Chester A. Arthur Born: 21st U.S. President

Summary

Chester Alan Arthur is reported as having been born on October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont. He was the 21st president of the United States, serving from 1881 to 1885 after succeeding the assassinated James A. Garfield. Arthur graduated from Union College in 1848, practiced law in New York City, and became active in Republican politics. During the Civil War, he served as quartermaster general of New York state volunteers. Appointed collector of the Port of New York by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871, he managed a major patronage position until removed in 1878 amid reform efforts. Elected vice president in 1880 on the Republican ticket with Garfield, Arthur assumed the presidency upon Garfield's death. Despite his machine-politics background, he supported and signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883, establishing merit-based federal hiring. Arthur also enforced the Chinese Exclusion Act and modernized the U.S. Navy. He was not renominated in 1884 and died in 1886.