Is there anything cool about Chester A. Arthur?
I mean, his name is Chester, for Christ sake. How cool could he possibly be? Well, as it turns out, he seriously has his moments. I mean, at the very least, I'd nominate him for most killer mustache to ever grace the White House. But that's not all. For someone widely considered a party hack at the time he took office, he did some pretty progressive shit that would reverberate through American politics and society into the present day.
So that brought me to the next question:
Why is Chaz and his presidency so overlooked and forgotten?
The easy answer is that he didn't really try to even get nominated for a second (ish) term and then, the day before he died, he burned all of his personal papers. Sketchy shit, isn't it? We'll explore this more later. For now, let's look at Chaz before he became the leader of the free world.
Before he became the subject of this blog and known as "Chaz" (I really want that to catch on), Chester Alan Arthur was the son of an abolitionist preacher man (cue Dusty Springfield). Born in 1829, he was homeschooled for most of his basic education before moving on to Union College in Schenectady, New York. He went on to pass the bar exam and become part of the law firm headed by Erastus D. Culver. It is important here to note that while practicing law, Chaz took part in a very early and notable civil rights case, that of Elizabeth Jennings Graham. While running late for church, Ms Jennings Graham (often referred to just as Elizabeth Jennings), boarded a horse drawn streetcar in Brooklyn and took the first seat she saw that was available. The conductor of the streetcar ordered her to leave the train as that particular streetcar service (privately owned) reserved the right to refuse service to patrons of color. Ms Jennings Graham was subsequently forced off of the streetcar by a police officer and the conductor. She sued the company with the help of the Culver Law Firm and Chaz himself, and actually won. This should be shocking to modern readers-- not only was this 100 years before Rosa Parks, but it was seven years before the Civil War even began. When the Civil War began, however, Chaz enlisted. He would eventually rise to the rank of brigadier general, though he never saw combat.
Chaz was heavily involved in Republican politics and quickly became affiliated with the New York political machine under Republican Boss Roscoe Conkling (someone who could be a blog subject in and of himself). In the 1850s political machines specialized in cronyism, nepotism, kick backs and corruption. The political bosses believed that it was their right as public servants to use their positions to their financial advantage and also to elevate those that were close to them. As such a staunch supporter, Chaz was named "Collector of the Port of New York" in 1871 by President Grant.
This brings us to another question that I had to ask myself during the research phase of this blog: What the fuck does that even mean?
Well, The Collector of the Port of New York is the person responsible for collecting tariffs and duties from ships departing from and coming into the port under his domain. One would think that that would simply be New York City, as it was one of the busiest ports on the planet at the time. And, subsequently, one would be wrong. His domain actually included all of the east coast of New York, as well as parts of New Jersey and the Hudson River. He was good at what he did, and while he was never officially named in any corruption charges, the historical record shows that he did take kick backs, which was a standard operating procedure at the time. Rumor has it that the corruption ran even deeper than that for Chaz, but official records don't completely support this, which is not to say that it didn't happen, just that it's not supported by the historical record.
And that's really it. That's pretty much the entire story of Chaz's pre-presidency years. He fathered children, suffered through the loss of his wife and worked for Conkling's political machine. He wasn't groomed for the presidency as most present day politicians are, nor was he necessarily well known to most of the nation before the Republican nominating convention in 1880. It was at this convention that Chaz was named vice presidential running mate of James A Garfield, and the entire nation simultaneously let out a cry of "who?". Yes, friends, Chaz was the original Sarah Palin; plucked from obscurity to serve as a balance on a ticket due to seriously complicated political reasonings and back alley agreements.
But he had a better mustache.
Garfield and Chaz won the 1880 election (I think the mustache helped) and Garfield was sworn in as president in January 1881. Chaz became vice president and all Republican Stalwarts (a faction within the Republican party at the time) rejoiced that they were safe from corruption charges now that one of their own was in the White House. Sort of. Garfield himself was of a different faction, called the Half Breeds (seriously, I'm not even joking here), and this merging of Stalwart and Half Breed was shaping up to be serioulsy entertaining until July 1881 when President Garfield was shot.
Seven months into his vice presidency, a role that he never expected to have in the first place and had never prepared himself for, he suddenly found himself THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD. Take a moment to let that sink in. Put yourself in Chaz's shoes for a minute. What the hell was even going through his head? He didn't know how to govern, hell he barely knew how to collect tariffs! To make matters worse, the assassin, Charles J Guiteau, upon shooting the president declared that he had shot Garfield in service to the Stalwart cause and to make Chaz president. Conspiracy theories swirled that Chaz and Conkling had planned the assassination. But those were largely put to rest, mainly because Chaz's ascent to the presidency surprised the ever living fuck out of, well, everyone.
