338 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES.*
BY REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., LL. D.
We have studied here, more than once, the lesson of some
great life. In no other form does Truth present herself with so
much quickening for the intellect, with so much invigoration of
the will. For this reason chiefly was the Word made flesh. All
highest revelation to men must come through the form of a man.
The story of a life worthily lived is more convincing than logic,
more instructive than philosophy; it carries an element which
transcends all the formularies of science; it contains within it-
self all that gives the moving thrill to music, and immortality to
verse.
Thrice, already, since the summer rest, have we been in-
vited to such a sympathetic study of great lives that had sud-
denly ceased from among us: The editor and essayist, Curtis;
our Quaker poet, Whittier; the laureate of England, Tennyson.
To-night we are called together to reflect for an hour upon the
meaning of a life whose sudden termination has brought to this
commonwealth and this nation a great bereavement. To the
people of Ohio, and especially to the people of Columbus, the
death of President Hayes comes a great deal closer than that of
either of the notable men whom I have named. To them our
debt was large, but it was mainly intellectual. For the enrich-
ing of our minds, for the quickening of our better purposes we
owed them much. But President Hayes has been our neighbor
and our friend; he has walked with us by the way; he has
* Rutherford B. Hayes became an interested and active member of
the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society soon after its organization
in 1885. In 1890 he was made a life member and at the meeting of the
Society held in Chicago, Ill., October 19, 1892, he was elected a trustee and
president. He served in that office till his death, January 17, 1893. Mr.
Hayes regarded the Society as the agent of a most deserving and valuable
work. He had many plans for the greater development and accomplish-
ment of the purposes of the Society. His untimely death was a loss to
the Society as it was to the many public organizations to which he was
so unselfishly devoting his wise and noble energies.- E. O. R.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 339
talked with us at our firesides; in our
public assemblies he was a
not unwonted, and always welcome
presence; in a great many
of the concerns in which our hearts were
most engaged, he was
our wise counsellor and stanch helper;
the abrupt and unex-
pected cessation of a force like this is
a real shock to our
community; and the absence of such a
comrade from our toil,
of such a friend from our familiar
circles, brings a sense of
personal loss and loneliness.
I have named him the Great Commoner.
This title was
given first to William Pitt, in the days
before he was Earl of
Chatham; it was the popular tribute to a
lofty spirit who was
"the first to discern," as one
of his biographers phrases it, "that
public opinion, though generally slow to
form and slow to act, is
in the end the paramount power in the
state; and the first to use
it, not in an emergency merely, but
throughout a long political
career." William Pitt was the Great
Commoner so long as he
kept in touch with the people; no man
ever had greater power in
England; he was put at the head of the
greatest ministry that
ever ruled England, not because king or
parliament wished it,
but because the people would have it.
Years afterward, when
he suffered himself to be elevated to
the peerage, he came down
from his throne. The title has descended
to the man who is now
prime minister of England, and who has
won it very much as
Pitt first won it, by identifying
himself with the people.
Warned by the fate of Pitt, it is not at
all probable that
Gladstone will ever be tempted to
exchange for the bauble of
a peerage that place which he holds in
the hearts of his
countrymen.
Our own Great Commoner has won the title
by the same
qualities. He, too, was essentially and
pre-eminently a man of
the people. From the common people he
rose, and he never
rose above them. That persistent
determination of his to walk
in the ranks of Grand Army parades has
been censured by some
as affectation. But to President Hayes
it was the simple ex-
pression of a fact which he would
neither deny nor ignore. He
was a plain citizen, nothing more; he
would not masquerade
as anything else. While he held the
chief magistracy of the na-
tion he magnified the office; when he
laid it down he returned to
340 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
his place. He knew the dignity of
office; he knew, also, the
dignity of private citizenship.
