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ARRINGTON, Alfred W., lawyer, was born in Iredell county, N. C., Sept. 10, 1810, son of Archibald Arrington, a representative to the 27th and 28th congresses for North Carolina. He received a fair education, and at the age of nineteen entered the itinerant ministry of the M. E. church. He preached with great success in Indiana and Missouri until 1824, when he relinquished the ministry for the study of law. Being admitted to the bar, he practised successfully in Missouri, and in 1836 he removed to Arkansas and was elected to the state legislature. In 1844 he withdrew his name from the Whig electoral ticket, and supported James K. Polk for President. He soon after removed to Texas, and in 1850 he was elected judge of the 12th district court. He left Texas in 1857 for Wisconsin, and finally settled in Chicago, Ill., where he acquired eminence as a constitutional lawyer. He was an impassioned speaker. His "Apostrophe to Water" was used by John B. Gough in his lectures with thrilling effect. He wrote under the pen name of "Charles Summerfield," and his poems and sketches were largely read. His "Sketches of the Southwest" and the "Rangers and Regulators of Tanaha" were published in 1857; and a volume containing a sketch of his character, his memoirs, and a collection of his poems, was issued in 1867. He died in Chicago, from overwork, Dec. 31, 1867.
ARTHUR, Chester Alan, 21st president of the United States, was born at Fairfield, Franklin county, Vt., Oct. 5, 1830, the eldest son of William and Malvina (Stone) Arthur. His father was educated in Ireland, a graduate of Belfast college, who came to America and settled in Vermont, where he became a Baptist preacher. His maternal grandfather, Uriah Stone, was a pioneer settler of New Hampshire, who located in Piermont about 1763. Chester attended school first at Union Village, N. Y., and afterwards at Schenectady. He entered the sophomore class at Union college, when fifteen years old, and during his course taught school for two terms to aid in defraying his expenses. He was graduated with high honors in the class of 1848, entered the law school at Ballston Spa. and after a short term of lectures returned to his father's home at Lansing, N. Y., where he continued his law studies, fitted a class of boys for college, and taught in the academy at North Pownal, Vt., as principal, having not yet reached his majority. In 1853 he entered the law office of Erastus D. Culver in New York city, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and became one of the firm of Culver, Parker & Arthur. Arthur imbibed anti-slavery principles from his father, who was one of the early abolitionists, and became an advocate of that party and was one of those who formed the New York anti-slavery society at the house of Gerrit Smith at Peterboro, N. Y., Oct. 21, 1835. In several notable suits at law he defended the rights of negroes, both as escaped slaves and as citizens, and in these suits was opposed by the most learned legal talent in the country, winning his causes in the highest courts. See "Lemmon v. People," and the case of Lizzie Jennings (1855). He was a delegate to the New York state convention at Saratoga in 1856, and was conspicuous in his active support of General Fremont in the presidential campaign of that year. In 1857 he took an active part in the reorganization of the state militia, was made judge-advocate of the 2d brigade, and in 1860 Governor Morgan appointed him engineer-in-chief on his staff, with the rank of brigadier-general. On the breaking out of the civil war he was made acting quartermaster-general of the state. General Arthur displayed remarkable executive ability during his administration of this office, having to provide clothing and transportation for nearly 700,000 men furnished by the state of New York to suppress the rebellion. His war account with the National government, although much larger than that of any other state, was the first audited at Washington, and it was allowed without the reduction of one dollar, while the accounts of other states were cut down from one million to ten millions of dollars. In December, 1861, he was one of a board of engineers, and submitted to the government a report on the harbor defences of the state and the conditions of the Federal forts. In February, 1862. he was commissioned inspector-general, and in May he officially visited the New York troops in McClellan's army, and while on this duty also served as an aide on the staff of Col. Henry J. Hunt, commanding the artillery reserve of the army, in anticipation of an immediate attack on Richmond. He was ordered back to New York in June by Governor Morgan, and acted as secretary of the meeting of the governors of the loyal states at the Astor House, New York, June 28, 1862, which prompted the President on July 1, 1862, to call for 300,000 volunteers.
At Governor Morgans request, General Arthur resigned his commission as inspector-general, and was re-commissioned as quartermaster-general July 10, 1862. The multiplicity of cares laid upon him at this time is shown in his report made at the close of the official year, under date of Jan. 27, 1863. It says: "From August to December 1st, the space of four months, there were completely clothed, uniformed and equipped, supplied with camp and garrison equipage, and transported from this state to the seat of war, sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four battalions of artillery." Horatio Seymour having succeeded Governor Morgan as chief executive of the state,
