Hayes, Rutherford Birchard

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 1822–93, 19th President of the United States (1877–81), b. Delaware, Ohio, grad. Kenyon College, 1843, and Harvard law school, 1845. He became a moderately successful lawyer in Cincinnati and was made (1858) city solicitor. In the Civil War he began as a major of volunteers, took part in some 50 engagements, was several times wounded, and rose in rank to be (1865) major general of volunteers. Elected to Congress while still in the field, he served (1865–67) as a regular Republican, quietly supporting the radical Reconstruction program. He was three times (1867, 1869, 1875) elected governor of Ohio and was chosen as the Republican candidate for President in 1876, opposing Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate. The election marked the resurgence of the Democrats and the political reentry of the South into the Union.

The chaotic political conditions brought on by Reconstruction resulted in disputed elections in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. This was complicated by the death of an elector from Oregon. Congress created an electoral commission to decide the elections. Although Tilden had won the popular vote by a small majority, the commission awarded all disputed returns to Hayes and thereby gave him a majority of one in the electoral college. Indignation over the obviously partisan decision affected Hayes's administration, which was generally conservative and efficient but no more than that. He withdrew federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina, and the Reconstruction era was ended. His conciliatory policy toward the South and his genuine interest in civil service reform alienated important Republican groups, notably the "Old Guard" led by Roscoe Conkling. An advocate of hard money, he vetoed the Bland-Allison Act, which was passed over his veto and provided for resumption of specie payments in gold. After his presidential term Hayes was active in philanthropic foundations.

Bibliography

See his diary ed. by T. H. Williams (1964); biographies H. J. Eckenrode (1957, repr. 1963) and T. H. Williams (1965); A. Hoogenboom, The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes (1988); P. L. Haworth, The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 (1906, new ed. 1927, repr. 1966); K. Polakoff, Politics of Inertia: The Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction (1973); R. Morris, Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 (2003); W. H. Rehnquist, Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 (2004).

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Hayes, Rutherford Birchard 

Born Oct. 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio; died Jan. 17, 1893, in Fremont, Ohio. American statesman.

Hayes was educated as a lawyer. He served in the Civil War on the side of the North, and in 1864, running as a Republican, he was elected to Congress. In 1867 he was elected governor of Ohio and was reelected in 1869 and 1875. Hayes was president of the USA from 1877 to 1881. He won the presidency as a result of the Hayes-Tilden compromise of 1877. Under the terms of the agreement, Hayes withdrew federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana and made a number of other concessions to the slaveholders. In the summer of 1877, Hayes used troops and police to crush a major strike by railroad workers. Under Hayes, the US government in 1878 obtained permission to build a naval station at Pago Pago on Tutuila Island in Samoa.