“When Vice President Chester Arthur succeeded to the presidency on the death of James Garfield, a newspaper noted that he was ‘not a man who would have entered anybody's mind’ as a worthy candidate for the office. Indeed, as a major player in a spoils system that reduced the civil service to a vehicle for rewarding party faithful, he struck many as an emblem of all that was wrong in American politics.
As president, however, Arthur rose above his past to promote landmark legislation designed to curb the spoils system. He also proved to be a foe of other forms of corruption. When, for example, a ‘pork barrel’ bill for public improvements reached his desk, he vetoed it. This head-and-shoulders portrait can only hint at the fashionable figure that Arthur cut. With his muttonchop whiskers ‘trimmed to the perfection point’ and his suits made of only the finest fabrics, he invariably looked like the very epitome of the well-bred Victorian gentleman.” -- National Portrait Gallery
Albert Payson Terhune described Chester Arthur as “...very tall, strongly built, Strikingly handsome. Large dark eyes, regular features, mustache and side whiskers.”
The National Portrait Gallery also has this youthful 1858 shot of Chester Arthur by Rufus P. Anson.
Twenty-first president, 1881–1885
By the time Chester Arthur became president in 1881, following the assassination of James Garfield, the daguerreotype had long been eclipsed by other photographic processes. He posed for his daguerreotype portrait more than twenty years earlier, when he was beginning to build alliances with members of New York City's powerful political machine. It was largely through these associations that Arthur would ultimately gain wealth, influence, and prominence in the Republican party.
The maker of this daguerreotype was Rufus Anson, whose New York City studio was described in 1856 as “decidedly superior” and worthy of “the most liberal patronage.” -- NPG.
In 1855, Chester Arthur as the junior partner in the firm of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, became Elizabeth Jennings' attorney in her suit against the Third Avenue Railroad Company in Brooklyn. Miss Jennings had been forced off a horse-drawn streetcar because of her race. The court ruled that “Colored persons if sober, well-behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by any rules of the company, nor by force or violence,” awarding Miss Jennings $250 plus $22.50 in costs and eventually de-segregating New York's public transit services.
In 1859, Chester Arthur married Ellen Lewis “Nell” Herndon who died, at age 42, in 1880, and was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery under a small Gothic sarcophagus. This c. 1880 photo of Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur by Charles Milton Bell belongs to the Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress also has this photo of General Arthur during the Civil War:
“During the Civil War Chester A. Arthur served as Quartermaster General of the State of New York. He was appointed to the position by New York’s governor. Quartermaster General Arthur was in charge of provisioning and housing New York’s troops. By 1863 Arthur hadn’t fired a shot on the battlefield. He retired from the Army and returned to practicing law.” – Periodic Table of the Presidents
Chester Arthur's good looks and stylish dress led to his nick-name “The Dude.” Frederick Opper in Puck magazine made fun of Arthur's reputation in September of 1881:
The Original Political Dude Out-Duded.
(LOC)
The original Political Dude here is Rosco Conkling, leader of the “Stalwart” faction of the Republican party, from whom fellow Stalwart Chester Arthur has won the affection of the Republican party and her little dog Protection.
The Stalwarts were the pro-patronage faction of the party; the opposing faction were known as “half-breeds.” President Garfield was a half-breed. Arthur had been chosen as Vice President to assuage the Stalwarts. Charles Guiteau declared “I am a Stalwart of Stalwarts, Arthur is President now!” after he shot Garfield in Washington's Baltimore & Potomac R. R. Depot, on July 2, 1881. Garfield died on September 19th. When Vice President Arthur learned on the 19th that the president had died, he said “I hope—my God, I do hope it is a mistake.”
Harper's Weekly published the illustration below of Arthur taking the Oath of Office at his home at 123 Lexington Avenue in New York City. New York Supreme Court Justice John R. Brady administered the oath, at 2:15 a.m. Eastern Time on September 20, 1881.
President Arthur Taking the Oath at His Private Residence
Drawn from life by J. W. Alexander
Arthur took the oath a second time, in the Vice-President's room at the Capitol two days later. The oath was administered by Morrison Waite, the Chief Justice of the United States. In attendance were former Presidents Grant and Hayes.
During Arthur's tenure as President his sister Mary Arthur McElroy filled in as "Mistress of the Whitehouse." This 1885 engraving by John Sartain is in the Whitehouse Collection.
Another instance of this portrait appears in Presiding Ladies of the Whitehouse, 1903, by Lila Graham Alliger Woodfall.
Terhune finishes up President Arthur's story this way:
On Sept. 20, Arthur privately took the Presidential oath in his home at No 123 Lexington Avenue New York and went at once to Washington where the oath was again administered.
Arthur's three and a half years in the White House were marked by no especially memorable historic features. He was a dignified polished President and performed his state duties conscientiously. He opposed public extravagance and acted with wise firmness in regard to the Indian question and the suppressing of polygamy among the Mormons. During his administration the price of letter postage was lowered from three to two cents and other Important postal improvements were made.
In 1884 at the Republican convention his name was brought forward for re-nomination. But on the fourth ballot James G. Blaine was nominated. Arthur returned to New York at the close of his term where on Nov. 18, 1886, he died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy. -- The Story of the Presidents, No. 35-Chester Alan Arthur, The New York World, June 3, 1908.
The house at 123 Lexington Avenue where Chester Arthur took the Oath of Office in 1881 and died in 1886, is today Kalustyan's. This Raphael Huck postcard from c.1910 shows the original appearance of the town-house:
(See Postcard Past and HMdb)
Chester Arthur was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Albany New York, next to his wife. This 1886 Harper's Weekly illustration of Arthur's funeral shows the grave dug for Chester Arthur next to Ellen's sarcophagus.
In 1889, a black granite sarcophagus was installed over President Arthur's grave.
Tomb of President Arthur, in Rural Cemetery, Albany N.Y.
Illustration from The Presidents of the United States 1789-1894
by James Grant Wilson, ed. 1894, page 465.
A figure personifying Sorrow oversees the sarcophagus.
photo by Ryan David Schweitzer
added to Find-a-Grave on Aug. 23, 2017
A nearby historical marker says this of the monument:
Arthur's black sarcophagus monument was unveiled without ceremony on June 19,1889. The $10,000 monument was paid for by funds raised by the president's friends. Donations also came from children who sent in pennies to honor the late president. The sarcophagus was the work of Charles B. Canfield (who also built Grant's Tomb on Manhattan's Riverside Drive). SculptorEphraim Keyser was commissioned to create the bronze Angel of Sorrow extending a palm branch atop the sarcophagus, a symbol of peace and glory.
The plaque on the base of the monument reads:
Chester · Alan · Arthur.
Twenty-first
President of the United States.
Born Died
October 5th 1830. November 18th 1886.
C. A. Arthur
Updated — 2025.
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