[144]

Civil service reform[edit]
Arthur in 1881 (portrait by Ole Peter Hansen Balling)
In the 1870s, a scandal was exposed, in which contractors for star postal routes were greatly overpaid for their services with the connivance of government officials (including Second Assistant Postmaster General Thomas J. Brady and former senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey).[145] Reformers feared Arthur, as a former supporter of the spoils system, would not commit to continuing the investigation into the scandal.[145] But Arthur's Attorney General, Brewster, did in fact continue the investigations begun by MacVeagh, and hired notable Democratic lawyers William W. Ker and Richard T. Merrick to strengthen the prosecution team and forestall the skeptics.[146] Although Arthur had worked closely with Dorsey before his presidency, once in office he supported the investigation and forced the resignation of officials suspected in the scandal.[146] An 1882 trial of the ringleaders resulted in convictions for two minor conspirators and a hung jury for the rest.[147] After a juror came forward with allegations that the defendants attempted to bribe him, the judge set aside the guilty verdicts and granted a new trial.