Chester A. Arthur (142)
He served as the 21st President of the US, succeeding to the presidency after the assassination of James A. Garfield. He was a prominent attorney and politician. He signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese women from entering the country, and denying citizenship to Chinese Americans. It was the first total ban on a nation or ethnic group from immigrating to the US. On a more positive note, he enforced the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. This is a federal law that mandates positions within the federal government be awarded on the basis of merit and not political patronage. Suffering from poor health, he retired at the close of his term. Historians are in agreement that he had his good traits, which were – he was a man of his word, he maintained his dignity, and he was free from graft and corruption.
