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Rutherford Birchard Hayes ( / ˈrʌðərfərd /; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881. As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati 's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861.
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Learn about the life and achievements of Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth president of the United States. Explore his early years, Civil War service, political career, and retirement at Spiegel Grove.
- Overview
- Early political life
- Presidency and later life
- Cabinet of President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes (born October 4, 1822, Delaware, Ohio, U.S.—died January 17, 1893, Fremont, Ohio) 19th president of the United States (1877–81), who brought post-Civil War Reconstruction to an end in the South and who tried to establish new standards of official integrity after eight years of corruption in Washington, D.C. He was the only presi...
Hayes was the son of Rutherford Hayes, a farmer, and Sophia Birchard. After graduating from Kenyon College at the head of his class in 1842, Hayes studied law at Harvard, where he took a bachelor of laws degree in 1845. Returning to Ohio, he established a successful legal practice in Cincinnati, where he represented defendants in several fugitive-slave cases and became associated with the newly formed Republican Party. In 1852 he married Lucy Ware Webb (Lucy Hayes), a cultured and unusually well-educated woman for her time. After combat service with the Union army, he was elected to Congress (1865–67) and then to the Ohio governorship (1868–76).
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In 1875, during his third gubernatorial campaign, Hayes attracted national attention by his uncompromising advocacy of a sound currency backed by gold. The following year he became his state’s favourite son at the national Republican nominating convention, where a shrewdly managed campaign won him the presidential nomination. Hayes’s unblemished public record and high moral tone offered a striking contrast to widely publicized accusations of corruption in the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–77). An economic depression, however, and Northern disenchantment with Reconstruction policies in the South combined to give Hayes’s Democratic opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, a popular majority, and early returns indicated a Democratic victory in the electoral college as well. Hayes’s campaign managers challenged the validity of the returns from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, and as a result two sets of ballots were submitted from the three states. The ensuing electoral dispute became known as the Tilden-Hayes affair. Eventually a bipartisan majority of Congress created a special Electoral Commission to decide which votes should be counted. As originally conceived, the commission was to comprise seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent, the Supreme Court justice David Davis. Davis refused to serve, however, and the Republican Joseph P. Bradley was named in his place. While the commission was deliberating, Republican allies of Hayes engaged in secret negotiations with moderate Southern Democrats aimed at securing acquiescence to Hayes’s election. On March 2, 1877, the commission voted along strict party lines to award all the contested electoral votes to Hayes, who was thus elected with 185 electoral votes to Tilden’s 184. The result was greeted with outrage and bitterness by some Northern Democrats, who thereafter referred to Hayes as “His Fraudulency.”
As president, Hayes promptly made good on the secret pledges made during the electoral dispute. He withdrew federal troops from states still under military occupation, thus ending the era of Reconstruction (1865–77). His promise not to interfere with elections in the former Confederacy ensured a return there of traditional white Democratic supremacy. He appointed Southerners to federal positions, and he made financial appropriations for Southern improvements. These policies aroused the animosity of a conservative Republican faction known as the Stalwarts, who were further antagonized by the president’s efforts to reform the civil service by substituting nonpartisan examinations for political patronage. Hayes’s demand for the resignation of two top officials in the New York customhouse (including Chester Arthur, the future president) provoked a bitter struggle with New York senator Roscoe Conkling.
During the national railroad strikes of 1877, Hayes, at the request of state governors, dispatched federal troops to suppress rioting. His administration was under continual pressure from the South and West to resume silver coinage, outlawed in 1873. Many considered this proposal inflationary, and Hayes sided with the Eastern, hard-money (gold) interests. Congress, however, overrode his veto of the Bland-Allison Act (1878), which provided for government purchase of silver bullion and restoration of the silver dollar as legal tender. In 1879 Hayes signed an act permitting women lawyers to practice before the Supreme Court.
Hayes refused renomination by the Republican Party in 1880, contenting himself with one term as president. In retirement he devoted himself to humanitarian causes, notably prison reform and educational opportunities for Southern black youth.
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The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
t. e. The presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes began on March 4, 1877, when Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1881. Hayes became the 19th president, after being awarded the closely contested 1876 presidential election by Republicans in Congress who agreed to the Compromise of 1877.
Oct 29, 2009 · Learn about the life and career of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States who won a controversial election against Samuel Tilden. Find out how he withdrew troops from the Reconstruction states, signed the Act to Relieve Certain Legal Disabilities of Women and faced a disputed election.
Learn about the 19th President of the United States, who oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began civil service reform, and reconciled the divisions after the Civil War. Find out how he won the disputed election of 1876, his policies, and his legacy.
Apr 2, 2014 · Learn about the life and presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States who oversaw the end of Reconstruction. Find out how he won a controversial election, fought for civil rights and civil service reform, and banned alcohol from the White House.
