to the republican cause and candidates. The national convention, in its resolutions, declared that “in the administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country has been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty approval of every citizen.” The conventions in all the states had also unanimously passed resolutions commendatory of the administration.
Mr. Arthur married, 29 Oct., 1859, Ellen Lewis Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Va., who died 12 Jan., 1880, leaving two children, Chester Alan Arthur, b. 25 July, 1865, and Ellen Herndon Arthur, b. 21 Nov., 1871. Their first child, William L. H. Arthur, was b. 10 Dec., 1860, and d. 8 July, 1863. Mrs. Arthur was the daughter of Commander William Lewis Herndon, of the U. S. navy, who, in 1851-'2, explored the Amazon river under orders of the government. He perished in a gale at sea, 12 Sept., 1857, on the way from Havana to New York, while in command of the merchant-steamer, “Central America.” (See Herndon.)
In person, Mr. Arthur was tall, large, well-proportioned, and of distinguished presence. His manners were always affable. He was genial in domestic and social life, and warmly beloved by his personal friends. He conducted his official intercourse with unvarying courtesy, and dispensed the liberal hospitalities of the executive mansion with ease and dignity, and in such a way as to meet universal commendation from citizens and foreigners alike. He had a full and strong mind, literary taste and culture, a retentive memory, and was apt in illustration by analogy and anecdote. He reasoned coolly and logically, and was never one-sided. The style of his state papers is simple and direct. He was eminently conscientious, wise, and just in purpose and act as a public official; had always the courage to follow his deliberate convictions, and remained unmoved by importunity or attack. He succeeded to the presidency under peculiarly distressing circumstances. The factional feeling in the Republican party, which the year before had resulted in the nomination of Gen. Garfield for president as the representative of one faction, and of himself for vice-president as the representative of the other, had measurably subsided during the canvass and the following winter, only to break out anew immediately after the inauguration of the new administration, and a fierce controversy was raging when the assassination of President Garfield convulsed the nation and created the gravest apprehensions. Cruel misjudgments were formed and expressed by men who would now hesitate to admit them. The long weeks of alternating hope and fear that preceded the president's death left the public mind perturbed and restless. Doubt and uneasiness were everywhere apparent. The delicacy and discretion displayed by the vice-president had compelled approval, but had not served wholly to disarm prejudice, and when he took the murdered president's place the whole people were in a state of tense and anxious expectancy, of which, doubtless, he was most painfully conscious. All fears, however, were speedily and happily dispelled. The new president's inaugural was explicit, judicious, and reassuring, and his purpose not to administer his high office in the spirit of former faction, although by it he lost some friendships, did much toward healing the dissensions within the dominant party. His conservative administration of the government commanded universal confidence, preserved public order, and promoted business activity. If his conduct of affairs be criticised as lacking aggressiveness, it may confidently be replied that aggressiveness would have been unfortunate, if not disastrous. Rarely has there been a time when an indiscreet president could have wrought more mischief. It was not a time for showy exploits or brilliant experimentation. Above all else, the people needed rest from the strain and excitement into which the assassination of their president had plunged them. The course chosen by President Arthur was the wisest and most desirable that was possible. If apparently negative in itself, it was positive, far-reaching, and most salutary in its results. The service which at this crisis in public affairs he thus rendered to the country must be accounted the greatest of his personal achievements, and the most important result of his administration. As such, it should be placed in its true light before the reader of the future; and in this spirit, for the purpose of historical accuracy only, it is here given the prominence it deserves. His administration, considered as a whole, was responsive to every national demand, and stands in all its departments substantially without assault or criticism.
He died suddenly, of apoplexy, at his residence, No. 123 Lexington avenue. New York, Thursday morning, 18 Nov., 1886. The funeral services were held on the following Monday, at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. President Cleveland and his cabinet, Chief-Justice Waite, ex-President Hayes, James G. Blaine, Gens. Sherman, Sheridan, and Schofield, and the surviving members of President Arthur's cabinet, were in attendance. On the same day a special train conveyed his remains to Albany, where they were placed by the side of his wife in the family burial-place in Rural cemetery.
ARTHUR, Sir George, Bart., British statesman, b. in Plymouth, England, 21 June, 1784; d. 19 Sept., 1854. He entered the army in 1804, and served in Sir James Craig's expedition to Italy in
1806. The following year he went to Egypt, and
was severely wounded in the attack upon Rosetta.
He served as a captain under Sir James Kempt in
Sicily in 1808, and in the Walcheren expedition in
1809, in which latter he so greatly distinguished
himself that he was thanked in general orders, was
appointed a deputy assistant adjutant-general on
the field, and upon his return to England had the
freedom of the city of London conferred upon him
and received a sword of honor. He was afterward
military secretary to Sir George Don, governor of
Jersey,"and in 1812, having attained his majority
in the 7th West India regiment, he joined it in
Jamaica, and within a short time was appointed
assistant quartermaster-general of the forces in
that island. In 1814 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of British Honduras, holding at the same time the rank of colonel on the staff, thus exercising the military command as well as the civil government. While acting in this capacity Col. Arthur suppressed a serious outbreak of the slave
population of Honduras. His despatches relative
to the revolt and the subject of slavery in the West
Indies attracted the attention of Mr. Wilberforce
and other philanthropists, and contributed in no
slight degree to the subsequent abolition of slavery
within the British empire^ In 1822 he left Honduras for England, and in 1823 was appointed lieutenant-governor of Van Dieman's Land (then the principal British penal colony), having command of the military forces as well. His attempts at introducing reforms in the transportation system were not successful, as the colonists and their
friends at home, who were determined to put an end to the system altogether, never allowed his
