144-414: [REDACTED] Spiegel Grove , also known as Spiegel Grove State Park , Rutherford B. Hayes House , Rutherford B. Hayes Summer Home and Rutherford B. Hayes State Memorial was the estate of Rutherford B. Hayes , the 19th president of the United States , located at the corner of Hayes and Buckland Avenues in Fremont, Ohio . Spiegel is the German and Dutch word for mirror . The traditional story
288-450: A brevet brigadier general . The division spent the following winter and spring near Charleston, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), out of contact with the enemy. Hayes saw little action until July 1863, when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan 's cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island . Returning to Charleston for the rest of the summer, Hayes spent the fall encouraging
432-485: A cabinet appointment, but was disappointed to receive only an appointment as assistant U.S. treasurer at Cincinnati, which he turned down. He agreed to be nominated for his old House seat in 1872 but was disappointed when he lost the election to Henry B. Banning , a fellow Kenyon College alumnus. In 1873, Lucy gave birth to another son, Manning Force Hayes. That same year, the Panic of 1873 hurt business prospects across
576-612: A rider that would have repealed the Enforcement Acts , which had been used to suppress the Ku Klux Klan . Chapters had flourished across the South and it had been one of the insurgent groups that attacked and suppressed freedmen. Those Acts, passed during Reconstruction, made it a crime to prevent someone from voting because of his race. Other paramilitary groups, such as the Red Shirts in
720-575: A Republican again until the 1896 realignment, which saw William McKinley carry Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. This is the closest electoral college result in American history, and the second-closest victory in the tipping point state with South Carolina being decided by 889 votes (only the 2000 election in Florida was closer). No Republican presidential candidate until Warren G. Harding in 1920 would carry any states that seceded and joined
864-480: A Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, Hayes had a limited role in governing, especially since Ohio's governor had no veto power. Despite these constraints, he oversaw the establishment of a school for deaf-mutes and a reform school for girls. He endorsed the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and urged his conviction, which failed by one vote in the United States Senate. Nominated for
1008-507: A Republican legislature, Hayes's second term was more enjoyable. Suffrage was expanded and a state Agricultural and Mechanical College (later to become Ohio State University ) was established. He also proposed a reduction in state taxes and reform of the state prison system. Choosing not to seek reelection, Hayes looked forward to retiring from politics in 1872. As Hayes prepared to leave office, several delegations of reform-minded Republicans urged him to run for United States Senate against
1152-532: A compromise candidate. The 1876 Democratic National Convention nominated Tilden on the second ballot. The election was among the most contentious in American history, and was only resolved by the Compromise of 1877 , where Hayes agreed to end Reconstruction in exchange for recognition of his presidency. On March 2, 1877, the House and Senate confirmed Hayes as president. Tilden won 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165 in
1296-520: A criminal defense attorney, defending several people accused of murder. In one case, he used a form of the insanity defense that saved the accused from the gallows; she was instead confined to a mental institution. Hayes also defended slaves who had escaped and been accused under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 . Because Cincinnati was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky , a slave state, it
1440-471: A decisive state in U.S. history, after the election of 2000 , which was decided by 537 votes in Florida. In 2000, the margin of victory in the Electoral College for George W. Bush was five votes, as opposed to Hayes' one vote. Upon his defeat, Tilden said, "I can retire to public life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in
1584-755: A first cousin. Hayes attended the common schools in Delaware, Ohio, and enrolled in 1836 at the Methodist Norwalk Seminary in Norwalk, Ohio . He did well at Norwalk, and the next year transferred to the Webb School, a preparatory school in Middletown , Connecticut, where he studied Latin and Ancient Greek . Returning to Ohio, he attended Kenyon College in Gambier in 1838. He enjoyed his time at Kenyon and
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#17328686137771728-470: A flanking attack, but instead his entire command moved backward, leaving Hayes lying in between the lines. Eventually, his men brought Hayes back behind their lines, and he was taken to hospital. The regiment continued on to Antietam , but Hayes was out of action for the rest of the campaign. In October, he was promoted to colonel and assigned to command of the first brigade of the Kanawha Division as
1872-573: A fledgling political career to join the Union army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he earned a reputation in the Republican Party as a prominent member of the " Half-Breed " faction. He served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and
2016-691: A genuine impulse for many nor any affection for woman". The Democratic strategy for victory in the South relied on paramilitary groups such as the Red Shirts and the White League . These groups saw themselves as the military wing of the Democrats. Using the strategy of the Mississippi Plan , they actively suppressed both black and white Republican voting. They violently disrupted meetings and rallies, attacked party organizers, and threatened potential voters with retaliation for voting Republican. Because it
2160-552: A letter to the convention imploring them to nominate Fish, but the letter was misplaced and never read to the convention. Fish later confirmed that he would have declined the presidential nomination even if it had been offered to him. When the Sixth Republican National Convention assembled in Cincinnati , Ohio, on June 14, 1876, James G. Blaine appeared to be the presidential nominee. On the first ballot, Blaine
2304-587: A long journey to Texas , where Hayes visited with Guy M. Bryan , a Kenyon classmate and distant relative. Business remained meager on his return to Lower Sandusky, and Hayes decided to move to Cincinnati . Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1850, and opened a law office with John W. Herron, a lawyer from Chillicothe . Herron later joined a more established firm and Hayes formed a new partnership with William K. Rogers and Richard M. Corwine. He found business better in Cincinnati and enjoyed its social attractions, joining
2448-463: A majority of one in the Electoral College. The Democrats claimed fraud, and suppressed excitement pervaded the country. Threats were even muttered that Hayes would never be inaugurated. In Columbus, Ohio , a shot was fired at Hayes's residence as he sat down to dinner. After supporters marched to his home to call for the President, Hayes urged the crowd that "it is impossible, at so early a time, to obtain
2592-524: A number of handouts and entitlements, including federal subsidies for a transcontinental railroad line through the South. Although some of the promises were not kept, particularly the railroad proposal, that was enough for the time being to avert a dangerous standoff. The returns accepted by the Commission put Hayes's margin of victory in South Carolina at 889 votes, the second-closest popular vote margin in
2736-489: A part of the Kanawha Division . They did not meet the enemy until 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 (Matthews having been promoted to colonel of another regiment) and led his troops deeper into western Virginia, where they entered winter quarters. The division resumed its advance