Far from being a political machine hack, as most, including his long time mentor Roscoe Conkling, assumed he would be, Chaz grew a backbone, put on his bitchface and resolved to govern according to conscience and what he thought was best for Americans. And here is where I found the answer to my first question-- the coolest things Chaz ever did occurred while he was in the White House.
For someone who served just less than a single term as president, he racked up a shit-ton of awesome talking points. We're going to focus on six, and I'll try to keep them brief. They are: The Utah thing, The Civil Rights Act, Civil Service Reform, The Chinese Exclusion Act, The Navy Thing and Redecorating the White House (yeah, for reals).
The Utah Thing. Sigh. Utah. That bastion of hiking and bee hives. The state with that famous arch like thing in the middle of the desert. Okay, so that's pretty much the sum of my knowledge on Utah (and I'm not positive that the arch thing is even in Utah). In 21st century America, that's pretty much the sum of everyone's knowledge on Utah. But in the 1880s Utah was a flashpoint and ground zero for everyone's favorite pain in the ass: Mormons.
*Disclaimer* The following statements are my own. They are based on the historical record, not my own personal beliefs about Mormons, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young or the angel Moroni. However, I will say here that, my personal belief is that naming your archangel "Moron-i" doesn't lend you any credibility, I feel like someone should have taken that into account. Also, I will use the term "Mormon" here, as opposed to the more PC term "Latter Day Saints" as, at the time (1880s) Mormon was the more accepted term*
The United States had a long and checkered history with the followers of Joseph Smith and the angel Moroni. They freaked people out. They had a semi-Christian belief structure, but permanently set themselves apart by proclaiming all present day churches to be following the wrong faith. They did this based on legendary golden tablets that their prophet, Joseph Smith, had been led to by the angel Moroni, which he had then had to translate using magic glasses. The Mormons were persecuted first in New York, then in Illinois where Smith was subsequently shot, before moving to Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young. Utah was a territory at this time and, as such, was subject to rule and regulation by the federal government under article four of the Constitution. Brigham Young was having none of that shit, however. He was named governor in 1848, and set up local courts and a territorial legislature. Weird. But not necessitating of widespread outcry just yet. But give him a minute... He'll get there.....
In 1851 and 1852 Brigham Young announced that no Mormon could get into heaven without accepting the doctrine of celestial (plural) marriage. AKA: polygamy.
*Cue widespread outcry*
Legislation against polygamy was nearly instant under the banner of "I can't believe we actually have to pass laws against this", all of which Brigham Young and his followers rejected, declaring the laws of god superior to those of man. Years before Chaz took up the presidency, James Buchanan ordered federal troops to Utah to supress the Mormons and bring Utah back under the governance of the federal government. In all actuality, however, Buchanan was not so much incensed by moral outrage at polygamy as he was trying super hard to take everyone's mind off of the issue of slavery that was threatening to explode literally any second.
After the issue of slavery did, in fact, explode, everyone pretty much left Utah alone as the Civil War raged. Abraham Lincoln actually issued an official statement that almost literally read, "tell Brigham Young that if he leaves me alone, I'll leave him alone". And all was pretty much quiet for awhile. The Mormons did their plural marriage and free worship thing, and the US government did their reuniting the Union thing. Except for that pesky issue of the Mountain Meadow Massacre in 1857, which no one was yet brought to justice for. Basically, as this could also be a blog in and of itself, Mormons, dressed as and aided by Native Americans, killed 120 Gentiles in a wagon train on their way to California. For years Mormons denied any involvement, but the historical record clearly shows that the main force was predominantly Mormon, an assertion that the LDS (Mormon) website acknowledges at this point (link at bottom).
For his part, Chaz passed what was arguably the most sweeping legislation at the time. Being the son of a Christian minister, Chaz was outraged by polygamy, however, he had become a strict constitutionalist. He passed the Edmunds Act in 1882 that not only made polygamy a felony, but also made "illegal cohabitation" a crime. Illegal cohabitation is basically defined as the living together of a man and woman that aren't married; this is MUCH easier to enforce than a ban on polygamy. But what was more important than this new illegal cohabitation thing, was what the act did for the structure of government in Utah. Chaz knew that the federal goverment had every right to run a territory and any other goverment serving a territory was at the mercy of the feds. So with the Edmunds Act, Chaz barred polygamists from office and jury duty, set up a five person federal commission to supervise voting in Utah, and called for direct federal control of the territory. Within months all elected offices in the territory were vacated and the federal government took control. Mormons. Were. Pissed.
