Hayes selected for Secretary of Treasury John Sherman, “who deemed it important that the custom-house appointments should be in the hands of one more friendly to the Hayes administration than Mr. Arthur.” Theodore Roosevelt was appointed collector, but the United States Senate refused to confirm the appointment, and Arthur and Cornell held their respective offices until adjournment of Congress, July 11, 1878, when they were suspended. Arthur had previously declined to resign, as requested by Secretary Sherman, notwithstanding the fact that he was promised a foreign mission.
His friends prepared and circulated a petition for his reinstatement which carried the signature of every judge of every court of New York City, of all important members of the bar, and of three fourths of the merchant importers. When Mr. Arthur learned of this, he refused to permit it to be presented.
The political affiliations of her husband were not especially pleasing to Mrs. Arthur. She disliked having him mixed up with them, preferring that he devote himself exclusively to his legal profession. His admirers have claimed that he was born with a flair for politics, and from the time he reached his majority he was a politician entering into the activities of his chosen party with zest and enthusiasm.
Photo by G. V. Buck, Washington, D. C.
MRS. JOHN McELROY
Sister of President Arthur
The great joy that descended upon the Arthur household with the birth of their first child, which they named for the gallant Captain Herndon, was turned to sorrow, as the babe died in infancy. Several years later, however, two other children came to them, Alan and little Ellen, to banish the grief and fill the household with life and childish voices.
As time progressed, Mrs. Arthur became more and more a social favourite. Her voice, so often compared to that of a Southern nightingale, was the great attraction for countless projects for charity and church benefits. She gave to such appeals most generously of her talents and her time.
Her mother, Mrs. Herndon, died in 1878 while travelling in Europe, and Mrs. Arthur went over alone to bring the body back to this country for interment. The shock of her mother’s death, her grief over not being with her, and the fatigue and strain of the trip undermined her health so that, when taken ill with pneumonia, she had no reserve strength with which to combat it, and died after a three-days’ illness on January 12, 1880.