New York National Guard salutes Chester Arthur during October 5 ceremony at Albany Rural Cemetery

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Major Gen. Michel Natali and Command Sgt. Major Robert Jenks present the presidential wreath at Chester Arthur's grave site on Oct. 5, 2022.

MENANDS, NY (10/04/2023) (readMedia)-- New York Air National Guard Major General Denise Donnell will honor Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States who graduated from Union College, with a formal wreath laying on his grave at Albany Rural Cemetery onThursday, October 5, the 194th anniversary of his birth.

WHO: Major General Denise Donnell, the commander of the New York Air National Guard; State Command Chief Master Sgt. Michael Hewson, the senior enlisted leader for the New York Air National Guard; representatives of Albany Rural Cemetery: and men and women of the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing who will form the honor cordon.

WHAT: Annual presentation of a wreath at the grave of Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States who died on Nov. 18, 1886, at age 57. Since 1967, United States military leaders have laid wreaths from the White House at the graves of Presidents of the United States on the anniversary of their birth. The wreaths are from the current president to former presidents.

WHEN: 11 a.m., Thursday, October 5, 2020

WHERE: Albany Rural Cemetery, Cemetery Avenue, Menands (follow the Cemetery event signs to Chester Arthur's memorial)

Coverage Opportunities:

Visual opportunities will include the formal wreath-laying ceremony, and the presentation of the colors by a New York Air National Guard Color Guard. An Honor Cordon of troops will be present. A bugler will play taps. Donnell will deliver brief remarks.

BACKGROUND:

Chester Arthur, a one-time schoolteacher in Pownell, Vermont and in Cohoes, a lawyer, a Republican politician and a member of the New York Milita during the Civil War, became president on Sept. 19, 1881, when President James Garfield died from a bullet wound suffered at the hands of an assassin on July 2, 1881. Born in Vermont, Arthur attended Union College in Schenectady and later became a lawyer.

He had never held political office before being elected as vice president.

Arthur worked as a lawyer and was active in Republican politics in New York.

In 1855 he represented Elizabeth Jennings, an African American woman who had been thrown off a New York City horsecar in July 1854 because only white people were allowed to ride that car. He won Jennings a settlement of $225 in damages and the court ruled the Black Americans could not be excluded from public transit provided they were "sober, well behaved, and free from disease."

Arthur also served as the Judge Advocate General of the New York National Guard, then known as the New York State Militia. In this capacity he drafted a military law which restructured the organization.

During the Civil War he was appointed Quartermaster General of New York and was responsible for equipping and transporting 70 New York Volunteer Regiments, totaling about 70,000 Soldiers, during his two years on the job. He erected a tent city in New York for deploying Soldiers and was also charged with surveying the New York harbor fortifications to prepare them for defense.

He also helped recruit over 120,000 Soldiers.

From 1871 to 1878 he was the chief Customs Inspector in New York City and the leader of the "Stalwart" wing of the Republican Party. He was elected vice president during the election of 1880.

During his time in office, he signed the first federal Civil Service Law, oversaw the implementation of the first law governing immigration, and advocated for an international conference to that set the prime meridian-used for determining a place on earth and for time keeping-as running through Greenwich, England.

He is also created with being the father of the modern United States Navy since he endorsed the construction of steel, coal-fired steam engine propelled ships, and the creation of the Naval War College to teach officers strategy.

Arthur, who had been in poor health during the latter part of his term as the result of a kidney disease, died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than two years after leaving office, and is buried next to his wife Ellen who died of pneumonia in 1880.

The writer Mark Twain, who was notoriously cynical about politicians praised Arthur upon his death. "I am but one in 55,000,000; still, in the opinion of this one-fifty-five-millionth of the country's population, it would be hard to better President Arthur's administration," Twain wrote.

Editor and writer Andrew McClure, also praised Arthur, writing," No man ever entered the presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe."