have nice things.
• Disgusted with the shabby look of the White
  House, Arthur hired the most famous designer in
  New York, Louis Comfort Tiffany, to fix it up

5
Previous careers

• Teacher
• Lawyer
• Quartermaster General of New York, 1862-63
• Collector of Customs, Port of New York, 1871-78
• Vice President, 1881 (under Garfield)
• President of the United States, 1881-85

6
Political Achievements

• Domestic Policy Highlights
• Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• Tariff reduction
• Foreign Policy Highlights
• U.S. Navy expansion
• Reciprocal trade agreements

7
Honesty and Integrity

• Many people involved in the politics of the day
  predicted an enormous amount of corruption during
  Arthur's Presidency.
• Arthur ran the presidency in an honest and
  upright fashion. In fact, he showed great
  political courage by
• Vetoed graft-laden "rivers and harbors" bill
• Broke relations with his former New York
  political boss Vigorously prosecuting fellow
  Republicans accused of defrauding the government.
  
• Legislatively, though, little of any consequence
  was achieved during his term except for the
  creation of the modern Civil Service system with
  its competitive examinations and non-political
  merit system. It became law because, in another
  display of exceptional political courage, Chester
  Arthur went against the will of his own party and
  supported it.
• No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly
  and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired
  ... more generally respected

8
Cabinet

• Secretaries of State. James G. Blaine (1881)
  Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (1881-85).
• Secretaries of the Treasury. William Windom
  (1881) Charles J. Folger (1881-84) Walter Q.
  Gresham (1884) Hugh McCulloch (1884-85).
• Secretary of War. Robert T. Lincoln (1881-85).
• Attorneys General. I. Wayne MacVeagh (1881)
  Benjamin H. Brewster (1882-85).
• Secretaries of the Navy. William H. Hunt
  (1881-82) William E. Chandler (1882-85).
• Postmasters General. Thomas L. James (1881)
  Timothy O. Howe (1882-83) Walter Q. Gresham
  (1883-84) Frank Hatton (1884-85).
• Secretaries of the Interior. Samuel J. Kirkwood
  (1881-82) Henry M. Teller (1882-85).
• Appointments to the Supreme Court. Horace Gray
  (1882-1902) Samuel Blatchford (1882-93).

9
Garfield

• In July 1881, after only four months in office,
  President Garfield was mortally wounded at the
  Washington railroad station by gunfire from a
  disgruntled office seeker and died 80 days later,
  leaving Chester A. Arthur as President of the
  United States and the third President to have
  served as President within a 12 month period.

10
Other stuff

• American Red Cross established (1882)
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Immigration act bars paupers, criminals, and
  insane from United States (1882)
• First steel cruisers authorized to modernize
  United States Navy (1882)
• Star Routes postal fraud cases prosecuted (1882)
• Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
• Tariff Act (1883)
• Civil government established in Alaska (1884)

11
More Other Stuff

• A stalemated party system and a divided congress
  limited the achievements of Arthur's term. He
  prosecuted grafters in the Post Office and vetoed
  (1882) rivers and harbors legislation, but
  Congress overrode his veto. Arthur also vetoed
  (1882) a bill that restricted Chinese
  immigration, compelling the lawmakers to pass an
  improved and less harsh measure. After the
  Republicans lost the midterm congressional
  elections of 1882, Congress enacted, with
  Arthur's support, the Pendleton Law that created
  a Civil Service Commission and a classified merit
  system. His support of a lower tariff failed when
  Congress enacted the high protective tariff of
  1883.
• President Arthur could not seek a second term as
  President because he had been diagnosed as having
  kidney disease. In fact, it claimed his life
  within two years of leaving office he died in
  New York City on November 18, 1886.
• He dedicated the Washington Monument on February
  21, 1885.

12
Bibliography

• http//www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ca21.
  html
• http//www.americanpresident.org/KoTrain/Courses/C
  AA/CAA_In_Brief.htm
• http//gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/bios/21parth.h
  tml
• http//gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/bios/21parth.
  html
• http//www.paulsilhan.com/pres1.htm
• http//ipl.si.umich.edu/div/potus/jagarfield.htm
• http//www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall2/chests.htm
• http//library.thinkquest.org/12587/contents/perso
  nalities/carthur/caa.html
• http//www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall2/chests.htm
• www.generalsandbrevets.com/ ngh/hancock.htm
• http//www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/presi
  dent.asp?PresidentNumber21