Chester arthur brief biography of william

James G. Blaine ; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen Secretaries of the Treasury. William Windom ; Charles J. Folger ; Walter Q. Gresham ; Hugh McCulloch Secretary of War. Robert T. Lincoln Attorneys General. Wayne MacVeagh ; Benjamin H. Brewster Secretaries of the Navy. William H. Hunt ; William E. Chandler Postmasters General. Thomas L. James ; Timothy O.

Howe ; Walter Q. Gresham ; Frank Hatton Secretaries of the Interior.

Chester arthur brief biography of william: Arthur “looked like a President.” The

Samuel J. Kirkwood ; Henry M. Teller Appointments to the Supreme Court. Horace Gray ; Samuel Blatchford In Arthur's administration the first acts to restrict immigration were passed. The Chinese Exclusion Act of restricted the immigration of Chinese laborers for a ten-year period. In the same year paupers, criminals, convicts, and the insane were barred from the United States.

Arthur's popularity grew with each year of his presidency. Chester was born in Fairfield, Vermont. His father was an Irish immigrant and worked as a preacher. This was common among preachers of the time. After that, I studied law and worked as a teacher. In he passed the bar exam and became a lawyer. Arthur was a strong abolitionist. This meant that he wanted to free the slaves and end slavery in the United States.

Chester arthur brief biography of william: Chester A. Arthur was

As an attorney, he handled a high-profile case representing an African-American woman named Lizzie Jennings. Lizzie had been told not to ride the tram because she was black. He won a lawsuit, and a new law was passed in New York that would not allow discrimination on public transportation. In the s Arthur became involved in politics. And you could have party contributions be a requirement of these posts.

Eventually, Murphy was removed as collector, a not uncommon occurrence, but Murphy was particularly prone to greed and levied some unjust fines that had the shipping magnates pushing back.

Chester arthur brief biography of william: Chester Alan Arthur (October

Conkling stepped up and recommended Arthur as his replacement, and Arthur was collector of the Port of New York from towhich is an enormous length of time. Most collectors lasted barely 2 years. And because Garfield knew he needed New York to win, he asked Arthur to balance his ticket. Conkling was none too pleased, but Garfield, having no experience with congress or the senate, realized this was his chance to make the leap to national politics and that the vice-presidency was likely the highest honor he would ever achieve.

So, he accepted. This lasted until July 2,when word reached him of the assassination attempt on Garfield. He knew the entire nation was watching, and basically no one was happy at the thought of an Arthur presidency. Into this moment in history, a curious connection was made. In the three months between Garfield being shot and his actual death, Julia Sand, youngest daughter of the wealthy New York family of Christian Henry Sand, began writing letters to Arthur.

So, Julia Sand expressed several things, pretty consistently, in her letters. First, condolence at the difficult spot he now found himself in. She recognized that he never wanted the presidency and certainly did not want it in these circumstances. That America in general feared a Conkling presidency, that Arthur would be nothing more than a figure head for Conkling to push through his own patronage powers.

And that she believed he was his own man and would be an excellent president, if he would shake off Conkling, and follow his own conscience into doing the right thing. And made him think. And he lived up to that. He began immediately talking about civil service reform. And signed the first civil service reform act in And in addition to signing it, he went about enforcing it, following the provisions of the law as it was written.

All of this contributed to Arthur rebuilding his good name with the American People. Arthur did not enjoy the White House. On several occasions as president, Chester A. Arthur shed his image as a slick political operator. While the Republican Party usually protected big business, Arthur advocated lowering tariff rates to help relieve indebted farmers and middle-class consumers.

Inhe vetoed a pork-barrel project known as the Rivers and Harbor Act, believing that federal surpluses should go to tax relief rather than government expenditures. Inhe became a champion of social service reform, signing into law the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission. Though a loyal political party operative and promoter of the patronage system during his earlier political career, as president, Chester A.

Arthur demonstrated that he was above party politics by instituting political reform. Arthur spent more time on his social life and political career than with his family. His wife, Ellen, died inand Arthur entered the White House a widower. He became a bit of a dandy in his dress and his social circle in Washington, D. He lamented the dilapidated condition of the White House, and hired Louis Comfort Tiffany to remodel it into a show place.

Arthur kept the secret that he was suffering from Bright's disease, a fatal kidney ailment, for several years. He didn't receive his party's nomination for a second term as president and in he returned to his law practice in New York City.