Chester Alan Arthur was born at Fairfield, Vermont, October 5, 1830. His
father, the Reverend Doctor William Arthur, was a Baptist clergyman, who
emigrated from county Antrim, Ireland, when only eighteen years of age.
He had received a thorough classical education, and was graduated from
Belfast University, one of the foremost institutions of learning in
Ireland. Marrying an American, Miss Malvina Stone, soon after his
arrival, he became the father of several children. Chester was the
eldest of two sons, having four sisters older and two younger than
himself. While fulfilling his clerical duties as the pastor,
successively, of a number of Baptist churches in New York State, Dr.
Arthur edited for several years The Antiquarian, and wrote a work on
Family Names, which is highly prized by genealogists. Of Scotch-Irish
descent, he was a man of great force of character, impatient of
restraint, at home in a controversy, and frank in the expression of his
opinions. He was a pronounced emancipationist, although he never
expected to see the overthrow of slavery, which it was his good fortune
to witness, as his life was spared until the twenty-seventh of October,
1875, when he died at Newtonville, near Albany. He was a personal friend
of Gerrit Smith, and they had participated in the organization of the
New York State Anti-Slavery Society, which was dispersed by a mob during
its first meeting at Utica, on the twenty-first of October, 1835 (the
day on which William Lloyd Garrison was mobbed in Boston, and was lodged
in jail for his own protection). A friend of the slave from conscience
and from conviction, Dr. Arthur was never backward in expressing his
convictions, and his children imbibed his teachings.
When a lad, young Arthur enjoyed at home the tutelage of his father,
whose thorough knowledge of the classics enabled him to lay the
foundation of his son's future education broad and deep. He entered
Union College in 1845, when only fifteen years of age. His collegiate
course was full of promise, and every successive year he was declared to
be one of those who had taken "maximum honors," although he was
compelled to absent himself during two winters, when he taught school to
earn the requisite funds for defraying his expenses, without drawing
upon his father's means. Yet he kept up with his class, and when he was
graduated in 1848, he was one of six out of a class of over one hundred,
who were elected members of the Phi Beta Kappa, an honor only conferred
on the best scholars.
Following the natural inclination of his mind, young Arthur began the
study of law, supporting himself by teaching and by preparing boys for
college. It so happened that two years after he was the preceptor of an
academy at North Pownal, Vermont, a student from Williams College, named
James A. Garfield, came there and taught penmanship in the same academy
for several months.
In 1853, young Arthur went to New York City, by the invitation of the
Honorable Erastus D. Culver, whose acquaintance he had made when that
gentleman represented the Washington County district, and Dr. Arthur was
the pastor of the Baptist Church at Greenwich. Mr. Culver had been noted
in Congress as an advanced, anti-slavery man, and he was prompted to
take an interest in the son of a clergyman-constituent, who did not fear
to express anti-slavery sentiments, at a time when the occupants of
pulpits were generally so conservative that they were dumb upon this
important question. Before the close of the year, young Arthur displayed
such legal ability and business tact, that he was admitted into
partnership, and became a member of the firm of Culver, Parker, and
Arthur. The firm had numerous clients, and the junior partner soon
became a successful practitioner, uniting to a thorough knowledge of the
law a vigorous understanding and an untiring industry which gained for
him an enviable reputation.
Among other cases on the docket of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, was one
known as the Lemon slave-case. A Virginian named Jonathan Lemon
undertook to take eight slaves to Texas on steamers, by the way of New
York. While in that city a writ of _habeas corpus_ was issued, and the
slaves were brought into the court before Judge Elijah Paine; Mr. Culver
and John Jay appearing for the slaves, while H.D. Lapaugh and Henry L.
Clifton were retained by Lemon. Judge Paine, after hearing long
arguments, declared that the fugitive slave law did not apply to slaves
who were brought by their masters into a free State, and he ordered
their release. The Legislature of Virginia directed the attorney-general
of that State to employ counsel to appeal from Judge Paine's decision to
the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Mr. Arthur, who was the
attorney of record in the case for the people, went to Albany, and after
earnest efforts procured the passage of a joint resolution, requesting
the governor to employ counsel to defend the interests of the State.
