Chester Alan Arthur's Inaugural Medal

BillJones

"Chet Arthur President? Oh God!!!!" That was the reaction that many well informed Americans had when they heard that President James Garfield had died and that Vice President Arthur would succeed him. Chester Alan Arthur was an "accidental president" plain and simple. No one ever believed that he would one day become the Chief Executive, and given his career as a "wirepuller" and political hack, many feared the worst.

The vice presidency was the first elective office that Arthur had ever held. Before that he had been a diligent campaign worker who ultimately landed one of the great plums in civil service, the Collector of the Port of New York. There he earned a salary and commissions that resulted in an income that exceeded that of the President of the United States. It was also Arthur's job to extract contributions from Customs House employees to finance political campaigns. If you didn't kick in to the campaign coffers, you wouldn't keep you job.

Although Arthur campaigned for Rutherford B. Hays, once Hays was sworn in as President, he eased Arthur out of his Customs House job. The problem was that Arthur, despite six hours of testimony, was unable to convince a civil service commission that employees had been promoted on merit alone and not contributions and kickbacks. Hays offered Arthur an assignment in France, and when he refused, Chet Arthur was practicing law again the private sector.

In 1880 the Republican Party split into to two factions, the conservative Stalwart Republicans and the slightly more reform minded "half breed" Republicans. The Stalwarts supported former President Ulysses Grant for President while the "half breeds" backed Maine Senator James G. Blaine. Neither candidate could win the nomination and ultimately the convention settled upon compromise candidate, James Garfield. In an effort to unite the party, Garfield picked Arthur, a Stalwart Republican, to be his running mate.

Most people assumed that like most vice presidents, Arthur was disappear into the background, but that assumption was shattered when an assassin shot Garfield at a railroad station in Washington, DC. Garfield lingered for more than two agonizing months before he died. Had the doctors left the bullet in Garfield's body, he might have survived, but they chose to probe his wound with their unsterile bare fingers and instruments. Garfield developed an infection which ultimately caused his death.

As President Arthur surprised everyone by his support of civil service reform. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act would be his crowning achievement . He also broke with Republican Party tradition and supported a reduction in tariffs as well as vetoing a river and harbors act that was loaded with pork barrel spending. In short Arthur made an honest effect to be an effective, ethical President.

Breaking with party traditions cost Arthur at the 1884 Elephant Party convention. His bid to win the presidential nomination fell shot because of his defections from the party norms. In addition Arthur had health problems, a then-fatal case of Bright's Disease which would cost him his life in 1886.

Finding any sort of Chester Arthur campaign piece is virtually impossible. While pieces that show him as the running mate of James Garfield are fairly common, finding anything with Arthur alone is very difficult. Therefore the acquisition of this United States medal, which is listed in Julian as PR-22 fills a hole in my political collection.

A campaign medalet from the 1880 campaign that depicts Garfield and Arthur, variety number JAG 1880-10.

Ahrensdad

Great read Bill. Thanks for posting it.

CoinJunkie

Nice medal, interesting post.

Kove

Great read, and a wonderful quality example of Arthur's inaugural medal.

Come to think of it, before reading this I didn't know they made inaugural medals for vice presidents who assumed power mid-term when the president died. I had assumed they were only made every 4 years for the elected president. Interesting.

Zoins

Congrats on a beautiful medal Bill. Love the strike, relief, detail, font and clean fields. The modern US Mint versions aren't comparable in the least.

Thanks for the write up as well. I love learning more about American History and also looked up Chester Arthur on Wikipedia and WhiteHouse.gov.