Rutherford B. Hayes

Republican Party

Prior offices

President of the United States

* * *

Education

Bachelor's

Kenyon College

Law

Harvard Law School

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Army

Years of service

1861 - 1865

Personal

Profession

Politician, Lawyer

Rutherford B. Hayes (b. on October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio) was the 19th President of the United States. He served from 1877 to 1881 and died on January 17, 1893, at the age of 70. Hayes was a member of the Republican Party. He was the second president to win the Electoral College vote without winning the popular vote.

His vice president was William A. Wheeler. Prior to serving as president, Hayes served as governor of Ohio and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to becoming a politician, Hayes practiced law.

## Contents

* 1 Biography
* 1.1 Timeline of life events
* 1.2 Before the presidency
* 1.3 Presidency
* 1.4 Post-presidency
* 1.5 Personal
* 2 Elections
* 2.1 1876 presidential election
* 3 State of the Union addresses
* 4 See also
* 5 External links
* 6 Footnotes

## Biography[edit]

### Timeline of life events[edit]

Below is an abbreviated outline of Hayes' professional and political career:[1]

* 1822: Born in Delaware, Ohio
* 1842: Graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio
* 1845: Admitted to the Ohio bar; earned law degree from Harvard University
* 1845-1849: Practiced law in what is now Fremont, Ohio
* 1850-1861: Practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio
* 1858: Appointed city solicitor of Cincinnati
* 1859: Elected city solicitor of Cincinnati
* 1861: Defeated in his bid to be re-elected city solicitor of Cincinnati
* 1861-1865: Served in the Union Army during the Civil War, achieving the rank of Brevet Major General of Volunteers
* 1864: Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
* 1865-1867: Served in the U.S. House of Representatives (his House service overlapped with his military service)
* 1867: Elected to his first term as governor governor of Ohio
* 1868-1872: Served two terms as governor of Ohio
* 1872: Defeated in his bid to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
* 1875: Elected to his third term as governor of Ohio
* 1876-1877: Served as governor of Ohio
* 1877: Declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election, winning by one electoral vote
* 1877-1881: Served as president of the United States
* 1893: Died in Fremont, Ohio, at the age of 70

### Before the presidency[edit]

Hayes was born on October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio, to Rutherford Hayes, Jr., and Sophia Birchard. Hayes' father died 10 weeks before Hayes was born. In 1838, he enrolled in Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He graduated summa cum laude from Kenyon in 1842. He enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1843. He earned a law degree from Harvard in 1845. From 1845 to 1849, Hayes practiced law in what is now Fremont, Ohio. Beginning in 1850, he practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1]

In 1856, he served as a delegate to the state Republican convention and campaigned for John C. Fremont, the Republicans' candidate for president in 1856. In 1858, he was appointed by the Cincinnati City Council to serve as city solicitor following the death of that office's incumbent. He was elected to a full term as city solicitor in 1859. In 1861, he was defeated in his bid for re-election. On April 15, 1861, Hayes joined the Union Army in response to a call for volunteers issued by the President Abraham Lincoln (R) at the outset of the Civil War. He served through the war's conclusion in 1865, achieving the rank of Brevet Major General of Volunteers.[1][2]

In 1864, Hayes was elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. He assumed office in December 1865. He was re-elected to a second term in 1866, but he resigned in July 1867 to pursue the governorship of Ohio. He was elected and served two terms as governor, from 1868 to 1872. In 1872, he lost the election for his old seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.[1][3]

In 1875, he was elected governor of Ohio for the third time. On June 14, 1876, the Republican Party selected Hayes as the party's nominee for the presidency. On November 7, 1876, Democratic presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote for the presidency but failed to win the requisite 185 electoral votes. Tilden had won 184 votes to Hayes' 165, with 20 votes unresolved. On January 26, 1877, the United States Congress approved the Electoral Count Act, which established an electoral commission to determine how to tally the disputed electoral votes. History.com described the resolution of the election as follows:[1][4]