Attorney-General Hoffman, E.D. Culver, and Joseph Blunt were appointed
by the governor as counsel, and Mr. Arthur as the State's attorney. The
Supreme Court sustained Judge Paine's decision. The slave-holder,
unwilling to lose his "property," then engaged Charles O'Conor to argue
the case before the State Court of Appeals. There the counsel for the
State were again successful in defending the decision of Judge Paine,
and from that day no slave-holder dared to bring his slaves into the
city of New York.
Mr. Arthur, who had naturally taken a prominent part in this case, was
regarded by the colored people of New York as a champion of their
interests, and it was not long before they sought his aid. At that time,
colored people were not permitted to ride in the street-cars in New York
City, with the exception of a few old and shabby cars set aside for
their occupation. The Fourth-avenue line permitted them to ride when no
other passenger made objection.
One Sunday, in 1855, Lizzie Jennings, a colored woman, returning from
having fulfilled her duties as superintendent of a colored
Sunday-school, entered a Fourth-avenue car, and the conductor took her
fare. Soon after, a drunken white man objected to her presence, and
insisted that she be made to leave the car. The conductor pulled the
bell, and when the car stopped, told her that she must get out, offering
to return her fare. She refused, and the conductor then offered to put
her off by force. She made vigorous resistance, exclaiming: "I have paid
my fare, and I have a right to ride." Finally, the conductor called in
several policemen, and, by their joint efforts, she was removed from the
car, her clothing having nearly all been torn from her in the struggle.
When the leading colored people of the city heard of this, they sent a
committee to the office of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, and requested
them to make it a test case.
Mr. Arthur brought suit against the railroad company for Miss Jennings,
in the Supreme Court, at Brooklyn. The case came on for trial before
Judge Rockwell, who then sat upon the bench there. He had just decided,
in a previous case, that a corporation was not liable for the wrongful
acts of its agent or servant, and when Mr. Arthur handed him the
pleadings, he said that the railroad company was not liable, and was
about to order a nonsuit. Mr. Arthur called his attention, however, to a
recently revised section of the Revised Statutes, making certain
railroad corporations which carried passengers liable for the acts of
their conductors and drivers, whether wilful or negligent, under which
the action had been brought. The judge was silenced, the case was tried,
and the jury rendered a verdict of five hundred dollars damages in favor
of the colored woman. The railroad company paid the money without
further contest, and issued orders to its conductors to permit colored
people to ride in its cars, an example that was followed by all the
other street railroads in New York. The colored people, especially "The
Colored People's Legal Rights Association," were very grateful to Mr.
Arthur, and for years afterward they celebrated the anniversary of the
day on which he won the case that asserted their rights in public
conveyances.
When a lad, young Arthur had always taken a great interest in politics,
and it is related of him that during the Clay-Polk campaign of 1844,
while he and some of his companions were raising an ash pole in honor of
Harry Clay, they were attacked by some Democratic boys, when young
Arthur, who was the leader of the party, ordered a charge, and drove the
young Democrats from the field with sore heads and subdued spirits. His
first vote was cast in 1852 for Winfield Scott for President, and he
identified himself with the Whigs of his ward when he located in New
York City. In those days the best citizens served as inspectors of
elections at the polls, and for some years Mr. Arthur served in that
capacity at a voting-place in a carpenter's shop, which occupied the
site of the present Fifth Avenue Hotel. When, in 1856, the Republican
party was formed, Mr. Arthur was a prominent member of the Young Men's
Vigilance Committee, which advocated the election of Fremont and Dayton.
It was during this campaign that he became acquainted with Edwin D.
Morgan, and gained his ardent life-long friendship.
Animated by a military spirit, Mr. Arthur sought recreation by joining
the volunteer militia of New York, and he was appointed
judge-advocate-general on the staff of Brigadier-General Yates, who
commanded the second brigade. The general was a strict disciplinarian,
and required his field, line, and staff officers to meet weekly for
drill and instruction. Mr. Arthur thus acquired the rudiments of a
military education, and became acquainted with many of those who
afterwards distinguished themselves as officers in the volunteer army of
the Union.
General Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon, of
Fredericksburg, Virginia, a daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon,
of the United States Navy, who had gained honorable distinction when in
command of the naval expedition sent to explore the river Amazon. His
heroic death, in 1857, is recorded in history among those "names which
will never be forgotten as long as there is remembrance in the world for
fidelity unto death." In command of the steamer Central America, which
went down, with a loss of three hundred and sixty lives, he stood at his
post on the wheelhouse, and succeeded in having the women and children
safely transferred to the boats, remaining himself to perish with his
vessel. General Sherman has characterized this grand deed of unselfish
devotion as the most heroic incident in our naval history. Mrs. Arthur
was a lady of the highest culture, and in the varied relations of
life--wife, mother, friend--she illustrated all that gives to womanhood
its highest charm, and commands for it the purest homage. She died in
1880, after an illness of but three days, leaving a son and a daughter,
with a large number of mourning friends, not only in society, of which
she was an ornament, but among the poor and the distressed, whose wants
and whose sufferings she had tenderly cared for.
When the Honorable Edward D. Morgan was elected Governor of the State of
New York, he appointed Mr. Arthur engineer-in-chief on his staff, and
when Fort Sumter was fired upon, the governor telegraphed to him to go
to Albany, where he received orders to act as state
quartermaster-general in the city of New York. General Arthur at once
began to organize regiments,--uniform, arm, and equip them,--and send
them to the defence of the capital. His capacity for leadership and
organization was soon manifest. There was no lack of men or of money,
but it needed organizing powers like his to mould them into disciplined
form, to grasp the new issues with a master-hand, and to infuse
earnestness and obedience into the citizens, suddenly transformed into
soldiers. His accounts were kept in accordance with the army
regulations, and their subsequent settlement with the United States,
without deduction for unwarranted charges, was an easy task. It was by
his exertions, to a great extent, that the Empire State was enabled to
send to the front six hundred and ninety thousand men, nearly one fifth
of the Grand Army of the Union.
There were, of course, many adventurers who sought commissions, and some
of the regiments were recruited from the rough element of city life, who
soon refused to obey their officers. General Arthur made short work of
these cases, exercising an authority which no one dared to dispute.
Neither would he permit the army contractors to ingratiate themselves
with him by presents, returning everything thus sent him. Although a
comparatively poor man when he entered upon the duties of
quartermaster-general at New York, he was far poorer when he gave up the
office. A friend describing his course at this period, says: "So jealous
was he of his integrity, that I have known instances where he could have
made thousands of dollars legitimately, and yet he refused to do it on
the ground that he was a public officer and meant to be, like Caesar's
wife, above suspicion."
When the rebel ironclad steamer Merrimac had commenced her work of
destruction near Fortress Monroe, General Arthur, as engineer-in-chief,
took efficient steps for the defence of New York, and made a thorough
inspection of all the forts and defences in the State, describing the
armament of each one. His report to the Legislature, submitted to that
body in a little more than three weeks after his attention was called to
the subject by Governor Morgan, was thus noticed editorially in the New
York Herald of January 25, 1862:--
"The report of the engineer-in-chief, General Arthur, which appeared in
yesterday's Herald, is one of the most important and valuable documents
that have been this year presented to our Legislature. It deserves
perusal, not only on account of the careful analysis it contains of the
condition of the forts, but because the recommendations, with which it
closes, coincide precisely with the wishes of the administration with
respect to securing a full and complete defence of the entire Northern
coast."
Governor Morgan appointed General Arthur state inspector-general in
February, 1862, and ordered him to visit and inspect the New York troops
in the army of the Potomac. While there, as an advance on Richmond was
daily expected, he volunteered for duty on the staff of his friend,
Major-General Hunt, commander of the Reserve Artillery. He had
previously, when four fine volunteer regiments had been organized under
the auspices of the metropolitan police commissioners of of the city of
New York, and consolidated into what was known as the "Metropolitan
Brigade," been offered the command of it by the colonels of the
regiments, but on making formal application, based on a desire to see
active service in the field, Governor Morgan was unwilling that he
should accept, stating that he could not be spared from the service of
the State, and that while he appreciated General Arthur's desire for
war-service, he knew that he would render the country more efficient aid
for the Union cause by remaining at his State post of duty.
