Chester A. Arthur's Presidency and Policies

Garfield, the Republican nominee for president in 1880, was shot and killed in July 1881, and Arthur, Vice President of the United States, succeeded to the presidency.

Arthur had been Vice President for 199 days when he succeeded to the presidency.

Arthur embraced the cause of U.S. Civil Service Reform, and his advocacy and enforcement of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act became the centerpiece of his administration.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act laid the foundations for a professional civil service that would emerge in subsequent decades.

Facing a budget surplus, Arthur signed the Tariff of 1883, which reduced tariffs. He also vetoed the Rivers and Harbors Act, an act that would have appropriated federal funds in a manner he thought excessive.

In foreign policy, Arthur pursued closer economic and political relations with Latin America, but many of his proposed trade agreements were defeated in the United States Senate.

The 1884 Republican National Convention passed over Arthur in favor of James G. Blaine, but Cleveland defeated Blaine in the 1884 presidential election.

Although Arthur's failing health and political temperament combined to make his administration less active than a modern presidency, he earned praise among contemporaries for his solid performance in office.

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."[1]

Since his death, Arthur's reputation has mostly faded from the public consciousness.

Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged office-seeker, assassinated U.S. President James A. Garfield in 1881.

Arthur, Garfield's successor, took office over a growing country that maintained a budget surplus and peaceful relations with the great powers of the day.

Arthur asked Garfield's cabinet members to remain until December 1881, 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.

Arthur then selected Charles J. Folger, his friend and a fellow New York Stalwart, as Windom's replacement.

Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh was next to resign, believing that, as a reformer, he had no place in an Arthur cabinet.

Arthur replaced MacVeagh with Benjamin H. Brewster, a Philadelphia lawyer and machine politician reputed to have reformist leanings.

Secretary of State Blaine, one of the key leaders of the Half-Breed faction of the Republican Party, also resigned in December.

Conkling expected Arthur to appoint him in Blaine's place, as he had been Arthur's patron for much of the latter's career. But the president chose Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, a Stalwart recommended by former President Grant.

Though Frelinghuysen advised Arthur not to fill any future vacancies with Stalwarts, Arthur selected Timothy O. Howe, a Wisconsin Stalwart, to replace Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James after the latter resigned in January 1882.

Navy Secretary William H. Hunt was next to resign, in April 1882, and Arthur attempted to placate the Half-Breeds by appointing William E. Chandler, who had been recommended by Blaine.

Finally, when Interior Secretary Samuel J. Kirkwood resigned that same month, Arthur appointed Henry M. Teal, a New York lawyer and Stalwart, to replace Kirkwood.

In 1881, Associate Justice Nathan Clifford died, and Arthur nominated Horace Gray to replace him. The nomination was easily confirmed.

In 1882, the Republicans lost their majority in the House of Representatives, and this led to the passage of civil service reform legislation.

Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act into law on January 16, 1883.

The act created a civil service commission to oversee civil service examinations and outlawed the use of "assessments," fees that political appointees were expected to pay to their respective political parties as the price for their appointments.

After signing the act, proponents of the act doubted Arthur's commitment to reform.

In 1882, the Pendleton Act, which created a professional civil service and the rise of the modern bureaucratic state, was passed.

The law caused major changes in campaign finance, as the parties were forced to look for new sources of campaign funds.

The law also caused major changes in surplus and tariff policy.

The Democrats favored reducing the surplus by lowering tariffs, which would in turn reduce the cost of imported goods.

Republicans believed that high tariffs ensured high wages in manufacturing and mining, and they preferred reducing the surplus through spending more on internal improvements and cutting excise taxes.

The debate over the tariff was complicated by the fact that each interest preferred higher tariffs for their particular field.

Arthur agreed with his party, and in 1882 called for the abolition of excise taxes on everything except liquor, as well as a simplification of the complex tariff structure.