2880-608: A second term in 1869, Hayes campaigned again for equal rights for black Ohioans and sought to associate his Democratic opponent, George H. Pendleton , with disunion and Confederate sympathies. Hayes was reelected 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 (male) suffrage. With
3024-446: A third term and he almost did so, but on December 15, 1875, the House, by a sweeping 233–18 vote, passed a resolution declaring that the two-term tradition was to prevent a dictatorship. Later that year, Grant ruled himself out of running in 1876. He instead tried to persuade Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to run for the presidency, but the 67-year-old Fish declined since he believed himself too old for that role. Grant nonetheless sent
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#17328686137773168-517: A vacancy on the bench, and he considered accepting the appointment until the office of city solicitor also became vacant. The city council elected Hayes city solicitor to fill the vacancy, and he was elected to a full two-year term in April 1859 by a larger majority than other Republicans on the ticket. As the Southern states quickly began to secede after Lincoln 's election to the presidency in 1860, Hayes
3312-406: A wrap-around porch. In 1880, after Rutherford B. Hayes had moved in, he expanded the house by the addition of 5 new rooms, and the massive staircase that led all the way up to the 4th floor. In 1889, 6 more rooms were added to the house, giving it its current appearance. After the expansions, the house had more than 30 rooms and 10,000 square feet (930 m) of living space. The estate was given to
3456-524: Is Wheeler?" The campaign strategy of Hayes and Wheeler emphasized conciliatory appeals to the Southern Whiggish element, attempting to "detach" old Southern Whigs from Southern Democrats. When Frederick Douglass asked whether the Republican Party would continue its devotion to protecting black civil rights or "get along without the vote of the black man in the South", Hayes and Wheeler advocated
3600-639: Is obnoxious to no one". Hayes had served in the Civil War with distinction as colonel of the 23rd Ohio Regiment and was wounded several times, which made him marketable to veterans. He had later been brevetted as a major-general. His most important asset was his help to the Republican ticket in carrying Ohio, a crucial swing state. On the other side, the newspaperman John D. Defrees described Tilden as "a very nice, prim, little, withered-up, fidgety old bachelor, about one-hundred and twenty-pounds avoirdupois, who never had
3744-474: Is that the estate was named by Hayes' uncle Sardis Birchard, who first built it for his own residence. He named it for the reflective pools of water that collected on the property after a rain shower. Rutherford Hayes inherited the estate and moved there in 1873. He died in 1893 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery next to his wife who had died in 1889. Following the gift of this home to the state of Ohio for
3888-604: The Anti-Masonic Party that met in 1872 and nominated Charles Francis Adams, Sr. , for president. When Adams declined to run, the party did not contest the 1872 election. The convention was held from June 8 to 10, 1875 in Liberty Hall, Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania. B.T. Roberts of New York served as chairman, and Jonathan Blanchard was the keynote speaker. The platform supported the Reconstruction Amendments to
4032-704: The Cincinnati Literary Society and the Odd Fellows Club . He also attended the Episcopal Church in Cincinnati but did not become a member. Hayes courted his future wife, Lucy Webb , during his time there. His mother had encouraged him to get to know Lucy years earlier, but Hayes had believed she was too young and focused his attention on other women. Four years later, Hayes began to spend more time with Lucy. They became engaged in 1851 and married on December 30, 1852, at Lucy's mother's house. Over
4176-724: The Collector of the Port of New York , and his subordinates Alonzo B. Cornell and George H. Sharpe , all Conkling supporters, refused to obey the order. In September 1877, Hayes demanded their resignations, which they refused to give. He submitted appointments of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. , L. Bradford Prince , and Edwin Merritt —all supporters of Evarts, Conkling's New York rival—to the Senate for confirmation as their replacements. The Senate's Commerce Committee, chaired by Conkling, voted unanimously to reject
4320-472: The New York Central , Erie , and Pennsylvania railroads, with the strikers soon numbering in the thousands. Fearing a riot , Governor Henry M. Mathews asked Hayes to send federal troops to Martinsburg, and Hayes did so, but when the troops arrived there was no riot, only a peaceful protest. In Baltimore , however, a riot did erupt on July 20, and Hayes ordered the troops at Fort McHenry to assist
4464-604: The New York Custom House , which was stacked with Conkling's spoilsmen. Jay's report suggested that the New York Custom House was so overstaffed with political appointees that 20% of the employees were expendable. Although he could not convince Congress to prohibit the spoils system, Hayes issued an executive order that forbade federal office holders from being required to make campaign contributions or otherwise taking part in party politics. Chester A. Arthur ,
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4608-500: The South Carolina State House to their barracks. On April 20, he ordered McCrary to send the federal troops stationed at New Orleans 's St. Louis Hotel to Jackson Barracks . At the time of the 1876 election only three states, Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana, still had Republican governments. In Florida the Democrats won the governor's election and controlled the state house, leaving South Carolina and Louisiana as
4752-578: The South Carolina State House to their barracks. On April 20, he ordered McCrary to send the federal troops stationed at New Orleans 's St. Louis Hotel to Jackson Barracks . Because March 4, 1877, was a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office privately on Saturday, March 3, in the Red Room of the White House , the first president to do so in the Executive Mansion. He took the oath publicly on March 5 on
4896-611: The Tenure of Office Act , which ensured that Johnson could not remove administration officials without the Senate's consent, and unsuccessfully pressed for a civil service reform bill that attracted the votes of many reform-minded Republicans. Hayes continued to vote with the majority in the 40th Congress on the Reconstruction Acts , but resigned in July 1867 to run for governor of Ohio. A popular Congressman and former Army officer, Hayes
5040-501: The United States on November 7, 1876. Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio defeated Democrat Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Following President Ulysses S. Grant 's decision to retire after his second term, U.S. Representative James G. Blaine emerged as frontrunner for the Republican nomination; however, Blaine was unable to win a majority at the 1876 Republican National Convention , which settled on Hayes as
5184-535: The spoils system since Andrew Jackson 's presidency. Instead of giving federal jobs to political supporters, Hayes wished to award them by merit according to an examination that all applicants would take. Hayes's call for reform immediately brought him into conflict with the Stalwart , or pro-spoils, branch of the Republican party. Senators of both parties were accustomed to being consulted about political appointments and turned against Hayes. Foremost among his enemies