When, in June, 1862, the situation had an unfavorable appearance, and
there were apprehensions that a general draft would be necessary,
Governor Morgan telegraphed General Arthur, then with the Army of the
Potomac, to return to New York. The General did so, and was requested,
on his arrival, to act as secretary at a confidential meeting of the
governors of loyal States, held at the Astor House, on the twenty-eighth
of July, 1862. After a full and frank discussion of the condition of
affairs in their respective States, the governors united in a request to
the President to call for more troops. President Lincoln, on the first
of July, issued a proclamation, thanking the governors for their
patriotism, and calling for three hundred thousand three-years
volunteers, and three hundred thousand nine-months militia-men. Private
intimation that such a call was to be issued would have enabled army
contractors to have made millions; but the secret was honorably kept by
all until after the issue of the proclamation. The quota of New York was
59,705 volunteers, or sixty regiments, and it was desirable that they
should be recruited and sent to the front without delay. General Arthur,
by special request of Governor Morgan, resumed his duties as
quartermaster-general and established a system of recruiting and
officering the new levies, which proved wonderfully successful. In his
annual report, made to the governor on the twenty-seventh of January,
1863, he said:--
"In summing up the operations of the department during the last levy of
troops, I need only state as the result the fact that through the single
office and clothing department of this department in the city of New
York, from August 1 to December 1, the space of four months, there were
completely clothed, uniformed, and equipped, supplied with camp and
garrison equipage, and transported from this State to the seat of war,
sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four
battalions and ten batteries of artillery."
In December, 1863, the incoming of the Democratic state administration
deprived General Arthur of his office. His successor,
Quartermaster-General Talcott, in a report to Governor Seymour, paid the
following just tribute to his predecessor:--
"I found, upon entering on the discharge of my duties, a well-organized
system of labor and accountability, for which the State is chiefly
indebted to my predecessor, General Chester A. Arthur, who, by his
practical good sense and unremitting exertion, at a period when
everything was in confusion, reduced the operations of the department to
a matured plan by which large amounts of money were saved to the
government, and great economy of time secured in carrying out the
details of the same."
Resuming his professional duties, at first in partnership with Mr.
Gardiner and afterward alone, he became counsel to the city department
of taxes and assessments, with an annual salary of ten thousand dollars,
but he abruptly resigned the position when the Tammany Hall city
officials attempted to coerce the Republicans connected with the
municipal departments.
When the next presidential election drew near, General Arthur entered
enthusiastically into the support of General Grant, and was made
chairman of the Grant Central Club, of New York. He also served as
chairman of the executive committee of the Republican State Committee of
New York. In 1871, he formed the afterwards well-known firm of Arthur,
Phelps, Knevals, and Ransom.
President Grant, without solicitation and unexpectedly, appointed
General Arthur collector of the port of New York, on the twentieth of
November, 1871. He accepted the position with much hesitation, but it
met with the general approval of the business community, many of the
merchants having become personally acquainted with his business ability
during the war. He instituted many reforms in the management of the
custom-house, all calculated to simplify the business and to divest it,
to a great extent, of all the details and routine so vexatious to the
mercantile classes. The number of his removals during his administration
was far less than during the rule of any other collector since 1857, and
the expense of collecting the duties was far less than it had been for
years. So satisfactory was his management of the custom-house, that,
upon the close of his term of service, December, 1875, he was
renominated by President Grant. The nomination was unanimously confirmed
by the Senate without reference to a committee, a compliment very rarely
paid, except to ex-senators. He was the first collector of the port of
New York, with one or two exceptions, who in fifty years ever held the
office for more than the whole term of four years.
Two years later General Arthur was superseded as collector by General
Merritt. The Honorable John Sherman, secretary of the treasury, on being
questioned as to the cause of the removal of General Arthur as collector
of customs at New York, said:--
"I have never said one word impugning General Arthur's honor or
integrity as a man and a gentleman, but he was not in harmony with the
views of the administration in the management of the custom-house. I
would vote for him for Vice-President a million times before I would
vote for W.H. English, with whom I served in Congress."
