Road to the Presidency: Rutherford Hayes
President Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the son of Rutherford Hayes, Jr. and Sophia Birchard. Hayes's father died ten weeks before Rutherford's birth. His maternal uncle, Sardis Birchard, lived with the family for a time and became a father figure to Hayes. With his uncle's guidance, Hayes studied at Kenyon College, graduating with highest honors in 1842. He attended Harvard Law School in 1843, and graduated with an LL.B. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1845 and opened his own law office in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), Ohio. His uncle Sardis was one of his first clients.
Hayes had some health problems in 1847. His doctor thought he might have tuberculosis. On his doctor's advice he visited family in New England, following which, he and his uncle Sardis traveled to Texas. Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1850, believing that his law practice would be more lucrative there. He opened a law office with John W. Herron. The two lawyers later formed a new partnership with William K. Rogers and Richard M. Corwine. Business was better in Cincinnati for Hayes and he also enjoyed the city's cultural and social attractions. It was there that Hayes courted his future wife, Lucy Webb. They became engaged in 1851 and were married on December 30, 1852, at the home of Lucy's mother.
Hayes gained notoriety for his success as a criminal defense lawyer. He was defense counsel in several murder trials and also defended former slaves who had escaped and were accused under the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Cincinnati was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state, so it was often a destination for escaping slaves. Hayes became a staunch abolitionist and his work in this field raised his profile with the newly formed Republican party.
Hayes turned down the Republican nomination for a judgeship in 1856 and again in 1858. When, in 1858, the office of Cincinnati city solicitor became vacant, the city council elected Hayes as city solicitor to fill the vacancy. He won a full two-year term from the voters in April 1859.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Hayes was lukewarm on the idea of war to restore the Union, and at one point he suggested that the Union should let the seceding states go. Cincinnati voters turned against the Republican party when the war began in April 1861, and Hayes lost his bid for re-election to the City Solicitor's office. He returned to private practice and formed a very brief law partnership with Leopold Markbreit. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Hayes joined a volunteer company composed of his friends from the local literary society. That June, Governor William Dennison promoted Hayes was to the rank of major. One of the members of his regiment was an 18 year old private named William McKinley, another future president.
After a month of training, Hayes and his unit were assigned to western Virginia in July 1861 as a part of the Kanawha Division. Their first combat was in September, when the regiment encountered Confederates at Carnifex Ferry in present-day West Virginia and drove them back. In November, Hayes was promoted to lieutenant colonel and he led his troops deeper into western Virginia. The following spring Hayes led several raids against the Confederate forces, and on one of these raids he injured his knee. In September of 1862, Hayes's regiment was sent to reinforce General John Pope's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run. They did not arrive in time for the battle, but they joined the Army of the Potomac as it went north to cut off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia from advancing into Maryland. They battled the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14. Hayes led a charge against an entrenched position and was shot through his left arm, fracturing the bone. He had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding, and continued to lead his men in battle. Hayes was later taken to hospital and his regiment continued on to Antietam. In October, he was promoted to colonel and assigned to command of the first brigade of the Kanawha Division as a brevet brigadier general.
Hayes saw little action until July 1863, when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan's cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island. Hayes spent the fall encouraging the men of the 23rd Ohio to re-enlist, and many did so. In 1864, Hayes's division was assigned to George Crook's Army of West Virginia. On May 9, they engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd's Mountain, where Hayes and his men charged the enemy entrenchments. Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies. Hayes and his brigade moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Crook's corps was assigned to Major General David Hunter's Army of the Shenandoah. They fought with Confederate forces, capturing Lexington, Virginia on June 11. They continued south toward Lynchburg, tearing up railroad track as they advanced. Hayes was critical of his commander's lack of aggression. When Confederate General Jubal Early attempted a raid into Maryland, Hunter's army were recalled to the north. Early's army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24, where Hayes was slightly wounded by a bullet to the shoulder. Hayes also had a horse shot out from under him. The Union army retreated into Maryland. The army was reorganized again, with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter.
Hayes's troops saw action at Berryville, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek where Hayes sprained his ankle after being thrown from a horse. He was struck in the head by a spent round. Ulysses S. Grant later wrote of Hayes: "His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring."
