Presidents' Highs and Lows: Chester Alan Arthur
When it comes to public approval, Chester Alan Arthur is somewhat of an anomaly. Usually Presidents become less popular, the longer they remain in office. Arthur was different. Journalist Alexander McClure wrote of Arthur's presidency: "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." Although Arthur served less than a full term in office, history remembers him as a someone who everyone expected to be beholden to his political masters, but who surprised everyone by doing the opposite of what they expected when it came to civil service reform.
Before being elected to the position of Vice-President, Chester Alan Arthur had never been elected to any political office. He was a backroom political operator who quickly rose in the political machine run by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. Conkling was the leader of the faction of the Republican party known as the Stalwarts. They were "spoilsmen", the term given to those who believed that whoever won an election should be able to reward their friends with patronage positions, regardless of whether or not the person appointed was qualified for the job. The term "spoilsman" came from the saying "to the victor goes the spoils." Arthur was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to the lucrative and politically powerful post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871. It was probably the highest paying job in the nation. The Port of New York was filled with political appointees, more than needed to do the job. There were calls being made for reform of the civil service so that government jobs could go to those who earned the job based on merit. Arthur was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party.
In 1878, the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York. Arthur licked his wounds and went back to practicing law in New York. Little did anyone suspect that three years later, Arthur would be President When James Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, a decision was made to give the Vice-President's job to a Stalwart in order to keep the support of that group, something seen as essential to win the important state of New York in the upcoming presidential election. A number of Stalwarts declined the position, at Conklin's direction, but Arthur did not. He was elected as Vice-President and on September 20, 1881, following the death of Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur became the 21st President of the United States.
Arthur entered office in an atmosphere of considerable mistrust. Everyone assumed he would be a puppet for Roscoe Conkling, who had recently lost a political battle with Garfield over patronage appointments in New York. Many people suspected him to be complicit in Garfield's assassination because after shooting Garfield, the mentally unstable assassin Charles Guiteau proclaimed "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts and now Arthur will be president!"
Arthur asked the cabinet members to remain until December, when Congress would reconvene, but Treasury Secretary William Windom submitted his resignation in October to enter a Senate race in his home state of Minnesota. When Arthur selected Charles J. Folger, his friend and fellow New York Stalwart as Windom's replacement, this fueled speculation about where Arthur's loyalties would life. Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh resigned, believing that, as a reformer, he had no place in an Arthur cabinet, even though Arthur appealed to him to remain. Arthur replaced him with Benjamin H. Brewster, a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician, but someone perceived to have reformist leanings. Surprisingly, Arthur kept James G. Blaine, leader of the "Half-Breed" wing of the Republican Party and nemesis of the Stalwart faction, as Secretary of State. Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine's place, but when Blaine resigned that December, Arthur chose Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey instead. Frelinghuysen was also a Stalwart. Frelinghuysen advised Arthur not to fill any future vacancies with Stalwarts. When Navy Secretary William H. Hunt resigned in April 1882, Arthur appointed Half-Breed William E. Chandler to the post, on Blaine's recommendation. Of the Cabinet members Arthur had inherited from Garfield, only Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln remained for the entirety of Arthur's term.
In the 1870s, a scandal known as the "Star Route Scandal" came to light. Contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the knowledge of government officials. Reformers believed that Arthur, as a former supporter of the spoils system, would not continue the investigation into the scandal. But the investigation was vigorously pursued by Arthur's Attorney General Benjamin Brewster, who hired Democratic lawyers William W. Ker and Richard T. Merrick to the prosecution team. Arthur also forced the resignation of other officials suspected in the scandal. While the prosecutions were largely unsuccessful, it was not due to anything on Arthur's part, and in fact he had removed five federal office holders who were sympathetic with the defense, including a former Senator. Failure to obtain a conviction made the administration look bad, but Arthur did succeed in putting a end to the fraud.
Garfield's assassination by Guiteau, a deranged office seeker, increased the public demand for civil service reform. Both Democratic and Republican leaders realized that the public was demanding it and that they could attract the votes of reformers by turning against the spoils system. By 1882, a bipartisan effort in Congress began in support of civil service reform. In 1880, Democratic Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio had introduced legislation that required selection of civil servants based on merit as determined by an examination, but it was not passed. In his first annual presidential address to Congress in 1881, Arthur requested civil service reform legislation and Pendleton again introduced his bill. Once again Congress did not pass it. It took Republicans losses in the 1882 congressional elections for Congress to smarten up, as Democrats campaigned on the reform issue. Seeing the writing on the wall, the lame-duck session of Congress approved Pendleton's bill. The vote was 38–5 in favor in the senate and the House passed the bill by a vote of 155–47. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16, 1883. In just two years' time, a leading Stalwart and former machine backroom political hack had become the president who ushered in long-awaited civil service reform.
