Written on the Vermont state flag, these words
serve as a timeless tribute to the independent and
resourceful spirit that lives in the hearts of Vermonters
from Burlington to Brattleboro. Since Vermont’s official admission
and incorporation into the United States of America in 1791,
two presidents born in the Green Mountain State (Chester A.
Arthur and Calvin Coolidge) have graced the hallowed halls of
the White House. Rising from the rolling hills and verdant forests
of Vermont to the most prestigious levels of political office, their
formative years left a lasting impact on their lives.
Although the exact details surrounding Chester A. Arthur’s birth
still remain fairly mysterious, the consensus among most
biographers and historians remains that he was born in Fairfield,
Vermont in 1829. His father, William Arthur, was born in Ireland to
a family of modest means. After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean
to pursue a career as an aspiring lawyer in Eastern Canada, he
met Chester’s mother Malvina Stone when he was working in
Dunham, Quebec as a teacher.
Malvina was a native Vermonter whose family had been
established in New England for several generations. After
marrying William in 1821, the two of them moved across the
border to Burlington, Vermont in 1824. Once there, William
abandoned the conventional strictures of his blossoming law
career after experiencing a moment of divine inspiration at a
local religious revival meeting. He subsequently became
ordained as a Free Baptist minister in 1828, and then moved to
Fairfield to pursue an employment opportunity at a church there.
As a fervent abolitionist, William gained a unique reputation as
a spellbinding “fire-and-brimstone” preacher who peppered his
rousing sermons with politically-energized rhetoric.
As William’s congregation continued to grow, his lively and
candid speeches provoked the ire of many church deacons and
parishioners in the area. His willingness to remain frank about his
political convictions in the face of continued institutional
opposition eventually cost him his job in Fairfield. After William
was run out of town by clashing parochial powers, he went on
to preach in the Northwestern Vermont towns of Williston and
Hinesburg. In 1833, young Chester A. Arthur’s childhood years
in Vermont came to an end when William and Malvina made the
decision to migrate across the state border to Perry, New York.
After spending the next few years moving from town to town
dodging the increasingly confrontational wrath of anti-abolitionist
community members in upstate New York, the Arthur family
eventually settled in Schenectady. After graduating high school,
Chester enrolled at nearby Union College, where he majored in
Greek and Latin classics.
Chester was a sociable and confident young man, who possessed
the same firebrand charisma as his father. A perpetual prankster,
Chester was well-liked by his classmates and peers. Following his
graduation from Union College, he took a job as a teacher to pay
for his tuition at law school while preparing for the New York Bar
Exam. After passing the Bar in 1854, he left for New York City to
work for the high-profile law firm of Erastus D. Culver.
He started as a legal clerk, but rapidly rose through the ranks of
the firm to assist in several key cases at both local city courts and
state courts in Albany. One such case concerned a tragic incident
where a young African-American woman by the name of
Elizabeth Jennings was assaulted while being forcefully removed
from the segregated section of a public streetcar. 100 years
before Rosa Parks’ landmark case, Arthur helped Jennings to
achieve an unprecedented legal victory against New York City’s
racially-biased public transportation system.
After the court ruled in her favor, Jennings secured compensatory
payments from the streetcar company and the city government.
The case was the first step in the eventual racial integration of the
New York City rail system.
The Jennings case helped to accelerate Arthur’s transition into
public service. When he left his job at the law firm to serve in the
Civil War, he was appointed as a Quartermaster General
Engineer-in-Chief with the New York State Volunteers. He was
then promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He gained a
reputation for efficiency and dependability during the wartime
years, and subsequently returned to his law practice where he
achieved considerable success.
Arthur made many powerful political allies in his time as a New
York City lawman, including Senator Roscoe Conkling, who later
played an instrumental part in the development of Arthur’s
political career. Riding the momentum of his flourishing law
career, Arthur went on to serve as the Chief Counsel to the New
York City Tax Commission.
In 1871, President Ulysses Grant appointed Arthur as a Tax
Collector for the Port of New York. Once established, Arthur
used his ability to augment customs taxes to financially benefit
his politically-influential friends. He ingratiated himself further
with New York Republican Party Boss Roscoe Conkling and
became a fully functional cog in the New York State system of
monetarily incentivized “Machine Politics”.
Many of the campaigns of the high-ranking public officials who
were part of the New York State Republican political structure at
the time were funded through a corrupted mélange of tax
augmentation and unethical public service appointments.
Through a system of opportunistic nepotism known as the
“Spoils System”, wealthy and powerful donors and friends of
the party were nominated for influential local political positions
in exchange for their financial pledges and campaign support.
Though Chester was an active participant in this flawed and
unprincipled system in the early years of his political career, his
allegiances dramatically shifted when he ascended to the
presidency.
Arthur clinched a surprise nomination as President Garfield’s Vice
President in 1880. A year later, Arthur was catapulted to center
stage in the halls of Washingtonian power when President
Garfield was assassinated in September of 1881. Many were
skeptical of Arthur’s ability to competently lead the nation in the
advent of the untimely transition. Leading conservative
moderates expected him to play the part of a servile crony and
buckle to the demands of New York Republican Party bosses
such as Roscoe Conkling. Arthur surprised all of his critics and
detractors when he signed off on the Pendleton Civil Service
Reform Act of 1883.
In a move that brazenly defied the wishes of his former political
associates, the bill banned salary kickbacks for all state politicians
and created a merit-based system of closely monitored political
appointments at multiple levels of state government. Though the
bill did little to address the past dishonest dealings of incumbent
politicians, it was nevertheless a major step forward in the fight
against political bribery and profiteering that was present at all
levels of the political system at the time.
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