Garfield, Arthur and Hope for Us All

James A. Garfield has the second shortest tenure of any President.  He was shot and incapacitated by an assassin on September 19, 1881, just four months into his Presidency.  He died 80 days later, on July 2 after an agonizing, bizarre and medically dubious round of treatments.   Ohio has produced more Presidents than any of our states, and Garfield was one of that line.  A lawyer and ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ Church, he was opposed to slavery, volunteer to fight in the Civil War and did so with distinction.  He was probably a good man.  We will never know if he would have been a good President. 

            Garfield was shot by a disgruntled patronage seeker named Charles Guiteau. Even Alexander Graham Bell tried to help find the bullet lodged near Garfield’s spine, using a home-made metal detector.  It didn’t work.  Neither did the physicians prescribed doses of quinine, morphine, brandy and calomel.  Neither did attempting to feed the President through the rectum, probing continually for the bullet using dubiously sterilized material, or, presumably, thoughts and prayers.

            Garfield died, and that led to the elevation of Chester A. Arthur to the Presidency.  Despite all his failings, Chet Arthur is one of my favorite Presidents.  He represents, better than any other “accidental” President, that even a flawed man can rise to the occasion. 

Chester A. Arthur was a New Yorker who had never held elective office.  He was considered a political hack of the most common variety. 

Arthur worked for the New York City political machine called Tammany Hall.  He was known as a good sport, an effective “party” man and a dependable fixer.  What Roscoe Conkling and the Tammany machine needed, good ole Chet would provide.  Votes.  Favors. Dirt.  Chet delivered.  He was so good at what he did he was eventually appointed to the powerful position of customs collector for the Port of New York. 

A position like customs collector involved skimming off a considerable amount of cash, doling it out to the people who appointed you to the position and keeping a fair amount for yourself.  Arthur was dutiful in all aspects of his work.  He also developed tastes that reflected an income never dreamed of for the son of a Vermont Baptist preacher.

Chester A. Arthur did, however, have a history that pointed to a conscience and innate morality.  His early legal career shows an excellent string of high-profile and winning civil rights cases.  His successful defense of Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a black woman who had been denied a seat on a Manhattan streetcar, led to the desegregation of public transportation in New York City. 

In 1880, it took a confused and battling Republican Party 36 ballots to finally decide on a compromise Presidential candidate, James Garfield of Ohio.  In the meantime, a surprised and bewildered Chester A. Arthur reluctantly obeyed Roscoe Conkling, his Tammany Hall boss, in joining the ticket as Vice President.  His title would be Vice President, but his job would be Roscoe Conkling’s stooge.

But on July 2, Chester A. Arthur, the least qualified man then elevated to the Presidency became the first gentleman of the land.

What followed was the epiphany of the Oval Office.  To the consternation and ever-lasting rancor of Tammany Hall, Arthur turned his back on his corrupt friends. President Chester A. Arthur barred the entire Tammany crew from the White House.  The man who had toed every party line drawn for him moved beyond partisan politics.  In 1883 he signed the landmark Pendleton Civil Service Act.  He tried to lower tariffs and vetoed the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883. 

Shortly after taking office, Arthur found out he had a serious kidney ailment, Bright’s Disease.  He chose not to run for office and died in 1886 at age 57. 

So here we have it.  A New Yorker without political experience thrust into the most powerful office in the land.  His response was to rise above the associations and practices that put him there and become a principled and honest broker of the public trust.  I admire Chester A. Arthur.  I would have voted for Chester A. Arthur. 

Think it through.  Keep the faith.