5328-464: The 15th member. The balance was upset when Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate, hoping to sway his vote. Davis disappointed Democrats by refusing to serve on the Commission because of his election to the Senate. As all the remaining Justices were Republicans, Justice Joseph P. Bradley , believed to be the most independent-minded of them, was selected to take Davis's place on
5472-548: The Carolinas, however, had intimidated freedmen and suppressed the vote. Hayes was determined to preserve the law protecting black voters, and vetoed the appropriation. The Democrats did not have enough votes to override the veto, but they passed a new bill with the same rider. Hayes vetoed that bill too, and the process was repeated three more times. Finally, Congress passed a bill without the offensive rider, but refused to pass another bill to fund federal marshals, who were vital to
5616-429: The Civil War issue, a tactic that was ridiculed by Democrats, who called it " waving the bloody shirt ." Republicans chanted, "Not every Democrat was a rebel, but every rebel was a Democrat." Hayes was a virtual unknown outside his home state of Ohio, where he had served two terms as a US Representative and then two terms as governor. Henry Adams called Hayes "a third-rate nonentity whose only recommendations are that he
5760-589: The Confederacy. That year, he carried Tennessee, which had never experienced a long period of occupation by federal troops and had been completely "reconstructed" well before the first presidential election of the Reconstruction period ( 1868 ). None of the Southern states that experienced long periods of occupation by federal troops was carried by a Republican again until Herbert Hoover in 1928 , when he won Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia, and that proved
5904-484: The Congress passed a law on January 29, 1877, to form a 15-member Electoral Commission , which would settle the result. Five members were selected from each house of Congress, and they were joined by five members of the United States Supreme Court , with William M. Evarts serving as counsel for the Republican Party. The majority party in each house named three members and the minority party two members. As
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6048-643: The Constitution, international arbitration, the reading of the scriptures in public schools, specie payments, justice for Native Americans , abolition of the Electoral College, and prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages. It declared the first day of the week to be a day of rest for the United States. The platform opposed secret societies and monopolies. The convention considered three potential presidential candidates: Charles F. Adams, Jonathan Blanchard, and James B. Walker. When Blanchard declined to run, Walker
6192-514: The Democratic elector, C. A. Cronin, reported one vote for Tilden and two votes for Hayes. The two Republican electors presented a certificate signed by the secretary of state of Oregon, and Cronin and the two electors whom he appointed (Cronin voted for Tilden while his associates voted for Hayes) presented a certificate signed by the governor and attested by the secretary of state. Ultimately, all three of Oregon's votes were awarded to Hayes, who had
6336-655: The East Portico of the United States Capitol . In his inaugural address, Hayes attempted to soothe the passions of the past few months, saying that "he serves his party best who serves his country best". He pledged to support "wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government" in the South, as well as reform of the civil service and a full return to the gold standard . Despite his message of conciliation, many Democrats never considered Hayes's election legitimate and referred to him as "Rutherfraud" or "His Fraudulency" for
6480-581: The Electoral Commission Bill was passing Congress, the Illinois Legislature elected Davis to the Senate, and Democrats in the legislature believed that they had purchased Davis's support by voting for him. However, they had miscalculated, as Davis promptly excused himself from the commission and resigned as a Justice to take his Senate seat. As all of the remaining available Justices were Republicans, Republican Justice Joseph P. Bradley , who
6624-530: The Geghan Bill, which had allowed for the appointment of Catholic priests to schools and penitentiaries. Hayes's success in Ohio immediately elevated him to the top ranks of Republican politicians under consideration for the presidency in 1876. The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention was united behind him, and Senator John Sherman did all in his power to get Hayes the nomination. In June 1876,
6768-562: The National Democratic convention, held in St. Louis, Mo., June 27th, 28th and 29th, 1876 . (September 3, 2012). Source: Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held in St. Louis, Mo., June 27th, 28th and 29th, 1876 (September 3, 2012). Greenback candidates: The Greenback Party had been organized by agricultural interests in Indianapolis , Indiana, in 1874 to urge
6912-512: The Navy Richard W. Thompson to resign after Thompson accepted a $ 25,000 (~$ 677,772 in 2023) salary for a nominal job offered by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps to promote a French canal in Panama. Hayes also dealt with corruption in the postal service . In 1880, Schurz and Senator John A. Logan asked Hayes to shut down the " star route " rings, a system of corrupt contract profiteering in
7056-491: The Postal Service, and to fire Second Assistant Postmaster-General Thomas J. Brady , the alleged ringleader. Hayes stopped granting new star route contracts but let existing contracts continue to be enforced. Democrats accused him of delaying proper investigation so as not to damage Republicans' chances in the 1880 elections but did not press the issue in their campaign literature, as members of both parties were implicated in
7200-593: The President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Republican Thomas W. Ferry , could then count the votes of the disputed states for Hayes. The Democrats insisted that Congress should continue the practice followed since 1865: no vote objected to should be counted except by the concurrence of both houses. Since the House had a solid Democratic majority, rejecting the vote of one state, therefore, would elect Tilden. Facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis ,
7344-547: The Republicans controlled the Senate and the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, that yielded five Democratic and five Republican members of the commission. Of the Supreme Court justices, two Republicans and two Democrats were chosen, with the fifth to be selected by those four. The justices first selected the independent Justice David Davis . According to one historian, "No one, perhaps not even Davis himself, knew which presidential candidate he preferred." Just as
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#17328686137777488-613: The Scotch." Most of his close relatives outside Ohio continued to live there. John Noyes , an uncle by marriage, had been his father's business partner in Vermont and was later elected to Congress. His first cousin, Mary Jane Mead, was the mother of sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead and architect William Rutherford Mead . John Humphrey Noyes , the founder of the Oneida Community , was also
7632-402: The South should be restored to the Union, but not without adequate protections for freedmen and other black southerners. President Andrew Johnson , who succeeded to office following Lincoln's assassination, to the contrary wanted to readmit the seceded states quickly without first ensuring that they adopted laws protecting the newly freed slaves' civil rights; he also granted pardons to many of
7776-545: The South. It also called for treaty protection for naturalized United States citizens visiting their homelands, restrictions on Asian immigration, tariff reform, and opposition to land grants for railroads. It has been claimed that the voting Democrats received Tilden's presidential nomination with more enthusiasm than any leader since Andrew Jackson . Source: Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held in St. Louis, Mo., June 27th, 28th and 29th, 1876 . (September 3, 2012). Source: Official proceedings of
