Chester Allan Arthur's career, like that of thousands of other
Americans, illustrates the truth that wealth, high social position and
all the advantages with which fortune and affection can surround the
young are not essential to their success and prosperity in professional,
business or public life. In fact, too often they tend to enervate both
mind and body, and thus prove in reality obstacles to attaining true and
worthy manhood.
Mr. Arthur, like Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and others who preceded him in
the presidential office, hewed his own way upward and onward from a
discouraging beginning.
He was born in Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont, October 5th, 1830.
He was the eldest son of the Rev. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman,
having a large family and a modest income. The Rev. Mr. Arthur was born
in Ireland, and came to this country when eighteen years of age. He is
remembered as a man of great force of character, sturdy piety and a
faithful and earnest Christian minister. He had few worldly benefits to
bestow upon his children, but he implanted deep into their minds
principles governing their actions which were never effaced.
As a lad, Mr. Arthur was trained in the public schools accessible to
him, and by his father's aid, fitted himself for college, entering Union
when fifteen years old, and graduating with high honors in 1848. The
Hon. Frederick W. Seward, who was in the class next below young Arthur,
says of his school days: "Chet, as we all called him, was the most
popular boy in his class. He was always genial and cheerful, a good
scholar, and apt in debate." To aid in defraying his expenses, Chester
taught country schools during parts of two winters, but kept pace with
his class while absent, showing his independence of spirit, and his zeal
to acquire an education.
Mr. Arthur's preference turned toward the law, and after a course in
Fowler's law school at Ballston, he went to New York city; became a law
student in the office of Erastus D. Culver, and was admitted to the bar
in 1852. Mr. Culver showed his confidence in his promising student by
taking him into partnership. Mr. Culver was soon elected civil judge of
Brooklyn, and the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Arthur then formed a
partnership with Henry D. Gardiner, with a view to practicing in some
growing Western city. The young lawyers went West and spent three months
in prospecting for a locality to suit their taste, but not finding it,
they returned to New York, hired an office, and before long had a good
business. The most noted cases in which Mr. Arthur appeared in his early
career as a lawyer, were the Lemmon slave case, and the suit of Lizzie
Jennings, a fugitive slave, whose liberty he secured, and a colored
lady, a superintendent of a Sunday-School for colored children, who was
ejected from a Fourth Avenue horse-car, after her fare had been accepted
by the conductor, because a white passenger objected to her presence.
In the first case he was largely instrumental in establishing a
precedent, setting forth the theory that slaves brought into free
territory, were at liberty. In the second case, he obtained a verdict of
$500.00 damages in favor of the colored woman as against the company.
The establishment of this precedent caused the street railroad companies
of the city to issue an order that colored persons should be allowed to
travel in their cars. Thus did Chester A. Arthur obtain equal civil
rights for negroes in public vehicles.
In 1859 he married Miss Ellen Lewis Herndon, of Fredericksburg,
Virginia; daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon, United States Navy,
who went bravely to his death in 1857, sinking with his ship, the
Central America, refusing to leave his post of duty, though he helped
secure the safety of others. Mrs. Arthur was a devoted wife, and a woman
of many accomplishments. She died in January, 1880, and lies buried in
the Albany Rural Cemetery.
Mr. Arthur took a lively interest in politics, and was first a Henry
Clay Whig, but later helped to form the Republican party. He held
several offices in the militia prior to 1860, and when Edwin D. Morgan
became governor of the State in 1860, he made Mr. Arthur a member of his
staff, promoting him from one position to another until he became
quarter-master general. The duties of this post were most arduous and
exacting. To promptly equip, supply and forward the thousands of troops
sent to the front to defend the Union was a task demanding the highest
executive ability and rare organizing skill, besides the greatest
precision in receiving, disbursing and accounting for the public funds.
Millions of dollars passed through his hands; he had the letting of
enormous contracts, and opportunities, without number, by which he
might have enriched himself. But he was true to himself and to his
trust. So implicit was the confidence reposed in him that his accounts
were audited at Washington without question or deduction, though the
claims of many States were disallowed, to the extent of millions. He
left the office poorer than when he entered it, but with the proud
satisfaction of knowing that all the world esteemed him as an honest
man.
From 1863 to 1871 General Arthur successfully engaged in the practice of
law in New York. November 20th, 1871, he was appointed collector of the
port of New York, and re-appointed in 1875. The second appointment was
confirmed by the Senate without reference to a committee, the usual
course, the fact being highly complimentary, and testifying to the high
opinion held by the Senate regarding his official record. He was
suspended by President Hayes, though no reflection upon his official
conduct was made. He again returned to the practice of law, though
taking an energetic part in politics, serving several years as chairman
of the Republican State Committee. General Arthur, in the campaign of
1880, was an ardent supporter of Grant before the National Convention,
being one of the famous "306" who voted for Grant to the last.
His nomination for Vice President was as much a surprise as that of
Garfield for the first place on the ticket. He had not been mentioned as
a candidate, and his own delegation had not thought of presenting his
name until the roll was called in the Convention. When New York was
reached in the call the delegation asked to be excused from voting for a
time. Then General Stewart L. Woodford cast the vote for Arthur. The
tide quickly turned. The Ohio men were disposed to be conciliatory, and
swung over to Arthur, who was nominated on the first ballot. The
incidents that followed the inauguration of Garfield and himself as
President and Vice-President; the unhappy differences that led to the
resignation of Senators Conkling and Platt; the strife over the election
of their successors; the assassination and death of President Garfield,
and the accession to the presidency of General Arthur. These form a
chapter in our political history, with the details of which we are all
familiar, and are not likely to soon be forgotten.
It was under the most unfavorable circumstances that Chester A. Arthur
assumed the office of President; the people's passion over the death of
the second President of the United States, to fall by an assassin's
hand, was intense; factional feeling in his own party was bitter and
apparently irreconcilable; when the popular mind was filled with
dreadful forebodings as to the future; but he exhibited a gravity, a
reticence, an affability, and a firmness which commanded the respect of
conservative men of all parties. Not only was he the most
successful--perhaps the only successful--Vice-President elevated to the
Presidency by the death of the President, but he is worthy to be counted
among the most serviceable of the Presidents.
Peace and prosperity were promoted by his administration. Ex-President
Chester A. Arthur died at his residence in New York city, November 18th,
1886. He leaves as surviving members of his family two children, Chester
Allan, a young man of twenty-two years, and Miss Nellie, just budding
into womanhood. At the age of fifty-six, without elaborate display, he
was quietly laid beside his wife in Rural Cemetery.