Chester Alan Arthur, Zachary Karabell, 2004

The 17^th among the then-26 volumes in the Arthur Schlesinger-edited series, The American Presidents, this thin volume chronicles the life of the 21^st president, a reluctant chief executive known as Gentleman Boss, one of the forgotten presidents in U.S. history. Born in 1829 (10/5) in north Fairfield, Vermont to an itinerant reverend, the fifth child of a poor family, he lived mostly in upstate New York, attended Union College, worked as a teacher, then apprenticed to the law, married at 27, lost a 2-year-old child and raised two other children and became a widower at age 50. As a protégé of Roscoe Conkling, Republican stalwart Senator from New York, he was the Quartermaster for New York in the Civil War (Brigadier General) and then Collector of the New York Custom House. He was chosen as Vice President candidate by James Garfield who won the nomination in 1880 after a deadlock between Hayes (the incumbent) and Grant and Blaine. Garfield was assassinated five months after his March inauguration, and Arthur, never before elected to office and not interested in power (a COO, not a CEO) became President. During his four years in office, he was little appreciated though admired for the calm and honesty he brought to D.C.  He was a major gourmand and fancy dresser who redid the White House with Louis Comfort Tiffany works. His major achievements in office were the professionalization of the Civil Service through the Pendleton Act, a treaty with Nicaragua and attention to South America, the rebuilding of the U.S. Navy, negotiating tariff and treaties, and expansion in the West as the Indian Wars wound down. He was not renominated by his party in 1884 and he returned to law practice. He died in 1886 at 56 years of age from Bright’s Disease and is buried in Albany. There is statue in Madison Square Park in New York City which I always enjoy seeing and evidently one at Union College as well.