Chester Alan Arthur: The American Presidents Series: The 21st President, 1881-1885 (American Presidents (Times)) [Hardcover]

Zachary Karabell (Author), Arthur M. Schlesinger (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2004 | Series: American Presidents (Times)

The Gilded Age bon vivant who became America's unlikeliest chief executive-and who presided over a sweeping reform of the system that nurtured him

Chester Alan Arthur never dreamed that one day he would be president of the United States. A successful lawyer, Arthur had been forced out as the head of the Custom House of the Port of New York in 1877 in a power struggle between the two wings of the Republican Party. He became such a celebrity that he was nominated for vice president in 1880-despite his never having run for office before.
Elected alongside James A. Garfield, Arthur found his life transformed just four months into his term, when an assassin shot and killed Garfield, catapulting Arthur into the presidency. The assassin was a deranged man who thought he deserved a federal job through the increasingly corrupt "spoils system." To the surprise of many, Arthur, a longtime beneficiary of that system, saw that the time had come for reform. His opportunity came in the winter of 1882-83, when he pushed through the Pendleton Act, which created a professional civil service and set America on a course toward greater reforms in the decades to come.
Chester Arthur may be largely forgotten today, but Zachary Karabell eloquently shows how this unexpected president-of whom so little was expected-rose to the occasion when fate placed him in the White House.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Chet Arthur? President of the United States? Good God!" is a refrain that punctuates this new biography of the 21st president, the latest in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s American Presidents series. Readers today may confess bewilderment rather than surprise-Chester who?-but this brief but masterful portrait of Arthur’s life and times deserves an attentive audience. Karabell (The Last Campaign; Parting the Desert), freely admits his mission impossible: to rescue his subject from the dustbin of history occupied by obscure late 19th-century presidents, more famous for their facial hair than their tenures in office. Despite limited archival materials (Arthur’s papers were destroyed after his death), Karabell tackles this task with considerable literary aplomb. Charting a career that catapulted Arthur to the presidency after James Garfield’s assassination, Karabell investigates whether Arthur was an active reformer or a mere "placeholder." To frame this challenge, he explores the post-Civil War era’s simmering politics, which hinged on the "spoils system," a long-entrenched formula whereby victorious politicians distributed federal and state jobs to supporters and cronies, later mining their appointees’ pockets for future campaign "contributions." When calls for reform peaked, Arthur spurned the system that spawned him and signed the landmark Pendleton Civil Service Act, which launched the professionalization of the federal bureaucracy, replacing patronage with merit-based examinations. But Arthur was not a true reformist; in the end, Karabell says, he simply "conducted himself with honor when politics was venal and petty." Karabell also salutes the wealthy gourmand as a White House style-maker in a league with Jacqueline Kennedy. Arthur spruced up the dour mansion, in part by hiring the then-unknown decorator Louis Comfort Tiffany. By exploring the Gilded Age’s parallels with our own divisive political scene, Karabell does an excellent job of cementing the volume’s relevance for contemporary readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Presidents come no more obscure than Arthur; in this American Presidents series volume, Karabell shows why. Arthur's papers were destroyed shortly after his death, which makes guesswork out of ascertaining his thoughts about his administration. More important to his least-known status is the fact that he didn't want or expect to be president. A consummate Republican Party hack, he obtained the then enormously important position of U.S. customs collector in New York via the then-legal political spoils system. Asked to be Garfield's 1880 running mate, he dutifully obliged. Inaugurated in March 1881, Garfield was shot in July and died in September: Arthur was president. He rose to the occasion, angering Republican bosses, but didn't sacrifice the short working day to which he was accustomed. His light management style was okay for an era in which presidential politics mattered far less, his reform of the still-new civil service was a crucial early step toward "big government" in the twentieth century, and most important, Karabell suggests, he was a gentleman among knaves. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; First edition (June 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805069518
• ISBN-13: 978-0805069518
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Rescued from the shadows, if only for a moment August 13, 2004

By Andrew S. Rogers TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Zachary Karabell set a challenge for himself, no question: Take one of America's most forgotten presidents and try to find enough to say about him to fill a book -- even one fitting the relatively short length of the titles in The American Presidents series. And give the man credit, he's done it. More than that, he even makes a case for Arthur as -- if still not quite memorable, let alone important -- at least somewhat interesting.

Karabell's challenge was made all the greater by the shadows surrounding Arthur's personal life. Not only did Arthur prefer it that way himself (p. 108), but most of his personal papers were destroyed shortly after his death. Consequently, Arthur the man is a little thin in these pages ("thin" being an adjective probably never applied to Arthur himself during his lifetime). But while anyone looking for People Magazine-style "hidden secrets" about our twenty-first president is bound to be disappointed, the author more than makes up for this with a fine capsule portrayal of the Gilded Age and its politics. This is important, for Arthur was very much a man and a politician of his time.

Indeed, the most noteworthy part of Arthur's term in office was his own transformation from "Gentleman Boss" to simply "Gentleman." Despite his history as the veritable poster boy of spoils-system, backroom machine politicking, Arthur "grew in office," as we'd say today, into perhaps one of the best men to help shepherd through important civil service reforms. Karabell argues, I think convincingly, that the new political culture Arthur helped create still affects us today.