The relations of President Hayes to the
Commonwealth
of Ohio are, as I have said, peculiarly
intimate. He was born
upon her soil; most of his education was
gained in her schools;
all his professional life was spent in
this State; the troops that he
led in the war of the rebellion were
nearly all Ohio soldiers;
Ohio sent him to represent her in the
National Congress, and
thrice made him her Governor; it was
from the capital of Ohio
that he was translated to the
White-house at Washington; and
since he laid aside the arduous burdens
of government, this
State has been his constant home. To
multitudes in other
States his great services have endeared
him; but Ohio has the
largest share in his renown. I think it
must be allowed that
he was her greatest citizen-the finest
product, on the whole,
of her century of history. This is a
large claim, but I advance
it with some confidence. When the future
historian comes
to test by the standards of impartial
criticism, the characters
and the services of the men of Ohio who
have been at the front
in the nineteenth century, I think that
the name of Rutherford
Birchard Hayes will lead all the rest.
Grant and Sherman and
Sheridan were greater generals; Garfield
was a greater genius,
and there have been greater orators and
greater jurists and
greater educators; but take him all in
all, for an all-round man-
citizen, soldier, statesman, scholar,
man of books, man of brains,
man of affairs, husband, father,
philanthropist, neighbor, friend,
there is not another who will measure
quite as large as the good
man who has just gone.
I have named Garfield; there is a
somewhat striking parallel
between the origin of these two Ohio
Presidents. Abram Gar-
field came, with a little family, from
Central New York to Cuya-
hoga County in 1830; made a fairly
prosperous beginning of a
home there and suddenly died, leaving a
widow with four young
children, the youngest of whom, then but
two years old, was to
be the future President.
Rutherford Hayes, a thrifty farmer and
trader of Vermont,
came to Ohio in 1817 and settled in
Delaware where, after five
years of successful industry, he died
leaving a wife and two chil-
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 341
dren. Three months after his father's
untimely death, Ruther-
ford Birchard Hayes was born.
Neither of these boys ever knew a
father's care, but each
had a courageous and devoted mother, and
owed the best part
of his character to her influence.
The home of the Garfields, after the
death of the father,
was for years the abode of pinching
penury; there were months
when the only food was the meal of
Indian corn, and when the
mother went supperless to bed that the children
might not be
hungry. From such want as this the
children left fatherless in
the Delaware home did not suffer; enough
was left to keep them
in comfort, and although frugality was
necessary, there was
always plenty. The unmarried brother of
Mrs. Hayes, Sardis
Birchard, a man of refined taste, of
great public spirit, and of
ample means, was her good counselor and
the guardian of her
children. It was the fortune of this
uncle which, in later life,
President Hayes received by bequest; it
was in the home built
by his uncle in Fremont that the
President has lived since 1874.
Not long after her husband's death the
eldest son of Mrs.
Hayes was drowned, and there were left
to the widow only two
of her children. With the sister, who
was only a year or two
his senior, Rutherford Hayes grew up in
a most dear and tender
affection. The family lived in a plain
brick house in the village
of Delaware, but there was a farm in the
vicinity from which
they drew many of their supplies, and to
which the children
were always fond of resorting. Mr.
Howells's sketch of these
early years will bear reciting:
"The greatest joys of a happy
childhood were the visits the
brother and sister made to the farm in
the sugar season, in cherry
time, and when the walnuts and hickory
nuts were ripe; and its
greatest cross was the want of
children's books, with which the
village lawyer's family was supplied.
When the uncle Birchard
began in business he satisfied their
heart's desire for this kind of
literature, and books of a grave and
mature sort seem to have
always abounded with them. They read
Hume's and Smollett's
English history together; the sister of
twelve years interpreted
Shakespeare to the brother of ten; they
read the poetry of Mr.
Thomas Moore (then so much finer and
grander than now), and
342 Ohio
Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL.
4
they paid Sir Walter Scott the tribute
of dramatizing together
his 'Lady of the Lake,' and were duly
astonished and dismayed
to learn afterwards that they were not
the sole inventors of the
dramatization of poems-that even their
admired 'Lady of the
Lake' had long been upon the stage. The
influence of an older
sister upon a generous and manly boy is
always very great; and
it is largely to this sister's unfailing
instincts and ardent enthu-
siasm for books that her brother [owed]
his life-long pleasure in
the best literature. She not only read
with him, she studied at
home the same lessons in Latin and Greek
which he recited
privately to a gentleman of the place
[it was Judge Sherman
Finch, of Delaware, with whom the lad
began these studies];
she longed to be a boy, that she might
go to college with him.
