During the Gilded Age, there was a deep division between American citizens in politics. Campaigns were usually an arduous process. The results of the majority of the elections were usually very close. Although one would expect good presidents to come out of this, the majority of them were corrupt and eventually would be forgotten. However out of all these presidents, Chester Arthur, seems to have been the one to be most qualified for the job.
Chester Arthur took office in September 1881 after President James Garfield had died. Although mistrusted at first, Arthur proved himself a good political leader. The fact that an office seeker killed Garfield put pressure on Arthur to pass some sort of civil service policy. From this came about the Pendleton Act which was written by Ohio Senator, George Pendleton. This act created a bipartisan commission that made examinations for those who wanted government office. This act prevented salary increases and assigned federal positions. All new employees had to start at the bottom of the government ladder and could only climb up by passing merit examinations. This pretty much put an end to the spoils system, which did not make the Republicans very happy since they relied on patronage quite often.
Arthur also made numerous changes in the economy of the U.S. during his presidency. One unexpected change was the lowering of tariffs. He believed that tariff rates had to be checked routinely in order to provide relief for farmers and middle-class consumers. Arthur wanted Congress to grant him a reduction of 20 to 25 percent on tariffs. Congress, instead, passed the Mongrel Tariff Law of 1883. This law dropped rates on a list of items by less than 2 percent.
This eventually would cause repercussions for the next twenty years. From then on Republicans began supporting higher tariffs while Democrats went the other way. Another shocking economical change that came about was the limiting of expenditures. This came about when he vetoed the pork barrel Rivers and Harbors Act of 1882. Congress however passed this bill. An enraged Arthur disputed that the growing surplus of federal funds should only be reduced by tax and rate reductions instead of government wasting it on pork-barrel expenditures.
Socially, President Arthur was very popular. The civil service reform established qualified people in government jobs. It put patronage out of reach of the politicians. It cured the government of incompetent workers. Thus, creating jobs for those who deserved them and were previously not working. Another popular social change was the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act This act banned the immigration of Chinese for ten years and prevented Chinese, who were already living here, to become citizens.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a morally wrong decision. However, during his presidency this was perhaps his most popular move. The Chinese were excluded from mostly everything because they looked different from American citizens. Although, we now see this as unjust, back then it was considered a fabulous move, which was as ethical as his civil service reform and putting an end to political patronage. Perhaps this was the most ethical change he made. Although his attempt to put an end to the spoils system nearly fell apart after the end of his presidency, he achieved to complete his presidential term with less corruption than all the other previous presidencies.
Although Arthur was mainly concerned with domestic affairs, he took steps in order to create a more modern navy. He became known as the Father of the Steel Navy because he supported the construction of steel rams, gunboats, and steam powered cruisers. He also tried to put an end to the ineffectiveness and corruption in the naval shipyards.
Although, Arthur was never supposed to become the president, he established a lot of the ideals and reforms that we follow through with today. He had lots of political integrity and many believe that he should have run for another term. However, the Republicans refused to nominate him because of his attempts to curb corruption. He died on November 18, 1886 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