General Arthur, in a letter written by him to Secretary Sherman, on his
administration of the New York custom-house, said:--
"The essential elements of a correct civil service I understand to be:
First, permanance in office, which, of course, prevents removals, except
for cause. Second, promotion from the lower to the higher grades, based
upon good conduct and efficiency. Third, prompt and thorough
investigation of all complaints and prompt punishment of all misconduct.
In this respect I challenge comparison with any department of the
Government, either under the present or under any past national
administration. I am prepared to demonstrate the truth of this statement
on any fair investigation."
Appended to this letter was a table in which General Arthur showed that
during the six years he had managed the office the yearly percentage of
removals for all causes had been only two and three-quarters per cent.
against an annual average of twenty-eight per cent. under his three
immediate predecessors, and an annual average of about twenty-four per
cent. since 1857, when Collector Schell took office. Out of nine hundred
and twenty-three persons who held office when he became collector on
December 1, 1871, there were five hundred and thirty-one still in office
on May 1, 1877, having been retained during his entire term. Concerning
promotions, the statistics of the office show that during his entire
term the uniform practice was to advance men from the lower to the
higher grades, and almost without exception on the recommendation of
heads of departments. All the appointments, excepting two, to the one
hundred positions paying two thousand dollars salary a year, and over,
were made on this method.
Senator George K. Edmunds, at a ratification meeting, held in
Burlington, Vermont, on the twenty-second of June, 1880, said:--
"I have long known General Arthur. The only serious difficulty I have
had with the present administration was when it proposed to remove him
from the collectorship of New York. No one questioned his personal honor
and integrity. I resisted the attempt to the utmost. Since that time it
has turned out that all the reforms suggested had long before been
recommended by General Arthur himself, and pigeonholded at Washington."
Meanwhile General Arthur had rendered great services as a member, and
subsequently a chairman, of the Republican State Committee, and had
united his party from one success to another through all the mazes and
intricacies which characterize the politics of New York City.
Vice-President Wheeler said of him:--
"It is my good fortune to know well General Arthur, the nominee for
Vice-President. In unsullied character and in devotion to the principles
of the Republican party no man in the organization surpasses him. No man
has contributed more of time and means to advance the just interests of
the Republican party."
The National Republican Convention, which assembled at Chicago, in June,
1880, was an exemplification of the popular will. The respective friends
of General Grant and of Mr. Blaine, equally confident of success,
indulged during a night's session in prolonged demonstrations of
applause when the candidates were presented that were unprecedented and
that will not probably ever be repeated. Neither side was successful
until the thirty-sixth ballot, when the nomination of President was
finally bestowed on General Garfield, who had, as a delegate from Ohio,
eloquently presented the name of John Sherman as a candidate.
The convention then adjourned for dinner and for consultation. When it
reassembled in the evening, the roll of States was called for the
nomination for Vice-President. California presented E.B. Washburne;
Connecticut, ex-Governor Jewell; Florida, Judge Settle; Tennessee,
Horace Maynard. These successive names attracted little attention, but
when ex-Lieutenant-Governor Woodford, of New York, rose, and, after a
brief reference to the loyal support which New York had given to General
Grant, presented the name of General Chester A. Arthur for the second
place on the ticket, it was received with applause and enthusiasm. The
nomination was seconded by ex-Governor Denison, of Ohio, Emory A.
Storrs, of Illinois, and John Cessna, of Pennsylvania. A vote was then
taken with the following result: Arthur, 468; Washburne, 19; Maynard,
30; Jewell, 44; Bruce, 8; Davis, 2; and Woodford, 1. The nomination of
General Arthur was then made unanimous, and a committee of one from each
State, with the presiding officer of the convention, Senator Hoar, as
chairman, was appointed to notify General Garfield and General Arthur of
their nomination. The convention then adjourned _sine die_.
