Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur was the 21st president. He was a Republican from New York and served from 1881 to 1885. He was vice president under Garfield. When Garfield died in September 1881, Arthur took the oath and finished the term. Like Andrew Johnson, he had no vice president; the office was empty for the rest of the term. People called him Elegant Arthur because he dressed with care and liked the White House to look stylish.

People expected Arthur to give government jobs to his political friends. He had been a machine politician — the powerful customs collector at the Port of New York, where huge tariffs were collected and party jobs were handed out. In the White House he surprised almost everyone. He backed the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883, which made many government jobs depend on tests, not just party friendship. That began to replace the spoils system (“to the winner go the jobs”) with merit (pass a test and do the work).

Arthur also rebuilt and modernized the U.S. Navy with steel warships — the “New Navy,” not rotting wooden frigates. In 1882 he signed a law that stopped most immigration from China for ten years. His party did not nominate him in 1884. He left in 1885 and died the next year. He had serious kidney disease while president and kept it quiet. A journalist later said no man entered the presidency so widely distrusted, and no one retired more generally respected.