Chester Arthur was a lawyer, abolitionist, and party boss who became the 21st US president after James Garfield’s assassination. He supported civil service reform, funding for the Navy, tariff reduction, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. He died of kidney disease in 1885.
Chester Arthur was a lawyer and teacher, an abolitionist, a party boss known for taking bribes, a vice president under President James Garfield, and became the 21st American president following Garfield’s assassination. In 1884, Arthur was defeated for the Republican nomination by James G. Blaine, who had been Secretary of State under Garfield, and again under Benjamin Harrison.
Chester Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont in 1829, the son of a Baptist pastor. He attended Union College in New York and became a lawyer, working for a major New York firm. He joined the Republican Party in 1850 and in 1855 won a historic discrimination suit on behalf of an African-American woman who was forced off a streetcar.
After serving as a quartermaster general in New York during the Civil War, Chester Arthur became part of the Republican political machine of the time. In his role as Customs Collector for the Port of New York City, a post he received in 1871, Arthur was involved in upholding the patronage system and ended up being suspended by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878.
It was the patronage that led to his nomination for the vice presidency in the 1880 ballot, with James A. Garfield as the presidential candidate, but many consider Chester Arthur unqualified for the post. When Garfield was assassinated and Arthur succeeded him in September 1881, many were concerned about his ability to serve as president. So for many, his performance came as a pleasant surprise. Notable achievements of his administration include:
• Support the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which reformed the civil service (1883)
• Recommend funding to build the US Navy
• Vetoing the Rivers and Harbors Act del 1882
• Support the reduction of tariffs
• Prosecuting the prosecution in the Star Route trials
After vetoing a law that prohibited Chinese immigration for 20 years and violated a treaty with China, Chester Arthur supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which imposed a 10-year ban on Chinese immigration and barred citizenship to Chinese immigrants. He also made dramatic improvements to the decoration of the White House, where his sister was his guest, his wife having died soon after the election.
Aware that he was suffering from kidney disease which, at that time and age, was fatal, Chester Arthur did not work for the renomination. He died of Bright’s disease in 1885.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