7920-527: The Spiegel Grove State Park, their bodies were reinterred at Spiegel Grove in 1915. They are buried at a memorial on the property. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center , established in 1916, is also located here. " Old Whitey ", a war horse that served during the Civil War and belonged to then-Major (later Major General) Hayes, became the mascot of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry . The horse
8064-605: The aftermath of that election, and secondly by significant Democratic gains in the 1874 mid-term elections, which saw them take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in sixteen years. The 12th Democratic National Convention assembled in St. Louis , Missouri, in June 1876, which was the first political convention ever held by one of the major American parties west of the Mississippi River . There were 5000 people jammed inside
8208-460: The army to campaign, he refused, saying that an "officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped." Instead, Hayes wrote several letters to the voters explaining his political positions and was elected by a 2,400-vote majority over the incumbent, Democrat Alexander Long . When the 39th Congress assembled in December 1865, Hayes
8352-577: The auditorium in St. Louis amid hopes for the Democratic Party's first presidential victory in 20 years. The platform called for immediate and sweeping reforms in response to the scandals that had plagued the Grant administration. Tilden won more than 400 votes on the first ballot and the presidential nomination by a landslide on the second. Tilden defeated Thomas A. Hendricks , Winfield Scott Hancock , William Allen , Thomas F. Bayard , and Joel Parker for
8496-448: The campaign and opposed black suffrage . Both men campaigned vigorously, making speeches across the state, mostly focusing on the suffrage question. The election was mostly a disappointment to Republicans, as the amendment failed to pass and Democrats gained a majority in the state legislature . Hayes thought at first that he, too, had lost, but the final tally showed that he had won the election by 2,983 votes of 484,603 votes cast. As
8640-435: The city elections in April 1861, ejecting Hayes from the city solicitor's office. Returning to private practice, Hayes formed a very brief law partnership with Leopold Markbreit , lasting three days before the war began. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter , Hayes resolved his doubts and joined a volunteer company composed of his Literary Society friends. That June, Governor William Dennison appointed several of
8784-575: The commission's rulings, of the 2,249 counties and independent cities making returns, Tilden won in 1,301 (57.9%), and Hayes carried only 947 (42.1%). One county (<0.1%) in Nevada split evenly between Tilden and Hayes. The Greenback ticket did not have a major impact on the election's outcome by attracting slightly under one percent of the popular vote; nonetheless, Cooper had the strongest performance of any third-party presidential candidate since John Bell in 1860 . The Greenbacks' best showings were in Kansas, where Cooper earned just over six percent of
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#17328686137778928-480: The commission. The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. Democrats, outraged by the result, attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the commission's findings. Eventually, the filibusterers gave up, allowing the House and Senate to reassemble to complete the count of the electoral votes, and at 4:10 am on March 2, Senator Thomas W. Ferry announced that Hayes and Wheeler had been elected to
9072-454: The convention assembled with James G. Blaine of Maine as the favorite. Blaine started with a significant lead in the delegate count, but could not muster a majority. As he failed to gain votes, the delegates looked elsewhere for a nominee and settled on Hayes on the seventh ballot. The convention selected Representative William A. Wheeler from New York for vice president, a man about whom Hayes had recently asked, "I am ashamed to say: who
9216-430: The convention until he finished second on the sixth ballot. On the seventh ballot, Hayes was nominated for president with 384 votes, compared to 351 for Blaine and 21 for Benjamin Bristow. New York Representative William A. Wheeler was nominated for vice president by a much larger margin (366–89) over his chief rival, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen , who later served as a member of the Electoral Commission, which awarded
9360-439: The corruption. Historian Hans L. Trefousse later wrote that Hayes "hardly knew the chief suspect [Brady] and certainly had no connection with the [star route] corruption." Although Hayes and the Congress both investigated the contracts and found no compelling evidence of wrongdoing, Brady and others were indicted for conspiracy in 1882. After two trials, the defendants were acquitted in 1883. In his first year in office, Hayes
9504-428: The danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after Southern Democrats had provoked the Civil War and, to a lesser extent, the danger a Democratic administration would pose to the recently won civil rights of southern blacks. Democrats, for their part, trumpeted 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
9648-406: The election of Democratic governments in the remaining "unredeemed" southern states. The Democrats agreed, and on March 2, the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but Reconstruction was finished, and freedmen were left at the mercy of white Democrats who did not intend to preserve their rights. On April 3, Hayes ordered Secretary of War George W. McCrary to withdraw federal troops stationed at
9792-399: The election to Hayes. Democratic candidates: The Democratic Party's failure to nominate its own ticket in the previous presidential election, in which they had instead endorsed the Liberal Republican candidacy of Horace Greeley , had resulted in much debate about the party's viability. Any doubts about the party's future were dispelled firstly by the collapse of the Liberal Republicans in
9936-455: The election, but Hayes prevailed after a Congressional Commission awarded him 20 contested electoral votes in the Compromise of 1877 . The electoral dispute was resolved in a backroom deal whereby both Southern Democrats and Whiggish Republican businessmen acquiesced to Hayes's election on the condition that he end both federal support for Reconstruction and the military occupation of the former Confederate States . Hayes's administration
10080-498: The eleven states of the former Confederacy, with him taking 40.40% of the vote in that region. Although 1876 marked the last competitive two-party election in the South before the Democratic dominance of the South until 1948 and of the Border States until 1896, it was also the last presidential election (as of 2020) in which the Democrats won the wartime Unionist Mitchell County, North Carolina ; Wayne County, Tennessee ; Henderson County, Tennessee ; and Lewis County, Kentucky . Hayes
10224-451: The enemy lines and pursued them farther south. They followed up the victory with another at Fisher's Hill on September 22, and one more at Cedar Creek on October 19. At Cedar Creek, Hayes sprained his ankle after being thrown from a horse and was struck in the head by a spent round, which did not cause serious damage. His leadership and bravery drew his superiors' attention, with Ulysses S. Grant later writing of Hayes, "[h]is conduct on