In the futile way she must, so remote
from all instruction, she
strove to improve herself in drawing and
painting. One of the
first schoolmasters was Daniel Granger,
'a little, thin, wiry
Yankee, of terrible presence, but of
good enough heart, whom
the love he bore to learning obliged to
flog boys of twice his
own bulk, with furious threats of
throwing them through the
school-house walls, and of making them
'dance like parched
peas'-which dreadful behavior and
menaces 'rendered all the
younger children horribly afraid of
him,' and perhaps did not
so much advance the brother's and
sister's education as their
private studies and reading had done;
that is frequently the
result of a too athletic zeal for
letters on the part of instructors.
The children were not separated for any
length of time until the
brother's fourteenth year, when he went
away to the Academy
at Norwalk, Ohio, and after that they
were little together during
his preparation for college in
Middletown, Connecticut, and his
college years at Kenyon College, Ohio.
But throughout this
time they wrote regularly to each other;
she took the deepest
interest in all his studies; their
devoted affection continued in
their maturer life, and when her death
parted them it left him
with the sorrow of an irreparable
loss."
The Middletown principal strongly urged
that Rutherford
should go to Yale; but in the family
councils it was judged in-
expedient. The necessary expense at New Haven, said the
Connecticut dominie, including
everything except clothing and
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 343
pocket money, would range from $150 to
$200. That was in
1838. The frugality of the family life
is indicated by the fact
that so much as this could not well be
spared, though it is prob-
able that the wish to see the boy a
little oftener than would be
possible in that banishment, helped to
fix his location as a
student at Kenyon College. His
preparation for college had
been thorough, and he took up the work
of the Freshman year
with no sense of a burden. I must find
room here for another
bright paragraph from Mr. Howells:
"His fellow students of that day
remember his overflowing
jolity and drollery more distinctly than
his ardor in study,
though his standing was always good.
Even in the serious
shades of Middletown his mirthful spirit
and his love of humor
bubbled over into his exercise books,
where his translations from
Homer are interspersed with mock-heroic
law-pleas from West-
ern courts-evidently transcribed from
newspapers-and every
sort of grotesque extravagance in prose
or rhyme. The in-
creased dignity of a collegian seems to
have rebuked this school-
boy fondness for crude humor; a
commonplace book of the most
unexceptionable excerpts from classic
authors of various lan-
guages records the taste of this time,
and the reflections on ab-
stract questions in young Hayes's
journals are commonly of that
final wisdom which the experience of
mankind has taught us to
expect in the speculations of Freshmen
and Sophomores. They
are good fellows, hearty, happy, running
over with pranks and
jests, and joyous and original in
everything but their philosophy,
which must be forgiven them for the sake
of the many people
who remain Sophomores all their lives.
Hayes was a boy who
loved all honest manly sports. He was a
capital shot with the
rifle, and he allowed a due share of his
time to hunting, as well
as fishing-to which he was even more
devoted-swimming
and skating."
At the first Christmas vacation he
walked home-forty
miles--in twelve hours; and after
Christmas returned on foot to
college through snow four inches deep.
It was a vigorous lad
of sixteen who could venture on a feat
like that. It reminds us
of Carlyle trudging from Annandale to
Edinburgh, in his college
days; and gives us a glimpse of the
hardships undergone by
344 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL.
4
college boys of a day not very remote,
in pursuit of education.
The path is easier in these days; I
wonder if the prize at the
end of it is worth as much now as it was
then? That discipline
of heroic effort and heroic sacrifice-I
wonder if anything in
the great laboratories, and the great
libraries, and the multi-
farious courses of instruction, quite
makes up for the lack
of that.
Young Hayes was a jovial comrade and a
vigorous lover of
out-door life, but he was a good
student. His diary shows how
seriously he takes himself in hand; how
frankly he recognizes
his own defects and foibles and sets
himself to mend them; how
eagerly he looks forward to the life
before him. He is going to
be a lawyer, and he sees that that means
hard work; but he is
not afraid of it. Political contests
interest him keenly; he does
not disguise from himself the fact that
he may take part in them
by and by, nor does he blush to own to
himself that he has
aspirations for service in this line.
