Chester Alan Arthur was an astute and skillful politician. During most of his career he supported the machine that dominated the Republican Party in New York State, and his loyalty brought him rewards in the form of political office and power. In 1880 he was elected Vice-President of the United States.

Soon afterward a tragic event, the assassination of President James A. Garfield, brought Arthur to the White House. No longer regarding himself as the servant of machine politics, he tried to use the office of President to further the interests of the entire nation. He thereby sacrificed the support of his party, and after completing Garfield's term he was forced to retire from public life.

Chester Alan Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vt. He was the oldest son of William Arthur, an Irish-born Baptist minister and schoolteacher, and Malvina Stone Arthur. The family lived in several towns in Vermont and northern New York before they moved to Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1839. Young Arthur was enrolled in an academy at Union Village (now Greenwich), N.Y. At the academy and later in college, he was not considered an outstanding student. He was described as "genial in disposition" and "not an unusual member of his class ... an average boy". One of his first encounters with politics came in 1844 when he joined the other boys of Union Village in shouting for the election of the Whig, Henry Clay, for President. However, Clay lost to the Democrat James K. Polk.

Soon afterward Arthur's father became minister of the First Baptist Church in Schenectady, N.Y. There Arthur entered Union College. After his graduation in 1848, Arthur studied law and at the same time taught in a local school. In 1852 he was appointed principal of an academy at Cohoes, near Albany, N.Y. A year later he moved to New York City, where he worked in the law office of Erastus D. Culver, a friend of his father's. In 1854, Arthur was admitted to the bar, and two years later he established his own law practice.

The young attorney was a striking figure. More than 6 feet tall, he had black eyes and brown hair, ruddy cheeks, and a high forehead. He patronized the best tailors and always wore the latest fashions. His conversation was considered well informed and amusing. He fell in love with Ellen Lewis Herndon, daughter of a naval officer, and he married her in 1859. She bore him a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Chester Alan, Jr.

When Arthur first took an interest in politics, it was as a member of the Whig Party. In 1854 he attended the Anti-Nebraska Convention in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The convention was called as a protest against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which compromised on the issue of slavery in the territories. At the convention the groundwork was laid for establishing the Republican Party in New York State.

In 1856, Arthur led the Fifteenth Ward Young Men's Fremont Vigilance Committee, which supported John C. Fremont as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. From that time on, Arthur was an active member of the New York Republican Party.

In 1860, Arthur campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in New York City. As a minor official in the state Republican Party, he also worked for the reelection of Edwin D. Morgan as governor of New York. Morgan then appointed Arthur engineer in chief of his military staff. This was a purely honorary post.

Arthur took on considerable responsibility, however, at the outbreak of the Civil War. President Lincoln placed Governor Morgan in command of the New York volunteers for the Union Army, and the state was expected to recruit and equip the soldiers. Morgan named Arthur inspector general, then quartermaster general, of the state military establishment. Arthur's duties were administrative, and only occasionally did he visit any battlefront. He supervised the equipping of more than 220,000 volunteers before 1863, when he resigned as the result of the election of a Democratic governor.

After his return to private life, Arthur resumed his law practice in New York City and remained active in politics. During the next five years he made himself an indispensable member of the state Republican machine, which was run by U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling. In 1868, Conkling and his lieutenants supported General Ulysses S. Grant as the Republican candidate for President, and in 1871, Conkling persuaded President Grant to appoint Arthur collector of customs for the port of New York.

The New York Customhouse was a great political plum. It handled two-thirds of U.S. customs receipts, and it had more than 1,000 employees, each of whom owed his job to the spoils system. While Arthur was the customs collector, the customhouse became a "fueling station" for Conkling's machine, and Arthur was the undisputed Gentleman Boss of New York City. Although Arthur demonstrated personal honesty in his administration of the customhouse, he overstaffed it with Republican Party members, who worked diligently for the election of Republicans, but were seldom seen at the customhouse.

In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes, who had pledged civil service reform during his election campaign, ordered an investigation of the customhouse by a nonpartisan commission. As a result of the commission's report, Arthur and two aides were asked to resign ". . . for having regarded their offices as of subordinate importance to their partisan work and having made the Custom House a center of partisan political management". Assured of Conkling's support in the Senate, Arthur and his associates refused. Hayes then nominated replacements, but the Senate would not confirm the appointments. After Congress adjourned in the summer of 1878, Hayes suspended Arthur and gave his post to an appointee who was later approved by the Senate. Arthur returned to his law practice in New York City.

At the convention of 1880 the Republican Party was split between Conkling's Stalwarts and U.S. Senator James G. Elaine's Half-Breeds. The Stalwarts wanted to nominate former President Grant for a third term, while the Half-Breeds supported Elaine. The two factions were so evenly matched that neither candidate could gain the necessary majority. As a compromise, U.S. Senator James A. Garfield, who was a Half-Breed, was finally selected. To gain the support of Conkling and his Stalwarts, the convention chose Arthur as the candidate for Vice-President.

