Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President, was one of our most private Presidents.

The Making of a Private Man

Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886) was born in Vermont, and raised in upstate New York. His father a farmer-minister, was far from cosmopolitan. Nevertheless, he believed in education, and his promising son was sent to Union College, a very fine school. 

Chet was a tall, well-built young man, considered handsome. He was also smart, and gifted with exceptional administrative abilities. He read law, was admitted to the bar, and accepted into the New York firm of Erastus D. Culver, an abolitionist. In 1854, at 25, he participated actively albeit in a minor role, in pursuing a habeas corpus action against Jonathan Lemmon, a Virginia slaveholder, who was passing through NY with eight slaves. Culver and his associates insisted that since New York prohibited slavery, those slaves were automatically freed. The case was appealed, and as late as 1862, was upheld.

Later that year, in a precursor to the Rosa Parks bus boycott, CAA was the lead attorney representing Elizabeth Jennings Graham, schoolteacher who was denied a seat on a New York streetcar because she was Black. He won the case, a verdict that led to the desegregation of NY streetcar lines.

These early actions came to the attention of New York’s Governor Edwin D. Morgan who recognized the young man’s talents, and helped further his career..

During the Civil War, largely due to Gov. Morgan’s mentorship, Chet Arthur was appointed Quartermaster General of New York – a position with the huge responsibility of feeding, clothing, arming, housing and supplying hundreds of thousands of NY volunteers for the Union Army.

It gave him the opportunity to become politically active, behind-the-scenes, helping raise money for Republican Candidates, including President Lincoln in 1864. By that time, Governor Morgan had been elected Senator Morgan.

Chet Arthur performed his responsibilities capably, but seldom sought personal recognition for himself. He was a party operative, rather than a candidate. But he was operating in very exalted company.

The Cosmopolitan 

At the end of the Civil War, Chet Arthur was in his late thirties, married to a Southern Belle of fair pedigree and stunning beauty, and had a couple of children. They had a substantial town house, an active social life and were doing well. 

Then he met Senator Roscoe Conkling, a Utica attorney-Congressman-turned-Senator-turned political boss and pal of General Grant. Conkling took a liking to the modest but sophisticated Arthur, who had helped raise substantial funds for President Grant in 1868. By 1872, wheels were in motion for Conkling to assume complete control over New York patronage positions. 

Chet Arthur was now a key figure in New York Republican politics, at least among the higher ups. The rank and file had no idea who he was, and Arthur liked it that way. He dined at the finest restaurants. His taste was impeccable, whether for fine wines and brandy, spiffy carriages or the trousers in his wardrobe. He associated with the cream of political society, and the just-plain-rich. And for the next fifteen years he had a great time. But he never was a candidate for office. 

Under the auspices of Conkling, he was appointed Collector for the Port of New York, a wildly lucrative federal post, earning as much (or more) as the President of the United States. It was a sinkhole of patronage corruption, i.e. no-show jobs, under-the-table bribes, etc. CAA was never accused of personal participation in the corruption, but a) he did turn a blind eye, and b) it was on his watch. When President Rutherford B. Hayes cleaned house, Arthur was one of the first heads on the chopping block. 

He returned to his law practice and his behind-the-scenes politicking. 

The Garfield Business

How James A. Garfield became the Republican presidential candidate in 1880 is a long and complicated story. How a “disgraced’ Chester Alan Arthur became the Republican vice-presidential candidate is just as long, and arguably even more complicated. 

Suffice it to say, it happened. Then Garfield was assassinated, lingered for fifteen weeks and died. The frightened, tainted, suspected, ill-suited, and overcome Vice President hardly left his New York townhouse and refused to assume any “executive” responsibilities as long as Garfield was alive. That restraint was sincerely commended by the American populace. It went a long way in redeeming his “political hack” reputation. 

Back to Civil Rights

While President CAA is usually remembered for Civil Service Reform (considered a complete turnabout in his case), his public and private efforts on behalf of Civil Rights were no less commendable. He had always favored fairness and equanimity in education, and included Education for Blacks in each of his three State of the Union Messages. He also knew that he had neither personal nor political clout to take on such efforts. But he would try.

When the Supreme Court decided in 1883 to declare the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, he was forceful in his opposition, and insisted he would back any legislation to reduce the ruling. 

But some of his efforts were purely private. 

He personally donated a substantial sum to an all-Black church. He solicited and accepted an invitation to present the diplomas to graduates of a Black high school in Washington DC. He invited the choir from Fisk University to perform in concert at the White House. (It is said he was visibly affected.)

He appointed newspaper publisher P.B.S. Pinchback the surveyor of the Port of New Orleans.

He appointed H.C.C. Atwood as assistant US Commissioner General.

He appointed Mifflin W. Gibbs as receiver of monies in Little Rock, Arkansas.

He appointed former Senator Blanche K. Bruce as Consul to Trinidad.

“I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damn business.” – CAA

Sources: 

Cohen, Jared – Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America – Simon & Schuster – 2019 

Greenberger, Scott S. – The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester Alan Arthur, De Capo Press, 2017https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/chester-a-arthur/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/chester-a-arthur/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-remarkable-roscoe-friend-and-nemesis-of-presidents-part-i.htm

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Blanche-K-Bruce