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HAYES part 2 [leaann1@bellsouth.net] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 03:55:16 -0800 From: leaann1@bellsouth.net Subject: RUTHERFORD B. HAYES part 1 Historical Collections of Ohio Henry Howe LL.D. pub 1904 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, Ex-President of the United States and General in Union army, was born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822. His parents, Rutherford and Sophia Hayes (Sophia Birchard) came to Ohio in 1817, from Windham Co., Vermont. He received his early education in the common schools, attended an academy at Norwalk, Oh., and in 1837 went to Isaac Webbs school at Middletown, Ct., to prepare for college. In 1842, he graduated at Kenyon college, valedictorian of his class. He studied law with Thomas Sparrow, of Columbus, Oh., was graduated at the law school of Harvard University in 1845. On May 10, 1845, he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, Oh., and began practice at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where in April 1846, he formed a partnership with Hon. Ralph P. Buckland. In 1849 he began to practice law at Cincinnati, where he soon attracted attention through his ability and acquirements. On December 30, 1852, he married Lucy W. Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, a physician of high standing in Chilicothe. In 1858 he was appointed city solicitor of Cincinnati, and served until April, 1861. On the organization of the Republican party, he at once became one of its active supporters, being attracted thereto by his strong anti-slavery sentiments. At the outbreak of the war, he was elected captain of the military company formed from the celebrated Cincinnati Literary Club. In June 1861, he was appointed major of the 23rd O.V.I., and in July his regiment was ordered to West Virginia. Gen. Hayes very gallant and meritorious military career has been overlooked in the prominence given to his political life; an examination of his record in the army shows that such brave, gallant and able service has rarely been equaled, even in the annals of the late war. The following is from the Military History of General Grant, by Gen Badeau, 3rd volume, page 101: In all the important battles of Sheridans campaign Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, afterwards nineteenth President of the United States, had borne an honorable part. Entering the service early in 1861, as major of the 23rd Ohio Volunteers, he was ordered at once to West Virginia, and remained there until the summer of 1862, when his command was transferred to the Potomac, and participated in the battle of South Mountain. In this action Hayes was severely wounded in the arm. He was immediately commended for conspicuous gallantry, and in December of the same year received the colonelcy of his regiment, which had returned to West Virginia. He served under Crook, in the movement against the Tennessee railroad in the spring of 1864, and led a brigade with marked succession the battle of Cloyds Mountain. Afterwards, still in Crooks command, he joined Hunters army in the march against Lynchburg; was present at the operations in front of that place, and covered the retreat in the difficult and dangerous passage of the Alleghenies. He was next ordered to the mouth of the Shenandoah Valley, and took part in several engagements between Early and Sheridans troops, prior to the battle of Winchester. In that important encounter, he had the right of Crooks command, and it was therefore his troops which, in conjunction with the cavalry, executing the turning maneuver that decided the fate of the day. Here he displayed higher qualities than personal gallantry. At one point in the advance, his command came upon a deep slough, fifty yards wide, and stretching across the whole front of his brigade. Beyond was a rebel battery. If the brigade endeavored to move around the obstruction, it would be exposed to a severe enfilading fire; while it discomfited, the line of advance would be broken in a vital part. Hayes, with the instinct of a soldier, at once gave the word Forward, and spurred his horse into the swamp. Horse and rider plunged at first nearly out of sight, but Hayes struggled on till the beast sank hopelessly into the mire. Then dismounting, he waded to the further bank, climbed to the top, and beckoned with his cap to the men to follow. In the attempt to obey many were shot or drowned, but a sufficient number crossed the ditch to from a nucleus for the brigade; and Hayes still leading, they climbed the bank and charged the battery. The enemy fled in great disorder, and Hayes reformed his men and resumed the advance. The passage of the slough was at the crisis of the fight and the rebels broke on every side in confusion. At Fishers Hill Hayes led a division in the turning movement assigned to Crooks company. Clambering up the steep sides of North Mountain, which was covered with an almost impenetrable entanglement of trees and underbrush, the division gained, unperceived, a position in rear of the enemys line, and then charged with so much fury that the rebels hardly attempted to resist, but fled in utter rout and dismay. Hayes was at the head of his column throughout this brilliant charge. A month later, at Cedar Creek, he was again engaged. His command was a reserve, and therefore did not share in the disaster of the main line at daybreak; but when the broken regiments at the front were swept hurriedly to the rear, Hayes division flew to arms, and changing front, advanced in