Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes
Born	Rutherford Birchard Hayes 4 10, 1822
Birthplace	Delaware, Ohio, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Fremont, Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician, lawyer, military officer
Title	President of the United States
Known for	19th President of the United States; disputed 1876 election; ending Reconstruction
Spouse(s)	Lucy Ware Webb Hayes
Children	8
Awards	Brevet Major General (U.S. Army)
Website	[http://www.rbhayes.org/ Official site]

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the nineteenth President of the United States, serving a single term from 1877 to 1881. Born in the small town of Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822, Hayes rose from modest origins to become a successful attorney, a decorated Civil War officer wounded five times in battle, and a three-time governor of Ohio before reaching the presidency in one of the most contested elections in American history. His path to the White House in 1876 remains among the most controversial episodes in the nation's political life: he lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden and initially lacked enough electoral votes to claim victory, yet prevailed through a Congressional commission and a political bargain known as the Compromise of 1877 that effectively ended Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. As president, Hayes pursued civil service reform, confronted the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and appointed John Marshall Harlan to the U.S. Supreme Court. True to his word, he declined to seek reelection and retired to his beloved estate, Spiegel Grove, in Fremont, Ohio, where he devoted the remainder of his life to education and humanitarian causes. He died on January 17, 1893.

Early Life

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born on October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio, a small town in the central part of the state. His father, Rutherford Hayes Jr., was a farmer and storekeeper who had migrated to Ohio from Vermont. His mother was Sophia Birchard Hayes. Hayes's father died approximately ten weeks before Rutherford's birth, leaving the family in difficult financial circumstances. The young Hayes was raised largely under the guidance of his mother and his maternal uncle, Sardis Birchard, a successful businessman in Lower Sandusky (later renamed Fremont), Ohio, who became a father figure and lifelong benefactor.

Hayes grew up in Delaware, Ohio, and showed intellectual promise from an early age. He attended local schools before enrolling at a preparatory academy in Norwalk, Ohio, and later at a school in Middletown, Connecticut. He entered Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he excelled academically and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1842. After Kenyon, Hayes studied law briefly in Columbus, Ohio, before attending Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1845.

After completing his legal education, Hayes was admitted to the bar and established a law practice. He initially practiced in Lower Sandusky (Fremont) before relocating to Cincinnati in 1850, where he built a more prominent legal career. In Cincinnati, Hayes became known as a committed opponent of slavery. He gained recognition for his willingness to represent refugee slaves in court proceedings, defending African Americans who had escaped from bondage in the South. This work established his reputation as a staunch abolitionist and brought him into contact with the nascent Republican Party, which he joined upon its founding in the mid-1850s.

Education

Hayes attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, graduating as valedictorian in 1842. He then pursued legal studies, first reading law briefly in Columbus, Ohio, before enrolling at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned his law degree from Harvard in 1845 and was admitted to the Ohio bar shortly thereafter. His education at two of the nation's prominent institutions provided him with both a strong liberal arts foundation and rigorous legal training that would serve him throughout his career as a lawyer, military officer, and politician. Hayes Hall at The Ohio State University in Columbus is named in his honor, reflecting his ties to the state's educational institutions.

Career

Legal Career and Early Politics

After his admission to the bar, Hayes practiced law in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), Ohio, near his uncle Sardis Birchard. Finding opportunities limited in the smaller town, he relocated to Cincinnati in 1850, where he established a thriving legal practice. In Cincinnati, Hayes became involved in criminal defense and gained public attention for his representation of fugitive slaves, placing him firmly among the city's abolitionist community. His legal work earned him both professional respect and political connections within the emerging Republican Party.

In 1858, Hayes was appointed city solicitor of Cincinnati, a position he held until 1861. The city solicitor post gave Hayes his first significant public office and experience in municipal governance. However, his budding political career was interrupted by the onset of the Civil War.

Civil War Service

When the Civil War began in April 1861, Hayes volunteered for service in the Union Army, leaving behind his legal practice and political ambitions. He was commissioned as a major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment that also included future president William McKinley among its enlisted men. Hayes saw extensive combat in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

Hayes distinguished himself through personal bravery and competent leadership on the battlefield. He was wounded five times during the war, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in September 1862, where he suffered a severe arm wound. Despite these injuries, he continued to serve and was steadily promoted through the ranks. By the end of the war, Hayes had risen to the rank of brevet major general of volunteers, a distinction that recognized his gallantry and effective command. His war record would become a significant asset in his subsequent political career, establishing his credentials as a man of courage and patriotic sacrifice.

Congressional Career

While still serving in the army in 1864, Hayes was nominated by the Republicans for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. He famously declined to campaign, reportedly stating that an officer fit for duty who would leave the field to campaign for office ought to be "scalped." He won the election nonetheless and took his seat in March 1865 after the war's conclusion. He succeeded Alexander Long and served in Congress from 1865 to 1867.