The act only applied to 10% of federal jobs and, without proper implementation by the president. Even after he signed the act into law, its proponents doubted Arthur's commitment to reform. Once again he surprised everyone by quickly appointing the members of the Civil Service Commission that the law created, naming three reformers as commissioners. The chief examiner, Silas W. Burt, was a long-time reformer who had been Arthur's opponent when the two men worked at the New York Customs House. The commission issued its first rules in May 1883 and before the end of Arthur's presidency, half of all postal officials and three-quarters of the Customs Service jobs were to be awarded by merit. In 1884 Arthur commended the new system for its effectiveness "in securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and pretensions of rival candidates for public employment."
Shortly after becoming president, Arthur was diagnosed with Bright's disease, a kidney ailment now known as nephritis. He attempted to keep his condition private, but by 1883 rumors of his illness began to circulate. The normally robust president had become thinner and more aged in appearance. He struggled to keep up with the demands of the presidency. To improve his health, Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883, but this vacation had the opposite effect, and Arthur suffered from intense pain before returning to Washington. Later that year, on the advice of Missouri Senator George Graham Vest, he visited Yellowstone National Park. Reporters accompanied the presidential party, helping to publicize the new National Park system. The Yellowstone trip was more beneficial to Arthur's health than his Florida excursion, and press reports of the visit met with considerable public approval and praise. Arthu returned to Washington refreshed after two months of travel.
As the 1884 presidential election approached, James G. Blaine was considered the favorite for the Republican nomination. Arthur had contemplated a run for a full term as president, but in the months leading up to the 1884 Republican National Convention, he knew that neither faction of the Republican party was prepared to give him their full support. The Half-Breeds were again solidly behind Blaine, while many Stalwarts were displeased with Arthur for his reforms. He had support from business leaders supported him and from southern Republicans who owed their jobs to his control of the patronage, but by the time of the Republican Convention in 1884, Arthur knew he did not have a chance of winning the nomination. He let himself be nominated, believing that to drop out would raise questions about his health. At the convention Blaine led on the first ballot, and by the fourth ballot he had a majority. Arthur telegraphed his congratulations to Blaine. He played no role in the 1884 campaign, mainly due to his health, but Blaine would later blame Arthur's lack of greater support for his loss that November to the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland.
Arthur left office in 1885 and returned to his New York City home. Two months before the end of his term, several New York Stalwarts approached him to request that he run for United States Senate, but he declined the offer. His health limited his activity. After spending the summer of 1886 in New London, Connecticut, he returned home, and became seriously ill. On November 16, he ordered nearly all of his papers, both personal and official, burned. The next morning, Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He never regained consciousness and died the following day, November 18, at the age of 57. Arthur's biographer Zachary Karabell wrote of Arthur: "Physically stretched and emotionally strained, he strove to do what was right for the country."
Before being elected to the position of Vice-President, Chester Alan Arthur had never been elected to any political office. He was a backroom political operator who quickly rose in the political machine run by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. Conkling was the leader of the faction of the Republican party known as the Stalwarts. They were "spoilsmen", the term given to those who believed that whoever won an election should be able to reward their friends with patronage positions, regardless of whether or not the person appointed was qualified for the job. The term "spoilsman" came from the saying "to the victor goes the spoils." Arthur was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to the lucrative and politically powerful post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871. It was probably the highest paying job in the nation. The Port of New York was filled with political appointees, more than needed to do the job. There were calls being made for reform of the civil service so that government jobs could go to those who earned the job based on merit. Arthur was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party.
In 1878, the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system in New York. Arthur licked his wounds and went back to practicing law in New York. Little did anyone suspect that three years later, Arthur would be President When James Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, a decision was made to give the Vice-President's job to a Stalwart in order to keep the support of that group, something seen as essential to win the important state of New York in the upcoming presidential election. A number of Stalwarts declined the position, at Conklin's direction, but Arthur did not. He was elected as Vice-President and on September 20, 1881, following the death of Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur became the 21st President of the United States.
Arthur entered office in an atmosphere of considerable mistrust. Everyone assumed he would be a puppet for Roscoe Conkling, who had recently lost a political battle with Garfield over patronage appointments in New York. Many people suspected him to be complicit in Garfield's assassination because after shooting Garfield, the mentally unstable assassin Charles Guiteau proclaimed "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts and now Arthur will be president!"
Arthur asked the cabinet members to remain until December, when Congress would reconvene, but Treasury Secretary William Windom submitted his resignation in October to enter a Senate race in his home state of Minnesota. When Arthur selected Charles J. Folger, his friend and fellow New York Stalwart as Windom's replacement, this fueled speculation about where Arthur's loyalties would life. Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh resigned, believing that, as a reformer, he had no place in an Arthur cabinet, even though Arthur appealed to him to remain. Arthur replaced him with Benjamin H. Brewster, a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician, but someone perceived to have reformist leanings. Surprisingly, Arthur kept James G. Blaine, leader of the "Half-Breed" wing of the Republican Party and nemesis of the Stalwart faction, as Secretary of State. Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine's place, but when Blaine resigned that December, Arthur chose Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey instead. Frelinghuysen was also a Stalwart. Frelinghuysen advised Arthur not to fill any future vacancies with Stalwarts. When Navy Secretary William H. Hunt resigned in April 1882, Arthur appointed Half-Breed William E. Chandler to the post, on Blaine's recommendation. Of the Cabinet members Arthur had inherited from Garfield, only Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln remained for the entirety of Arthur's term.
