Chester Arthur's Birthday

Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President of the United States, was born on October 5, 1829, son of an Irish immigrant father and a mother from Vermont. Later in life, political enemies floated the idea than he was born a British subject -- in Ireland, or possibly Canada -- and thus not eligible to be president. Like later such claims about other presidents, it was nonsense.

Arthur did not attend the Republican National Convention in 1880 in Chicago to angle for the vice presidency. Rather, he came as a delegate from New York, a member of the Stalwart faction led by Sen. Roscoe Conkling and supporter of U.S. Grant for a third term. Unable to nominate Grant, the Stalwarts were nevertheless able to select the vice presidential nominee. Levi P. Morton, who later was Benjamin Harrison's vice president, declined to be considered. The convention then chose Arthur over his nearest competitor, Elihu B. Washburne of Illinois.

The convention did not know that it was selecting both the 20th and 21st presidents, nor that Chet Arthur, the "Gentleman Boss" and one-time Collector of the Port of New York, would one day sign the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.

"No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe," wrote journalist Alexander McClure about Arthur.

Church of the Presidents, Long Branch, NJ

St. John's in Washington DC, conveniently located on Lafayette Square near the White House, is often called the "Church of the Presidents" because each president since James Monroe has attended services there. But there's another "Church of the Presidents," St. James Chapel in Long Branch, NJ.

Long before it was the setting of tawdry television show, the Jersey Shore was a place for the wealthy to escape pre-air conditioning summertime heat, and no fewer than six sitting presidents vacationed there -- Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley and Wilson -- while Ulysses S. Grant visited after he was president. The unfortunate President Garfield, who had been to the Jersey Shore with his ill wife shortly before he was shot in Washington, was taken to Long Branch in the vain hope that we would recover, but instead he died there.

All seven of the aforementioned presidents attended services at St. James Chapel, a branch of St. James Episcopal Church in the western part of Long Branch. That church wasn't convenient enough for the likes of George Pullman, so in the late 1870s, he and two other Gilded Age millionaires paid for the construction of the chapel, which was closer to their vacation homes. The New York firm of Potter and Robertson designed the small chapel in a pseudo-Tudor style popular at the time, and it has remain essentially unaltered since 1895.

Photo courtesy the Long Branch Historical Museum Association.

Long Branch faded as a vacation destination after World War I, and in the 1950s, the chapel was deconsecrated. Local residents Edgar Dinkelspiel and Bernard Sandler saved the structure from demolition, and it became the home of Long Branch Historical Museum in 1955. Among other artifacts on display were President Grant's gun cabinet and game table, and the flag placed over President Garfield's casket during services conducted by the Long Branch Masonic Lodge.

Currently the site is closed to the public while undergoing much-needed restoration work. Recently the Long Branch Historical Museum Association completed the restoration and repair of the masonry that comprises the lower exterior walls of the Church of the Presidents. Much work remains to be done, however, and the association is currently accepting tax-deductible donations for the project.

More information about the Church of the Presidents in Long Branch, and the effort to restore it, is at the association's web site.

William Windom

Today is William Windom's 88th birthday. The well-known American character actor -- Commodore Matt Decker in the original Star Trek, the Thurberesque John Monroe in My World and Welcome to It -- has no direct connection to the presidency of the United States, though he did play "The President" in Escape from Planet of the Apes (1971).

He is, however, the great-grandson of William Windom (1827-1891), 33rd and 39th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, first serving under Garfield and Arthur and later Benjamin Harrison, besides being a Representative and then Senator from Minnesota. Windom was regarded highly enough to earn a depiction on a series of $2 silver certificates issued after his death in office.

Windom also took a very modest stab at the presidency. In 1880, he received 10 votes on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention that year in Chicago as a favorite son candidate. The nomination ultimately went to the dark-horse James A. Garfield, who went on to the White House and an early grave.

November 18, 1886:Chester Arthur Dies

Chester Arthur, 21st President of the United States, had the second-shortest retirement among those presidents who survived office: 625 days, not even two years. Only James K. Polk had less time out of office, a mere 104 days. In terms of presidential lifespans, Arthur died the fifth youngest, after Kennedy, Garfield, Polk and Lincoln -- three of the four murdered presidents. He was only 57 when he died.

During his presidency, the Surgeon General told Arthur he had "Bright's disease," a classification no longer used because it covers a variety of kidney problems that have more precise designations now. He diagnosis might not have been exact by later standards, but Arthur and his doctors knew that the condition would eventually kill him, and it did.

Dr. Zebra notes: "His last months were miserable. He was recognized as having cardiac problems in early 1886. The symptoms were those of heart failure: dyspnea, orthopnea, edema, cachexia. He needed opiates to sleep. In June 1886, Arthur tried relocating from New York to the cooler climate of Connecticut, but found no relief. He returned to New York and told a friend, 'After all, life is not worth living. I might as well give up the struggle for it now as at any other time and submit to the inevitable'.

"Comment: His terminal symptoms are also consistent with end-stage renal disease. It would be interesting to know more about his mental status during these final months."

Chester Arthur's New York Times obituary began: "Ex-President Chester Alan Arthur died at 5:10 o'clock yesterday morning at his residence, No. 123 Lexington-avenue. The immediate cause of his death was cerebral apoplexy, due to the rupture of a small artery within the brain during Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning. From the time of the attack the ex-President did not speak. He did not become immediately unconscious, but power of speech failed him and consciousness rapidly dimmed, although almost to the last he showed signs of ability to appreciate, in an even fainter degree, what was going on about him. In the closing hour of his life he opened his eyes several times, and at the end turned his head on the pillow. Then all was over...

"Although from the beginning of his illness Gen. Arthur was not ignorant of its gravity, his feelings were characteristic of the disease, buoyant and depressed by turns. Upon his return from New-London, on Sept. 27, he felt so much benefited that he was sanguine of recovery. His appearance even after a Summer of rest and change was sadly unlike the robust picture familiar to the public eye. Any one who had seen him in his vigor might have passed him without recognition. The features still remained, but they were pallid and hollow and the full, straight figure still showed the emaciation that had alarmed the patient and his friends before he sought a change of surroundings. But he felt better. He was again in excellent spirits, and talked confidently of plans for business and pleasure. When the Presidency of the Arcade Railway Company was offered him, he accepted it, believing that he would be able to discharge its duties. A few days after his return he felt so well that he went out driving. The effort fatigued him excessively. He was not willing to believe the fatigue due to his enfeebled condition, but laid it to the rough streets. In speaking of the drive, he used to say, not wholly with jocose meaning, that one of the aims of his life, after he should resume outdoor activity, would be to secure at least one avenue over which people might drive to the Park without being jolted half to death...."