“  | The commission, which had a Republican majority, chose to award the disputed electoral votes to Hayes. Southern Democrats agreed to back the decision if the Republicans would recall the federal troops that were supporting Reconstruction. At the urging of the Southern Democrats, the Republicans also agreed to appoint at least one Southerner to Hayes’ cabinet. When the commission voted to award all the contested electoral votes to Hayes, he tallied 185 electoral votes to Tilden’s 184. Hayes was declared the winner on March 2, 1877. He took the presidential oath of office in a private ceremony at the White House the next day; a public inauguration followed on March 5.[5] | ”

|
|

—History.com

### Presidency[edit]

During his first year in office, Hayes ordered that federal troops be withdrawn from Louisiana and South Carolina, the final two former Confederate states subject to military occupation at the time Hayes assumed office. The withdrawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina effectively ended the Reconstruction Era, which had commenced at the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865.[1][3][6]

In the summer of 1877, a series of railroad worker strikes occurred, starting on July 17, 1877, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The strikes spread throughout the Northeast and Midwest, impacting railroad operations in a number of states, including Illinois, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Over 100,000 workers participated in these strikes, which constituted the largest labor disturbance in the nation up to that point. Hayes ordered federal troops, under the command of General Winfield Scott Hancock, to break the strikes, protect federal property, and help reopen railways. This marked the first use of federal troops to suppress a strike against a private company.[7][8]

Hayes did not seek re-election to a second term in office. His presidency concluded on March 4, 1881. He was succeeded by James Garfield (R).[1][3][9]

### Post-presidency[edit]

Following his retirement, Hayes served as a trustee on multiple college and university boards, including the Western Reserve University, Mount Union College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and the Ohio State University. In 1883, he became the first president of the National Prison Reform Association. On January 17, 1893, Hayes died of heart failure at his home in Fremont, Ohio, at the age of 70.[1][3]

### Personal[edit]

Hayes was married to Lucy Webb Hayes from 1852 until her death in 1889. Together they had eight children: Birchard Austin, Webb Cook, Rutherford Platt, Joseph Thompson, George Cook, Fanny, Scott Russel, and Manning. All but three (Joseph Thompson, George Cook, and Manning) lived to adulthood.[10]

## Elections[edit]

### 1876 presidential election[edit]

Hayes defeated Samuel Tilden (D) in the 1876 presidential election, though Tilden won the popular vote.

U.S. presidential election, 1876

Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Electoral votes
| Republican  | Rutherford B. Hayes/William Wheeler | 47.9% | 4,034,142 | 185
| Democratic  |  Samuel Tilden/Thomas Hendricks  | 50.9% | 4,286,808 | 184
| Greenback  |  Peter Cooper/Samuel Cary  | 1% | 83,726 | 0
| Other  |  N/A  | 0.2% | 13,983 | 0
Total Votes | 8,418,659 | 369
Election results via: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

## State of the Union addresses[edit]

Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs and the administration's goals for the coming year. Below are transcripts of Hayes' State of the Union addresses:[11]

* December 3, 1877
* December 2, 1878
* December 1, 1879
* December 6, 1880

## See also[edit]

* Ulysses Grant
* James Garfield
* Ohio
* Federal judges nominated by Rutherford B. Hayes

## External links[edit]

* Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums
* Official White House biography
* C-Span video on the life and career of Rutherford B. Hayes

## Footnotes[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, "A Chronology of Rutherford B. Hayes Life," accessed June 15, 2018
2. ↑ The White House, "Rutherford B. Hayes," accessed June 15, 2018
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 History, "Rutherford B. Hayes," accessed June 15, 2018
4. ↑ 270 to Win, "1876 Presidential Election," accessed June 15, 2018
5. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
6. ↑ History, "Reconstruction," accessed June 15, 2018
7. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Great Railroad Strike of 1877," accessed June 15, 2018
8. ↑ Ohio History Central, "Great Railroad Strike of 1877," accessed June 15, 2018
9. ↑ History, "Reconstruction," accessed June 15, 2018
10. ↑ Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, "Hayes Children," accessed June 15, 2018
11. ↑ Congressional Research Service, "The President’s State of the Union Address: Tradition, Function, and Policy Implications," January 24, 2014

Political offices

Preceded by
Ulysses Grant (R) | President of the United States
1877-1881-1865  | Succeeded by
James Garfield (R)

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