19.RUTHERFORD B. HAYES (Goodbye to Wendell Gee)
Born: October 4, 1822, Delaware, Ohio
Died: January 17, 1893, Fremont, Ohio
Term: March 4, 1877- March 4, 1881
Political Party: Republican
Vice President: William Wheeler
First Lady: Lemonade Lucy Webb Hayes
Before the Presidency: Rutherford Hayes, or Rud for short, didn’t have the greatest start in life. His father died ten weeks before he was even born. Sickly as an infant, he would also lose his older brother in a drowning accident.
Still, despite the obvious hardships of being raised by a single mother, Rud was raised in a loving environment. He had an Uncle that served as a surrogate father figure. His independent widowed mother as well as his sister were huge influences in his education. His mother taught Rud how to read and write and his sister introduced him to the classics, such as Shakespeare. After a stint in public schools, his uncle funded Rud’s and his sister’s private education. Rud, like his sister, was quite bright, and he graduated as Valedictorian at Kenton College in 1842.
Hayes decided on a law career and started studying at a law office in Columbus before getting a law degree at Harvard in 1845. He passed the Ohio bar and opened a law office in Lower Sandusky, near his Uncle.
After a bout with tuberculosis, Hayes made a name for himself in criminal law in Cincinnati. He had compassion for the downtrodden and was known for saving his clients from the gallows or from jail altogether. He was socially popular and especially had an interest in literary gatherings. But, in the end, he would marry a girl from his hometown of Delaware, Lucy Webb.
Lucy would be quite the strong willed woman with opinions of her own. She was strongly anti-slavery and just as strongly supported temperance, the latter becoming a major factor when Hayes became President.
Though he saw abolitionists as way too radical, Hayes, nonetheless was moderately anti-slavery. Still, he was heavily influenced by Lucy, whose views were probably a little more radical for the time and started to defend runaway slaves who came to Ohio from Kentucky. A celebrated case was of a slave who had been brought to Ohio en route to Virginia with her owner. She was detained by anti-slavery activists and the owner asked what she wanted to do. When the slave chose freedom, he had her arrested as a runaway slave. Hayes, along with Senator Salmon Chase and Judge Timothy Walker, took on the case. As with these cases though, it was a little drawn out, but in the end, Hayes’ argument that the slave was not a runaway since her owner brought her to Ohio won out. The Commissioner hearing the case agreed and the slave was no longer a slave.
And as such, Hayes’ political career had begun in earnest. The Whigs by now had folded and Hayes helped form the Ohio Republican Party. He was a little disappointed that some of the old Whig values had been abandoned but nonetheless, enthusiastically supported John Fremont’s Presidential campaign in 1856.
In 1858, he was chosen to fill in for Cincinnati’s City Attorney, a post he kept until 1861.
He may have held that post a while longer except 1861 was the year the Civil War broke out. Hayes entered a local volunteer company at the age of 39 and might have stayed there, but once he realized the war could be a long drawn out affair, he declared his willingness to fight for the Union and was appointed as a Major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. He was well liked and respected by enlisted men and his superiors alike. He served in the regiment with another future President, William McKinley, and they would become close friends.
Hayes would be injured in the Battle of South Mountain at Antietam and Lucy would nurse him, and other injured soldiers as they convalesced at Middletown, Maryland. Hayes efforts at Antietam were considered quite brave and he would be promoted to Colonel. He would distinguish himself under General Phillip Sheridan as the Union Army drove into the Shenandoah region. In 1864, Hayes would suffer a head wound but, luckily for him, the bullet had passed through another soldier, and he ended up surviving in one piece.
Hayes mustered out of the Army as a Brigadier General after the war having distinguished himself in battle. He didn’t have the fame of a Ulysses Grant or William Sherman, but he certainly had a lot to be proud of by standing for his convictions.
He was a hero in Cincinnati though, and he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1864 despite his protests (he was still fighting a war). Still, he accepted election and took his seat after the war. He was a Radical Republican and supported their positions but wasn’t one to make a lot of speeches. He resigned in 1867 to run for Governor of Ohio.