In the 1870s, a scandal known as the "Star Route Scandal" came to light. Contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the knowledge of government officials. Reformers believed that Arthur, as a former supporter of the spoils system, would not continue the investigation into the scandal. But the investigation was vigorously pursued by Arthur's Attorney General Benjamin Brewster, who hired Democratic lawyers William W. Ker and Richard T. Merrick to the prosecution team. Arthur also forced the resignation of other officials suspected in the scandal. While the prosecutions were largely unsuccessful, it was not due to anything on Arthur's part, and in fact he had removed five federal office holders who were sympathetic with the defense, including a former Senator. Failure to obtain a conviction made the administration look bad, but Arthur did succeed in putting a end to the fraud.
Garfield's assassination by Guiteau, a deranged office seeker, increased the public demand for civil service reform. Both Democratic and Republican leaders realized that the public was demanding it and that they could attract the votes of reformers by turning against the spoils system. By 1882, a bipartisan effort in Congress began in support of civil service reform. In 1880, Democratic Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio had introduced legislation that required selection of civil servants based on merit as determined by an examination, but it was not passed. In his first annual presidential address to Congress in 1881, Arthur requested civil service reform legislation and Pendleton again introduced his bill. Once again Congress did not pass it. It took Republicans losses in the 1882 congressional elections for Congress to smarten up, as Democrats campaigned on the reform issue. Seeing the writing on the wall, the lame-duck session of Congress approved Pendleton's bill. The vote was 38–5 in favor in the senate and the House passed the bill by a vote of 155–47. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16, 1883. In just two years' time, a leading Stalwart and former machine backroom political hack had become the president who ushered in long-awaited civil service reform.
The act only applied to 10% of federal jobs and, without proper implementation by the president. Even after he signed the act into law, its proponents doubted Arthur's commitment to reform. Once again he surprised everyone by quickly appointing the members of the Civil Service Commission that the law created, naming three reformers as commissioners. The chief examiner, Silas W. Burt, was a long-time reformer who had been Arthur's opponent when the two men worked at the New York Customs House. The commission issued its first rules in May 1883 and before the end of Arthur's presidency, half of all postal officials and three-quarters of the Customs Service jobs were to be awarded by merit. In 1884 Arthur commended the new system for its effectiveness "in securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and pretensions of rival candidates for public employment."
Shortly after becoming president, Arthur was diagnosed with Bright's disease, a kidney ailment now known as nephritis. He attempted to keep his condition private, but by 1883 rumors of his illness began to circulate. The normally robust president had become thinner and more aged in appearance. He struggled to keep up with the demands of the presidency. To improve his health, Arthur and some political friends traveled to Florida in April 1883, but this vacation had the opposite effect, and Arthur suffered from intense pain before returning to Washington. Later that year, on the advice of Missouri Senator George Graham Vest, he visited Yellowstone National Park. Reporters accompanied the presidential party, helping to publicize the new National Park system. The Yellowstone trip was more beneficial to Arthur's health than his Florida excursion, and press reports of the visit met with considerable public approval and praise. Arthu returned to Washington refreshed after two months of travel.
As the 1884 presidential election approached, James G. Blaine was considered the favorite for the Republican nomination. Arthur had contemplated a run for a full term as president, but in the months leading up to the 1884 Republican National Convention, he knew that neither faction of the Republican party was prepared to give him their full support. The Half-Breeds were again solidly behind Blaine, while many Stalwarts were displeased with Arthur for his reforms. He had support from business leaders supported him and from southern Republicans who owed their jobs to his control of the patronage, but by the time of the Republican Convention in 1884, Arthur knew he did not have a chance of winning the nomination. He let himself be nominated, believing that to drop out would raise questions about his health. At the convention Blaine led on the first ballot, and by the fourth ballot he had a majority. Arthur telegraphed his congratulations to Blaine. He played no role in the 1884 campaign, mainly due to his health, but Blaine would later blame Arthur's lack of greater support for his loss that November to the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland.
Arthur left office in 1885 and returned to his New York City home. Two months before the end of his term, several New York Stalwarts approached him to request that he run for United States Senate, but he declined the offer. His health limited his activity. After spending the summer of 1886 in New London, Connecticut, he returned home, and became seriously ill. On November 16, he ordered nearly all of his papers, both personal and official, burned. The next morning, Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He never regained consciousness and died the following day, November 18, at the age of 57. Arthur's biographer Zachary Karabell wrote of Arthur: "Physically stretched and emotionally strained, he strove to do what was right for the country."