Chester Arthur became the 21st president of the United States when he succeeded the assasinated president James Garfield in 1881.

Before his election as a Republican vice-president in 1880, Arthur worked as a school teacher, school principal, and as an attorney and tax collector in New York. As president, The Gentlemen Boss, as he was nicknamed, proposed and signed the Pendleton Act in 1883 which created the Civil Service commission and reduced government corruption.

Source: The Presidents of the United States