The fight for Utah would rage on, even into the present day. Chaz's actions are still admonished by fundamentalist sects of the religion, even as most modern mainstream Mormons/LDS members have rejected polygamy. Utah took statehood in 1895, and has been an odd American example of theocracy within democracy ever since.
Which brings us to the Civil Service. Not nearly as exciting as massacres and marriages in Utah, but seriously, super important. When Chaz took office, appointments to positions within goverment were usually made on the basis of who was most liked by the person doing the appointing. Recall that Chaz himself filled one of these positions at one point when he was Collector for the Port of New York, and that he had gotten his position as such due to his political loyalties. In one of the greatest "do as I say, not as I did" moments in American history, Chaz supported and rallied for the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which passed and was signed into law in 1882. This act was more important politically and constitutionally than it was logistically. Basically, the Pendleton Act instituted Civil Service Exams and a process by which someone had to follow to be appointed to a civil position. Thus, this took the appointment process out of the hands of powerful political bosses (read: Conkling), and established a process based on merit, theoretically at least. Conkling lost his shit when this passed. This is the point at which everyone realized that Chaz was no longer a political machine puppet, but a real live boy with real, live ambitions and opinions.
If you weren't paying attention, I mentioned earlier that Chaz had taken part in some seriously progressive civil rights stuff during his career as a New York attorney. During his time in the White House he stuck to his progressive roots. To this end he relied on The Civil Rights Act of 1875 that had barred racial discrimination in public facilities......
Now I know what you history nerds out there are saying: "Whoa. Hold up there lady! What kind of shit are you trying to pull?! What about Jim Crow and Brown v. The Board of Education, and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, and Rosa Parks?! Have you gone mad?!".
I have not gone mad. Well, okay, maybe a little bit, but you couldn't use this to prove it in court, because, indeed, in 1875 Congress passed a civil rights act protecting all Americans, regardless of race, from discrimination in all public areas. It stated: "...it is essential to just government [that] we recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political; and it being the appropriate object of legislation to enact great fundamental principles into law: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal and enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude."
So what the hell happened between 1875 and Martin Luther King, Jr. you may now be asking yourself. Valid. Fucking. Question. My friends. The short answer to "what the fuck happened here?" is "the Supreme Court". The Supreme Court happened. In a series of decisions SCOTUS shut down the act of 1875 and in the 1883 case of Harris v The United States, often referred to as "the Ku Klux Klan case" declared the act unconstitutional at its core. Harris was a sheriff in Tennessee who took it upon himself to lynch four black men that were being held in the local jail. Chaz was committed to protecting black Americans from violence of all forms, especially that that was race based; since the local government was not positioned to arrest its own sheriff, Chaz had the lynch mob brought up on federal charges under the 1875 act. When the Court ruled that the federal goverment had no jurisdiction over the behavior of private citizens, Chaz was incensed. He publically rebuked the ruling but his hands were tied, and it would be almost 100 years before another act would take the 1875 act's place-- the 1964 Civil Rights Acts signed by Lyndon Johnson.
Chaz wasn't just committed to the plight of black Americans, but also Native Americans and the Chinese. He continually sought peaceful assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream society. Regardless of your thoughts on assimilation to a dominating culture, that was at least better than the alternative at the time: killing them all until they stop attacking farms on the frontier. As far as the Chinese are concerned, Chaz used one of six vetoes he cast through his entire presidency in response to the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act, when it crossed Chaz's desk, would have denied citizenship to Chinese residents in the US and barred Chinese laborers from entering the country. Chaz vetoed this stating that the twenty year ban on immigration was unreasonable and that without Chinese labor the United States would have been bereft of a large and reliable source of quality labor. Congress responded by redrafting the bill to halt Chinese immigration for ten years. Chaz signed it.
Way to stand your ground, Chaz. I must admit, this is one of the few face/palm moments I had during research. This was stupid. Admittedly. But at least he kept it to a select few events of stupidity.
Speaking of stupidity, Chaz had the White House redecorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany after he determined it was too quaint for an elegant man like himself. It cost $30,000. Translated to 21st century dollars, that would be around $2 million. Right. To his credit, a lot of the issue was the twenty four wagons worth of clothes and various debris left behind by various previous presidents. And he only refurbished it after the Army Corps of Engineers suggested it be torn down due to structural damage. So I guess it wasn't THAT bad of a decision. Though not nearly as funny as my favorite White House change-- when Bill Clinton's staffers removed all of the "W" keys from every keyboard in the White House when George W Bush was coming in to take over..... They also took the door knobs.