But there are a few sentences
from this college boy's journal which
possess great significance,
for they contain the master light of all
his seeing. "The repu-
tation which I desire," he says,
"is not that momentary eminence
which is gained without merit and lost
without regret;" and
then he copies and adopts this golden
maxim: " Give me the
popularity that runs after, not that
which is sought for." It
was the elder Pitt-the Great Commoner of
England--who said
that first, but hardly lived up to it.
The Great Commoner of
Ohio made the sentiment his own in his
boyhood, and never
swerved from it to the end of his life.
He never held an office
to which he asked any man to nominate
him; he never wore an
honor that was not freely conferred upon
him. He could no
more have been an office-seeker than he
could have been a pick-
pocket. Every instinct of his nature
would have revolted at
the suggestion that he enter the
political field as a candidate and
try to capture a nomination.
This might serve to indicate the temper
and quality of this
jovial-hearted, serious-minded,
high-spirited boy. But there is
another little sketch written by one who
was in college with him
that I must let you see.
"Hayes was the champion in college
in debate, class-section,
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 345
and in the foot-path; cheerful,
sanguine, and confident of the
future, never seeing cause for
desponding; was a young man of
substantial physique; in my whole
acquaintance I never knew
of his being sick one day, and so free
from any weaknesses as to
seem indefatigable. His greatest
amusements were fishing and
chess. In company he was humorous to
hilarity; told quick,
pungent stories, many of which I
remember with laughter to
this day; took things as they came; used
to laugh at the shape
of our boarding-house roast beef, but
still ate.
"I do not think he had many
intimate friends. Those with
whom he was intimate were, and still
are, the best men of my
acquaintance. I don't remember a single
man with whom he
was intimate but that has been
successful in his vocation. * * *
In his political labors I am sure he
never entangled himself by
promises, or by such intimacies as to
bind him, but never shrank
from tackling any subject or measure of
policy when brought to
him. He never walked around anything,
but took it by the
horns and shook it, or was shaken. I
think him a square speci-
men of an Anglo-Saxon honest man,
stubbornly square in his
views; of simple ideas of life; that is,
he had such ideas as
would make him prefer heaping round
measure of good to pre-
tension and false appearances.
"The independence of his character
was shown on com-
mencement day at Kenyon. He was
valedictorian, and I remem-
ber how grand he looked in my boy eyes,
because he was not
able to have splendid new clothes, and
was independent enough
to do without. That was the first
impression made on my mind
evidencing a pure, thorough
self-sacrifice. I was but sixteen
years old, and I think I see him now,
with what we knew then
as a box-coat with side-pockets, when
all the rest were dressed
in new black cloth frock-coats."
Any one with an eye for a man will
detect one here, I think,
in this twenty-year-old boy stepping out
of college at the head
of his class, with a dignity and force
of character that doesn't
need to borrow much from the tailor or
the dancing-master. He
is at the head thus far, and I don't
think that we shall look for
him in the rear at any point in the
march.
From Kenyon he comes to Columbus, and
here began, in
346 0hio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL.
4
1842, his law studies in the office of
Sparrow & Matthews, keep-
ing his hold on the good literature all
the while, and beginning,
also, the study of German. After ten months of this private
study, good fortune sends him to the
Harvard law school, where
the attraction, mentioned in his diary,
was "the instruction of
those eminent jurists and teachers,
Story and Greenleaf." Rare,
indeed, was the opportunity of personal
contact with these giants
of jurisprudence, whom the law student
of to-day can know only
through the desiccated medium of
treatises and text books. The
sketches of these two great characters,
and of their methods of
instruction, which we find in his diary,
show how deep was the
impression which they made upon his
mind. To Story, especially,
does he continually return, with notes
of admiration for the ver-
satility, the humor, the unstudied
eloquence, above all the lofty
ideality and conscientiousness of the
jurist. It was much more
than a good knowledge of law that he
gained in this school-he
gained, also, the confirmation and
enlargement of all the best
purposes of his life.
In the stimulating literary atmosphere
of Cambridge and
Boston his tastes are gratified; he
hears lectures by Mr. Long-
fellow on literature; he listens to Mr.
