RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
Biography
Rutherford B. Hayes had to wait 4 months after election day in 1876 to learn that he had been elected President of the United States. In the election of 1876, 20 Electoral votes were in dispute. Both Republicans and Democrats claimed these votes, which would decide the election. In the end a compromise was reached, and the disputed votes and the presidency went to Hayes.
Civil War
Like most men in the 1850's, Hayes hoped that civil war could be avoided. However, when war broke out in 1861, he felt that it was his duty to fight. “I would prefer to go into [the war],” he wrote, “if I knew that I was to die or be killed in the course of it than to live through and after it without taking any part in it.” He fought in the Union Army throughout the Civil War and was wounded several times. At the war's end he held the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers.
Congressman
In 1864, while still in the Army, Hayes was nominated for Congress. He was elected even though he was away and could not campaign. But he refused to leave the Army to take his seat until the fighting was over in 1865. In Congress he voted with his party on all important issues. He won re-election in 1866, but his career in Congress was cut short in 1867 when he was elected governor of Ohio.
Governor
As governor, Hayes earned a reputation as an able and courageous administrator. His two terms of office were characterized by thrift and honesty. He chose officials on the basis of ability, appointing Democrats as well as Republicans. This was unusual at a time when, under the spoils system, political jobs were awarded for party loyalty rather than ability.
In 1872 a split occurred in the Republican Party. Reform Republicans were dissatisfied with the record of President Ulysses S. Grant's administration. They left the party and supported Horace Greeley (1811-72), a New York newspaper publisher, for the presidency. Though Hayes had much in common with these men, he remained loyal to the regular party. He ran for Congress again but was defeated because of the party split.
Hayes retired to private life—for good, he thought. He lived at Spiegel Grove, the estate in Fremont he had inherited from his uncle, devoting himself to law, real estate, and the development of public libraries. However, after Democratic victories in Ohio in 1873 and 1874, Republican leaders persuaded him to run for governor again in 1876. His victory, and a distinguished third term as governor, added to his political reputation and put him in the running for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Disputed Elected of 1876
The leading contender for the Republican nomination in 1876 was Senator James G. Blaine (1830-93) of Maine. However, the opposition of reform Republicans to Blaine was strong enough to block his nomination, and on the seventh ballot the nomination went to Hayes.
Hayes's Democratic opponent was Samuel J. Tilden (1814-86), Governor of New York. All signs indicated a Democratic victory. The scandals of President Grant's administration had hurt the Republican Party. Many people were dissatisfied with the Republican policy of Reconstruction, under which the South had been governed since the end of the Civil War. Finally, a depression that had begun in 1873 gave no sign of letting up. Hayes himself did not believe that he would win. “I feel that defeat will be a great relief,” he wrote. “The great responsibility overwhelms me.”
When the election results were in, Tilden had a majority of the popular votes. But more important were 20 disputed electoral votes: 19 from South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, and one from Oregon. Without these 20 votes Tilden had 184 electoral votes—one short of the necessary majority. Hayes had 165 votes. To break the deadlock, which had begun to alarm the country, Congress established an Electoral Commission. It was composed of five members of the House of Representative, five senators, and five justices of the Supreme Court. On March 2, 1877, the commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes, giving him 185 electoral votes. On the following day he privately took the oath of office as president. He was inaugurated in a public ceremony on March 5, 1877. William A. Wheeler (1819-87) of New York became the vice-president.
Behind the decision to give the election to Hayes was a compromise between Republicans and southern Democrats. In return for the southerners’ support the Republicans promised to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South. Also, they promised to grant federal funds for improvements in the South, including aid for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, and to give southerners positions in the new administration.
President
Hayes was not involved in the “stolen election.” Nevertheless, he abided by the terms of the compromise. As a result, federal military occupation and Republican political control of the South came to an end. Reconstruction was over, and the southern states were self-governing again.
The depression of 1873 continued through the first years of Hayes's administration. It caused considerable hardship, particularly among farmers and workers, who in 1878 united to form the Greenback Labor Party. The Greenbacks believed that an expansion of the currency would end the hard times. They wanted an increase in the amount of paper money (known as greenbacks) and silver coins in circulation. Thus they opposed the Resumption Act of 1875, which permitted the reduction of greenbacks in circulation, and supported the Bland Bill of 1877, which provided for unlimited coinage of silver.
Most businessmen did not share these views. Neither did Hayes. He believed that an expansion of the currency would do more harm than good, and he successfully opposed efforts to repeal the Resumption Act. The Bland Bill was modified so that it provided for limited, instead of unlimited, coinage of silver. Even so, Hayes vetoed the resulting Bland-Allison Bill, though Congress passed it over his veto in 1878.
Labor Trouble
Labor unrest erupted into violence in 1877 when railroad workers went out on a nationwide strike. Riots took place throughout the East and Middle West. Strikers fought battles with state militia and destroyed railroad property. Several state governors appealed to Hayes for federal troops. Hayes hesitated, but he believed that it was his duty to send soldiers in, and did so. Only once before, during Andrew Jackson‘s administration, had a president taken such action in a dispute between a private industry and its workers.
Another labor problem had to do with Chinese immigration. Workers on the West Coast resented competition from Chinese immigrants. In 1879 Congress tried to restrict Chinese immigration. However, a treaty between the United States and China had given the Chinese unlimited immigration rights. Accordingly, Hayes vetoed the measure even though it was popular in the West. In 1880 a new treaty was drawn up that gave the United States the right to regulate, limit, or suspend Chinese immigration.
The latter part of Hayes's administration saw an improvement in economic conditions. As prosperity began to return, much of the earlier social unrest died down.
Reform
Hayes had come into office with the pledge of “thorough, radical, complete” reform in government. But his hopes for a civil service based on a merit system rather than the spoils system posed a tremendous task. For the spoils system had become a part of American political life. Hayes's efforts at reform angered leaders in his own party. His clash with Senator Roscoe Conkling (1829-88), New York Republican leader, was long and bitter. (A Conkling follower whom Hayes removed from office was Chester A. Arthur, later 21st president but then collector of customs for New York.) And by the end of his term of office, Hayes was a president without a party.
He Retires After One Term
Hayes had said earlier that he would not seek a second term as president. After James A. Garfield was inaugurated in 1881, Hayes retired from politics for good and devoted his remaining years to philanthropic activities. He died on January 17, 1893, at Spiegel Grove, where both he and his wife are buried.
As president, Hayes's most important accomplishment was ending Reconstruction in the South. But he could also point to other important achievements. He reasserted the power and the independence of the presidency, which had been weakened by the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and by the dependence of President Grant on Congressional leaders. Political opposition prevented actual civil service reform legislation. Yet Hayes succeeded in keeping the issue before the people and thereby helped pave the way for future reform.
Reviewed by Richard B. Morris
Columbia University