the direction from which the enemy was coming. Successful resistance, however, was impossible. Hayes had not fifteen hundred effective men, and two divisions of the rebels were pouring through the woods to close around him in flank and rear. There was no alternative but retreat or capture. He withdrew, nevertheless, with steadiness, and maintained his organization unbroken throughout the battle, leading his men from hilltop to hilltop in face of the enemy. While riding at full speed, his horse was shot under him; he was flung violently out of the saddle and his foot and ankle badly wrenched by the fall. Stunned and bruised, he lay for a moment, exposed to a storm of bullets, but soon recovering sprang to his feet, and limped to his command. For gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Winchester, Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek, Col. Hayes was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and brevetted Major-General for Gallant and distinguished service during the campaign of 1864, in West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek. He had commanded a brigade for more than two years, and at the time of these promotions was in command of the Kanawha division. In the course of his services in the army he was four times wounded, and had four horses shot under him. The second volume of Gen Grants Memoirs, written when he was in great suffering and near his end, is in some respects more interesting even than the first volume. In it he gives very freely and in a most entertaining way, his opinion of his military friends and associates. For example, on page 340 he says of General Hayes: On more than one occasion in these engagements, Gen.. R.B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of the United States, bore a very honorable part. 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. This might well have been expected of one who could write at the time he has said to have done so; Any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress, ought to be scalped. Having entered the army as a Major of Volunteers at the beginning of the war, Gen. Hayes attained by meritorious service the rank of brevet major-general before its close. In August, 1864, while Gen Hayes was in the field, he was nominated by a Republican district convention in Cincinnati as a candidate for Congress. He was elected by a majority of 2,400. Gen. Hayes took his seat in Congress December 4, 1865, and was appointed chairman of the library committee. In 1866 he was re-elected to Congress. ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 03:44:06 -0800 From: leaann1@bellsouth.net Subject: RUTHERFORD B. HAYES part 2 In the House of Representatives he was prominent in the counsels of his party. In 1867 he was the Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio, and elected over Judge Thurman. In 1869 he was re-elected Governor of Ohio over George H. Pendleton. In 1872, despite his frequently expressed desire to retire from public life, Gen. Hayes was again nominated for Congress by the Republicans of Cincinnati, but was defeated. In 1873 he returned to Fremont, and the next year inherited the considerable estate of his uncle, Sardis Birchard. In 1875, notwithstanding his well known desire not to re-enter public life, he was again nominated for Governor of Ohio, and although he at first declined the honor, he was subsequently induced to accept the nomination, and after a hard fought canvas was elected over William Allen, by a majority of 5,500. This contest, by reason of the financial issue involved, became a national one, and was watched with interest throughout the country, and as a result he was nominated for the Presidency on the 7th ballot of the National Republican convention, which met at Cincinnati, June 14, 1876. In accepting this nomination Mr. Hayes Pledged himself, from patriotic motives, to the one-term principle, and in these words: Believing that the restoration of the civil service to the system established by Washington and followed by the early Presidents can be best accomplished by an executive who is under no temptation to use the patronage of his office to promote his own re-election, I desire to perform what I regard as a duty in now stating my inflexible purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for election to a second term. In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important respects, a change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to the Constitution prescribing a term of six years for the Presidential office, and forbidding a re-election. In the complications that arose as a result of the Presidential election of 1876, his attitude was patriotic and judicious, and is outlined in a letter addressed to John Sherman, from Columbus, Oh., dated November 27, 1876. He says: You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole business. A fair election would have given us about forty electoral votes, at least that many. But we are not to follow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by another. There must be nothing crooked on our part. Let Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, intimidation and fraud, rather than undertake to prevent it by means that will not bear the severest scrutiny. The canvassing boards of Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina declared Republican electors chosen, and certificates of these results were sent by the Governors of those States to Washington. Gov. Hayes had a majority of one in the electoral college. But the Democrats charged