In Congress, Hayes supported Reconstruction measures, including the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed equal protection under the law. He was a reliable Republican vote during the turbulent early Reconstruction period. However, Hayes found congressional service less satisfying than executive leadership and chose not to seek a third term, instead pursuing the governorship of Ohio.

Governor of Ohio

Hayes was elected governor of Ohio in 1867 and served two consecutive two-year terms from January 1868 to January 1872. As governor, he supported ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race. He also advocated for the establishment of The Ohio State University and promoted reforms in the state's treatment of the mentally ill and prison inmates.

After completing his second term, Hayes initially retired from politics and returned to private life in Fremont. However, in 1875, he was persuaded to run for a third term as governor. He won the election and began serving in January 1876, a position he held until March 1877, when he departed for Washington to assume the presidency. His third gubernatorial campaign was closely watched nationally, as his victory in the competitive state of Ohio made him an attractive presidential candidate for the Republican Party.

1876 Presidential Election

The presidential election of 1876 ranks among the most disputed in American history. Hayes secured the Republican nomination as a compromise candidate, selected in part because of his reputation for honesty, his war record, and his appeal in the crucial swing state of Ohio. He faced Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, the reform-minded governor of New York, in the general election.

On election night, Tilden appeared to have won, carrying the popular vote and leading in the Electoral College count. However, the results in three Southern states—Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina—were fiercely contested, with both parties accusing the other of fraud and intimidation. One electoral vote in Oregon was also disputed. Neither candidate could initially secure the 185 electoral votes needed for victory. Tilden had 184 confirmed electoral votes while Hayes had 165, with 20 votes remaining in dispute.

To resolve the crisis, Congress established a bipartisan Electoral Commission composed of five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices. The commission, which had an 8-to-7 Republican majority, awarded all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes by strict party-line votes, giving him exactly 185 electoral votes to Tilden's 184.

The resolution came through what historians call the Compromise of 1877, an informal agreement between Southern Democrats and Republican allies of Hayes. Under the terms of this bargain, Democrats would accept Hayes's election in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction and federal enforcement of civil rights for formerly enslaved African Americans. The compromise had profound and lasting consequences for the nation, as it opened the way for the establishment of Jim Crow laws and the systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters across the South for decades to come.

Hayes was privately sworn in as president on March 3, 1877, in the Red Room of the White House—an unusual step taken because March 4, the traditional inauguration date, fell on a Sunday that year. A public ceremony followed on March 5.

Presidency (1877–1881)

Hayes entered the presidency under a cloud of controversy, with opponents derisively calling him "His Fraudulency" and "Rutherfraud" Hayes. Despite the disputed nature of his election, he sought to govern with integrity and pursued several significant policy objectives during his single term.

End of Reconstruction

True to the terms of the Compromise of 1877, Hayes withdrew the remaining federal troops from the South shortly after taking office. In April 1877, he ordered the removal of soldiers from the statehouses of Louisiana and South Carolina, the last two states where federal forces had been maintaining Republican state governments. This action effectively ended the Reconstruction era and allowed white-dominated Democratic governments to take power across the former Confederacy. The consequences were severe for African Americans in the South, who saw their newly won civil rights steadily eroded in the years that followed.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

One of the defining crises of Hayes's presidency was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the first major nationwide labor action in American history. The strike began in July 1877 when workers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job in response to wage cuts, and it quickly spread to railroads across the country. Violence erupted in several cities, including Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. Governors in several states requested federal assistance, and Hayes responded by deploying the U.S. Army to suppress the strikes. The resulting confrontations between soldiers, strikebreakers, and workers remain the deadliest such conflict in American history. The use of federal troops against striking workers was controversial and marked a significant moment in the history of American labor relations.

Civil Service Reform

Hayes was a strong advocate for reforming the federal civil service, which at the time operated largely under the "spoils system," in which government jobs were distributed as political patronage. He issued an executive order prohibiting federal officeholders from being required to make political contributions or to engage in political campaign management. He notably clashed with Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York over control of the New York Custom House, a major source of patronage. Hayes removed Chester A. Arthur (who would later become president himself) from his position as collector of the port of New York. While Hayes's reforms were modest in scope, they laid the groundwork for the more comprehensive Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.

Economic Policy

On economic matters, Hayes favored the gold standard and opposed the free coinage of silver. He vetoed the Bland–Allison Act of 1878, which required the U.S. Treasury to purchase a certain quantity of silver each month and put silver coinage into circulation. Hayes argued that the act would debase the currency and undermine financial stability. However, Congress overrode his veto, and the act became law.

