geeky
Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, though he would later be accused by "birther" Arthur Hinman of being born in Canada. He was most likely born in 1829, eve though his tombstone says that he was born in 1830. Arthur grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he became active in Republican politics and quickly rose in the political machine run by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. He was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to the lucrative and politically powerful post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, but in 1878 the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York. When James Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket, even though he had never been elected to any political office. Despite being told by Conkling not to take the job, Arthur accepted and in the election of 1880, the team of Garfield and Arthur was victorious.
After just half a year as vice president, Arthur found himself, unexpectedly, in the executive mansion. Many believed that Arthur would be in the pocket of Senator Conkling and would dole out all of the government jobs as Conkling directed, but to the surprise of reformers, Arthur took up the cause of civil service reform. He signed the Pendleton Act into law and strongly enforced its provisions. He gained praise for his veto of a Rivers and Harbors Act that would have appropriated federal funds in a manner he thought excessive. He also rebuilt the United States Navy which had fallen into disrepair. But Arthur was criticized for failing to alleviate the federal budget surplus that had been accumulating since the end of the Civil War. (Can you imagine such a problem existing today: no government debt and too much money in the surplus?)
Arthur suffered from poor health toward the end of his term. His condition was known as Bright's disease, a kidney disorder which is today called nephritis. He tried to keep his condition private, but by 1883 rumors of his illness began to circulate as the normally robust Arthur had become thinner and older looking. To try to improve his health, Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883. The vacation had the opposite effect, and Arthur suffered from intense pain. Later that year, he visited Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone trip was more beneficial to Arthur's health and he returned to Washington refreshed after two months of travel.
Arthur made a half-hearted effort to secure renomination in 1884, but lacked sufficient support. When he retired at the close of his term. Journalist Alexander McClure later wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe." Mark Twain wrote "it would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."
Arthur left office in 1885 and returned to his New York City home. He was approached to run for United States Senate, but he declined, preferring to return to his old law practice. His health limited his activity with the firm, and Arthur took on few assignments with the firm.
After summering in New London, Connecticut, in 1886, he returned quite ill. On November 16, to the dismay of subsequent historians, Arthur ordered nearly all of his papers, both personal and official, burned. The next morning, Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. He died the following day at the age of 57. On November 22, a private funeral was held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, attended by President Grover Cleveland and ex-President Rutherford Hayes. Arthur was buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. In 1889, a monument was placed on Arthur's burial plot by sculptor Ephraim Keyser of New York, consisting of a giant bronze female angel figure placing a bronze palm leaf on a granite sarcophagus.
In 1898, the Arthur memorial statue, a fifteen-foot bronze figure of Arthur standing on a Barre granite pedestal, was created by sculptor George Edwin Bissell and installed at Madison Square, in New York City. The statue was dedicated in 1899 and unveiled by Arthur's sister, Mary Arthur McElroy. At the dedication, Secretary of War Elihu Root described Arthur as "wise in statesmanship and firm and effective in administration."