posted 3/1/09
 

Rediscovering Rutherford

by Rick Sense
Editor of The Inside Scoop

 

Rutherford B. Hayes is not exactly a household name to most Americans.  American president, Civil War hero, Ohio governor, husband and father, Hayes was an interesting man and someone whom Americans should become reacquainted.  I had the good fortune of re-discovering the life of our country’s 19^th President at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio this past week on a return drive from Washington, D.C.

General Hayes
(Photo used by permission of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center)

The Hayes complex is located on a wooded 25 acre parcel on the President’s original estate.  The Hayes home is a 31 room mansion and is the centerpiece of the Hayes Presidential Center.  In addition to the Hayes’ residence, the complex contains a museum that houses more than 17,000 3-dimensional objects and more than 30,000 images of these objects.  Additionally, an onsite presidential library, the first in the United States, preserves President Hayes' 12,000-volume personal library along with archival material from his military and political career, particularly his presidency from 1877-1881. Over the years, the staff has expanded the collection to over 70,000 books which reflect Hayes' special interests, including genealogy and local history, and the Gilded Age period in which he lived.

A quick drive off the Ohio Turnpike, my experience at the Hayes Presidential Center was very enjoyable and educational.  The museum provides insight into the life of Hayes and his wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, that cover their lives spent in Ohio and Washington, D.C.  Some of the unique pieces include the chairs used by Hayes, and Ulysses S. Grant at Hayes’ presidential inauguration, Hayes’ Presidential Carriage, and the Bible he used when taking the oath of office as President of the United States.  Two of the more interesting chapters of his life are also explored in detail; the first-his military service and how it was more important to Hayes than his political aspirations and the second-the disputed election of 1876.

When the Civil War began, Hayes volunteered to serve the state of Ohio.  Then Governor William Dennison appointed Hayes to the rank of major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and Hayes quickly rose to the rank of major general.  He was severely wounded on September 14, 1862, at the Battle of South Mountain and was wounded a total of four times, the most of any president.  In 1864, while still in the army, Hayes was elected to Congress despite his refusal to campaign.  Hayes wrote in his extensive diary that “an officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped.”  Hayes did not take his seat until the Union had won the war.

Twelve short years later in the election of 1876, the Republicans nominated Hayes, then governor of Ohio, as their presidential nominee while the Democrats, out of power since 1861, selected Samuel J. Tilden, the governor of New York.  The initial returns pointed to a Tilden victory, as the Democrats captured the swing states of Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York. By midnight on Election Day, Tilden had 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win.  He led the popular vote by 250,000.

But Republicans refused to accept the result.  They accused the Democrats of using physical intimidation and bribery to discourage African Americans from voting in the South.

The final outcome hinged on the disputed results in four states--Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina--which prevented either candidate from securing a majority of electoral votes.

Republicans accused Democrats in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina of refusing to count African American and other Republican votes.  Democrats, in turn, accused Republicans of ignoring many Tilden votes.  In Florida, the Republicans claimed to have won by 922 votes out of about 47,000 cast.  The Democrats claimed a 94 vote victory.  Democrats charged that Republicans had ruined ballots in one pro-Tilden Florida precinct by smearing them with ink.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Oregon acknowledged that Hayes had carried the state.  But when the Democratic governor learned that one of the Republican electors was a federal employee and ineligible to serve as an elector, he replaced him with a Democratic elector.  The Republican elector, however, resigned his position as a postmaster and claimed the right to cast his ballot for Hayes.

Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina each submitted two sets of electoral returns to Congress with different results.  To resolve the dispute, Congress, in January 1877, established an electoral commission made up of five U.S. representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices.  The justices included two Democrats, two Republicans, and Justice David Davis, who was considered to be independent.  But before the commission could render a decision, Democrats in the Illinois legislature, under pressure from a nephew of Samuel Tilden, elected Davis to the U.S. Senate, in hopes that this would encourage Davis to support the Democrat.  Instead, Davis recused himself and was replaced by Justice Joseph Bradley.

Bradley was a Republican, but he was considered one of the court's least political members.  In the end, however, he voted with the Republicans.  A Democrat representative from New York, Abraham Hewitt, later claimed that Bradley was visited at home by a Republican Senator on the commission, who argued that "whatever the strict legal equities, it would be a national disaster if the government fell into Democratic hands."

Bradley's vote produced an eight-to-seven ruling, along straight party lines, to award all the disputed elector votes to Rutherford B. Hayes.  This result produced such acrimony that many feared it would incite a second civil war.

Democrats threatened to filibuster the official counting of the electoral votes to prevent Hayes from assuming the presidency.

At a meeting in February 1877 at Washington, D.C.'s Wormley Hotel (which was operated by an African American), Democratic leaders accepted Hayes's election in exchange for Republican promises to withdraw federal troops from the South, provide federal funding for internal improvements in the South, and name a prominent Southerner to the president's cabinet.  When the federal troops were withdrawn, the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina collapsed, bringing Reconstruction to a formal end.

In addition to the museum, my $10.50 ticket (a solid value) also included a tour of the Hayes home-Spiegel Grove.  To my good fortune, I was the only person that took the 3:15pm tour.  Normally about 25 minutes in length, my guide, Bill Pearce, provided me with a nearly 90 minute tour of the mansion.  Bill provided me with unique insight and allowed me many opportunities to ask questions about the home and the Hayes’ time in Ohio.

Spiegel Grove
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Home

Bill relayed that the home is currently undergoing restoration that is aimed at returning it to the state it was in during the Hayes’ time at Spiegel Grove.  In one room, still open to visitors, exposed walls, doors and door frames reveal the beauty of the wood used in the home.

Bill Pearce

Some of the unique items within the home include a life sized portrait of President Hayes, Hayes’ collection of photographs from his days in the military, and in public life that are still hanging in his personal library, a crank telephone with the accompanying one page telephone directory listing General Hayes (not President Hayes) and his telephone number.  The furniture pieces are beautifully maintained and include two pierces obtained during a “yard sale” by President Chester A. Arthur whom, coincidently, Hayes had fired from his post as the Collector for the Port of New York at the New York Customs House while Hayes worked to end patronage during his administration.

Rediscovering Rutherford B. Hayes through the Hayes Presidential Center was truly worth the time and was made even more worthwhile by the wealth of information provided by Bill Pearce during my tour of Spiegel Grove.  I encourage anyone finding themselves within the vicinity of Fremont, Ohio to make the stop and discover the life and times of our 19^th president.

For more information visit www.rbhayes.org.