Chester A. Arthur:Surprisingly Good

VOA Learning English presents America’s Presidents.
美国之音慢速英语介绍美国总统栏目。

Today we are talking about Chester A. Arthur. (The letter “A” is for Alan, his middle name.)
今天，我们来谈论下切斯特·A·阿瑟。（字母“A”指Alan，是他的中间名。）

Arthur took office because of an unexpected event. He was sworn in as Vice President in March 1881 under James Garfield.
阿瑟由于一起意外事件而担任总统。1881年3月，他在詹姆斯·加菲尔德担任总统时宣誓就任副总统。

But only 100 days into Garfield’s term, the president was shot. He suffered for months.
但仅仅过了100天，加菲尔德总统就被枪击了。他遭受了几个月的痛苦。

Arthur was not close to Garfield. The two men belonged to the same party, but they had different ideas on the issues of the day. They publicly disagreed on a number of subjects.
阿瑟与加菲尔德的关系一般。他们两人属于同一党派，但对当时的诸多问题有不同看法。他们在一些问题上公开反对。

If Garfield lived, Arthur would probably not have much power in his administration.
如果加菲尔德一直担任总统，阿瑟很可能不会有太多权利。

But Garfield eventually died.
但加菲尔德最终还是去世了。

By this time, it was well-established that if the president of the United States dies in office, the vice president becomes the president.
此时，美国已经规定如果总统在任时死亡，副总统将会继任。

So, in September 1881, Arthur became the country’s chief executive¹. He served the remaining three and a half years of Garfield’s term.
所以，阿瑟于1881年9月继任了美国总统。他履行了加菲尔德剩余的三年半任期。

Historians say that, for the most part, Arthur performed ably and well.
历史学家认为，阿瑟在很大程度上任期比较成功。

Early life 早年生活

Chester Arthur was raised in the northeastern states of Vermont and New York. He was one of eight children in his family. Their father was a religious leader and anti-slavery activist.
切斯特·阿瑟在美国东北部的佛蒙特州和纽约州长大。他是家里的八个孩子之一，父亲是一位牧师及反奴隶积极分子。

Arthur attended college in New York, then taught school and studied law. But he never wanted to stay in a small town and live modestly². He wanted to live in New York City, work as a lawyer and public official, become wealthy, and enjoy the lifestyle of a gentleman.
阿瑟在纽约州上的大学，然后从事教职并自修了法律。但他不想待在小镇就这样平凡地度过下去。他想要在纽约市生活，在那里当律师、担任公职，然后变成有钱人，去享受有钱人的生活方式。

And that is what he did.
他就是这么做的。

Arthur advanced³ from an entry-level⁴ job in a law office, to a leadership position in the military during the Civil War. After the fighting stopped, he worked in a good-paying job as a lawyer, and then accepted a top position in the government.
阿瑟首先在律师事务所从事最基础的工作，直到内战期间在军队里当上了领导的位置。内战结束后，他从事了一份高薪的律师工作，再后来在政府部门担任了高级职位。

For seven years, Arthur served as the collector of the port of New York. His job involved supervising 1,300 people. They collected large amounts of money that came from taxes on imported goods.
阿瑟担任了七年（1871~1878年）的纽约港海关监督。他的这份工作管理着1300人，征收大量进口物品的关税。

The job had a political element⁵, too. It was under the control of a U.S. senator from New York, Roscoe Conkling. Conkling was known as a Republican Party chief, who traded political support for financial and other benefits⁶.
这份工作也有政治因素。它由纽约州参议员罗斯科·康克林控制，康克林是共和党的领袖，他通过政治支持来换取财富和其他利益。

Arthur was never found guilty of accepting money or gifts in exchange for the help of his office. But he was closely linked to Conkling’s political machine.
阿瑟从未通过钱财交易来获取职位帮助，但是他与康克林的政治机器关系密切。

When Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1878, he tried to fight corruption in government jobs. He targeted Conkling and Arthur.
1878年拉瑟福德·B·海斯担任总统后，试图打击政府部门的腐败。他的目标锁定了康克林和阿瑟。

Election of 1880 1880年大选

Arthur’s position as the collector of the port of New York was one of the issues in the election of 1880.
1880年大选中，阿瑟的纽约港海关监督职位是众多议题中的一个。

President Hayes had suspended Arthur from the job. To get it back, Arthur and Conkling supported an effort to re-elect former president Ulysses S. Grant.
海斯总统之前将阿瑟从该职位撤职。为了重获该职位，阿瑟和康克林支持重新选择前总统尤利西斯·S·格兰特。

But another candidate won the Republican Party’s presidential nomination: James Garfield.
但另一位共和党人詹姆斯·加菲尔德赢得了共和党的总统提名。

Garfield and Arthur were not natural allies. Although they were both Republicans, they represented different points of view.
加菲尔德和阿瑟不是自然盟友。尽管他们都是共和党人，但代表不同政见。

Political leaders hoped to unite the party. So, when Garfield was chosen as the presidential candidate, they added Arthur as the vice presidential nominee.
政治领袖希望党派团结。所以，党内选择了加菲尔德作为总统候选人，同时也选择了阿瑟作为副总统候选人。