Supreme Court and Judicial Appointments

Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877. Harlan would become one of the most consequential justices of the late nineteenth century, remembered for his lone dissent in the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which he argued against the constitutionality of racial segregation.

Foreign Policy and Native American Policy

In foreign affairs, Hayes arbitrated a territorial dispute between Argentina and Paraguay that had arisen from the Paraguayan War. His policy toward Native Americans in the western territories anticipated the assimilationist approach later codified in the Dawes Act of 1887, which sought to break up tribal lands and integrate Native Americans into white American society. This approach, while presented as humanitarian at the time, had devastating consequences for indigenous communities.

Post-Presidency

Hayes kept his pledge not to seek reelection and left office on March 4, 1881, succeeded by fellow Ohio Republican James A. Garfield. He retired to Spiegel Grove, his estate in Fremont, Ohio, where he spent the remaining twelve years of his life. In retirement, Hayes devoted considerable energy to philanthropic and educational causes. He served as a trustee of several institutions and advocated for improved educational opportunities for African Americans in the South and for prison reform. He also maintained an extensive diary that has become a valuable primary source for historians of the Gilded Age.

Personal Life

Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb on December 30, 1852. Lucy Webb Hayes was a graduate of Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati and shared her husband's opposition to slavery. Together they had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Lucy Hayes was the first presidential spouse to hold a college degree and became known during the White House years for her ban on alcoholic beverages at official functions, which earned her the nickname "Lemonade Lucy" from critics and admirers alike.

Hayes was a man of disciplined personal habits and strong religious convictions, though he did not formally join a church until later in life. His marriage to Lucy was, by all accounts, a close and affectionate partnership. Lucy died on June 25, 1889, and Hayes was deeply affected by her loss. He spent his remaining years at Spiegel Grove, the wooded estate in Fremont that had been built by his uncle Sardis Birchard and which Hayes had expanded over the years into a substantial property.

Hayes died on January 17, 1893, at Spiegel Grove at the age of 70. He was buried on the grounds of the estate, which later became the site of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, the first presidential library in the United States.

Recognition

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, Ohio, located on the grounds of Spiegel Grove, is the primary institution dedicated to preserving and interpreting Hayes's life and legacy. Established in 1916, it is considered the first presidential library in the United States and contains an extensive collection of Hayes's papers, personal effects, and artifacts from his presidency.

In 2025, the Ohio Senate passed a bill designating October 5 as Rutherford B. Hayes Day in the state of Ohio. The first observance of the day featured museum events, military honors, and a naturalization ceremony at the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont.

Hayes Hall at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, is named in his honor, reflecting his support for the establishment of the university during his tenure as governor.

In 2026, a lost collection of Hayes family photographs and letters was discovered in a shop in Pinellas County, Florida, and returned to Hayes's great-great-great grandsons on Presidents' Day, adding new primary source materials to the historical record of the Hayes family.

Hayes is also remembered internationally. In Paraguay, he is celebrated for his role in arbitrating the territorial dispute between Argentina and Paraguay following the Paraguayan War. His decision, which awarded the disputed Gran Chaco region to Paraguay, led to an entire department of the country being named "Presidente Hayes" in his honor.

Legacy

Rutherford B. Hayes's legacy remains a subject of considerable debate among historians and scholars. His presidency is most often defined by the circumstances of his election and his decision to end Reconstruction in the South. The Compromise of 1877 resolved an immediate constitutional crisis but at a profound cost to African Americans, whose civil and political rights were progressively stripped away under the Jim Crow system that took root in the absence of federal protection. For this reason, historians have frequently assessed Hayes's presidency with ambivalence, recognizing his personal integrity and reform impulses while acknowledging the far-reaching negative consequences of his administration's abandonment of Reconstruction.

Hayes's efforts at civil service reform, though limited in their immediate impact, represented an important step in the long process of professionalizing the federal bureaucracy. His willingness to challenge powerful political bosses within his own party—most notably Senator Roscoe Conkling—demonstrated a commitment to meritocratic governance that influenced subsequent reform efforts, culminating in the Pendleton Act of 1883.

His appointment of John Marshall Harlan to the Supreme Court proved to be one of his most consequential acts. Harlan's tenure on the Court, particularly his dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, stands as a landmark in the history of American constitutional law and civil rights jurisprudence.

Scholars who have participated in presidential ranking surveys have generally placed Hayes in the average to below-average range among American presidents. His war record, personal character, and reform efforts are acknowledged as admirable, but the disputed nature of his election and the consequences of ending Reconstruction continue to weigh heavily on historical assessments of his presidency.

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums at Spiegel Grove remains an active center for historical research and public education, ensuring that Hayes's life and times continue to receive scholarly attention.