In 2005, President Bush signed the Presidential $1 Coin Act authorizing the United States Mint to strike $1 coins honoring America’s Presidents in the order in which they served. This coin, the 21st in the Presidential $1 Coin Program, honors President Chester Arthur.
The son of an Irish-born Baptist minister who had immigrated to the U.S., Chester Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, in 1829. He graduated from Union College in 1848, taught school, was admitted to the bar and practiced law in New York City. Early in the Civil War he served as quartermaster general of New York state.
In 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission; forbade levying political assessments against officeholders; and provided for a “classified system” that made certain government positions obtainable only through competitive written examinations. The system protected employees against removal for political reasons. The Arthur administration also enacted the first general immigration law. Suffering from a fatal kidney disease, President Arthur nonetheless ran for the presidential nomination in 1884, but he was not successful and died just two years later.
