MONDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 2015
By Edwin Cooney
Today, October 5th, 2015, marks the
186th anniversary of the birth of the most successful pure politician in
American history. No president before or
since Chester Alan Arthur has owed his accession to the presidency solely to
politics. Every other occupant of 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue’s executive mansion, before and since Chet Arthur, has used
his political career before the presidency to some social benefit. Not Chet Arthur. Hence, due to his reputation as a “political
hack,” he was in big trouble even before assuming that most troublesome of
public offices — the presidency of the United States of America.
Arthur was born on Monday, October 5th,
1829 (late in life he insisted that he was born in 1830) in Fairfield, Vermont,
the son of an Irish-born immigrant father William Arthur and Malvina (Stone)
Arthur. Chet Arthur was handsome,
charming, affable, a marvelous raconteur and an excellent administrator. Arthur entered New York society in the 1850s
having graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1848. He received his law degree in 1854 and became
the junior partner of Culver, Parker and Arthur in New York City. The son of an adamantly abolitionist preacher
father, Arthur represented a black woman named Lizzie Jennings when she brought
suit against a whites-only Brooklyn streetcar company which had forcibly
ejected her from one of its vehicles.
Arthur won an award of $500 for Ms. Jennings, and, even more
significant, that suit led to the end of all discrimination against blacks on
New York public transit systems. For the
most part however, Chet Arthur was anxious to fit into high society. To that end, he joined the right clubs,
married a southern belle, Ellen Lewis Herndon, who was a well-known singer and
a member of New York’s Glee Club, and above all joined the growing New York
Republican Party. Miss Herndon’s father,
a ship captain, gained for himself and his surviving family considerable
national fame in 1857 when he deliberately went down with his ship after saving
all the passengers and crew during a severe storm off Cape Hatteras, North
Carolina.
The Civil War brought young Chet Arthur
notoriety for his considerable administrative skills as well as for his
personal integrity. As assistant
engineer, chief engineer, assistant Quartermaster General and eventually chief
Quartermaster General, Chet Arthur kept the New York State Militia adequately
supplied with munitions, other equipment and transportation facilities between 1861
and 1863. New York Governor Edwin D.
Morgan asserted that he depended on young Chet Arthur for all the reliable
facilities for equipping the New York State Militia during the war. Even more interesting, Morgan observed that
Arthur had the rare ability to say “no” without giving offense — a most
invaluable political tool. They remained
cordial lifelong friends.
Following the war, Arthur became
increasingly and effectively involved in Republican Party politics at both the
city and state levels. A supporter of
the conservative or “Stalwart” wing of the GOP, Arthur backed the candidacies
of Congressman Roscoe Conkling for the U.S. Senate and of course General
Ulysses S. Grant’s 1868 bid for President.
He had supported Lincoln in both 1860 and 1864 and was behind the move
to make Andrew Johnson Vice President in 1864.
(What his stand was in 1868 when Johnson was being impeached by radical
Republicans is not recorded even by Thomas Reeves, his authoritative
biographer. Political bosses, Arthur
included, weren’t philosophers or social do-gooders. They worked solely for the party’s
success.) When in 1871 Chet Arthur
accepted the collectorship of the Port of New York, he well understood that
he’d be judged not only by the revenue from import dues, the primary
responsibility of the customs house, but for another very vital task. It was his job to see to it that his
employees adequately financed the endeavors of the GOP machine that had secured
their employment.
The close election of Ohio Governor
Rutherford Burchard Hayes, a powerfully built, thickly red-bearded teetotaler,
ended the era of southern reconstruction.
The fate of American blacks had been surrendered to Jim Crow. Still President Hayes, a man of deeply held
Methodist principles, needed a moral cause.
Hence, he chose civil service reform.
To that end, he established a commission to investigate possible
corruption in America’s customs houses — especially the Port of New York. The commission called Arthur as its main
witness. Try as he did during his
testimony, Arthur was unable to convince the commission to abandon a
recommendation to end the practice of requiring employees to give back portions
of their annual salaries to finance the party which had provided their
employment in the first place. The
commission found no corruption on Arthur’s part, but it recommended a thorough
housecleaning of the agency. Next came
the political crisis.
An ongoing dispute between the
executive and legislative branches of the government was political patronage. Presidents were, and still are, expected to
pay attention to senators and representatives in a state wherein federal
appointees function. By dismissing Chet
Arthur, the President was picking a territorial quarrel with Senator Roscoe
Conkling who would surely oppose anyone nominated to succeed Arthur. When the president nominated Theodore
Roosevelt, Sr. to succeed Arthur, the nomination was defeated in the Senate by
a vote of 31-25. (Sadly, Theodore
Roosevelt soon thereafter died of intestinal cancer while his namesake son was
a student at Harvard.) President Hayes
offered to make Chet Arthur counsel to the American legation at Paris. When Arthur refused the appointment, undoubtedly
as ordered by Senator Conkling, the President moved. On Thursday, July 11th, 1878, President Hayes
used his authority to finally dismiss Arthur; there was nothing either Conkling
or Arthur could do.
Between July of 1878 and June of 1880,
Chet Arthur practiced law, although according to biographer Reeves, he really
wasn’t much of a lawyer. His new firm
was Arthur, Phelps, Knevels and Ransom.
As Republicans met in Chicago to
nominate a presidential candidate for 1880, the party was divided into
conservative Stalwarts and liberal Half Breeds.
The Half Breeds split their support between Ohio Senator John Sherman
and Maine Senator James G. Blaine while the Stalwarts were strongly supporting
Ulysses S. Grant for a third term. After
35 ballots, General Grant had 306 votes, about 78 votes shy of the
nomination. On the 36th ballot, Garfield
was nominated with 399 votes, 42 for Blaine, 5 for Elihu Washington of Illinois
and 2 for Senator John Sherman.
Needing Stalwart support to win the
election, Garfield offered Levi P. Morton the vice presidential nomination, but
was turned down. Then he decided to ask
Chet Arthur. Arthur would be advised by
an angry Roscoe Conkling to turn down the offer “…as you would drop a hot
horseshoe from the forge.” Arthur
reportedly responded: “The vice presidency is a higher honor than I’ve ever
dreamed of attaining. I therefore will
accept the nomination and I shall carry the New York delegation with me.”
The presidential campaign was close
between James A. Garfield and General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania
and William English of Indiana. The
turning point of the campaign was a meeting on Friday, August 5th in New York
between Garfield, Arthur and other members of the New York Stalwart machine,
the purpose of which was to agree how both sides would settle questions of
patronage once Garfield was elected.
Conkling did not attend the meeting, but everyone came away sufficiently
satisfied to work for the ticket.
November 2nd 1880 was Election Day. Garfield and Arthur received 4,454,416
votes. That was 48.6% of the popular
vote. Hancock and English received 4,444,592
votes, 48.2% of the votes. In the
Electoral College, Garfield and Arthur received 214 votes to Hancock and
English’s 155.
The Garfield Arthur team was
elected. What neither fully understood
was that the political fat was in the fire.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
No comments:
Post a Comment