Ches-ter Al-an Ar-thur was born in Fair-field, Ver-mont, on Oc-to-ber
5th, 1830, and his fath-er had charge of the church in that place and
was one of the first men to speak for the poor slaves. Now, in those
days, those good men did not live as well as they do now; for folks
were poor in the small towns; so this small boy was al-so born in a log
cab-in; but he was sent to good schools, and was quite young when he
knew so much that he could go to Un-ion Col-lege. All the time he was
here he paid his own way, and when he left Col-lege he taught school, so
that he could lay by means to go to New York and stud-y law. He was soon
in law prac-tise, and he and an old school-mate made the name of their
firm well known. Ar-thur took the part of the black race, just as his
fa-ther had done, and in 1856, he won a suit which let the ne-groes ride
in horse-cars with the whites. A slave-girl had been put off a car and
Ar-thur took up her case and won it. For some years he held high of-fice
in the state of New York and was a gen-er-al in the Civ-il War; he was
not in the fights, but saw that the troops had clothes and food; he did
this hard task so well that, when the war was at an end, the pres-i-dent
gave him the best place in New York State; he was made chief of the
great port of New York and held this post for two terms.
[Illustration: CHESTER A. ARTHUR.]
In 1880 he was made vice-pres-i-dent with Gar-field as pres-i-dent; and,
of course, took the chair when Gar-field died. He held this place for
one term and then went back to his home in New York Cit-y, and took
up his law work. There was a split in his par-ty at the end of his term;
some men wished Ar-thur to run once more for pres-i-dent, but more
wished James G. Blaine of Maine; so, of course, Blaine was named. The
Dem-o-crats named Gro-ver Cleve-land; and as all the men on that side
wished this one man to win, he had the most votes; and for the first
time in a long while, the Dem-o-crats won in the race for pres-i-dent.
Two years from the time that Ar-thur came home, and right in the midst
of his law work, he died in New York Cit-y; this was on No-vem-ber 18th,
1886; and he was laid to rest in Al-ba-ny.