Chester A. Arthur

Arthur was born in Vermont in 1829 and practiced law in New York City, rising through Senator Roscoe Conkling's patronage machine after serving as quartermaster general during the Civil War. President Grant rewarded him with the Port of New York collectorship in 1871, but Hayes fired him seven years later in a bitter fight over patronage reform. Republicans picked him for vice president in 1880 to balance the ticket and appease Conkling's Stalwart faction after their man Grant lost the nomination to James Garfield. Four months after taking office in March 1881, Garfield was shot; he lingered 11 weeks before dying, and Arthur stepped up. As president he oversaw the Navy's largest expansion, vetoed a twenty-year Chinese immigration ban for violating treaty terms but signed a ten-year version, appointed two Supreme Court justices, and - to reformers' shock - signed the Pendleton Act ending the spoils system. Suffering from poor health, he made little effort to win the 1884 nomination and left office having earned quiet praise for steadiness in a job he never sought.