Thread by @gauravsabnis

Let's end #PresidentsDay weekend with a few fun facts about the Chester Arthur presidency, because there's very little known about it and very little records survive. Which was by old Chet's design. His nickname, seriously, is The Dude President. And he was very Dudeish!

Chet Arthur, as he went by, was probably our first President who never actually wanted to be President. He was an old school "machine" politician from New York, part of the powerful Conkling faction of the Republican Party (which remember, was the anti slavery party then).

But as James Garfield secured the nomination for President, the infighting in the party after the graft filled Grant and Hayes presidencies threatened to tear it apart enough to cost them the election. The first couple of VP choices turned down the offer thinking they'd lose.

Chet Arthur, who was more like Nucky Thompson/Johnson from boardwalk empire, was asked to take the role. He was happy running NYC with Conklin and gang. He had been fired from a powerful role in the Hayes administration. But he did have support of the machine faction.

Chet took the nomination. They won the election. And Chet got down to filling the federal gormint with as many of his pals as he could. It was a very Adani type scene in the post civil war American politics those days. Political patronage coming out the ears of rich folks!

VPs have only one job. To not die. Everything else is optional and up to the president. Many early VPs just stayed in their home states most of the term. Cos there's nothing really constitutionally for them to do other than take over if the president dies. Chet knew this.

He just kept doing his old transactional politics as VP, pushing his pals and donors into federal positions.

But then, a major twist!

President Garfield is assassinated by a mentally disturbed individual. Chet Arthur, much to his annoyance, finds himself President!

In an even more stunning twist, Chet becomes President and kinda like in that Warren Beatty movie, suddenly changes his entire outlook to politics, following principles instead of connections!

"He isn't Chet anymore. He is President Arthur. 🙄" one of his old pals complains.

A man who built a lot of career on trading political patronage, after getting a Presidency he never sought, gets down to reforming the civil service system and ending the patronage system, instead tying federal hires to merit.

Him doing it is like Modi arresting Adani. Shock!

He championed and major civil service reforms that were then emulated in many other countries.

He also was a generally respected and effective president according to most people, who had been skeptical of him. Plus a former civil war hero & a stylish widower. Very popular!

The reason we don't know too much in detail about the inner workings of his presidency is that he literally BURNED all his presidential papers and records in big garbage cans!!

George Washington had set the tradition of saving your papers for posterity. Chet was like, nah.

So although a lot of important stuff happened during his presidency, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, historians are missing a lot of detail because he, the most consummate machine politician, knew how skeletons in cupboards can tumble out. He didn't want the scrutiny.

There is no presidential library to him. Most people haven't heard his name. He is the least named president on sporcle quizzes and least searched on Google.

When he heard of Garfield dying, he had apparently locked himself in his bedroom and cried in panic! 😂

Cutest presidential trivia really. When told in his NYC home (today the world famous Kalustyan's) that Garfield was dead and he would be President, Chet locked himself in his bedroom and bawled, overwhelmed at this job he never even really wanted! 😂😭

Next time you're in Manhattan's Murray Hill aka Curry Hill, look up that plaque. That is one of the very few public observations of Chester Arthur, was very actively wanted to be left alone and forgotten. And he got his wish.