Reply #4: Arthur suffered from a fatal kidney disease while President.

[Jennicut]

"President Arthur demonstrated that he was above not only factions within the Republican Party, but possibly the party itself. Perhaps, in part, he felt able to do this because of the well-kept secret he had known since a year after he succeeded to the Presidency, that he was suffering from Bright's disease, a fatal kidney disease. Arthur probably first contracted the disease in 1882. While it is impossible to know just when Arthur began to be affected by the disease, Arthur's conduct during the elections of 1879 and 1880 was described as vigorous. Yet during the congressional elections of 1882, from mid-1882 onward, he was clearly not well. The disease accounted for his failure to seek the Republican nomination for president aggressively in 1884. Nevertheless, Arthur was the last incumbent President to submit his name for renomination and fail to obtain it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_A._Arthur