nal,
business or public life. In fact, too often they tend to enervate both
mind and body, and thus prove in reality obstacles to attaining true and
worthy manhood.

Mr. Arthur, like Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and others who preceded him in
the presidential office, hewed his own way upward and onward from a
discouraging beginning.

He was born in Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont, October 5th, 1830.
He was the eldest son of the Rev. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman,
having a large family and a modest income. The Rev. Mr. Arthur was born
in Ireland, and came to this country when eighteen years of age. He is
remembered as a man of great force of character, sturdy piety and a
faithful and earnest Christian minister. He had few worldly benefits to
bestow upon his children, but he implanted deep into their minds
principles governing their actions which were never effaced.

As a lad, Mr. Arthur was trained in the public schools accessible to
him, and by his father's aid, fitted himself for college, entering Union
when fifteen years old, and graduating with high honors in 1848. The
Hon. Frederick W. Seward, who was in the class next below young Arthur,
says of his school days: "Chet, as we all called him, was the most
popular boy in his class. He was always genial and cheerful, a good
scholar, and apt in debate." To aid in defraying his expenses, Chester
taught country schools during parts of two winters, but kept pace with
his class while absent, showing his independence of spirit, and his zeal
to acquire an education.

Mr. Arthur's preference turned toward the law, and after a course in
Fowler's law school at Ballston, he went to New York city; became a law
student in the office of Erastus D. Culver, and was admitted to the bar
in 1852. Mr. Culver showed his confidence in his promising student by
taking him into partnership. Mr. Culver was soon elected civil judge of
Brooklyn, and the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Arthur then formed a
partnership with Henry D. Gardiner, with a view to practicing in some
growing Western city. The young lawyers went West and spent three months
in prospecting for a locality to suit their taste, but not finding it,
they returned to New York, hired an office, and before long had a good
business. The most noted cases in which Mr. Arthur appeared in his early
career as a lawyer, were the Lemmon slave case, and the suit of Lizzie
Jennings, a fugitive slave, whose liberty he secured, and a co