Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — THE NEW PRESIDENT. [ARTICLE]

THE NEW PRESIDENT.

BiOKiuphical Sketch of I hcolcr V. Arthur. Cheater A. Arthur was born at Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont, Oct. 5,1830. So say his biographers, and so says the official record, although other and unofficial authorities have located his birthplace on the other side of the Canada line. His father, William Arthur, was an itinerant Baptist preacher, born in County Antrim, Ireland, and educated at Belfast College. The young licentiate came at once to here married and began his work, which, in a busy life ending Oct. 27, 1875, led him to many pnlpits in Vermont and New York and to some in Canada, the town of Fairfield, Yt., being among theai. The early days of Chester A. Arthur’s tuition were passed under the tutelage of bis father From his home studies he went to tho wider field of instructional Schenectady, N. Y., iu the grammar school of which place he was prepared for entering Union College. At 15 years of age, therefore, in 1845, he entered Union, and, aftor a regular course, graduated high in his class. Like rnanv another ambitious but impecunious student, young Arthur taught school in the vacations of college specially provided for that purpose. It is a coincidence that in these days of sturdy struggle the young student from Union College and a young student (Garfield) from Williams both taught school in North Pownal, Vt. With #SOO in his pocket, the frugal savings of a school-master’s scanty pay, Arthur went to’ New York city and entered the law-office of Hon. Erastus D. Culver, and was in 1852 admitted to the practice of law. But clients did not then flock to his standard, and, with a young legal friend in like circumstances and frame of mind, two briefless young lawyers roamed the Western States for three months, seeking a place to locate. In the end, not satr isfit-d with the advice of Greeley, tho young men returned to New York and pooled their i - sues in the firm name of Arthur A Gardnt r. About this time Mr. Arthur made a happy matrimonial alliance, marrying the only daughter of Lieut. Herndon, U. S. N.—the brave Herndon who went down with the Aspinwall steamship Central American, which he commanded. Mrs. Arthur died in January, 1880, leaving two children, a son now in Lis 16th and a daughter in her 10th year. Tho career of the young lawyer was made more successful by tho interest ho took in politics and tho militia. He was at the front in caucuses and conventions, and on military parades. His earlier political instincts were with the Whigs, but wiih tho decadence of that party he joined the multitude of American youth (at the North) in advancing tho standard of the itepubliean party. He was, indeed, a delegate to tho Saratoga Convention that organized the Republican party m the State of New York, and was a delegate iu succeeding State conventions, year after year, until he had attained tho Chairmanship of the State Committee and the nomination to tho Vice Presidency. Gov. Morgan, in organizing his military staff in 1861, named Mr. Arthur as Engineer in Chief. He had just before this held the position of Judge Advocate of the Second Brigade, New York city. A little later, Gen. Arthur was appointed Inspector General on the Governor's staff, and so continued during the first year of the great civil war—a year busy with ttio organization and inspection of volunteers for the field. On Jan. 27, 1862, Gov. Morgan advanced Gen. Arthur to the more important post of Quartermaster General, which position he held until the expiration of Morgan’s term of office at the end of that year. In July, 1862, Gen. Arthur was invited to lie present at a meeting of Governors in the city of New York, held for the purpose of discussing measures wnereby the Union armies could ae keDt with full ranks, and it is said he was the only person present who was net a Governor, in tue same year he was on the staff of Maj. Gen. Hunt, in tho Army of the Potomac, as inspector of New York troops iu the field. With the end of Gov. Morgan’s term of office, as already stated, Gen. Arthur’s military career ended, and he returned to the law. Business of a most lucrative character now poured in upon him. Much of this work consisted in tho collection of war claims and the drafting of hills for legislation. Iu consequence, a great deal of his time was spent at Albany or in Washington, where liis successes won him a renown hardly second to that of any other lobbyist. Ho held for a short time the position of counsel to the Board of Tax Commissioners m New York city, at SIO,OOO a year, and in November, 1871, was appointed by President Grant to bo Collector of the Port of New York. On the 28th of January, 1879, John Sberaian, Secretary of the Treasury, addressed a communication to President Hayes setting forth the necessity for a change in the Now York Colleotorship, saying that the Treasury Department stood ready to submit proof that “gross abuses of administration have continued and increased during his [Arthur’s] incumbency.” The removal of Arthur and the appointment of Gen. Merritt as Collector of the Port followed. The history of that memorable struggle at Chicago, which led up to the nomination of Garfield in June, 1880, is fresh in the minds of the people. After Garfield had lieen nominated, on the sixth day, the convention took a recess, with the tacit understanding that Now York might, if it would, name a candidate for the Vice Presidency. The New York delegation. therefore, spent the intervening hour iu caucus, with closed do< rs. Mr. Levi I*. Morton, now Minister to Franco, declined to be considered as a candidate. Vice President Wheeler, Lieut. Gov. Hoskins and ex-Gov. Woodford were presented withont favorable response. The sense of the caucus was so largely in favor of Arthur that, after half an hour’s talk, all other names being withdrawn, it was determined to present his alone. When the convention reassembled, late in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 8, the nomination of Arthur was made in short order.

