We're now on the 21st day of my daily presidents threads celebrating the 250th anniversary of the USA.Today we have Chester A. Arthur (10/5/1829 - 11/18/1886), who served as president from 1881 to 1884. Prior to being president he was known as an infamously corrupt collector of the port of New York and chair of the New York Republican Party. Ironically, his run as president was dedicated to reform and rooting out corruption like his predecessor.Notable actions or events during his presidency include the rebirth of the U.S. Navy, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration Act of 1882, the Tariff of 1883, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, the Greely Polar Expedition Rescue, and the Edmunds ActWhat do you think of the man with the OP facial hair?
>>18520997>Ironically, his run as president was dedicated to reform and rooting out corruption like his predecessor.Because he was dying of an incurable disease and felt guilty about being a huge POS
>>18520999Arthur died apparently of malaria and he wasn't ill when he took office, he contracted the disease the following summer while walking around D.C. (he was fond of walking around the city on summer nights). by 1884 he was increasingly ill and performed only limited presidential duties his last year in office.
>Chester Arthur succeeded the slain Garfield as the 21st president. Little was expected of him as his prior career had mostly been as an errand boy for the Conkling machine, but he displayed unexpected reserves of honesty and integrity, and he snubbed his former Conklingite friends when they came asking for favors. An over 6 feet tall widower, Arthur enjoyed fine living and owned dozens of outfits, had a well-stocked wine cellar, and had fresh bouquets of flowers delivered to the White House daily. He refused to pardon Garfield's assassin despite the latter's frantic protests that he'd made him president, and he was hanged in Washington D.C. in June 1882. Arthur also vigorously cracked down on fraud and corruption in the postal service and passed the first bill requiring proper civil service exams for Federal officials, ending the era of the spoils system. He also approved the construction of six new all-steel warships, beginning the Navy's revival from its post-Civil War malaise. On the downside, Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act after President Hayes had earlier vetoed it.>Arthur became seriously ill in the latter part of his presidency, but even if he wasn't, the Republican bosses would not have renominated him. He died less than two years after leaving office.
he did better than anyone expected, but after the shitfest of the Grant years nobody wanted to go back to that and presidents had to get with the program and support anti-corruption measures.
>>18520997the Gilded Age was an absolutely shitty era for anyone except rich assholes
>>18521012He got diagnosed with Bright's shortly after becoming president, which was incurable at the time
>>18520997He redeemed himself in the end.I heard what happened was that this politically-involved woman from Maine, she wrote a letter to Arthur saying that the whole country was in morning over the shooting of Garfield, but mostly just because Arthur was set to takeover.She said she had followed Chester Arthur's career for a long time and new he was at one point a just and honest lawyer who stood up for the marginalized in Upstate New York. She urged Arthur to change, and that he did.Arthur had most of his papers and letters burned when he died, but he saved the letters from that woman from Maine.
>>18520997he also negotiated a canal with nicaragua without using force unlike mckinley/roosevelt, but was blocked in congress. no matter how you slice it, he's one of the best presidents>>18521044>On the downside, Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act after President Hayes had earlier vetoed it.this only applied to chinese men. grant had already banned chinese women
>>18521294>he also negotiated a canal with nicaragua without using force unlike mckinley/rooseveltOne of TR's dumber decisions was inaugurating this really meatheaded policy of force majure in Latin America, like it was still the Middle Ages and it did nothing but provide anti-US propaganda for generations of Latin American communists. That lasted until Hoover/FDR adopted a more diplomatic approach to Latin American relations.
>>18521318Nah it was Coolidge who ended the American imperialist age in Latin America for the most part.I wrote my graduating paper on it just this year.Coolidge doesn't get credit because he did blunder into the last 'Banana War' with the second Nicaraguan intervention, but he also ended various occupations across Latin America and normalized American relations with Mexico.Coolidge also really changed American rhetoric towards Latin America and appointed J. Rueben Clark, who wrote the theory which ended the Roosevelt Corollary which drove most of our interventions.The second Nicaraguan intervention started as a successful resolution to the Nicaraguan civil war, but we stayed around after the fair elections ended that war because we thought Augusto Sandino would overthrow the government.
>>18520999He also felt guilty and horrified over what happened to Garfield. Forgotten as he is today, Garfield's death was a huge deal at the time and a lot of people were pissed off and disgusted by it. If the cops hadn't been there the mob at the station would have likely, possibly literally, torn Guiteau limb from limb.The only people who weren't all that upset were the ultra-Stalwarts and Arthur pretty much permanently destroyed his long time friendship with Conkling by picking up the torch for reform since Conkling saw it as a huge betrayal.>>18521233Not from Maine but New York. Her name was Julia Sand and it's not really known what effect he letters had on him but he did visit her once during his presidency.
>>18521729it wasn't until McKinley's assassination though that anyone thought to provide any presidential security
>>18519633>>18520997Chester Arthur gets instatedFour years later, he was traded...