The effort to unite the party worked well enough to win the election. But relations between the two men were uneasy.
团结党派的努力使得共和党赢得了大选，但两人之间关系并没有见好。

One of Garfield’s first acts was to appoint someone for Arthur’s old job in New York. The new president wanted someone who was not loyal to Conkling. So he gave the position to one of his supporters, instead.
加菲尔德上任后的第一个举措就是任命一个人来接替阿瑟之前在纽约州的工作。新总统想要一个不依附于康克林的人，所以任命了一个他的支持者。

In protest, Conkling resigned from the Senate.
康克林从参议院辞职以示抗议。

But then events took an unexpected turn. Garfield was shot by a mentally unbalanced man who believed the president owed him a government job.
但随后发生了意想不到的事情。加菲尔德被一个精神失常者枪击，该枪击者认为总统欠他一个政府职位。

And Chester A. Arthur became president.
因此，切斯特·A·阿瑟继任了总统。

Presidency 总统任期

When Arthur took office, he had the public image of being an experienced political operator. Most people believed he cared only about supporting the aims of a small part of the Republican Party.
阿瑟担任总统后，显示出了一位经验丰富的政治家形象。大多数人认为他只关心一小部分共和党人的目标。

Instead, President Arthur took an independent position on several issues. In opposition to most of his party, Arthur supported legislation to reform the country’s civil service⁷. It aimed to clean up corruption in government and took away some of the ability of politicians to give government jobs to their supporters.
然而，阿瑟总统在很多事情上都采取了独立的立场。与党内多数人相左，阿瑟支持立法改革国家文官制度。该制度致力于清除政府腐败，部分剥夺了政客们为其支持者提供政府职位的能力。

(To be fair, in the short term, the act helped Arthur’s party.)
(公平地说，短期内，这项举措有助于阿瑟所在的党派。)

Arthur also broke with the Republican Party leadership to support a reduction in tariffs⁸. And he strongly argued to limit spending federal money on projects that helped only a few areas or businesses. Instead, he wanted to cut taxes so more people would profit from the government’s surplus.
阿瑟支持降低关税，因此也与共和党领袖交恶。并且，他强烈主张限制将联邦资金用于只对少数领域或企业有帮助的项目。相反，他希望降低税收，以便更多的人能从政府的盈余中获益。

Finally, Arthur vetoed an anti-immigration act from Congress. The measure proposed banning Chinese immigrants for 20 years.
最终，阿瑟否决了国会的一项反移民法案。该法案旨在20年内禁止华人移民。

Arthur argued that the Chinese had improved the American economy by helping build a railroad across the country. He also did not want to hurt potential trade with China.
阿瑟认为华人通过帮助美国建造国家铁路改善了美国经济，也不想伤害与中国之间的潜在贸易。

However, when Congress offered to ban Chinese immigrants for only 10 years, Arthur agreed. In addition, his administration banned immigrants who were considered poor, criminal, or mentally insane.
然而，阿瑟同意了国会提出的10年禁止华人移民。另外，阿瑟政府禁止贫民，罪犯或者精神病患者移民美国。

Perhaps Arthur’s most memorable act as president, however, was to re-decorate the White House. He did not like its appearance inside. So he asked one of New York’s top designers, Louis Tiffany, to make the home brighter and more stylish⁹.
也许阿瑟作为总统最值得纪念的是重新装饰了白宫。他不喜欢白宫的内部装修，所以他请了纽约的一名顶尖设计师路易斯·蒂芙尼，来帮助设计白宫使得它更加明亮和现代。

In the newly remodeled rooms, Arthur held parties, with fine food and drink, for elite¹⁰ guests. He was known as “The Gentleman Boss.”
在新装修过的白宫里，阿瑟为精英人士举办宴会，配以美酒佳肴。他被称为“绅士总统”。

Legacy 遗产

Observers then and now say that Arthur served well as president. He was a solid leader after the difficult years of the Civil War and Reconstruction¹¹.
当时和现在的观察家们都认为阿瑟的总统生涯比较成功。他是历经内战和重建的艰难岁月之后的一位坚实领袖。

But Arthur did not live much beyond his presidency. Shortly into his term, he learned he had a serious kidney disease that would likely kill him.
但阿瑟离任后没过多久就去世了。上任不久，他就得知自己患有严重的肾病，很可能会因此而丧命。

As a result, he did not try hard to get re-elected.
所以，他并没有努力去赢取连任。

Instead, after finishing his term he returned to his home in New York. Arthur tried to work as a lawyer, but he soon became too sick.
相反，他在任期结束后便返回了纽约州的家乡，重新尝试着律师工作，但很快就病倒了。

His wife had died of malaria before he became president. And he liked to spend his free time fishing or with friends instead of with his children. But, in his last months, he could not enjoy those activities either.
阿瑟的妻子在他担任总统之前就因疟疾而死去。他喜欢闲暇时光去钓鱼或者和朋友一起，而不是和孩子们度过。但是，最后几个月，他也不能享受那些爱好了。

He died at home at the age of 57.
57岁时，阿瑟在家中溘然长逝。

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https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/americas-presidents-chester-arthur/3950367.html

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