A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
[14] Chester Alan Arthur was born in Vermont in 1830, graduated from Union
College, became (1853) a lawyer in New York city, and was (1871-78)
customs collector of the port of New York. In 1880 he attended the
national Republican convention as a delegate from New York, and was one of
the 302 members of that convention who voted to the last for the
renomination of Grant. After Grant was defeated and Garfield nominated,
Arthur was named for the vice presidency, in order to appease the
"Stalwarts," as the friends of Grant were called.
[15] When this failed to accomplish its purpose, Congress (1887) enacted
another law providing heavy penalties for polygamy. The Mormon Church then
declared against the practice.
[16] The murder of Garfield led also to a new presidential succession law.
The old law provided that if both the President and the Vice President
should die, the office should be filled temporarily by the president
_pro tem_ of the Senate, or if there were none, by the speaker of the
House of Representatives. But one Congress expired March 4, 1881, and the
next one did not meet and elect its presiding officers till December; so
if Arthur had died before then, there would have been no one to act as
President. A new law passed in 1886 provides that if both the presidency
and the vice presidency become vacant, the presidency shall pass to the
Secretary of State, or, if there be none, to the Secretary of the
Treasury, or, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, Attorney General,
Postmaster General, Secretary of the Navy, or Secretary of the Interior.
[17] In 1881, Lieutenant A. W. Greely was sent to plant a station in the
Arctic regions. Supplies sent in 1882 and 1883 failed to reach him, and
alarm was felt for the safety of his party. In 1884 a rescue expedition
was sent out under Commander W. S. Schley. Three vessels were made ready
by the Navy Department, and a fourth by Great Britain. After a long search
Greely and six companions were found on the point of starvation and five
were brought safely home. During their stay in the Arctic, they had
reached a point within 430 miles of the north pole, the farthest north any
white man had then gone.
[18] Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837. In 1841 his father,
a Presbyterian minister, removed to Onondaga County, New York, where
Grover attended school and served as clerk in the village store. Later he
taught for a year in the Institute for the Blind in New York city; but
soon began the study of law, and settled in Buffalo. He was assistant
district attorney of Erie County, sheriff and mayor of Buffalo, and in
1882, as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York, carried the
state by 192,000 plurality. Both when mayor and when governor he was noted
for his free use of the veto power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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