Rutherford Birchard Hayes, James Abram Garfield, and Chester Alan Arthur (The Lives of the Presidents)

viii, 358 pp. Biography of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, James Abram Garfield, and Chester Alan Arthur. Rutherford B. Hayes, in full Rutherford Birchard Hayes, (born October 4, 1822, Delaware, Ohio, U.S. - died January 17, 1893, Fremont, Ohio), 19th president of the United States (1877 - 81), who brought post-Civil War Reconstruction to an end in the South and who tried to establish new standards of official integrity after eight years of corruption in Washington, D.C. He was the only president to hold office by decision of an extraordinary commission of congressmen and Supreme Court justices appointed to rule on contested electoral ballots. James A. Garfield, in full James Abram Garfield, (born November 19, 1831, near Orange [in Cuyahoga county], Ohio, U.S. - died September 19, 1881, Elberon [now in Long Branch], New Jersey), 20th president of the United States (March 4 - September 19, 1881), who had the second shortest tenure in U.S. presidential history. When he was shot and incapacitated, serious constitutional questions arose concerning who should properly perform the functions of the presidency. Chester A. Arthur, in full Chester Alan Arthur, (born October 5, 1829, North Fairfield, Vermont, U.S. - died November 18, 1886, New York, New York), 21st president of the United States. Elected vice president on the Republican ticket of 1880, Arthur acceded to the presidency upon the assassination of President James A. Garfield. As president, he confounded his critics and dismayed many of his friends among the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party by supporting the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), which provided for the open appointment and promotion of federal employees based on merit rather than patronage.