Familiar Quotations. j Grave Judges, and others learned in the law, have contributed their quota, as in duty bound, to the common stock of popular sayings. It is Francis Bacon who speaks of matters that “come home to men’s business and bosoms,” who lays down the axiom that “ Knowledge is power,” and who utters that solemn warning to euamored Benedicts, “He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.” We have the high authority of the renowned Sir Edward Coke for declaring that “Corporations have no souls,” and that “A man’s house is his castle.” The expression, “An accident of an accident,” is borrowed from Lord Thurlow. “The greatest happiness of the greatest number in Bentham, lmt as an acknowledged translation from the learned jurist Beccaria. To Leviathan Hobbes we owe the sage maxim, “Words are wise men’s counters, but the money of fools.” It is John Solden who suggests that by throwing a straw into the air you may see the way of the wind, and to his contemporary .Oxenstern is due the discovery, “ With how little wisdom the world is governed.” Mackintosh first used the phrase “ A wise and masterly inactivity.” “The schoolmaster is abroad,” is from a. speech by Lord Brougham. It does not mean that the teacher is “abroad” in the sense of being absent, as many seem to interpret tile phrase, but that he is “ abroad ” in the sense of being everywhere at work. In the familiar phrase, “A delusion, a mockery and a snare” there is a certain biblical ring, which lias sometimes led to its being quoted as from one or other of the Hebrew prophets ; the words are, in fact, an extract from the judgment of Lord Henman at the trial of O’Connell. Chambers' Journal. Conversational Talent. A talent for conversation has an extraordinary value for common everyday uses of life. Let any one who has this gift enter in a social circle anywhere. How every one’s face brightens at his entrance! How soon he sets all the little wheels in motion, encouraging the timid, calling ‘out unostentatiously the resources of the reserved and sliy, subsidizing the facile, and making everybody glad and happy ! , To converse well is not to engross tho conversation. It is not to do all the talking. It is not necessary to talk with very great brilliancy. A man may talk with such surpassing power and splendor as to awe the rest of the company into silence or excite tlieir envy, and so produce a chill, where liis aim should be to produce warmth and sunshine. He should seek the art of making others feel quite at home with him, so that, no matter how great may lie liis attainments or reputation, or how small may be theirs, they find it insensibly just as natural and pleasant talking to him as hearing him talk. The talent for conversation, indeed, more than anything else in life, requires tact and discretion; it requires one to have more varied knowledge, and to have it at instant and absolute disposal, so that he can use as much or as little as the occasion demands. It requires the ability to pass instantly and with ease from the playful to the serious, from books to men, from mere phrases of courtesy to tho expressions of sentiment and passion.— Prof. Jiart.

Sheet Iron Hoofing. Sheet iron roofing is now claimed to possess advantages, about equally, over both slate and tin. As -compared with the first named, sheet iron, it is asserted, can be made more thoroughly stormproof, as the material admits of being fitted more closely and deftly to irregularities of the roof than do slates, nor is it, liable, like the latter, to be cracked by frost or injured by the falling upon it of heavy objects—being free also from the liability of cracking and splitting, which, in the event of a fire, often impairs the lire-protective qualities of a slate roof, and is specially manifested when cold water is thrown upon them when highly heated. In respect to tin roofs, it is urged that iron has all their advantages, and in addition are made of heavier sheet; the method of making the seams generally adopted in iron roofing also dispenses with the troublesome necessity ol' soldering, as in tin, and the seams of the. latter are so small and narrow that, as soon as contraction of the metal breaks the solder, the seams will leak. It rains twice as often in Western as in Eastern Europe.