such a call was to be issued would have enabled army
contractors to have made millions; but the secret was honorably kept by
all until after the issue of the proclamation. The quota of New York was
59,705 volunteers, or sixty regiments, and it was desirable that they
should be recruited and sent to the front without delay. General Arthur,
by special request of Governor Morgan, resumed his duties as
quartermaster-general and established a system of recruiting and
officering the new levies, which proved wonderfully successful. In his
annual report, made to the governor on the twenty-seventh of January,
1863, he said:--

"In summing up the operations of the department during the last levy of
troops, I need only state as the result the fact that through the single
office and clothing department of this department in the city of New
York, from August 1 to December 1, 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 and ten batteries of artillery."

In December, 1863, the incoming of the Democratic state administration
deprived General Arthur of his office. His successor,
Quartermaster-General Talcott, in a report to Governor Seymour, paid the
following just tribute to his predecessor:--

"I found, upon entering on the discharge of my duties, a well-organized
system of labor and accountability, for which the State is chiefly
indebted to my predecessor, General Chester A. Arthur, who, by his
practical good sense and unremitting exertion, at a period when
everything was in confusion, reduced the operations of the department to
a matured plan by which large amounts of money were saved to the
government, and great economy of time secured in carrying out the
details of the same."

Resuming his professional duties, at first in partnership with Mr.
Gardiner and afterward alone, he became counsel to the city department
of taxes and assessments, with an annual salary of ten thousand dollars,
but he abruptly resigned the position when the Tammany Hall city
officials attempted to coerce the Republicans connected with the
municipal departments.

When the next presidential election drew near, General Arthur entered
enthusiastically into the support of General Grant, and was made
chairman of the Grant Central Club, of New York.