fied himself with the Whigs of his ward when he located in New
York City. In those days the best citizens served as inspectors of
elections at the polls, and for some years Mr. Arthur served in that
capacity at a voting-place in a carpenter's shop, which occupied the
site of the present Fifth Avenue Hotel. When, in 1856, the Republican
party was formed, Mr. Arthur was a prominent member of the Young Men's
Vigilance Committee, which advocated the election of Fremont and Dayton.
It was during this campaign that he became acquainted with Edwin D.
Morgan, and gained his ardent life-long friendship.

Animated by a military spirit, Mr. Arthur sought recreation by joining
the volunteer militia of New York, and he was appointed
judge-advocate-general on the staff of Brigadier-General Yates, who
commanded the second brigade. The general was a strict disciplinarian,
and required his field, line, and staff officers to meet weekly for
drill and instruction. Mr. Arthur thus acquired the rudiments of a
military education, and became acquainted with many of those who
afterwards distinguished themselves as officers in the volunteer army of
the Union.

General Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon, of
Fredericksburg, Virginia, a daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon,
of the United States Navy, who had gained honorable distinction when in
command of the naval expedition sent to explore the river Amazon. His
heroic death, in 1857, is recorded in history among those "names which
will never be forgotten as long as there is remembrance in the world for
fidelity unto death." In command of the steamer Central America, which
went down, with a loss of three hundred and sixty lives, he stood at his
post on the wheelhouse, and succeeded in having the women and children
safely transferred to the boats, remaining himself to perish with his
vessel. General Sherman has characterized this grand deed of unselfish
devotion as the most heroic incident in our naval history. Mrs. Arthur
was a lady of the highest culture, and in the varied relations of
life--wife, mother, friend--she illustrated all that gives to womanhood
its highest charm, and commands for it the purest homage. She died in
1880, after an illness of but three days, leaving a son and a daughter,
with a large number of mourning friends, not only in society, of which
she was an ornament, but among the poor and the distressed, whose wants
and whose sufferings she had tenderly c