10368-495: The enforcement of the Enforcement Acts. The election laws remained in effect, but the funds to enforce them were curtailed for the time being. Hayes tried to reconcile the social mores of the South with the recently passed civil rights laws by distributing patronage among southern Democrats. "My task was to wipe out the color line, to abolish sectionalism, to end the war and bring peace," he wrote in his diary. "To do this, I
10512-610: The family for a time. He was always close to Hayes and became a father figure to him, contributing to his early education. Through each of his parents, Hayes was descended from New England colonists. His earliest immigrant ancestor came to Connecticut from Scotland . Hayes's great-grandfather Ezekiel Hayes was a militia captain in Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War , but Ezekiel's son (Hayes's grandfather, also named Rutherford) left his Branford home during
10656-473: The federal government to inflate the economy through the mass issuance of paper money called greenbacks . Its first national nominating convention was held in Indianapolis in the spring of 1876. Peter Cooper was nominated for president with 352 votes to 119 for three other contenders. The convention nominated Anti-Monopolist Senator Newton Booth of California for vice president. After Booth declined to run,
10800-471: The field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring." Cedar Creek marked the end of the campaign. Hayes was promoted to brigadier general in October 1864 and brevetted major general . Around this time, Hayes learned of the birth of his fourth son, George Crook Hayes. The army went into winter quarters once more, and in spring 1865
10944-479: The first count, with the 20 votes from Florida , Louisiana , South Carolina , and Oregon disputed. To address this constitutional crisis , Congress established the Electoral Commission , which awarded all twenty votes and thus the presidency to Hayes in a strict partyline vote. Some Democratic representatives filibustered the commission's decision, hoping to prevent Hayes's inauguration; their filibuster
11088-605: The following spring, and Hayes led several raids against the rebel forces, on one of which he sustained a minor injury to his knee. That September, Hayes's regiment was called east to reinforce General John Pope 's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run . Hayes and his troops did not arrive in time for the battle, but joined the Army of the Potomac as it hurried north to cut off Robert E. Lee 's Army of Northern Virginia , which
11232-479: The gift of the people, without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office." Congress would eventually enact the Electoral Count Act in 1887 to provide more detailed rules for the counting of electoral votes, especially in cases of multiple slates of electors being received from a single state. 37.1% of the voting age population and 82.6% of eligible voters participated in the election. According to
11376-401: The governor in suppressing it. Pittsburgh exploded into riots next, but Hayes was reluctant to send in troops without the governor's request. Other discontented citizens joined the railroad workers in rioting. After a few days, Hayes resolved to send in troops to protect federal property wherever it appeared to be threatened and gave Major General Winfield Scott Hancock overall command of
11520-635: The groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s. He vetoed the Bland–Allison Act of 1878 , which put silver money into circulation and raised nominal prices, but Congress overrode his veto. His policy toward western Indians anticipated the assimilationist program of the Dawes Act of 1887 . At the end of his term, Hayes kept his pledge not to run for reelection and retired to his home in Ohio. Historians and scholars generally rank Hayes as an average to below-average president. Rutherford Birchard Hayes
11664-469: The highest voter turnout of the eligible voting-age population in American history, at 82.6%. Tilden's 50.9% is the largest share of the popular vote received by a candidate who was not elected to the presidency , and was the only presidential election in U.S. history in which the losing candidate won a majority of the popular vote. Tilden was also the last person to win a majority of the popular vote until William McKinley in 1896 . As of 2024, this marks
11808-535: The incumbent Republican, John Sherman . Hayes declined, preferring to preserve party unity and retire to private life. He especially looked forward to spending time with his children, two of whom (daughter Fanny and son Scott) had been born in the past five years. Initially, Hayes tried to promote railway extensions to his hometown, Fremont. He also managed some real estate he had acquired in Duluth, Minnesota . Not entirely removed from politics, Hayes held out some hope of
11952-405: The last election in which the Republican candidate won Louisiana until 1956 , when it was carried by Dwight D. Eisenhower , and the last in which the Republican candidate won South Carolina until 1964 , when Barry Goldwater did. The next time those two states voted against the Democrats was their support of the " Dixiecrat " candidate Strom Thurmond in 1948 . 18.33% of Hayes' votes came from
12096-446: The latter. The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden , the governor of New York. Tilden was considered a formidable adversary who, like Hayes, had a reputation for honesty. Also like Hayes, Tilden was a hard-money man and supported civil service reform. In accordance with the custom of the time, the campaign was conducted by surrogates, with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective hometowns. The poor economic conditions made
12240-469: The leading former Confederates. Hayes, along with congressional Republicans, disagreed. They worked to reject Johnson's vision of Reconstruction and to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 . Reelected in 1866, Hayes returned to the lame-duck session . On January 7, 1867, he voted for the resolution that authorized the first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson . He also voted during this time for
12384-529: The men of the 23rd Ohio to reenlist, and many did. In 1864, the Army command structure in West Virginia was reorganized, and Hayes's division was assigned to George Crook 's Army of West Virginia . Advancing into southwestern Virginia, they destroyed Confederate salt and lead mines there. On May 9, they engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd's Mountain , where Hayes and his men charged the enemy entrenchments and drove
12528-618: The nation, including Hayes's. His uncle Sardis Birchard died that year, and the Hayes family moved into Spiegel Grove , the grand house Birchard had built with them in mind. That year Hayes announced his uncle's bequest of $ 50,000 in assets to endow a public library for Fremont, to be called the Birchard Library. It opened in 1874 on Front Street, and a new building was completed and opened in 1878 in Fort Stephenson State Park, as per
12672-464: The national committee chose Samuel Fenton Cary as his replacement on the ticket. The Prohibition Party , in its second national convention in Cleveland , nominated Green Clay Smith as its presidential candidate and Gideon T. Stewart as its vice presidential candidate. This small political party used several different names, often with different names in different states. It was a continuation of
12816-446: The new state. Therefore, Colorado's state legislature selected the state's three Electoral College electors. The Republican Party held a slim majority in the state legislature following a closely contested election on October 3, 1876. Many of the seats in that election had been decided by only a few hundred votes. On November 7, 1876, in a 50 to 24 vote, the state legislature chose Otto Mears, William Hadley, and Herman Beckurts to serve as
12960-403: The next five years, Lucy gave birth to three sons: Birchard Austin (1853), Webb Cook (1856), and Rutherford Platt (1858). A Methodist , Lucy was a teetotaler and abolitionist . She influenced her husband's views on those issues, though he never formally joined her church. Hayes had begun his law practice dealing primarily with commercial issues but won greater prominence in Cincinnati as