It wasn’t an easy race. Though Hayes appealed to the anti- Catholic sentiments in the state, he also was pushing for voting rights for blacks and barely won the election. The Democrats won the State Legislature, and his hopes of black suffrage would be dashed. He did get the 14th and 15th Amendments ratified in Ohio however and he would be re-elected, serving as Governor until 1872. The political career seemed to end that year after Hayes lost a bid back to Congress while supporting President Grant’s re-election. He retired from politics and moved to what was now Fremont to help his ailing Uncle Sardis.
Summary of offices held:
1858-1861: City’s Attorney, Cincinnati, Ohio
1861-1865: US Union Army, Brigadier General
1865-1867: US House of Representatives
1868-1872: Governor of Ohio
1876-1877: Governor of Ohio
What was going on: End of reconstruction, The Railroad barons, The American Indian wars
Scandals within the administration: Ayers corruption scandal
Why he was a good President: He was a staunch advocate of Civil Service reform and while he couldn’t go all the way with it, he certainly had it going in the right direction. And indeed, even if some of his decisions were controversial from a historic standpoint, no one ever doubted his great integrity.
Why he was a bad President: Well, some of decisions were controversial. I won’t beat him up on ending Reconstruction because he was between a rock and a hard place there, but he could have been more empathetic to the Native American cause, at least politically (personally, I think he felt great guilt). And he definitely fouled up when he restricted Chinese Immigration.
What could have saved his Presidency: If he had been the one to pass the Civil Reform Act and not Chester Arthur, that certainly could have helped his legacy as a reformer. A stronger enforcement of black voting rights would have also secured his place in history.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: A few things really. Going back to the gold standard could have been a disaster (luckily for him, it wasn’t). If things had gone awry with the 1877 railroad strike (which he handled quite well), and if he had caved in to the South with their anti-voting legislation. Yes, that resistance would be short lived post Hayes, but at least he didn’t succumb to the pressure.
Election of 1876: Hayes thought he was retired but economic hard times and an unpopular Democratic Governor led to a draft Hayes movement in Ohio. He won a close election and started a third term as Governor.
And it turned Hayes into a major Presidential Candidate. The Republicans we’re in a disarray after the Grant scandals. Hayes was attractive as a favorite son candidate, and he was popular with both the regular and reform wings of his party. He supported Radical Republican legislation, and he was an advocate for African-American suffrage. His integrity was beyond reproach and, on top of that, he was from a swing state. He wasn’t the favorite; James Blaine of Maine was.
But Blaine was tarnished by corruption while the other favorites, Oliver Morton, the Radical’s choice, was ill, Benjamin Bristow, the reformer, was nixed by Grant, and Roscoe Conkling, well, he was Boss Roscoe Conkling, wasn’t he?
So that left Hayes and he clinched the nomination on the seventh ballot.
The Democrats, meanwhile, though they had a real shot at gaining the Presidency this year. Their platform was dominated by political reforms in the wake of the Grant Administration scandals and Governor Samuel Tilden of New York won by a landslide on the second ballot.
Like Hayes, Tilden was a reformer, credited with helping to bust the Boss Tweed ring. And it was, at least until election day, a reasonably civil campaign. Both candidates pushed for civil service reform, Hayes going even farther to pledge he’d only serve for one term. Tilden, meanwhile, was counting on the Southern vote, knowing full well that Republican voting blacks would be discouraged from the polls.
In the end, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote, nearly 51% in fact. But several states, particularly in the South, were ripe with voter fraud and the election was declared with no officially elected President.
So, the election would be decided by the House. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of accusations coming from both parties and they would decide on a bipartisan Elections Committee. Hayes initially opposed that as he felt it would give up on electoral certainty, but he came to realize it would enhance the legitimacy of the declared winner, whoever he may be.
But, while Tilden may have been honest, his nephew wasn’t as he thought he could buy the one independent’s vote for Tilden. Sensing a conflict, Judge Davis resigned as the only independent on the Committee. He was replaced by a Republican Senator and Hayes was declared the winner.