Returning to New York, General Arthur was welcomed by a large and
influential gathering of Republicans, who greeted him with hearty
cheers. That night he was serenaded by a large procession of
Republicans, which assembled in Union Square and marched past his
residence in Lexington Avenue, with music and fireworks. A few weeks
later, a letter was addressed to him, signed by Hamilton Fish, Noah
Davis, and upwards of a hundred other prominent Republicans, inviting
him to dine with them at the Union League Club, and stating that, in
common with all true Republicans, they rejoiced at the happy issue of
the earnest struggle in the Chicago convention. They hailed the general
approval of its work as an auspicious omen, and looked forward
confidently to the labors of the canvass. They felt an especial and
personal gratification in the fact that the ticket selected at Chicago
bore his name. His faithfulness in public duties, his firmness and
sagacity in political affairs, so well understood by his fellow-citizens
in New York, had met with national recognition and won for him this
well-deserved honor. Their efforts in his support would be prompted, not
only by personal zeal and enthusiasm, but by the warmth and zeal of
strong personal friendship and esteem. That they might have an
opportunity more fully to express to him their sincere congratulations
and hearty good wishes, they invited him to meet them at dinner at the
Union League Club.
General Arthur, in acknowledging the receipt of this letter, expressed
his sense of the kindness which had prompted both the invitation itself
and the flattering assurances of confidence and regard by which it was
accompanied. If circumstances had permitted, he should have been pleased
to have accepted the proffered hospitality, and for that purpose no more
congenial spot could have been selected than the headquarters of the
Union League Club, an association so widely famed for its patriotic zeal
and energy, and so efficient in the support of the principles and policy
of the Republican party. He was constrained, however, from
considerations of a private nature known to many, to decline the
invitation.
On the fifteenth of July, 1880, General Arthur formally accepted the
position assigned to him by the Chicago convention, and expressed at
length his own personal views on the election laws, public service
appointments, the financial problems of the day, common schools, the
tariff, national improvements, and a Republican ascendency, saying, in
conclusion, that he did not doubt that success awaited the Republican
party, and that its triumph would assure a just, economical, and
patriotic administration.
The political campaign of 1880 was earnestly contested by the great
political parties. The Republicans were victorious, and their ticket
bearing the names of Garfield and Arthur was triumphantly elected. On
the fourth of March, 1881, General Arthur took the oath of office in the
Senate Chamber as Vice-President of the United States, and half an hour
later General Garfield was inaugurated on a platform before the east
front of the Capitol, in the presence of the imposing military and civil
procession which had escorted him with music and banners. When the
ceremony was concluded, the distinguished personages around the new
President tendered their congratulations, the assembled multitude
cheered, and a salute fired by a light battery stationed near by was
echoed by the guns at the navy yard, the arsenal, and the forts around
the metropolis.
Republicans congratulated each other on the indications of a vigorous
administration, governed by a conscientious determination to promote
harmony. But a few months had elapsed, however, before President
Garfield was cruelly assassinated, in the full vigor of his manhood, and
the Republican party was at first stricken with apprehensions. These
gloomy doubts, however, soon disappeared as the incidents of Mr.
Arthur's patriotic and useful life were recalled, and a generous
confidence was soon extended to the new President.
President Arthur took the oath of office in New York immediately after
the death of General Garfield, and he repeated it in the Capitol on the
twenty-second of September, in the Vice-President's room. The members of
General Garfield's cabinet, who had been requested by his successor to
continue for the present in charge of their respective departments, were
present, with General Sherman in full uniform, ex-Presidents Hayes and
Grant, and Chief Justice Waite in his judicial robes, escorted by
Associate Justices Harlan and Matthews. There were, also, present
Senators Anthony, Sherman, Edmunds, Hale, Blair, Dawes, and Jones, of
Nevada, and Representatives Amos Townsend, McCook, Errett, Randall,
Hiscock, and Thomas. Ex-Vice-President Hamlin, of Maine, and Speaker
Sharpe, of New York, were also present.
When President Arthur entered the room, escorted by General Grant and
Senator Jones, he advanced to a small table, on which was a Bible, and
behind which stood the Chief Justice, who raised the sacred volume,
opened it, and presented it to the President, who placed his right hand
upon it. Chief Justice Waite then slowly administered the oath, and at
its conclusion the President kissed the book, responding, "I will, so
help me God." He then read the following address:--