It was Alexander Powell, Chester Arthur’s African American doorkeeper, who greeted reporters when they came to Arthur’s home seeking a reaction from the Vice President after news of James Garfield’s death as a result of an assassin’s bullet became public.

“I daren’t ask him,” Powell told the reporters. “He is sitting alone in his room sobbing like a child, with his head on his desk and his face buried in his hands. I dare not disturb him.” (Reeves, 247)

Those reporters were doubtlessly surprised by the frankness of a servant discussing so freely the emotional state of his employer. But what they didn’t realize was that Powell was far more than a mere employee, let alone a servant.

The Beginnings of the Arthur-Powell Friendship

Chester Arthur’s emotionally intimate friendship with an African American man remains something of a mystery, a neglected back street in the history of a yet another presidency. The two men had met Powell when he served under Arthur at the custom’s clearinghouse as a messenger. But the two soon engaged in easy conversation.

Corruption was considered rife in the customhouse and the Senate voted to have an investigation. Investigators were advised to be impartial: “let no man be put out merely because he is Mr. Arthur’s friend, and no man put in merely because he is our friend.” One of those singled out to be removed from his government position was Powell, described by one biographer as one of “several Arthur henchmen.” (Reeves, 147-148, 458, n.41).

When Arthur was running for vice president in 1880, preparing for the Republican convention, Powell was rehired by Arthur to be part of his election team, ostensibly to poll the voting inclinations of southern Negroes. Was Powell muscle that Arthur trusted, a friend Arthur felt he owed a favor, or something more? Some speculation seems warranted as the inclusion of an African American as part of an election campaign was very unusual for the times. (Reeves, 71, 167)

After Arthur became Vice President, the married Powell was given the job as the doorkeeper of his Washington home. If not for their history, a black man as a household servant would not be notable. But given that history and Powell’s active involvement in the campaign, his role in the widower Arthur household takes on an added intimacy. Total trust seems indicated. Unfortunately I’m not aware of any existing photos of Powell.

President Arthur’s First Official Act

Chester Arthur was sworn in as president of the United States on September 20^th, 1881. Occasional suggestions of Chester Arthur’s possible homosexuality rest on flimsy, if endearingly stereotypical evidence. Arthur was a dandy and an unrepentant clothes horse. He was said to own over forty pairs of trousers. A widower, there had been barely a hint of romance since his wife’s death some years before. And then there was the little question of his priorities. Chester’s first official act as president would be to redecorate the White House. No less a figure than Charles L. Tiffany would serve as decorator. As will be seen, however, there was an alternative explanation for all of those trousers. (Reeves, 269-269).

Frederick Douglas was one of the men who suffered from Arthur’s declaration that the civil service would not be subjected to cronyism. An African American often needed a friend in the system to overcome the inherent biases of many government officials. He had no contacts with the Arthur administration and, if Arthur remained good to his word, it would not have helped him overmuch, even if he had.

Ironically, Douglas might have found in Arthur a sympathetic associate.

Upon becoming president, Arthur’s appointments were generally viewed with favor as he seemed to eschew the expected level of patronage that had become the norm in Washington. One appointment of interest, though, was to assign Powell’s wife a minor position within the Department of Interior. And when renovations were completed in the White House, a larger home than his last one, to be sure, the role of doorkeeper was insufficient for Powell in Arthur’s eyes. He assigned his friend a position never before seen in the White House. Powell was to be Arthur’s personal valet. (Reeves, 271, 478, n. 61)                    .

For the dapper Arthur, as we have seen, this was an important position. It was also a relationship that required a real comfort between the men involved. Whether Powell influenced Arthur’s position of various issues on civil rights is not known. Overall, Arthur’s record on such matter was mixed.

Chester Arthur’s Health and his Comfort with African Americans

In March 1883, an incident reflected Arthur’s worsening medical condition. Chester Arthur suffered from a progressive kidney ailment known as Bright’s Disease. Arthur and his physician agreed that a recuperative vacation in Florida, just emerging as a desirable winter getaway fro the wealthy. The press was told the president was suffering from a cold and needed a respite.

The president’s entourage included his secretary of the navy, a savvy Southern politico, a friend from New York, his personal secretary, his chef and Powell. Four reporters, to the president’s chagrin, were also ultimately allowed to accompany the group. They took the train to Jacksonville where they boarded a steamer, another boat and then a train where they finally reached St. Augustine. There the entourage stayed for four days. On Sunday, ever the politician, Arthur attended three different church services, including a Negro Methodist church.

Arthur seemed more comfortable among African Americans than any previous American president. During his stay in Florida, a Negro chief magistrate greeted him, declaring himself a lifelong friend. One African American man traveled 35 miles to present Arthur with a young eagle. Arthur smilingly accepted, entrusting his care to Chandler, his naval secretary, to remind him of the nation’s emblem. A group of African American boys entertained the president with music and dancing. And not to neglect any demographic, Arthur also received a colorfully attired sub-chief of the Seminole Indians, Tom Tigertail. Tigertail wanted the president to travel further south, to be regaled by a tribal dance, but the President was already feeling poorly and in bad temper and respectfully declined. (Reeves, 355-357)

From St. Augustine, Arthur boarded a ship christened the Tallapoosa wheer they headed to Savannah. After a night of sight-seeing, hand-shaking and Southern dining, the president and his group returned to the Tallapoosa. It was there his condition took a dramatic turn for the worse.