13104-464: The next four years. Hayes had firmly supported Republican Reconstruction policies throughout his career, but the first major act of his presidency was an end to Reconstruction and the return of the South to "home rule". Even without the conditions of the Wormley's Hotel agreement, Hayes would have been hard-pressed to continue his predecessors' policies. The House of Representatives in the 45th Congress
13248-498: The nominees. The full Senate rejected Roosevelt and Prince by a vote of 31–25, and confirmed Merritt only because Sharpe's term had expired. Hayes was forced to wait until July 1878, when he fired Arthur and Cornell during a Congressional recess and replaced them with recess appointments of Merritt and Silas W. Burt , respectively. Conkling opposed confirmation of the appointees when the Senate reconvened in February 1879, but Merritt
13392-410: The officers of the volunteer company to positions in the 23rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry . Hayes was promoted to major , and his friend and college classmate Stanley Matthews was appointed lieutenant colonel . Joining the regiment as a private was another future president, William McKinley . After a month of training, Hayes and the 23rd Ohio set out for western Virginia in July 1861 as
13536-484: The only presidential election in which both candidates were sitting governors. It was widely assumed during the year 1875 that incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant would run for a third term as president despite the poor economic conditions, the numerous political scandals that had developed since he assumed office in 1869, and despite a longstanding tradition set by George Washington not to stay in office for more than two terms. Grant's inner circle advised him to go for
13680-486: The only states where Republican regimes were still supported by federal troops. Without troops to enforce the voting rights laws, these soon fell to Democratic control. Hayes's later attempts to protect the rights of southern blacks were ineffective, as were his attempts to rebuild Republican strength in the South. But he did defeat Congress's efforts to curtail federal power to monitor federal elections. Democrats in Congress passed an army appropriation bill in 1879 with
13824-429: The party in power unpopular and made Hayes suspect he would lose the election. Both candidates concentrated on the swing states of New York and Indiana , as well as the three southern states— Louisiana , South Carolina , and Florida —where Reconstruction Republican governments still barely ruled, amid recurring political violence, including widespread efforts to suppress freedman voting. The Republicans emphasized
13968-595: The political impetus for the Pendleton Act of 1883," which was signed into law by President Chester Arthur. Hayes allowed some exceptions to the ban on assessments, permitting George Congdon Gorham , secretary of the Republican Congressional Committee, to solicit campaign contributions from federal officeholders during the Congressional elections of 1878. In 1880, Hayes quickly forced Secretary of
14112-479: The presidency and vice presidency by an electoral margin of 185–184. As 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 to the committee's decision. The main concession Hayes promised was the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an acceptance of
14256-457: The presidential nomination. Tilden overcame strong opposition from "Honest John" Kelly , the leader of New York's Tammany Hall , to obtain the presidential nomination. Thomas Hendricks was nominated for vice president since he was the only person to put forward for that position. The Democratic platform pledged to replace the corruption of the Grant administration with honest, efficient government and to end "the rapacity of carpetbag tyrannies" in
14400-697: The rebels from the field. Following the rout, the Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies and again successfully skirmished with the enemy. Hayes and his brigade moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864 . Crook's corps was attached to Major General David Hunter 's Army of the Shenandoah and soon back in contact with Confederate forces, capturing Lexington, Virginia , on June 11. They continued south toward Lynchburg , tearing up railroad track as they advanced, but Hunter believed
14544-481: The result". Grant quietly strengthened the military force in and around Washington. The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the [electoral] certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." The Republicans held that the power to count the votes lay with the President of the Senate, with the House and Senate being mere spectators. The Democrats objected to that construction, since
14688-506: The short term, as the workers returned to their jobs and some wage cuts remained in effect. But the public blamed the railroads for the strikes and violence, and they were compelled to improve working conditions and make no further cuts. Business leaders praised Hayes, but his own opinion was more equivocal; as he recorded in his diary: 1876 United States presidential election Ulysses S. Grant Republican Rutherford B. Hayes Republican Presidential elections were held in
14832-484: The situation, marking the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company. The riots spread further, to Chicago and St. Louis , where strikers shut down railroad facilities. By July 29, the riots had ended and federal troops returned to their barracks. No federal troops had killed any of the strikers, or been killed themselves, but clashes between state militia troops and strikers resulted in deaths on both sides. The railroads were victorious in
14976-448: The state attorney-general and the newly elected Democratic governor. Those from Louisiana were signed by the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and those from South Carolina by no state official. The Tilden electors in South Carolina claimed that they had been chosen by the popular vote although they were rejected by the state election board. Meanwhile, in Oregon, the vote of a single elector
15120-500: The state for the Spiegel Grove State Park. Since then, the house has been open for tourists as a house museum. For a fee, visitors can view the various rooms as well as furniture, books, and other items in the house. Visitors are allowed to access most of the rooms on the first and second floors. The third and fourth floors are not open to the public. Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes ( / ˈ r ʌ ð ər f ər d / ; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893)
15264-500: The state's electors for president. All three of the state electors cast their votes for Hayes. This was the last election in which any state chose electors through its state legislature, rather than by popular vote. Florida (with 4 electoral votes) and Louisiana (with 8) reported returns that favored Tilden, while Hayes led in South Carolina (with 7). However, the elections in each state were marked by electoral fraud and threats of violence against Republican voters. The most extreme case
15408-399: The states named. The commission first decided not to question any returns that were prima facie lawful. Bradley then joined the other seven Republican committee members in a series of 8–7 votes that gave all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, which gave Hayes a 185–184 electoral vote victory. The commission adjourned on March 2. Hayes privately took the oath of office the next day and
15552-503: The terms of the bequest. Hayes served as chairman of the library's board of trustees until his death. Hayes hoped to stay out of politics in order to pay off the debts he had incurred during the Panic, but when the Republican state convention nominated him for governor in 1875, he accepted. His campaign against Democratic nominee William Allen focused primarily on Protestant fears about the possibility of state aid to Catholic schools . Hayes