In the campaign, the Democrats attacked Arthur's record as customs collector and his association with the Conkling machine. Nevertheless, Garfield and Arthur won the election by gaining majorities in most of the Northern states and in the electoral college. The popular vote was very close, and the Republican plurality was less than 10,000. Arthur was sworn in as Vice-President on Mar. 4, 1881.

Almost as soon as Garfield was inaugurated, the question of patronage became a problem. When Gar-field clashed with Conkling over appointments of Half-Breeds to federal offices in New York State, Arthur supported the New York Senator. In protest against Garfield's refusal to consult him on appointments, Conkling resigned from the Senate, and was joined by New York's junior Senator, Thomas Platt.

Arthur accompanied the two men to Albany, N.Y., where they asked the state legislature to give them a vote of confidence by returning them to the Senate. Although Arthur urged the legislature to grant the petition, it was rejected. Conkling and his faithful follower, now called "Me Too" Platt, never again held public office.

In the middle of the political conflict, on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. The assassin announced, "I am a Stalwart. Arthur is now President!" Garfield died 11 weeks later, on September 19, 1881. The following morning, Arthur took the oath of office at his home in New York City. On hearing the news, a friend reportedly cried out: "My God! Chet Arthur in the White House!" Other Americans were equally amazed.

When Chester Alan Arthur became President, he was greatly handicapped by his record. Remembering his support of the Conkling machine and the words of Garfield's assassin, many Americanss regarded him as little more than Conkling's tool. But Arthur surprised his critics and dismayed many Republicans by pursuing a fairly independent, nonpartisan course as President. His qualifications for the Presidency were excellent. He was an experienced administrator. He had tact and common sense, and he knew how to exercise authority without offending his subordinates. As a lawyer, he was well versed in constitutional law.

Arthur had to work with an almost evenly divided Congress, and it was difficult to force the passage of any bill. Politics and factional disputes were the major preoccupations of the federal government.

The most important achievement of Arthur's administration was the establishment of a merit system for some civil servants. Federal jobs traditionally were granted to those who earned them by loyalty and service to the political party in power. Political leaders zealously guarded their right to appoint friends and supporters to government posts. The spoils system often allowed unworthy, incompetent, and sometimes dishonest men to hold positions of responsibility. Fraud and corruption inevitably resulted.

An example of such corruption was detected and widely publicized before Arthur became President. Officials in the Post Office had conspired with stagecoach operators delivering mail on star routes to defraud the government of millions of dollars. Prosecution of the criminals in the so-called Star Route fraud began in Garfield's administration. To the surprise of many, the prosecution continued during Arthur's administration, although Arthur was a friend of one of the accused officials.

The trial did not result in any convictions, but it focused public attention on the evils of the spoils system. The scandal increased the demand for civil service reform that had resulted from the assassination of Garfleld. In 1881, Arthur recommended legislation to establish a nonpolitical system of governmental appointments, but Congress ignored the recommendation. In the short Congressional session of 1882 and 1883, Arthur supported a reform bill pending before Congress. Yielding to pressure from the public and from the National Civil Service Reform League, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton and drafted by Dorman B. Eaton, a leader of the reform movement. With Arthur's signature the bill became law in 1883.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform act set up the Civil Service Commission, required competitive tests for some federal jobs, prohibited compulsory political assessments of officeholders, and provided for immediate application of its regulations to about 14,000 federal employees. To demonstrate his support of the law, Arthur named Eaton the chairman of the Civil Service Commission. Many of Arthur's followers favored the patronage method of appointment, and they angrily withdrew their support from the President when he signed the act. Yet his independence never attracted lasting support from the reformers.

Arthur lost more political support by vetoing a rivers-and-harbors appropriation bill that he considered excessive. Congress overrode his veto of this bill and also his veto of a bill that suspended Chinese immigration for 20 years. Arthur was more successful in his dealings with Congress when he requested measures to strengthen the U.S. Navy by replacing obsolete ships. After a long debate Congress authorized funds for the construction of three steel cruisers and a dispatch boat. In 1885, before Arthur left office, Congress authorized the construction of four additional vessels. This was a modest first step toward making the United States a major naval power.

Arthur hoped to be nominated for a second term. However, he had received a major political setback in 1882. The candidate selected by Arthur and Conkling to run for governor of New York was overwhelmingly defeated by Grover Cleveland. In addition, Arthur's acts as President had cost him the support of many former political allies.

At the Republican convention of 1884 the Half-Breeds favored Elaine, and many independents and reformers backed Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont. Arthur polled only 207 votes against Elaine's decisive majority of 541. Near the end of Arthur's term an effort to have the New York legislature to elect him to the Senate also failed.

After turning over the White House to Grover Cleveland on Mar. 4, 1885, Arthur resumed his law practice in New York City. Shortly afterward he became ill, and in November 1886 he died.