Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1881 — THE NEW PRESIDENT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE NEW PRESIDENT.

Hiograptiica.l Sketch of Cheater A. Arthur* Chester 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, bom in County Antrim* Ireland, and educated at Belfast College. The yonng licentiate came at once to America, and here married and began his work, which, in a busy life ending Oct. 27, 1875, led him to many pulpits in Vermont and New York and to some in Canada, the town of Fairfield, Vt., being among them. The early days of Chester A Arthur’s tuition note passed under the tutelage of his father. From his home studies he went to the wider field of instruction at Schenectady, N. Y., in the grammar school of which place he was prepared for entering Union College. At 16 years of age, therefore, in 1845, he entered Union, and, after a regular course, graduated high in his class. Like many another ambitious but impecunious student, young Arthur taught school, in the vacations of oollege 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. Eraetus 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 satisfied with the advice of Greeley, the yonng men returned to New York and pooled their issues in the firm name of Arthur & Gardner. About this time Mr. Arthur made a happy matrimonial alliance, marrying the only daughter of Lieut. Herndon, U. 8. 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 his 16th and a daughter in her 10th year. The career of the young lawyer was made more successful by the interest he took in politics and the militia. He was at the front in caucuses and conventions, and on military parades. His earlier political instincts were with the Whigs, but with the decadence of that party he joined the multitude of American youth (at the North) in advancing the standard of the Republican party. He was, indeed, a delegate to the Saratoga Convention that organized the Republican party in the State of New York, and was a delegate in succeeding State conventions, year after year, until he had attained the Chairmanship of the State Committee and the nomination to the 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 the 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 offiee at the end of that year. In July, 1862, Gen. Arthur was invited to be present at a meeting of Governors in the city of New York, held for the purpose of discussing measures whereby the Union armies could be kept with full ranks, and it iB said he was the only person present who was not a Governor. In tne same year he was on the staff of Maj. Gen. Hunt, in the Army of the Potomac, as inspector of New York troops in 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 the collection of war claims and the drafting of bills for legislation. In consequence, a great deal of his time was spent at Albany or in Washington, where his successes won him a renown hardly second to that of any other lobbyist. He held for a short time the position of counsel to the Board of Tax Commissioners in New York city, at #IO,OOO a year, and in November, 1871, was appointed by President Grant to be Collector of the Port of New York. On the 28th of January, 1879, John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, addressed a communication" to President Hayes setting forth the necessity for a change in the New York Collectorship, 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 Gon. Merritt as Collector of the Port followed. The history of that memorable strugglo at Chicago, which led up to the nomination of Garfield in June, 1880, is fresh in the minds of the people. After Garfield had been nominated, on the sixth day, the convention took a recess, with the tacit understanding that New York might, if it would, name a candidate for the Vice Presidency. The New York delegation. therefore, spent the intervening hour in caucus, with closed doors. Mr. Levi P. Morton, now Minister to France, declined to be considered as a candidate. Vice President Wheeler, Lieut. Gov. Hoskins and ex-Gov. Woodford were presented without favorable response. The sense of the caucus was so largely in favor of Arthnr 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, Jnne 8, the nomination of Arthur was made in short order.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.