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Rutherford Hayes19th President of the United States
Date of Birth: 04.10.1822
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Rutherford Hayes
Rutherford Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, was born on October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio. He came from a family of New England immigrants and after the death of his father, he was raised by his uncle. Hayes received his education in private schools in Ohio and Connecticut, and later attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1842 and went on to study law. He spent a year and a half at Harvard Law School and began practicing law in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), Ohio in 1845. In 1849, he moved to Cincinnati.
Political Career
Hayes entered politics and quickly became a member of the Republican Party. In 1855, he was elected as a delegate to the Republican State Convention. Three years later, he became the solicitor of Cincinnati. When the Civil War began in 1861, Hayes received the rank of major in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served in West Virginia and was severely wounded at the Battle of South Mountain. He later participated in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. In 1863, Hayes was promoted to brigadier general and in 1864, he became a major general.
Hayes was elected to the House of Representatives in 1864 and served in Congress. Although he did not express strong anti-slavery views, he did not sympathize with the radical Republicans or their Reconstruction program. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 1866 but resigned after being elected as the governor of Ohio. He served two terms as governor from 1868 to 1872 but did not seek a third term. In 1875, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for governor and won against the Democratic incumbent, W. Allen. After this victory, Hayes's name began to be mentioned in connection with the presidential elections of 1876.
Presidential Election and Administration
The presidential election of 1876 was filled with dramatic episodes. Both parties accused each other of fraud, and the outcome of the election remained unclear for three months. Ultimately, a commission consisting of five senators, five members of the Supreme Court, and five congressmen, whose opinions aligned with their party affiliation, decided on March 2, 1877, by a vote of eight to seven, that Hayes had defeated his opponent, Samuel Tilden, a reformer from New York, by a one-electoral vote advantage.
As the new president, Hayes aimed to put an end to the factional strife that had intensified during Grant's administration. He proposed appointing General Joseph Johnston, a well-known Confederate general, as a member of his cabinet. After this proposal was met with resistance, Hayes succeeded in appointing former Tennessee politician David Key, a Confederate, as Postmaster General. His order on April 20, 1877, to withdraw federal troops from South Carolina allowed for the establishment of a civilian government in the state and effectively ended military reconstruction. Hayes also ordered the withdrawal of troops from Louisiana and Arkansas. He further angered the Republican faction known as the "Stalwarts" by demanding an investigation into scandals at the New York Customs House and advocating for civil service reform.
While remaining a political conservative, Hayes alienated voters from the western states by vetoing the Bland-Allison Act and suppressed railway strikes in 1877 by deploying federal troops. By the end of his presidency, Hayes lost support from nearly all political forces, except for a small group of liberal Republicans. In 1881, he retired from politics and settled in Ohio, where he spent the last 12 years of his life engaged in educational and philanthropic activities. Hayes passed away on January 17, 1893, in Fremont, Ohio.