Hayes was promoted to brigadier general in October 1864 and to the brevet (field) rank of major general. In the spring of 1865 the war quickly came to a close with Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Hayes visited Washington, D.C. for the Grand Review of the Armies, and then he returned home.
While serving in the Army of the Shenandoah in 1864, Hayes was nominated by Republicans to run for the House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd congressional district. He refused to leave the army to campaign, saying that "any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped." Hayes wrote several letters to the voters explaining his political positions. He was elected by a 2,400-vote majority over the incumbent Democrat.
When the 39th Congress assembled in December 1865, Hayes was sworn in as a part of a large Republican majority. He supported the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and he believed that the South should be restored to the Union, but not without adequate protections for freedmen. He also unsuccessfully lobbied for a civil service reform bill. He resigned in July 1867 to campaign for governor of Ohio.
In the 1867 election for Governor of Ohio, an amendment to the Ohio state constitution was proposed that would guarantee suffrage to black Ohioans. Hayes favored the amendment and his opponent, Allen G. Thurman, opposed it. Both men campaigned vigorously, making speeches across the state, mostly about the suffrage question. The amendment failed to pass and Democrats gained a majority in the state legislature, but Hayes won the election for Governor by 2,983 votes of 484,603 votes cast.
As a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, Hayes had little power since Ohio's governor had no veto power. He ran for a second term in 1869, and campaigned again for equal rights for black Ohioans. Hayes was re-elected with an increased majority, and the Republicans took the legislature, ensuring Ohio's ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed black suffrage. With a Republican legislature, Hayes's second term was more productive. He proposed a reduction in state taxes and reform of the state prison system. Hayes decided not to seek re-election and looked forward to retiring from politics in 1872.
Reform-minded Republicans wanted Hayes to run against the incumbent Republican, John Sherman, for United States Senate. Hayes declined the offers, preferring to preserve party unity. There was some speculation that he would receive a cabinet appointment, but he only received an offer to be assistant U.S. treasurer at Cincinnati, which he turned down. He agreed to be nominated for his old House seat in 1872 but lost the election. Sardis Birchard died in 1873 and the Hayes family moved into Spiegel Grove, the stately house Birchard had built.
The Republican state convention nominated Hayes for governor in 1875, and he accepted. Hayes was returned to the governorship by a 5,544-vote majority. The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention lobbied to bring Hayes the party's nomination for President. James G. Blaine of Maine was seen as the front-runner, but he could not muster a majority. Hayes won the nomination on the seventh ballot. The convention then selected Representative William A. Wheeler of New York for Vice President. When learning of Wheeler's selection, Hayes reportedly asked, "I am ashamed to say: who is Wheeler?"
The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden, the Governor of New York. Tilden had a reputation for honesty, an asset following the scandals of the administration of President Ulysses Grant. The campaign was conducted by surrogates, with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective home towns. The poor economic conditions made the Republican Party vulnerable and Hayes suspected that he might lose the election. Republicans emphasized the danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after southern Democrats provoked the Civil War. Democrats, ran on Tilden's record of reform and contrasted it with the corruption of the incumbent Grant administration.
As the returns were tallied on election day, it was clear that the race was very close. Democrats carried most of the South, as well as New York, Indiana, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The popular vote also favored Tilden, and Republicans needed the three unredeemed southern states together with some of the western states, for an electoral college majority. On November 11, three days after election day, Tilden appeared to have won 184 electoral votes: one short of a majority. Hayes appeared to have 166 votes, with the 19 votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in doubt. Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in the three states. Results in those states were uncertain because of alleged fraud by both parties. One of the three electors from Oregon (a state Hayes had won) was disqualified, reducing Hayes's total to 165, and raising the disputed votes to 20.
By January 1877, with the election still undecided, Congress agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission. The Commission was to be made up of five representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices. To ensure partisan balance, there would be seven Democrats and seven Republicans, with Justice David Davis, an independent selected by both parties, as the fifteenth member. When Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate, hoping to sway his vote, Davis disappointed then by refusing to serve on the Commission. As all of the remaining Supreme Court Justices were Republicans. Justice Joseph P. Bradley was believed to be the most independent-minded of them, and he was selected to take Davis's place.