fraud, and certificates declaring the Democratic electors elected were sent to Washington. The House (Democratic) and the Senate (Republican) then concurred in an Act providing for a commission composed of five representatives, five senators, and five judges of the Supreme Court, to have final jurisdiction. The commission refused to go behind the certificates of the Governors, and by a vote of eight to seven declared in favor of the Republican electors, and President Hayes was inaugurated Mar 5, 1877. The administration of President Hayes, although unsatisfactory to machine politicians, was a wise and conservative one, meeting with the approval of the people at large. By the withdrawal of Federal troops and restoration of self-governmentto the Southern States, it prepared the way for a revival of patriotism and the remarkable material development that has since ensued. The administration began during a period of business depression, but the able management of the finances of the Government and the resumption of specie payments restored commercial activity. This administration laid the foundations for a permanent and thorough civil service reform, notwithstanding strong and influential opposition, including that of a majority of the members of Congress. Throughout, his administration was intelligently and consistently conducted with but one motive in view, the greatest good to the country, regardless of arty affiliations. That he was eminently successful in this, and was as wise, patriotic, progressive and beneficial in its effects as any the country has enjoyed, is the judgment of every intelligent person who gives it an unbiased study. The tree is judged by its fruit. When Mr. Blaine made his Presidential tour in Ohio in 1884, in several of his speeches he spoke of the Hayes administration as unique in this: It was one of the few and rare cases in our history in which the President entered upon his office with the country depressed and discontented and left it prosperous and happy. In which he found his party broken, divided, and on the verge of defeat, and left it strong, united and vigorous. This, he said was the peculiar felicity of Gen. Hayes public career. On the expiration of his term, ex-President Hayes retired to his home in Fremont, Oh. He has been the recipient of the degree of LL.D. from Kenyon, 1868; Harvard, 1877; Yale, 1880; and John Hopkins University, 1881. Is commander of the Order of Loyal Legion, was also commander of the Ohio Commandery, was first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia. He is president of the John F. Slater Education Fund, and one of the trustees of the Peabody Fund (both for education in the South). He is also president of the National Prison Reform Association, and a trustee of a large number of charitable and educational institutions. His Life, Public Services, and Select Speeches, by James Q. Howard, were published in Cincinnati in 1876. It is well known that Gen. Hayes does not favor life senatorships for ex-Presidents. In the sketch of his life in Biographical Cyclopedia of Ohio, vol. ii, page 309, we find the following: On retiring from public life and returning to his home President Hayes was welcomed at Fremont in the heartiest way. In his speech in the assemblage he said: This hearty welcome to my home is, I assure you, very gratifying. During the last five or six years I have been absent in the public service. *** My family and I have none but the friendliest words and sentiments for the cities of our late official residence, Columbus and Washington; but with local attachments, perhaps unusually strong, it is quite safe to say that never for one moment have any of us wavered in our desire and purpose to return and make our permanent residence in the pleasant old place in Spiegal Grove in this good old town of Fremont. The question is often heard, what is to become of the man, what is he to do, who, having been chief magistrate of the Republic retires at the end of his official term to private life? It seems to me the reply is near at hand and sufficient; let him, like any other good American citizen, be willing and prompt to bear his part in every useful work that will promote the welfare and the happiness of his family, his town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will have work enough to do, and that sort of work that yields more individual contentment and gratification than belong to the more conspicuous employments of the life from which he has retired. Years have elapsed since these wise words were uttered and Mr. Hayes became a private citizen. But his life has been a beautiful and a very busy one because, filled with useful work for the welfare and happiness of his family, his town, his State and his country. Since leaving the Presidency, Mr. Hayes has been actively engaged in educational, reformatory, and benevolent work: President of the John F. Slater Education Fund; Member of the Peabody Education Fund; President of the National Prison Association; President of the Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question; President of the Maumee Valley Historical and Monumental Society; Commander-in Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States; President of the Society of the Army of West Virginia; President of the Society of the Twenty-Third Regiment O.V.V.I.; Member of the Board of Trustees of Western Reserve University University, Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio State University. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #124 *******************************************