But wait, there’s more. Tilden had technically won Louisiana, but 15,000 votes were thrown out as fraudulent, Hayes was awarded the state. This led the Democrats to pull a full court press and stall the certification all the way to inauguration day.
The Democrats knew that Hayes would ultimately be chosen in the end, but they were able to negotiate the removal of Federal troops from the remaining occupied states thus, ending Reconstruction. They also wanted subsidies for the Texas and Pacific railroad as well as guarantees of pre-war Whig appointments to the cabinet.
Whether Hayes was involved in the deal is questionable. The end of Reconstruction was happening anyway, and Hayes was a reformer, so he wasn’t about to pay off some railroad baron. Nevertheless, The Democratic Speaker of the House called off the filibusters that were holding up the certification, and Hayes was inaugurated.
First term: This was going to be a rough term even if Tilden had won. As for Hayes, he not only had to deal with resistance from the Democrats, but he also had problems within his own party as Boss Conklin christened him with the moniker, His Fraudulency. He did in fact remove the Federal troops from the South and Reconstruction was over.
With Reconstruction now on the backburner, President Hayes worked on civil reform as he issued an executive order barring Federal employees from engaging in political activities. It also said that no one in office could be dismissed for political reasons. He also had to deal with a major railroad strike and sent Federal troops to quell the unrest and to protect the mail.
The war against the Patronage gods continued meanwhile as he took on Boss Conkling. President Hayes fired the Collector of the Port of New York, Chester A. Arthur. This infuriated Conkling who then blocked Arthur’s would be replacement, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (Yeah, Teddy’s father).
On the economic front, Hayes put America back on the Gold Standard. There was also the situation with the continued displacement of Native Americans. President Hayes allowed that to continue thinking it was the best for all parties involved. Obviously, it wasn’t. He also signed a bill restricting Chinese immigration to the United States.
But when it came to black suffrage, he was able to make a stand when Democrats tried to push through a law allowing troops to oversee voting booths (the intention was to discourage black suffrage in the South). Hayes vetoed the bill three times before settling on a bill he could live with. This ensured that blacks could at least go to the voting booth without intimidation in 1880 anyway.
And he left office with a pretty good reputation as a reformer. So, yeah, a mixed bag.
But at least he wasn’t James Buchanan.
Post Presidency: As pledged, Hayes did not run for re-election. Instead, he and Lemonade Lucy called it a day. Not that he rested on his laurels. He still advocated for social causes, especially in regard to public education. He fought for the poor, black and white. He opposed the death penalty and believed in prison reform.
And, near the end of his life, he favored the regulation of industry seeing the gap between rich and poor (something that probably would get him thrown out of the Republican Party today). Indeed, Hayes would be something of an activist and enjoyed a very productive Post-Presidency that is comparable to the likes of Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. Failed Presidents, yes.
But much better people.
Odd notes: Hayes banned booze at the White House
The Hayes’ were given the first Siamese Cat in America
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...erford-b-hayes[/URL]
Final Summary: So, yes, as President, Rutherford Hayes is something of a mixed bag. Though no one ever doubted his integrity, he did seem to cave in on issues such as Chinese immigration, and even African-American suffrage to a point. He probably wasn’t what you would call an economic expert either, though he certainly did the best he could there.
On the other hand, he didn’t do anything to hurt black voting rights and prevented what would have been a worst situation when 1880 rolled around. More importantly, he championed the march towards civil service reform and never wavered in his attempts to eliminate patronage from government. It was why he pledged for only one term to begin with.
Now, a lot of historians think that Samuel Tilden would have made a better President. Maybe he would have. But how would he have handled the railroad strike? Yes, he likely would have been for Civil Service reform, but could he have stood up to the likes of Roscoe Conkling, as Hayes did? Don’t forget, if anything, the Democrats were even more corrupt.
So, even though Hayes got in by rather controversial means, I can’t say he would have been any better or worse than Tilden. One thing is for certain though, Rud Hayes was a very good man who had strong convictions.
I just wish (outside of civil service reform) he could have asserted his convictions a bit more as President.
Overall rating: C
https://millercenter.org/president/hayes