The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. Democrats attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the Commission's findings. As the March 4 inauguration day neared, Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders met at Wormley's Hotel in Washington to negotiate a compromise. Republicans promised concessions in exchange for Democratic acquiescence in the Committee's decision. The main concession was Hayes' promise to withdraw federal troops from the South and an acceptance of the election of Democratic governments in the remaining "unredeemed" states of the South. The Democrats agreed, and on March 2, the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but the Republican vision of Reconstruction was finished.
Hayes had some health problems in 1847. His doctor thought he might have tuberculosis. On his doctor's advice he visited family in New England, following which, he and his uncle Sardis traveled to Texas. Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1850, believing that his law practice would be more lucrative there. He opened a law office with John W. Herron. The two lawyers later formed a new partnership with William K. Rogers and Richard M. Corwine. Business was better in Cincinnati for Hayes and he also enjoyed the city's cultural and social attractions. It was there that Hayes courted his future wife, Lucy Webb. They became engaged in 1851 and were married on December 30, 1852, at the home of Lucy's mother.
Hayes gained notoriety for his success as a criminal defense lawyer. He was defense counsel in several murder trials and also defended former slaves who had escaped and were accused under the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Cincinnati was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state, so it was often a destination for escaping slaves. Hayes became a staunch abolitionist and his work in this field raised his profile with the newly formed Republican party.
Hayes turned down the Republican nomination for a judgeship in 1856 and again in 1858. When, in 1858, the office of Cincinnati city solicitor became vacant, the city council elected Hayes as city solicitor to fill the vacancy. He won a full two-year term from the voters in April 1859.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Hayes was lukewarm on the idea of war to restore the Union, and at one point he suggested that the Union should let the seceding states go. Cincinnati voters turned against the Republican party when the war began in April 1861, and Hayes lost his bid for re-election to the City Solicitor's office. He returned to private practice and formed a very brief law partnership with Leopold Markbreit. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Hayes joined a volunteer company composed of his friends from the local literary society. That June, Governor William Dennison promoted Hayes was to the rank of major. One of the members of his regiment was an 18 year old private named William McKinley, another future president.
After a month of training, Hayes and his unit were assigned to western Virginia in July 1861 as a part of the Kanawha Division. Their first combat was in September, when the regiment encountered Confederates at Carnifex Ferry in present-day West Virginia and drove them back. In November, Hayes was promoted to lieutenant colonel and he led his troops deeper into western Virginia. The following spring Hayes led several raids against the Confederate forces, and on one of these raids he injured his knee. In September of 1862, Hayes's regiment was sent to reinforce General John Pope's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run. They did not arrive in time for the battle, but they joined the Army of the Potomac as it went north to cut off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia from advancing into Maryland. They battled the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14. Hayes led a charge against an entrenched position and was shot through his left arm, fracturing the bone. He had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding, and continued to lead his men in battle. Hayes was later taken to hospital and his regiment continued on to Antietam. In October, he was promoted to colonel and assigned to command of the first brigade of the Kanawha Division as a brevet brigadier general.
Hayes saw little action until July 1863, when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan's cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island. Hayes spent the fall encouraging the men of the 23rd Ohio to re-enlist, and many did so. In 1864, Hayes's division was assigned to George Crook's Army of West Virginia. On May 9, they engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd's Mountain, where Hayes and his men charged the enemy entrenchments. Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies. Hayes and his brigade moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Crook's corps was assigned to Major General David Hunter's Army of the Shenandoah. They fought with Confederate forces, capturing Lexington, Virginia on June 11. They continued south toward Lynchburg, tearing up railroad track as they advanced. Hayes was critical of his commander's lack of aggression. When Confederate General Jubal Early attempted a raid into Maryland, Hunter's army were recalled to the north. Early's army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24, where Hayes was slightly wounded by a bullet to the shoulder. Hayes also had a horse shot out from under him. The Union army retreated into Maryland. The army was reorganized again, with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter.
Hayes's troops saw action at Berryville, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek where Hayes sprained his ankle after being thrown from a horse. He was struck in the head by a spent round. Ulysses S. Grant later wrote of Hayes: "His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring."
Hayes was promoted to brigadier general in October 1864 and to the brevet (field) rank of major general. In the spring of 1865 the war quickly came to a close with Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Hayes visited Washington, D.C. for the Grand Review of the Armies, and then he returned home.
