Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-11-18

The public career of Chester A. Arthur was
chiefly remarkable tor its surprises. At a time
when every prudent politician in New York
was carefully steering clear OF the race and
color questions, and a President from that
state, raised to Office by free soil constituency,
was enforcing with all his might fugitive
slave law signed by himself, young lawyer
with q well-defned ambition for public prefer
ment was making mark at the bar by his sue
cessful espousal of the cause of aggrieved ne
groes. The pluck and ability he showed in this
work won the esteem of the man whom the re-
publicans chose Tor their war governor some
years later, and by whom he was appointed to
his first posts of responsibility, as Engneer-in-
Chief, Inspector-Ge and Quarternfaster-
General of the state. Thus, the very agencies
which had lead so many others out of the way of
the honor they coveted, had led him up to
places of great power and responsibilities, and
paved his path to better things san in tie
future. iHti' - $780, b
This was the first surprise. The second was
when, as Collector of the port of New York. his
resignation was demanded by President Hayes
because he was accused of using the custom
house as q political machine. and he called for
an Investigation. The report of the Jay COM
mission pointed to his general efficiency as a
manager, and so strong a civil-service refOrmer
as Dorman B. Eaton bore testimony that sin the
period of five years preceding the appointment
Of Collector Arthur in 1871, there had been
1878 removals in the New York custom house,
more than at a rate of one every day." while
Collector Arthur made only 144 removals
during his official term of five years and four
months"
To those republicans who had thought of Mr.
Arthur only a"spoils politician such an
encomium carried wonder-a sensation vastly
heightened when the republican national con-
vention OF 1850 actually picked up this cast-out
customs officer and wrote his name second on its
ticket During the arfield-Conkl ng contest the
following year, MI. Arthur was severely censured
for his willingness to play a subordinate part
in the opposition TO the administration; yet no
sooner had Guiteau's bullet laid a new respon-
sibiIity upon his shoulders than he became dig
nifty persOnified.
On his entrance into the White House he as
founded the hostile prophets by turning his
back upon the factional record of the past and
striving with all his might to reunite his party.
He was forgiving toward those who had villified
him, patient with those who still published
their distrust, cautious in his choice of APP
pointees from among his old associates; and a
host of men who had been his foes came over to
his side and acknowledged that they had mis-
judged him.
But his friends had made no claim for him as
shaper OF public policies. They were, in their
turn, 10 be astonished at the recommendations
IN DIS successive messages 10 Congress. He urged
the repeal of the silver coinage and legal tender
acts; the abolition OF all internal taxes
except those on whiskey apd tobacco and the
prudent revision of the tariff, with a view to
the reduction of the treasury surplus; the con-
struction of a new navy; the enaction of laws
defining Presidential Inability; the settle
ment of vexed questions regarding the
election Of a President; reform in the
system OF river and harbor appropriations; the
reduction OF letter postage to two cents: the
passage Of q civil service reform law, and the
prohibition of political assessments. On some
of these suggestions Congress acted; on others
II refused TO act; but to President who re-
ceived more gratuitous abuse from his own
party than almost any other who has entered
into office, belongs the credit of having striyen
To lead that party on to what he believed to be
hold upon the confidence of the commercial
and industrial classes of the country.
Finally, the dgnified manner in which he
laid down the presidency at the end of his
term was a surprise To many who believed that
In the bitterness OF a disappointed ambition,
Mr.. Arthur would De led into some open act of
Vegeance against the republican officeholders
whom he had continued in place while he knew
they were working against him. But whatever
his feeling may have been, his conduct BETRAYED
NO trace of it, He retired from office with a
thousand-foid warmer esteem on the part OF his
feiiow-citizens than he enjoyed when entering
II; q whole nation will lay a mourner's tribute
on his grave.