A guard at the president’s cabin heard Arthur cry out for a servant, perhaps Powell by name. In any event, it was Powell who was summoned. He told the guard to summon the ship’s physician who found Arthur’s condition to be dangerously unstable. Two hours of hot towels to his body and the president’s condition stabilized somewhat. Powell doubtlessly assisted.

A day of bed rest followed and the next morning a still wan and unsteady Arthur boarded a train back to Washington. News of his condition, Chandler had given unwelcome details to the press, spread across the country. Arthur, who preferred to suffer in private, was not happy. His attendance at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, a month later, was marked by a re-occurrance of his illness, his pallor readily apparent. (Reeves, 358-360)

Remaining Events in Arthur’s Presidency

In 1883, Chester Arthur and Congress accomplished what would be the hallmark of his administration, a meaningful reform of the civil service system. Besides signing the Pendleton Act into law, Arthur insured its meaningful success by appointing reformers to the bipartisan Civil Service Commission the act created. Arthur’s old cronies were shocked, his previous opponents pleasantly surprised.

Unfortunately, the 1883 Supreme Court The ruling established a “separate but equal” doctrine that essentially legalized racial segregation with limits of supposed fairness.

In response, at the call of Frederick Douglas and other Black activists, the first National Convention of Colored Men was planned in Washington for September. Some 280 delegates were chosen based on the number of African Americans in each state. Most were from former slave states.

But in May 1883, an announcement was made that the convention would be moved to Louisville. T. Thomas Fortune, a black journalist, believed that Douglass had bent to pressure from the White House in making the decision. Fortune suggested that Arthur wanted to avoid the embarrassment of the accusations that would be made. Douglass denied that he and the president had spoken. It may well be that he and his fellow organizers were more worried that a gathering of black men in the capital precisely at the time that the Supreme Court were deliberating on the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was ill advised. Whatever the case, the conflict suggested the increasing divide between Douglas and other older advocates. (McFeely, 314)

When the convention actually occurred, Douglass received a lukewarm reception. Having lost his wife the year before, and now 65, Douglass was facing the possibility of losing his role as leader of advocacy for black people..(McFeely, 315-317).

When it was finally delivered, on October 15th, the Supreme Court Ruling suggested there had been good reason to be alarmed. Plessy v. Ferguson took the teeth out of the 1875 Civil Rights Act. The Supreme Court,comprised of nine Republican appointees, ruled that the owners of establishment open to the public could not be forced to admit African Americans given the rights of private property. What’s more, the rights of private citizens could not be determined by Congress but only by the legislatures of individual states.. The rights of African Americans, especially in the Southern states, were seriously imperiled. (McFeely, 317-318)

There is no record of Alexander Powell’s reaction to these developments.

Regardless, the friendship between Arthur and Powell continued to flourish. That Christmas, Arthur gave Powell a framed picture of himself along with a “handsome gold watch and chain appropriately inscribed.” (U.S. Army and Navy Journal and Gazette, 12/29/1883, p. 433)

Just what the inscription read is also lost.

The Last Days of Chester Arthur

In 1884, Arthur sought re-nomination by the Republican Party but his reform efforts had alienated many without fully convincing the genuine reform wing of the party. James G. Blaine was nominated on the fourth ballot instead. It was just as well. Arthur’s health was far from good. He would not have survived his second term. (DeGregorio, 325)

In Arthur’s final year as president, Alexander Powell finally decided to break his silence on how many in Washington described his role in the White House. Powell was frequently described as Arthur’s valet or manservant as if the individual could not imagine an African American holding any other role. Powell’s response in August of that year to the Washington Post is a remarkable statement of pride and self assertion.

“I am not, have not been, nor do I expect ever to be in the remotest degree ‘a valet,’ ‘body servant,’ or any kind of private servant to any man, even thought that man should be the president of the United States … I was appointed to act and be his private messenger.” (Washington Post, 8/22/84)

After Arthur left office, he returned to the house he owned in New York City. His health continued to suffer. He was dying and he knew it. The end came on November 18^th, 1886.

At his funeral, Arthur’s interior decorator and friend, Charles Tiffany, was one of his pallbearers. Powell doubtlessly would’ve liked to serve as another, but he understood what his position in this situation needed to be. Prior to Arthur’s rise to the presidency, he had been Arthur’s good friend. As a candidate, a campaign advisor. As President, his private messenger. In death, Powell was, of necessity, just another mourner. As assertive as Powell might be, a Black man of the time knew from painful experience how to take such shifts status in stride.

Arthur’s most famous quote remains am intriguing one.

“I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damned business.”

The friendship between the President and Alexander Powell, during a time of deepening racial divides, provides a modicum of hope for what might still be achievable today.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Primary References

Cohen, Andrew W. (2015). Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, pp. 139-40, 185, 348 n. 34-36 .

McFeeley, William S. (2002). Grant: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

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