Chester Arthur, the Most Underrated U.S. President

     The latest United States Presidential Dollar Coin released by the United States Mint honors Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the United States from 1881-1885.

     The coin should provide an opportunity to educate the public about President Arthur’s accomplishments. Alas, Arthur’s coin is the first that will not be released into general circulation, for the Obama Administration has suspended the Presidential Dollar series. See my post from December of 2011, The Obama Administration is Penny-Wise and Pound Foolish about Dollar Coins http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-administration-is-pennywise-and.html. Presidential Dollars will henceforth only be minted specially for collectors. I hope this article, therefore, helps to inform the American people about this underrated President, who is often, along with Millard Fillmore, ignorantly made the butt of jokes about mediocre presidents.

     Arthur, of New York, was elected Vice President on the Republican ticket in 1880. He had been placed there as the running mate of General James Garfield of Ohio as a compromise between the reform wing of the GOP, represented by Garfield, and the patronage wing, led by Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. Arthur had been a political protégé of Conkling, who had run the patronage-rich New York Customs House. President Rutherford Hayes, a fellow Republican, had fired Arthur in a modest step toward civil service reform of the “spoils system.” Thus, when President Garfield was murdered in 1881 by an assassin who was denied a patronage job and who declared “Arthur is President!” after firing the fatal bullet, Arthur acceded to the presidency lacking public confidence in his integrity.

     It must have been shocking to all Americans, therefore, when President Arthur decided to break with his faction and end the spoils system by signing the Pendleton Civil Service Act into law. This landmark legislation established a federal hiring system for most jobs based upon qualifications, not political party. It did much to reduce self-interest and corruption in federal politics and to improve the competence of appointed public officials. Arthur’s remarkable conversion reflected the seriousness with which he took his office after the tragic death of his predecessor whose death was attributable to the spoils system.

     President Arthur’s greatest accomplishment would have been sufficient to count him among the better presidents, but he also is credited with several other significant achievements. He signed the first federal immigration act into law; this liberal legislation barred only undesirables, except for Chinese immigrants, as Congress went against President Arthur’s wishes to allow them to immigrate. President Arthur lowered the tariff, which was the main tax of the time; Congress prevented him from lowering it more. Meanwhile, he held federal spending down. President Arthur respected federalism, vetoing, for example, the River and Harbors Act because he did not regard the proposed projects as sufficiently federal in nature. He increased education aid to American Indians, although Congress did not go along with his proposal to allow individual Indians to own land, and he supported civil rights by backing Southern independents for federal employment over Democrats. President Arthur is also the “Father of the Modern American Navy,” having replaced the fleet of wooden ships with steel ships. 

     Arthur knew he had a fatal kidney disease. He formally entered the Republican presidential nomination race in order not to alert the public to the seriousness of his condition, but did not actively campaign. President Arthur’s short term and his failure to be elected or nominated may have adversely affected his reputation among the American public today, even though he left office well respected, his clashes with Congress notwithstanding. Although historians judge his presidency well, the public has forgotten the good deeds of the 21st Chief Executive, who has become one of the most obscure Presidents, thus leaving Arthur the most underrated of all of them. 

     Chester Alan Arthur deserves the gratitude and respect of all Americans commensurate with his accomplishments as President of the United States. It is unfortunate that the educational benefit of the Dollar Coin engraved with his portrait will likely be diminished by its lack of general circulation. I ask that you, my dear readers, spread this essay to as many of your fellow Americans as possible, not only to right a historical wrong, but to ensure that President Arthur’s heroic deeds may continue to inspire courage today, especially among elected officials.