U.S. president Rutherford B. Hayes was the victor in one of the most
fiercely fought elections in American history.
Hayes was born on October 4, 1822. He was the youngest of five
children born to Rutherford and Sophia Hayes in Delaware, Ohio. His
father died before Hayes’s birth, and his uncle became his guardian.
Hayes graduated from Kenyon College in 1842. Three years later, he
graduated with a law degree from Harvard. After college, he practiced
law in Fremont, Ohio, before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849,
where he eventually took a job as city solicitor (a position equal to a
modern district attorney).
Hayes married Lucy Webb in 1852, and the couple had eight
children. From soldier to politician
Hayes fought in the American Civil War
(1861–65) and was wounded in battle. While still
in the army, he was nominated by the
Republican Party to serve in Congress. Hayes
accepted the nomination but refused to campaign, citing his obligation to fight for his country as his number one priority. Even without a
campaign, he won a seat in the Thirty-ninth
Congress and another in the Fortieth. He resigned from his position in 1867 to run for governor of Ohio. He was victorious and served from
1868 to 1872 and again from 1876 to 1877.
Hayes’s war record and reputation as a loyal
Republican made him a popular presidential
nominee for the 1876 election. He ran against
New York governor Samuel Tilden (1814–
1886). Toward the end of the campaign, Tilden
was expected to win. Hayes himself believed his
opponent would be the next president of the
United States. More registered voters participated in the 1876 presidential election than ever before: 81.8 percent.
In a U.S. presidential election, there are two kinds of votes: popular
(total number of votes by individuals) and electoral (assigned to states
based on population; the higher the population count, the more electoral
votes that state is worth). After all votes had been counted, Tilden clearly
won the popular vote. But the electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana,
South Carolina, and Oregon were in dispute. A congressional committee was formed to investigate the situation. That committee included
five Supreme Court justices, five members from the House of
Representatives, and five senators.
The plan was to have seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one
independent. The independent was Supreme Court associate justice
David Davis (1815–1886). However, he happened to be elected a U.S.
senator and thus could not serve on the committee. His replacement was
a Republican, so every vote the committee took after reviewing the evidence resulted in an 8–7 split in favor of Hayes. That resulted in Hayes
being awarded all the electoral votes and, therefore, the victory. In office
Tilden was disappointed but did not dispute the findings. He believed
the United States needed to move on. Hayes’s years in office were uneventful compared to the conflict under which he entered. He had
hoped to overturn the patronage system that controlled the government,
but he was unable to do so. The patronage system was an unethical
means of controlling bureaucracy in which wealthy men were appointed
certain government positions in return for their vote. This put a lot of
unqualified, dishonest men in powerful positions and made government
ineffective on many levels. Hayes recognized he could not change the
way things were, but he refused to participate in the system. Instead, he
chose his administration based on individual merit and ability. This
served only to turn his fellow Republicans against him.
Hayes promised protection to the African Americans of the war-torn
South. At the same time, he encouraged the states to return to a more
honest, peaceful way of governing. Despite the victory of the North in
the Civil War, the South’s attitude toward slavery and African Americans
had not changed much. They resented being told how to live their lives,
and troops from the Confederate States of America (the group of states
that were part of secession from the United States) had been sent to
watch over the South as Reconstruction (efforts to rebuild the nation
following the Civil War) began. Hayes removed the troops in 1877, essentially ending the period of Reconstruction.
That same year, Hayes was faced with the first nationwide labor
strike. Railroad workers had been forced to take pay cuts beginning in
1873. By 1877, they went on strike in hopes of ending the unjust treatment. Hayes sent in federal troops to control the strikes that were erupting throughout the states. In doing so, he ushered in an era when state
and federal forces sided with companies against aggravated laborers.
Does not seek reelection
Hayes promised not to seek reelection, and he kept that promise. He was
succeeded by another Ohio Republican, former U.S. representative
James A. Garfield (1831–1881; served 1881). Hayes lived out his life in
retirement at his family estate, Spiegel Grove, in Fremont, and died in 1893.