Stalwart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Stalwart (disambiguation).

The Stalwarts were a faction of the United States Republican Party, towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Notable Stalwarts were Roscoe Conkling, Thomas C. Platt, and Chester A. Arthur, all of whom were in favor of Ulysses S. Grant running for a third term. They were the "traditional" Republicans who opposed Rutherford B. Hayes's civil service reform. They were pitted against the Half Breeds for control of the Republican Party. The only real issue between Stalwarts and Half- Breeds was patronage. The Half-Breeds worked to get civil service reform, and finally created the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. Stalwarts favored traditional machine politics and patronage.

Chester A. Arthur was the vice president for James A. Garfield. He became president after Garfield was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881. Arthur helped to create civil service reforms in his first term in part because he felt that he had to follow up Garfield's work.