While serving in the Army of the Shenandoah in 1864, Hayes was nominated by Republicans to run for the House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd congressional district. He refused to leave the army to campaign, saying that "any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped." Hayes wrote several letters to the voters explaining his political positions. He was elected by a 2,400-vote majority over the incumbent Democrat.
When the 39th Congress assembled in December 1865, Hayes was sworn in as a part of a large Republican majority. He supported the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and he believed that the South should be restored to the Union, but not without adequate protections for freedmen. He also unsuccessfully lobbied for a civil service reform bill. He resigned in July 1867 to campaign for governor of Ohio.
In the 1867 election for Governor of Ohio, an amendment to the Ohio state constitution was proposed that would guarantee suffrage to black Ohioans. Hayes favored the amendment and his opponent, Allen G. Thurman, opposed it. Both men campaigned vigorously, making speeches across the state, mostly about the suffrage question. The amendment failed to pass and Democrats gained a majority in the state legislature, but Hayes won the election for Governor by 2,983 votes of 484,603 votes cast.
As a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, Hayes had little power since Ohio's governor had no veto power. He ran for a second term in 1869, and campaigned again for equal rights for black Ohioans. Hayes was re-elected with an increased majority, and the Republicans took the legislature, ensuring Ohio's ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed black suffrage. With a Republican legislature, Hayes's second term was more productive. He proposed a reduction in state taxes and reform of the state prison system. Hayes decided not to seek re-election and looked forward to retiring from politics in 1872.
Reform-minded Republicans wanted Hayes to run against the incumbent Republican, John Sherman, for United States Senate. Hayes declined the offers, preferring to preserve party unity. There was some speculation that he would receive a cabinet appointment, but he only received an offer to be assistant U.S. treasurer at Cincinnati, which he turned down. He agreed to be nominated for his old House seat in 1872 but lost the election. Sardis Birchard died in 1873 and the Hayes family moved into Spiegel Grove, the stately house Birchard had built.
The Republican state convention nominated Hayes for governor in 1875, and he accepted. Hayes was returned to the governorship by a 5,544-vote majority. The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention lobbied to bring Hayes the party's nomination for President. James G. Blaine of Maine was seen as the front-runner, but he could not muster a majority. Hayes won the nomination on the seventh ballot. The convention then selected Representative William A. Wheeler of New York for Vice President. When learning of Wheeler's selection, Hayes reportedly asked, "I am ashamed to say: who is Wheeler?"
The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden, the Governor of New York. Tilden had a reputation for honesty, an asset following the scandals of the administration of President Ulysses Grant. The campaign was conducted by surrogates, with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective home towns. The poor economic conditions made the Republican Party vulnerable and Hayes suspected that he might lose the election. Republicans emphasized the danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after southern Democrats provoked the Civil War. Democrats, ran on Tilden's record of reform and contrasted it with the corruption of the incumbent Grant administration.
As the returns were tallied on election day, it was clear that the race was very close. Democrats carried most of the South, as well as New York, Indiana, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The popular vote also favored Tilden, and Republicans needed the three unredeemed southern states together with some of the western states, for an electoral college majority. On November 11, three days after election day, Tilden appeared to have won 184 electoral votes: one short of a majority. Hayes appeared to have 166 votes, with the 19 votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in doubt. Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in the three states. Results in those states were uncertain because of alleged fraud by both parties. One of the three electors from Oregon (a state Hayes had won) was disqualified, reducing Hayes's total to 165, and raising the disputed votes to 20.
By January 1877, with the election still undecided, Congress agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission. The Commission was to be made up of five representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices. To ensure partisan balance, there would be seven Democrats and seven Republicans, with Justice David Davis, an independent selected by both parties, as the fifteenth member. When Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate, hoping to sway his vote, Davis disappointed then by refusing to serve on the Commission. As all of the remaining Supreme Court Justices were Republicans. Justice Joseph P. Bradley was believed to be the most independent-minded of them, and he was selected to take Davis's place.
The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. Democrats attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the Commission's findings. As the March 4 inauguration day neared, Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders met at Wormley's Hotel in Washington to negotiate a compromise. Republicans promised concessions in exchange for Democratic acquiescence in the Committee's decision. The main concession was Hayes' promise to withdraw federal troops from the South and an acceptance of the election of Democratic governments in the remaining "unredeemed" states of the South. The Democrats agreed, and on March 2, the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but the Republican vision of Reconstruction was finished.