sociology - Rutherford B. Hayes

**Rutherford B. Hayes**

Order:	19th President
Term of Office:	March 3, 1877 – March 3, 1881
Followed:	Ulysses S. Grant
Succeeded by:	James Garfield
Date of Birth	October 4, 1822
Place of Birth:	Delaware, Ohio
Date of Death:	January 17, 1893
Place of Death:	Fremont, Ohio
First Lady:	Lucy Webb Hayes
Occupation:	lawyer
Political Party:	Republican
Vice President:	William A. Wheeler

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th (1877 – 1881) President of the United States.

Contents

1 Early political career

2 Presidency

2.1 Election of 1876
2.2 Notable legislation
2.3 Cabinet
2.4 Supreme Court appointments
2.5 Significant events during his presidency

3 Post-Presidency

4 Related articles

5 External links

Early political career

He was a Representative from Ohio prior to his Presidency. He was born in Delaware County, Ohio, October 4, 1822 to Rutherford Hayes and Sophia Birchard. Hayes' father died before Hayes was born. He attended the common schools, the Methodist Academy in Norwalk, Ohio, and the Webb Preparatory School in Middletown, Connecticut. He was graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in August 1842 and from the Harvard Law School in January 1845. He was admitted to the bar May 10, 1845, and commenced practice in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont). He moved to Cincinnati in 1849 and resumed the practice of law. He was city solicitor from 1857 to 1859. He was commissioned a major of the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry , June 27, 1861, lieutenant colonel October 24, 1861, colonel October 24, 1862, brigadier general of Volunteers October 9, 1864 and brevetted major general of Volunteers March 3, 1865.

Hayes was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses and served from March 4, 1865, to July 20, 1867, when he resigned, having been nominated for Governor of Ohio. He was Governor from 1868 to 1872, and an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Forty-third Congress. He was again elected Governor and served from January 1876 to March 2, 1877, when he resigned, having been elected President of the United States. Since March 4, 1877 was a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office in the Red Room of the White House on March 3. He took the oath again publicly on March 5 on the East Portico of the Capitol, and he served until March 3, 1881.

Presidency

Hayes became president after the tumultuous, scandal-ridden years of the Grant administration. He had a reputation for honesty dating back to his Civil War years, when as a major general, he refused to campaign for Congress, saying that any officer, who left his command to run for office "ought to be scalped." As Governor of Ohio, his scrupulousness sometimes dismayed even his political allies, and Hayes was nicknamed "Old Granny." Nevertheless, his opponent in the presidential election, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden was the favorite to win the presidential election and, in fact, won the popular vote by about 250,000 votes (with about 8.5 million voters in total).

Election of 1876

However, as with all elections, the decision was left to the U.S. Electoral College, where the votes of four states were contested. In order to win, the candidates had to muster 185 votes: Tilden was short just one, with 184 votes, Hayes had 165, with 20 votes representing four states were contested. To make matters worse, three of these states (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina) were in the South, which was still under military occupation.

After months of deliberation and bargaining, Southern Democrats were assured that if Hayes were elected, he would pull federal troops out of the south and end Reconstruction. An agreement was made between them and the Republicans -- if Hayes' cabinet consisted of at least one Southerner and he withdrew all Union troups from the South, then he would become president. This is sometimes considered to be a second Corrupt Bargain.

Notable legislation

During his presidency Hayes signed a number of bills including one signed on February 15, 1879 which, for the first time, allowed female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Cabinet


OFFICE	NAME	TERM

President	Rutherford B. Hayes	1877 – 1881
Vice President	William A. Wheeler	1877 – 1881

Secretary of State	William M. Evarts	1877 – 1881
Secretary of the Treasury	John Sherman	1877 – 1881
Secretary of War	George W. McCrary	1877 – 1879
	Alex Ramsey	1879 – 1881
Attorney General	Charles Devens	1877 – 1881
Postmaster General	David M. Key	1877 – 1880
	Horace Maynard	1880 – 1881
Secretary of the Navy	Richard W. Thompson	1877 – 1880
	Nathan Goff, Jr.	1881
Secretary of the Interior	Carl Schurz	1877 – 1881

Supreme Court appointments

Hayes appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

John Marshall Harlan - 1877
William Burnham Woods - 1881

Significant events during his presidency

Post-Presidency

He did not run in 1880, keeping his pledge that he wouldn't run for a second term. He died in Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio, January 17, 1893. Interment was in Oakwood Cemetery. Following the gift of his home to the State of Ohio for the Spiegel Grove State Park he was reinterred there in 1915.

External links

Inaugural Address
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Fremont, Ohio