Bancroft, and President
Sparks, and Richard Henry Dana; at the
political meetings, where
Webster, and Choate, and Winthrop, and
John Quincy Adams
are speakers, he is an eager and
observant auditor. In 1844 his
studies are completed; he is admitted to
the bar, and begins the
practice of the law in company with Mr.
Ralph P. Buckland, in
Fremont, then known as Lower Sandusky.
But the overwork of the last few years
had told upon him,
and there were grave signs of pulmonary
trouble. He was com-
pelled, very speedily, to give up all
work, and to betake himself
to the sunny South, where, with an old
Texan class-mate, a few
months of out-of-door life brought him
perfect restoration. Re-
turning, he paused for a few days at
Cincinnati, and then deter-
mined to make it his home. Another law
partnership was
formed, and the young man sat down, his
law books supple-
mented always by the best literature of
the day, and waited for
the coming clients. The young lawyer is
apt to have plenty of
time to review his legal studies; but
not every young lawyer
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 347
finds so much recreation in other good
books as young Hayes
seems to have done. He was soon a member
of a famous literary
club of Cincinnati, including men like
Chase, and Corwin, and
Ewing, and Hoadley, and Stanley
Matthews; and the meetings
of the club were full of mental
invigoration and refreshment.
Presently, the clients began to arrive
-not in troops, of course,
but with encouraging frequency. A
notable case that soon
occurred was that of a poor,
under-witted creature, Nancy Farrer,
who had been made the dupe and tool of a
fiend, and under his
instigation had poisoned several
persons. To her defense he
was assigned by the Court. Mr. Hayes
believed her to be men-
tally incapable of crime, and gave
himself with all his energies
to the task of saving her life. At the
first trial she was con-
victed, but a writ of error was granted,
and in the Supreme Court
his plea was triumphant; the judgment of
the court below was
reversed; the prisoner was granted a new
trial; but before that
could take place an inquest of lunacy
pronounced the poor crea-
ture insane, and she was sent to the
asylum. This victory gave
Mr. Hayes much reputation, and his
practice soon began to in-
crease.
It was about this time, in December,
1852, that he was mar-
ried to Miss Lucy Ware Webb, of
Cincinnati. Of a life that was
full of felicities, this was the one
most benignant fortune. Rarely,
I suppose, has any wedded pair been more
happily mated; each
found in the other all that choice could
compass or heart could
crave; and the home set up forty years
ago in Cincinnati came
about as near to the ideal as we are apt
to come in America.
Many of you knew Mrs. Hayes, as I did
not; and I will not at-
tempt her portraiture. But the whole
nation knows her as one
of the noblest of our matrons,
illustrious for her grace, her win-
ning kindness, her lofty character;
worthy to rank with Martha
Washington and Abigail Adams, among the
highest types of
American womanhood. Rutherford Birchard
Hayes was a pretty
well-built man already, but this
marriage brought him a great
reinforcement. To such an influence as
this his mind was open;
and it is perfectly safe to say that to
whatever was lofty in his
aims or heroic in his endeavors the
judgment of his wife gave
confirmation and support.
348 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
In the Fremont campaign Mr. Hayes was an
active partici-
pant, and a mourner, of course, at the
Pathfinder's defeat. When
the next campaign came on he threw
himself into it with new
ardor, and hailed the election of
Lincoln as the beginning of the
end.
And when Sumter fell and the first call for troops was
heard, his answer was prompt and clear.
"Judge Matthews and
I," so he wrote on May 15, 1861,
"have agreed to go into the
service for the war-if possible, into
the same regiment. I spoke
my feelings to him, which he said were
his own, that this was a
great and necessary war, and that it
demanded the whole power
of the country; that I would prefer
to go into it, if I knew that I
was to be killed in the course of it rather than to live through and
after it without taking any part in
it."
Soon a Colonel's commission came to him
from President
Lincoln-probably at the suggestion of
Secretary Chase; but he
sent it back; he knew he was not yet fit
to lead a regiment; he
would begin lower. Meantime he was
studying Hardee dili-
gently, and in a few weeks a Major's
commission came to him
from Governor Dennison, assigning him to
the Twenty-third
Ohio, whose Colonel was Rosecrans, and
whose Lieutenant
Colonel was Stanley Matthews. Two days
later he was here at
Camp Chase; and by July 25 the regiment,
raw enough, doubt-
less, was on its way to West Virginia.