15696-425: The three disputed unredeemed southern states together with some of the western states, they would emerge with 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, with the 19 votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in doubt. Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in
15840-454: The three latter states, but the results in those states were rendered uncertain because of fraud by both parties. To further complicate matters, 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. If Hayes was not awarded all 20 disputed votes, Tilden would be elected president. There was considerable debate about which person or house of Congress
15984-436: The tickets, and in this election, many Democratic ballots were printed with the Republican symbol of Abraham Lincoln on them. The Republican-dominated state electoral commissions subsequently rejected enough Democratic votes to award their electoral votes to Hayes. In two Southern states, the governor recognized by the United States had signed the Republican certificates; the Democratic certificates from Florida were signed by
16128-411: The troops at Lynchburg were too powerful, and Hayes and his brigade returned to West Virginia. Hayes thought Hunter lacked aggression, writing in a letter home that "General Crook would have taken Lynchburg." Before the army could make another attempt, Confederate General Jubal Early 's raid into Maryland forced their recall to the north. Early's army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24, where Hayes
16272-463: The vote, and in Indiana, where he earned 17,207 votes, which far exceeded Tilden's margin of victory of roughly 5,500 votes over Hayes in that state. The election of 1876 was the last one held before the end of the Reconstruction era, which sought to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, who usually voted for Republican presidential candidates. No antebellum slave state would be carried by
16416-414: The war for the relative peace of Vermont. His mother's ancestors migrated to Vermont at a similar time. Hayes wrote: "I have always thought of myself as Scotch, but of the fathers of my family who came to America about thirty were English and two only, Hayes and Rutherford, were of Scotch descent. This is on my father's side. On my mother's side, the whole thirty-two were probably all of other peoples besides
16560-624: The war quickly came to a close with Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Hayes visited Washington, D.C. , that May and observed the Grand Review of the Armies , after which he and the 23rd Ohio returned to their home state to be mustered out of the service. While serving in the Army of the Shenandoah in 1864, Hayes was nominated by Republicans for the House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd congressional district . Asked by friends in Cincinnati to leave
16704-697: Was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1845 and opened his own law office in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont ). Business was slow at first, but he gradually attracted clients and also represented his uncle Sardis in real estate litigation. In 1847 Hayes became ill with what his doctor thought was tuberculosis . Thinking a change in climate would help, he considered enlisting in the Mexican–American War , but on his doctor's advice instead visited family in New England. Returning from there, Hayes and his uncle Sardis made
16848-525: Was New York Senator Roscoe Conkling , who fought Hayes's reform efforts at every turn. To show his commitment to reform, Hayes appointed one of the best-known advocates of reform at the time, Carl Schurz , to be Secretary of the Interior and asked Schurz and Secretary of State William M. Evarts to lead a special cabinet committee charged with drawing up new rules for federal appointments. Treasury Secretary John Sherman ordered John Jay to investigate
16992-466: Was a destination for escaping slaves, and many such cases were tried in its courts. A staunch abolitionist, Hayes found his work on behalf of fugitive slaves personally gratifying as well as politically useful, as it raised his profile in the newly formed Republican Party . Hayes's political reputation rose with his professional plaudits. He declined a Republican nomination for a judgeship in 1856. Two years later, some Republicans proposed that Hayes fill
17136-501: Was advancing into Maryland . Marching north, the 23rd was the lead regiment encountering 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 the battle. While resting, he ordered his men to meet
17280-470: Was against such funding and, while not known to be personally anti-Catholic , he allowed anti-Catholic fervor to contribute to the enthusiasm for his candidacy. The campaign was a success, and on October 12, 1875, Hayes was returned to the governorship by a 5,544-vote majority. The first person to earn a third term as governor of Ohio, Hayes reduced the state debt, reestablished the Board of Charities, and repealed
17424-544: Was approved by a vote of 31–25 and Burt by 31–19, giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory. For the remainder of his term, Hayes pressed Congress to enact permanent reform legislation and fund the United States Civil Service Commission , even using his last annual message to Congress in 1880 to appeal for reform. Reform legislation did not pass during Hayes's presidency, but his advocacy provided "a significant precedent as well as
17568-764: Was authorized to decide between the competing slates of electors, with the Republican Senate and the Democratic House each claiming priority. By January 1877, with the question still unresolved, Congress and President Grant agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission , which would be authorized to determine the fate of the disputed electoral votes. 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 respected by both parties, as
17712-488: Was born in Delaware, Ohio , on October 4, 1822, to Rutherford Ezekiel Hayes, Jr. and Sophia Birchard. Hayes's father, a Vermont storekeeper, had taken the family to Ohio in 1817. He died ten weeks before Rutherford's birth. Sophia took charge of the family, raising Hayes and his sister, Fanny, the only two of the four children to survive to adulthood. She never remarried, and Sophia's younger brother, Sardis Birchard, lived with
17856-472: Was buried at Spiegel Grove upon his death in 1879, with a grave marker reading Old Whitey A Hero of Nineteen Battles 1861–1865 . Spiegel Grove was designated as a National Historic Landmark on January 29, 1964. On October 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places . The house was built around 1860 for Sardis Birchard as a two-story brick mansion. It featured many bedrooms and
18000-623: Was clear that the race was close: Democrats had carried most of the South, as well as New York, Indiana, Connecticut , and New Jersey . In the Northeastern United States , an increasing number of immigrants and their descendants voted Democratic. Although Tilden won the popular vote and claimed 184 electoral votes, Republican leaders challenged the results and charged Democrats with fraud and voter suppression of blacks (who would otherwise have voted Republican) in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Republicans realized that if they held
18144-400: Was considered by Ohio Republicans to be an excellent standard-bearer for the 1867 election campaign . His political views were more moderate than the Republican party's platform, although he agreed with the proposed amendment to the Ohio state constitution that would guarantee suffrage to black male Ohioans. Hayes's opponent, Allen G. Thurman , made the proposed amendment the centerpiece of
