On this engagement in 1881 , Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as President of the United States . Our friendThomas Sonnenscheinis here to honor the underappreciated , overnamed twenty - first president .
Many years ago , in a college trivia tourney , a moderator call for a inquiry : Who is the least - known American Chief Executive ?
The query itself invite more questions . Least know by whom ? American historians ? The general world ? Nepalese monarchs ?
And , of course , if the least - known president is well known enough to be the answer of a trivia question , how small known could he be ?
It was a brain-teaser .
The answer the enquirer was looking for was Millard Fillmore . But Fillmore , even then , was better make out than probably a half - XII U.S. prexy . The gravid diary keeper H.L. Mencken had seized on Fillmore ’s semi - anon. mediocrity to give him credit for having establish the first White House bathtub " “ a canard that , more than 80 years after Mencken invented it , is still considered the high spot of the Fillmore administration .
But if any president should have the title " least known,“ it should beChester Alan Arthur(pictured ) , the 21st president , as an extremely informal 2007Mother Jonessurvey observed . Whether this study is accurate or not " “ on a dissimilar Clarence Shepard Day Jr. with a different polling pocket billiards , the conclusion could have favored Zachary Taylor , Benjamin Harrison or even the beloved Franklin Pierce , key by a recent biographer as ( yes ) " the nation ’s least - known president" " “ the results make more horse sense . For Chester Alan Arthur , a man with some stunning muttonchop hair , may truly be the most anonymous man ever to retain the United States ' highest office .
Consider his unlikely career.
Most Chief Executive move up to the agency through military fame ( Andrew Jackson , Ulysses S. Grant , Dwight Eisenhower ) , Cabinet distinction ( John Quincy Adams , Herbert Hoover ) or previous election to high power ( most everyone else ) . Prior to his election as frailty - president , Arthur was " ¦ the former Collector of the Port of New York .
Indeed , at the time he was put up , he had returned to practice law , as he ’d been forced out of the Collector ’s billet by President Rutherford B. Hayes in an endeavour at reform . ( In Arthur ’s defense , he on the face of it ran the Customs House more honourably than his often corrupt predecessors . )
He was choose as the vice - presidential nominee during a peculiarly bitter Republican convention . The company was divided between three groups : the Stalwarts , the Half - Breeds and the Reformers . The Stalwarts were in favor of the post - Civil War Republican hard line and led by Roscoe Conkling , the New York senator and Republican kingmaker with the unbelievably perfect politician ’s name . The Half - Breeds were the less - radical followers of presidential candidate and senator James G. " The Plumed Knight,“ " The Man from Maine" Blaine . The Reformers were in favor of ending the spoil organisation then in violence " “ a system favored by the Stalwarts and the Half - Breeds .
Oh , and Conkling and Blaine did n’t wish each other .
The convention went to 36 ballots before lastly cull James A. Garfield " “ who begin the pattern as the campaign manager for another candidate – as its presidential standard - carrier .
After Garfield ’s pick , party habitue offered the vice - presidential nomination to Arthur , for the most part because he was Conkling ’s right - hired hand man . Conkling actually urged Arthur to go down the nominating address " as you would a red - hot skid from the forge,“since he thought Garfield was a sure loser , but Arthur was adamant : " This is a high honor than I have ever dreamt of attaining . I shall accept!“
So, who was this mysterious man with the three first names?
Chester Alan Arthur was bear in Fairfield , Vermont , on October 5 , 1829 , the son of a preacher man . ( Sources are not entirely clear on his birthing ; he may have been born in 1830 , and he may have been bear in Canada , but that ’s a discussion for another time . ) He grew up in Perry , New York , and graduate from that Schenectady ’s Union College in 1848 . After a few years as a school head , he garner his constabulary degree and moved to New York City . Among his cases was a case that end integrating of public transit in New York .
During the Civil War , he was quartermaster of the State of New York , and after another stint practice law , President Grant " “ who Arthur had stand strongly in 1868 – appointed him Collector in 1871 , a position Arthur held for seven eld .
Despite Arthur ’s bona fides , he was viewed as Conkling ’s mankind . Garfield did n’t think much of his running mate . ( Apparently , neither did the news media of the time;The New York Timessaid Arthur was " about the last adult male who would be deliberate eligible " for the presidency . )
However , Arthur " “ or , more precisely , Conkling " “ may have made a divergence in November , as Garfield won the presidentship by less than 10,000 votes in the popular tally , and 214 to 155 in the Electoral College . Had New York gone Democratic " “ it favored Garfield by just 20,000 voter turnout – we ’d be talking about the administration of Winfield Scott Hancock .
Garfield was inaugurated on March 4 , 1881 . He spent his first calendar month in office endeavor to find a midway ground between the Republican force that had helped put him there . ( Among his moves : naming Blaine Secretary of State . )
And then, tragedy. Or, if your name was Chester Alan Arthur, opportunity.
Garfield ’s first months in office turned out to be his only month in office . On July 2 , 1881 , only four month after beginning his terminus , he was shoot by the most famous dissatisfied office staff - searcher in American history , Charles J. Guiteau . Garfield died 10 week later , and Arthur was sworn in as president on September 20 , 1881 . He was 51 years old . Legend has it that a Republican friend , upon hear the news , said , " Chet Arthur ? President of the United States ? beneficial God!“
[ Image courtesy ofSlags House of Stats . ]
No doubt , Conkling thought he ’d now ascertain the presidency . Moreover , Conkling ’s antagonist , the Half - Breeds , credibly think the same affair . Instead , Arthur handle to climb above both junto , give the sack Garfield ’s intact cabinet , include Blaine ( only secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln kept his job ) and fall out in favour of ending the spoilage system , which he ’d previously supported . In 1883 , Congress passed the Pendleton Act , which show the bipartisan Civil Service Commission .
Arthur was also key in helping to establish the modern American navy .
He did have his faults , however . A dandy " “ he was cognize as both " the Gentleman Boss" and " refined Arthur,“ which was saying something in Gilded Age America " “ he asked Louis Tiffany to redecorate the White House in the panache to which he was habituate , which resulted in previous generations of White House furniture being sell or destroyed.(Arthur , a widowman who had lose his married woman in 1880 , quest Tiffany ’s piece of work himself ; it cost $ 30,000 , quite a sum in 1881 . ) He also signed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 , an anti - immigrant law that was n’t reverse until World War II .
In general , however , Arthur was imagine of highly . Even the cynical Mark Twain observed , " It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur ’s administration . “ ( He was n’t joking . )
But the Republicans remained mistrustful , and though Arthur did n’t campaign actively for the 1884 nomination " “ he was stomach from Bright ’s Disease , a kidney ailment that would kill him two years later " “ the party nominated his old rival Blaine instead . To this day , Arthur is the last sitting president pursuing re - election to be denied his party ’s nomination .
Nevertheless , his place in American history is secure . Perhaps the next time someone require the name of the least - known president in American history , the solvent wo n’t be Chester Alan Arthur . He ’ll have earned far too much distinction for that . One could do bad than the president with three first names .
Thomas Sonnenschein is an episodic contributor to mental_floss . occur back Monday for an additional exceptional Chester A. Quiz .