Chester Alan Arthur wasn't a crusader or a firebrand. He wasn't driven by a lust for power or glory. In fact, Karabell describes him as perhaps America's most reluctant president -- a man who never in his life wanted to be chief executive. He slipped back into obscurity almost as soon as he left office, and if anything is even more forgotten today. But "in an age of low expectations, he was more than satisfactory" (p. 139). That the author is able to make that case, not only convincingly but interestingly and even sometimes entertainingly as well, is a credit to him as well as to his subject.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of a mediocre president April 10, 2008

By Steven A. Peterson TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Chester Alan Arthur was a surprise president. He was selected to run for VEEP from pure political reasons. However, he fell into the presidency and, against many fears, did not mess up in that office. As the author states (Page 143): ". . .some men are neither born great, nor achieve greatness, nor have it thrust upon them. Some people just do the best they can in a difficult situation, and sometimes that turns out just fine."

Chester Arthur was one of the United States' "accidental presidents," thrust into office because of the assassination of James Garfield. This book, as others in the series, provides a thumbnail sketch of Arthur (text is 143 pages long). Born in Vermont, his family moved to New York when he was ten years old. He began his political work as a bureaucrat and patronage administrator. While he was enmeshed in the "spoils system," he was not corrupt and was generally pretty well liked. In 1871, he received a coveted position--collector of the New York customhouse. He earned plenty in that role.

Comes the 1880 presidential race. Garfield, a "dark horse," won the nomination and Arthur was selected as his V-P partner, as a result of torturous Republican politics. And he had never been elected to any office prior to that!

The Republicans won, Garfield was assassinated, and Arthur became president. One comment says a great deal, when someone said (Page 61): "Chet Arthur? President of the United States? Good God!" Against the expectations of many, he served without any great errors, and with some positive contributions. (1) While he did not take an active role, he did sign the Pendleton Law, providing Civil Service reform. (2) He did take steps to modernize the embarrassing United States Navy. (3) He was involved with reducing the tariff. (4) Etc. Perhaps more important, he made no major blunders (as many had expected).

He was diagnosed with a dreadful disease, Bright's Disease, which made the last part of his stint as President miserable. While he would have liked another term, such was not to be. He left the presidency with dignity, but with a disease that doomed him.

All in all, a nice biography of a little known and not very great president--but one who did not make things worse than when he entered office.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A LAIDBACK, GENTLEMAN PRESIDENT December 9, 2004

By E. E Pofahl

Format:Hardcover

The author, Zachary Karabell, writes an interesting, brief biography of Chester Alan Arthur the obscure 21st president of the United States. The text states "Chester Alan Arthur hadn't wanted to become the nation's chief executive. He certainly hadn't aspired to be vice president" and Karabell further notes "....Chester Alan Arthur may have the distinction of being the president who derived the least amount of pleasure from being president." Prior to becoming vice president he had been custom collector for the Port of New York, a well-paid lawyer and head of the New York Republican Party but had never been elected to public office.

He ran as Garfield's vice president in 1880, a campaign notable for what it lacked; "It was a contest of organization and will, not a battle over the future direction of the country." Ideology was ignored with politicians viewing "order as the most important good." With Garfield's assassination, Arthur became president on September 20, 1881. The text notes "No one knew what direction the Arthur administration would take, not even Arthur himself" and observes "As it turned out, the qualities he did possess allowed him to rise farther than many others who were more intelligent, dynamic, and driven."

He was president in an era when "the White House had shed much of the power it had acquired during the Civil War" and each national election was a patronage contest. The assassination of Garfield placed the issue of civil service reform on the front burner. The response was the Pendleton Civil Service Act, the most memorable legislation to emerge from Arthur's presidency. Zachary Karabell's account of Arthur's presidency is brief but informative. Besides civil service reform, the text covers Arthur's handling of Indian affairs, the Anti-Chinese sentiment, and his veto of the Rivers and Harbors Bill. However, in 1882 the Republicans lost control of the House and Arthur's chances for a second term were slim. Perhaps Author's most important contribution to the country was his resuscitation of the military. The army was somewhat sustained because of the Indian wars, but in less than twenty years since the Civil War, the navy had lost almost 90 percent of its ships. Arthur emphatically supported a plan to build ships "designed for offense and attack" and the text notes without Arthur "....[Teddy] Roosevelt and McKinley might not have had a navy capable of annihilating the Spanish in 1898." In addition, this helped to prepare the United States for the foreign affair challenges of the twentieth century.

Having lost his base support, Arthur was not nominated for a second term. The 1884 election was won by Grover Cleveland, a Democrat. As he left office Arthur was the object of warm political eulogies and the author writes "Arthur had become president with perilously low expectations, which he then exceeded. In essence, most people concluded that the Arthur administration hadn't been half bad." He died at age 56 less than two years after leaving office.

In conclusion, Karabell states Arthur "....tried to serve the general good rather than the interest of his faction..." and he "....did for civil service reform what he had done for most things in his life: he added a note of grace and honor, and the result was a balanced piece of legislation at a time when that was rare." The author concludes "In everything he did, Chester Alan Arthur was a gentleman and that is rare and precious" and closes stating "Arthur managed to be a decent man, a decent president in an era when decency was in short supply."

Americans would do well to read this brief biography of a somewhat obscure, laidback; but decent, honest, gentleman president.