it was written in 1884, the final year of the presidency of chester allen arthur and a culmination ofear's long quest by one of arthur's political enemies to prove that chester allen archer was not born in the united states. and that he was there for an impostor president. what hindman did was pick up on chatter during the 1880 republican convention when arthur, who was then a machine politician from new york was unexpectedly chosen to run for vice president on james garfield's ticket. the rumor around the convention was that arthur was not born in fairfield, vermont, but quebec today. well, the evidence for this arthur's father was from northern ireland and then his family moved to quebec and his mother's parents started out in vermont but ended up in quebec. besides his word, there was not any documentary evidence to show that he was actually born in fairfield, vermont. so, hindman and arthur's other enemies fanned the rumors and the rumors took on new intensity and garfield was shot and arthur resumed the presidency in 1881. there were rival conspiracy theories and all sorts of con