The Presidency of Winfield Scott Hancock (A Soldier's Honor)

Civil Service Reform
In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission which forbade levying political assessments against officeholders and provided for a "classified system" that made certain government positions obtainable only through competitive written examinations. The system protected employees against removal for political reasons.

Civil Rights
Winfield Hancock signed the Edmunds Act that banned bigamists and polygamists from voting and holding office. The act was specifically enforced in Utah, a highly populated Mormon territory and establishes a five-man "Utah commission" to prevent bigamists and polygamists from voting. Interestingly, Hancock himself did not sign or veto the legislation.

The Hancock Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and the mentally ill.

In response to anti-Chinese sentiment in the West, Winfield Scott signed a Chinese Exclusion Act. The act made illegal the immigration of Chinese laborers for twenty years and denied American citizenship to Chinese Americans currently residing in the United States.

Hancock was in a bind in regards on how to deal with the rights of African-Americans in the South. While he did support the 15th Amendment, and was disgusted by the "Jim Crow" laws that had been put in place to prevent African-Americans from voting, he did not want to risk losing the South as a Democratic stronghold. As a result, nothing was really done.

Foreign Policy
In relation to Asia and Asians, President Arthur was also in office when the United States became the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations in modern times with Korea, which was then a unified, independent kingdom under the rule of the Joseon Dynasty. This was achieved in 1882 with the signing of the Shufeldt Treaty,[11] named after Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt (1822–95), the principal U.S. negotiator. Korea had existed in a state of virtual hermetic isolation for centuries until 1876, when it was forced to establish diplomatic relations with Japan on an unequal basis. The US maintained full diplomatic relations with Korea until 1905, when the latter became an unwilling protectorate of Japan following the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, D.C. at President Arthur's behest. This established the Greenwich Meridian and international standardized time, both in use today.