Hayes, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD

Hayes, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD, nineteenth president of the United States, was born at Delaware, Ohio, 4th October 1822. He graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio, in 1842; and, having studied law at Harvard, he practised as a lawyer at Cincinnati, 1849-61. In the civil war Hayes served with distinction as an officer of volunteers, being once severely wounded, and ultimately attained the rank of brevet major-general. He was returned to congress from Ohio in 1865 and 1866, chosen governor of his state in 1867, and re-elected in 1869 and again in 1875. In 1876 he was selected as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, the Democratic candidate being Samuel J. Tilden (q.v.). The election which followed was notable for the exciting complications and the period of tension and suspicion that ensued. In Louisiana two electoral boards were commissioned by rival claimants to the governorship, and in some of the other states questions arose touching the legality of the return of the Republican presidential electors. Finally, an electoral commission was created by act of congress, consisting of five judges of the supreme court, five senators, and five representatives. This body, made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, gave the disputed votes to Hayes, by a majority of eight to seven. The electoral vote was thus returned at 185 for Hayes against 184 for Tilden; the popular vote, as counted, stood 4,284,265 for Tilden and 4,033,295 for Hayes. This decision was generally acquiesced in, although the conviction of the Democratic party that their candidate had been unjustly deprived of office remained unshaken; and as late as 1878 the Democratic majority of a congressional committee of investigation issued a report declaring the action of the returning boards in Louisiana and Florida to have been fraudulent. Under the Hayes administration the country recovered much of its commercial prosperity, which had suffered severely in the financial crash of 1873. Two features in Hayes's policy were reform of the civil service (in pursuance of which he removed from the collectorship of customs at New York Chester Alan Arthur, q.v.) and the conciliation of the southern states. He was also active in pressing forward the resumption of specie payments; but the bill for the monetisation of silver was carried against his veto. He died at Fremont, Ohio, 16th January 1893. See Life by Stoddard (1889).