pended from office, and Edwin A. Merritt was designated as collector, and Silas W. Burt as naval officer, and they took possession of the offices. Their nominations were sent to the senate 3 Dec., 1878. On 15 Jan., 1879, Sec. Sherman communicated to the senate a full statement of the causes that led to these suspensions, mainly criticisms of the management of the custom-house, closing with the declaration that the restoration of the suspended officers would create discord and contention, be unjust to the president, and personally embarrassing to the secretary, and saying that, as Collector Arthur's term of service would expire 17 Dec., 1879, his restoration would be temporary, as the president would send in another name, or suspend him again after the adjournment of the senate. On 21 Jan., 1879, Collector Arthur, in a letter to Senator Conkling, chairman of the committee on commerce, before which the nominations were pending, made an elaborate reply to Sec. Sherman's criticisms, completely demonstrating the honesty and efficiency with which the custom-house had been managed, and the good faith with which the policy and instructions of the president had been carried out. A fair summary of the merits of the ostensible issue is contained in Collector Arthur's letter of 23 Nov., 1877, from which the following extract is taken: “The essential elements of a correct civil service I understand to be: first, permanence in office, which of course prevents removals except for cause; second, promotion from the lower to the higher grades, based upon good conduct and efficiency; third, prompt and thorough investigation of all complaints, and prompt punishment of all misconduct. In this respect I challenge comparison with any department of the government under the present, or under any past, national administration. I am prepared to demonstrate the truth of this statement on any fair investigation.” In a table appended to this letter Collector Arthur showed that during the six years he had managed the office the yearly percentage of removals for all causes had been only 2¾ per cent. as against an annual average of 28 per cent. under his three immediate predecessors, and an annual average of about 24 per cent, since 1857, when Collector Schell took office. Out of 923 persons who held office when he became collector, on 1 Dec., 1871, there were 531 still in office on 1 May, 1877, having been retained during his entire term. In making promotions, the uniform practice was to advance men from the lower to the higher grades, and all the appointments except two, to the one hundred positions of $2,000 salary, or over, were made in this method. The expense of collecting the revenue was also kept low; it had been, under his predecessors, between 1857 and. 1861, 59/100 of one per cent. of the receipts; between 1861 and 1864, 87/100; in 1864 and 1865, 1 30/100; between 1866 and 1869, 74/100; in 1869 and 1870, 85/100; in 1870 and 1871, 60/100; and under him, from 1871 to 1877, it was 62/100 of one per cent. The influence of the administration, however, was sufficient to secure the confirmation of Mr. Merritt and Mr. Burt on 3 Feb., 1879, and the controversy was remitted to the republicans of New York for their opinion. Mr. Cornell was nominated for governor of New York 3 Sept., 1879, and elected on 4 Nov.; and Mr. Arthur was considered a candidate for U. S. senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1881.
On retiring from the office of collector, Gen. Arthur resumed law practice with the firm of Arthur, Phelps, Knevals & Ransom. But he continued to be active in politics, and, in 1880, advocated the nomination of Gen. Grant to succeed President Hayes. He was a delegate at large to the Chicago convention, which met 2 June, and during the heated preliminary contest before the republican national committee, which threatened to result in the organization of two independent conventions, he conducted for his own side the conferences with the controlling anti-third term delegates relative to the choice of a temporary presiding officer, and the arrangement of the preliminary roll of delegates in the cases to be contested in the convention. The result of the conferences was an agreement by which all danger was avoided, and when, upon the opening of the convention, an attempt was made, in consequence of a misunderstanding on the part of certain Grant delegates, to violate this agreement, he resolutely adhered to it, and insisted upon and secured its observance. After the nomination, 10 June, of Gen. Garfield for president, by a combination of the anti-third term delegates, a general desire arose in the convention to nominate for vice-president some advocate of Grant and a resident of New York state. The New York delegation at once indicated their preference for Gen. Arthur, and before the roll-call began the foregone conclusion was evident: he received 468 votes against 283 for all others, and the nomination was made unanimous. In his letter of acceptance of 5 July, 1880, he emphasized the right and the paramount duty of the nation to protect the colored citizens, who were enfranchised as a result of the southern rebellion, in the full enjoyment of their civil and political rights, including honesty and order, and excluding fraud and force, in popular elections. He also approved such reforms in the public service as would base original appointments to office upon ascertained fitness, fill positions of responsibility by the promotion of worthy and efficient officers, and make the tenure of office stable, while not allowing the acceptance of public office to impair the liberty or diminish the responsibility of the citizen. He also advocated a sound currency, popular education, such changes in tariff and taxation as would “relieve any overburdened industry or class, and enable our manufacturers and artisans to compete successfully with those of other lands,” national works of internal improvement, and the development of our water-courses and harbors wherever required by the general interests of commerce. During the canvass he remained chairman of the New York republican state committee. The result was a plurality for Garfield and Arthur of 21,000 in the state, against a plurality of 32,000 in 1876 for Tilden and Hendricks, the democratic candidates against Hayes and Wheeler.
Vice-President Arthur took the oath of office 4 March, 1881, and presided over the extra session of the senate that then began, which continued until 20 May. The senate contained 37 republicans and 37 democrats, while Senators Mahone, of Virginia, and Davis, of Illinois, who were rated as independents, generally voted, the former with the republicans and the latter with the democrats, thus making a tie, and giving the vice-president the right to cast the controlling vote, which he several times had occasion to exercise. The session was exciting, and was prolonged by the efforts of the republicans to elect their nominees for secretary and sergeant-at-arms, against dilatory tactics employed by the democrats, and by the controversy over President Garfield's nomination, on 23 March, for collector of the port of New York, of William H. Robertson, who had been the leader of the New York anti-third term delegates at the Chicago convention. During this controversy the vice-presi-