Due to his White House renovations, Chaz was often called the "Gentleman Boss", but he had a nickname that speaks to a much more important renovation-- "Father of the Steel Navy". Previous to Arthur, Naval ships were predominantly made out of wood or steel, each of which came with its own set of problems. Wood was highly susceptible to rot, and steam ships couldn't really be made of wood because they would catch fire from the coal ovens used to produce the steam (duh). Iron is heavy. It makes ships hard to navigate and susceptible to loss due to sinking. Arthur proposed a naval switch to steel steamers, which, oddly, only garnered moderate support. However, he was successful in having a small handful of ships converted over to steel steamers. Coal refueling stations were still few and far between at this point, making a total renovation a Hurculean undertaking involving vast resources and monies that weren't available at the time. Regardless, he set the wheel in motion and is still considered a pioneer in the push to modernize the American Navy in the late 19th century, presiding over the creation of the Naval War College and the Office of Naval Intelligence.
For all of his work on domestic affairs, predominantly, and all that he did to bring America to the point that it is today, our second question now seems tough to answer: why is Chaz a lost president? Well, he only nominally tried to gain reelection. In fact, he barely tried to gain nomination for a second term, which he lost on the fourth ballot in the 1884 nominating convention to Secretary of State James G. Blaine (good job, Republicans). Many believe that his perceived lack of trying here is because he was very aware that he was suffering from Bright's Disease. Bright's Disease is a kidney disease that is marked by inflammation of the parts of the kidney that produce urine. He knew that his kidneys were failing. Just two years after losing the nomination bid, Chaz died November 18, 1886. But what is more important to answering our question here, is what happened on November 17, 1886. Knowing that he was dying and that his time was near, Chaz burned all of his personal papers. The Library of Congress has just one packet of papers, mainly letters sent to others, from Chaz's presidency. Why? Conspiracy theories run wild here, but the most popular, and the one that may have the most veracity, is that Chaz was born in Canada, not Vermont, when Canada was still a British colony. Thus, Chaz was not a natural born US citizen, had this been known he would have been disqualified from the presidency.
For those to whom Chaz is not lost, he remembered as a surprisingly independent and forward thinking leader. I find him to be progressive, ahead of his time, a sympathetic character that tried to rise above that which was perceived to hold him back to secure a place in history at least as not a bad president. And as someone with one of the greatest mustaches American history has ever seen.
As the publisher Alexander K. McClure once noted: “No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired . . . more generally respected.”
- For a general and brief overview of Chaz and his presidency, the Miller Center has some fantastic resources and can be found at: http://millercenter.org/president/arthur, also, whitehouse.gov (don't go to whitehouse.com, it's a porn site... well... check it out if you want to I guess...), and history.com have some great general info as well.
- Chaz's contributions to the evolution of the American Constitution are written about in great detail by former Constitutional Law professor Michael J. Gerhardt in his serioulsy awesome book The Forgotten Presidents.
- For further reading on the Mormons and the history of Mormonism in the US there are four books that are generally accepted as "good history" on the movement. They are:
No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Brodie
The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks (a descendent of one of the murderers)
Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley
*None of these are without their controversy. But, these four are those that stick closest to the historical record, regardless of the authors' respective biases.
- For further reading into the Mormon belief system, one can read the Book of Mormon (what Joseph Smith translated from the gold tablets) for free online at https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm?lang=eng. There's also a list to The Doctrine and Covenants there, which are the direct teachings of Smith and Brigham Young.
- The Church of Latter Day Saints has issued formal apologies regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre, excerpts from which can be found on their website at https://www.lds.org/topics/mountain-meadows-massacre?lang=eng
- The wording of the 1875 Civil Rights Act that I quoted above was found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/activism/ps_1875.html
- For further reading on Naval history and the switch to steel I highly suggest http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/navy-hub/navy-history/steel-steam.html
- For more info on why Chaz burned his personal papers, there's some nifty blogs out there if you Google "Arthur burned his papers". Don't Google "Chaz". I'm the only one that calls him that. For now.... *Cue maniacal laughter*
- For a seriously kick ass version of "Son of a Preacher Man", I suggest Katey Sagal and the Forest Ranger's version, available on iTunes.
- Image credit goes to wikipedia.org
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