 Rutherford
B. Hayes was born in Delaware County, Ohio, on October
4, 1822. He attended the local common schools and the
Methodist Academy in Norwalk, Ohio. Later, he went to
Middletown, CT, to attend Webb Preparatory School, and
then returned to Gambier, Ohio, to attend Kenyon College,
where he graduated in 1842. He graduated from Harvard
Law School in January of 1845. He was admitted to the
bar and afterward began his practice in Lower Sandusky
(now Fremont), moving his practice to Cincinnati in
1849.
In 1852, he married Lucy Ware Webb from Chilicothe,
Ohio, and the had five sons. When Hayes was President,
Lucy earned the nickname "Lemonade Lucy" because of
her policies against having alcohol in the White House.
Hayes began his political career as an anti-slavery
Whig, and then from the beginning of the Republican
Party in 1854 until his death, he was a staunch Republican.
Hayes was well respected in the community, and served
as the city solicitor in Cincinnati from 1857 to 1859.
When the Civil War broke out, Hayes switched his public
service to the military. He was commissioned major of
the 23rd Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry in
June of 1861, rising to the rank of major general by
the end of the Civil War.
In addition to his military responsibilities, Hayes
was elected to Congress in 1864 as a Republican from
Ohio's 2nd District. In Congress, Hayes generally supported
radical Republican Reconstruction measures. He won re-election
for the following term as a member of the 40th Congress
but resigned on July 20, 1867, to run for governor of
Ohio, serving two two-year terms that ended in 1872.
He was proudest of leading the state to ratification
of the Fifteenth Amendment and the establishment of
Ohio State University.
In 1872, Hayes lost his race to return to Congress
from the 2nd District. He was elected governor again,
entering office in January 1876. However, the following
fall he was elected President of the United States and
resigned from the governorship in March 1877.
In the highly emotional and controversial Presidential
election of 1876, Hayes received the Republican nomination
to run against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. The Republican
platform that year supported continued military control
of the South and civil service reforms. The Democratic
platform called for an end to occupation of the South,
opposed Reconstruction policies, and wanted to end land
grants for railroads. Democrats were also upset over
the scandals in the Grant administration and tried to
associate Hayes with those crimes, while Republicans
continued to label Democrats as treasonous.
The race was close and confusing with Tilden winning
a plurality of the popular vote, and the electoral votes
from three states were held in dispute. The 1876 election
was one of at least two in which the ultimate winner
of the electoral vote did not also win the national
popular vote. The other was the election of 2000. The
election of 1800 was decided in the House of Representatives,
when Thomas Jefferson and running-mate Aaron Burr tied
in the electoral vote tally, due to a constitutional
anomaly that was fixed by the 12th Amendment. It is
not known who won the popular vote that year because
a national popular vote total was not preserved, according
to the National Archives.
The Hayes-Tilden election was settled by a special
congressional electoral commission, which awarded the
disputed electoral votes to Hayes only three days before
his inauguration. He won with 185 electoral votes to
Tilden's 184.
Hayes was a moderate on Reconstruction policy, pulling
federal troops out of southern states, adopting financial
reforms to stabilize the economies of the former Confederate
states, and opening dialogue with southern leaders.
Hayes served one term as President and did not seek
re-election in 1880.
After his presidency, Hayes worked to improve education
for poor children, both black and white. He also served
as the President of the Prison Reform Association. On
January 17, 1893, Rutherford B. Hayes died of heart
failure in Fremont, Ohio, and was buried in Oakwood
Cemetery. He donated his home as a gift to the State
of Ohio for the Spiegel Grove State Park, and was later
re-interred there in 1915.
Sources:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Harry Barnard, Rutherford B. Hayes and His America (1954); Ari Hoogenboom, The Presidency of Rutherford
B. Hayes (1988).
Ohio Historical Society
The White House
National Archives
On 1876 election-from HistoryCentral.com
For
info on presidency and picture
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