18288-425: Was considered improper for a candidate to pursue the presidency actively, neither Tilden nor Hayes appeared publicly during the campaign. Speaking and leading rallies were left to their surrogates. Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state on August 1, 1876; this was the first presidential election in which the state sent electors. There was insufficient time or money to organize a presidential election in
18432-448: Was considered the most impartial remaining member of the court was selected. That selection proved decisive. Since it was drawing perilously near to Inauguration Day, the commission met on January 31. Each of the disputed state election cases (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) was respectively submitted to the commission by Congress. Eminent counsel appeared for each side, and there were double sets of returns from every one of
18576-513: Was controlled by a majority of Democrats, and they refused to appropriate enough funds for the army to continue to garrison the South. Even among Republicans, devotion to continued military Reconstruction was fading in the face of persistent Southern insurgency and violence. Only two states, South Carolina and Louisiana, were still under Reconstruction's sway when Hayes assumed the presidency on March 5. On April 3, Hayes ordered Secretary of War George W. McCrary to withdraw federal troops stationed at
18720-632: Was disputed. The statewide result clearly favored Hayes, but the state's Democratic governor, La Fayette Grover , claimed that one of the Republican electors, Ex-Postmaster John Watts, was ineligible under Article II, Section 1, of the United States Constitution since he had been a "person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States." Grover substituted a Democratic elector in Watts's place. The two Republican electors dismissed Grover's action and reported three votes for Hayes. However,
18864-455: Was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president. Hayes won the Republican nomination for president in the 1876 United States presidential election . In the disputed general election, he defeated Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden while losing the popular vote. Initially, neither candidate secured enough electoral votes to win
19008-610: Was faced with the United States' largest labor uprising to date, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 . To make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873, the major railroads had cut their employees' wages several times in 1877. In July of that year, workers at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job in Martinsburg, West Virginia , to protest their reduction in pay. The strike quickly spread to workers of
19152-411: Was in South Carolina, where an impossible 101 percent of all eligible voters in the state had their votes counted, and an estimated 150 Black Republicans were murdered. One of the points of contention revolved around the design of ballots. At the time, parties would print ballots or "tickets" to enable voters to support them in the open ballots. To aid illiterate voters, the parties would print symbols on
19296-454: Was influenced by his belief in meritocratic government and equal treatment without regard to wealth, social standing, or race. One of the defining events of his presidency was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 , which he resolved by calling in the U.S. Army against the railroad workers. It remains the deadliest conflict between workers and strikebreakers in American history. As president, Hayes implemented modest civil-service reforms that laid
19440-458: Was just 100 votes short of a majority. His vote began to slide after the second ballot, however, as many Republicans feared that Blaine could not win the general election. Anti-Blaine delegates could not agree on a candidate until his total rose to 41% on the sixth ballot. Leaders of the reform Republicans met privately and considered alternatives. They chose the reforming Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, who had been gradually building support during
19584-471: Was lukewarm about civil war to restore the Union. Considering that the two sides might be irreconcilable, he suggested that the Union "[l]et them go." Though Ohio had voted for Lincoln in 1860, Cincinnati voters turned against the Republican party after secession. Its residents included many from the Southern United States , and they voted for the Democrats and Know-Nothings , who combined to sweep
19728-540: Was publicly sworn into office on March 5, 1877, and Hayes was inaugurated without disturbance. The Compromise of 1877 might be a reason for the Democrats accepting the Electoral Commission. During intense closed-door meetings, Democratic leaders agreed reluctantly to accept Hayes as president in return for the withdrawal of federal troops from the last two Southern states that were still occupied: South Carolina and Louisiana. Republican leaders in return agreed on
19872-403: Was ready to resort to unusual measures and to risk my own standing and reputation within my party and the country." All his efforts were in vain; Hayes failed to persuade the South to accept legal racial equality or to convince Congress to appropriate funds to enforce the civil rights laws . Hayes took office determined to reform the system of civil service appointments, which had been based on
20016-422: Was slightly wounded by a bullet to the shoulder. He also had a horse shot out from under him, and the army was defeated. Retreating to Maryland, the army was reorganized again, with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter. By August, Early was retreating up the valley, with Sheridan in pursuit. Hayes's troops fended off a Confederate assault at Berryville and advanced to Opequon Creek , where they broke
20160-543: Was successful scholastically; while there, he joined several student societies and became interested in Whig politics. His classmates included Stanley Matthews and John Celivergos Zachos . He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with the highest honors in 1842 and addressed the class as its valedictorian . After briefly reading law in Columbus , Ohio, Hayes moved east to attend Harvard Law School in 1843. Graduating with an LL.B , he
20304-520: Was sworn in as a part of a large Republican majority. Hayes identified with the party's moderate wing, but was willing to vote with the radicals for the sake of party unity. The major legislative effort of the Congress was the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , for which Hayes voted and which passed both houses of Congress in June 1866. Hayes's beliefs were in line with his fellow Republicans on Reconstruction issues: that
20448-524: Was the 19th president of the United States , serving from 1877 to 1881. A staunch abolitionist from Ohio , he was also a brevet major general for the Union army during the American Civil War . As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati 's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, he left
20592-467: Was ultimately ended by party leader Samuel J. Randall . It was the second of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote , after the 1824 election . Although Tilden defeated Hayes in the official popular vote tally, the election involved substantial electoral fraud , voter intimidation by paramilitary groups like the Red Shirts , and disenfranchisement of black Republicans . The election had
20736-620: Was unanimously nominated for president. The convention then nominated Donald Kirkpatrick of New York unanimously for vice president. Tilden, who had prosecuted machine politicians in New York and sent the political boss William M. Tweed to jail, ran as a reform candidate against the background of the corruption of the Grant administration . Both parties backed civil service reform. Both sides mounted mudslinging campaigns, with Democratic attacks on Republican corruption being countered by Republicans raising
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