I cannot tell the story of that faithful
and heroic service.
It is enough to say that Rutherford
Hayes proved himself a
clear headed, capable officer, and a
gallant leader of men. Cool
and unimpassioned as he ordinarily
seemed, he was a dashing
leader of a charge, and his bravery on
many a hotly contested
field was amply demonstrated. Four times
he was wounded-
once or twice severely; but he never
left the field while he had
strength to stand. He never sought
promotion, but his service
demanded it, and the end of the war
found him wearing the
epaulettes of a Major General by brevet.
In the last year of the war, he was
nominated for Congress
while in the field, and somebody was so
infelicitous as to propose
to him that he get a leave of absence
and come home and stump
his district. "Your
suggestion," he answered, "was certainly
made without reflection. An officer fit
for duty, who at this
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 349
crisis would abandon his post to
electioneer for Congress, ought
to be scalped. You may feel perfectly
sure I shall do no such
thing." He was elected,
nevertheless; but he did not take his
seat until the war was over, and his
soldiers were mustered out
of the service.
It was in December, 1865, that he first
assumed the duties
of Representative at Washington, and at
once began, in his
quiet, unostentatious way, to serve his
country. As Chairman
of the Library Committee, his care was
given to the perfection
of that great instrument of knowledge;
"chiefly by his efforts
the space and material were increased
threefold." He made few
speeches; to one who wrote urging that
he add to the wordy
deluge, he answered curtly: "I am
disgusted at the shameful
waste of time and patience the so-called
orators of Washington
make." Before the end of his term
he was renominated by
acclamation, and re-elected by a
majority greater than that of
any other candidate upon his ticket. But
Ohio had other work
for him, and much against his own will
he was called out of
Congress in 1867 to lead his party as
its candidate for Governor
in a contest with the strongest opponent
in the State, our
distinguished townsman, the Honorable A.
G. Thurman.
Victory in such a combat was surely a
mark of distinction. In
1869 he was renominated, again by
acclamation; and again was
successful against no less an antagonist
than the Honorable
George H. Pendleton. At the close of
this period he returned
for four years to private life; when he
was again, after the most
positive refusal to permit the use of
his name as a candidate,
dragged from his retirement in Fremont,
and elected for the
third time Governor, this time over
another very strong oppo-
nent, the Honorable William Allen. It
was this victory that
made him President. His reputation had
by this time become
national; the people of the nation had
come to understand some-
thing of his straight-forward honesty
and devotion to principle;
and although there were presented to the
Convention of 1876, quite
a number of names of gentlemen who had
claims upon the office,
and who had compassed sea and land, to
secure the nomination,
the one man who had not lifted his
finger to gain it was chosen
in their stead.
350 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
Of the painful contest which finally put
General Hayes in
possession of the Presidency, it is not
fitting that I should speak
in this place, at any length. For many
months the result of the
election was left in doubt, and party
passion was so inflamed
that there was danger of revolution.
Opinions formed under
such circumstances are not apt to be
judicial; and it is not easy
for men on one side to get the point of
view of their opponents.
President Hayes has been bitterly
censured, by a few persons,
ever since that day, for accepting an
office which was tainted
with fraud. For my own part, with the
most sincere desire to
preserve in the whole controversy a
judicial frame of mind, and
with grave doubts, all the while, as to
whether his election was
beyond question, I thought at the time,
and have always
thought, that General Hayes did exactly
what he ought to have
done; that his good sense and his
patriotism were never more
manifest than when he accepted, without
hesitation, the office by
law conferred upon him, and proceeded
without faltering to
discharge its duties.
It must be remembered that the question
of the real rights
in this case was a very difficult one.
On one side the suffrage
had been tainted by stupendous fraud; on
the other it had been
perverted by shameful violence. Which
was the greater wrong,
I do not believe that an archangel could
have told. But, after
anxious days, the Congress had
determined upon a method by
which the dispute should be settled. The
tribunal thus created
was certainly a legal tribunal, the
highest in the land. By that
tribunal the office was given to General
Hayes. What could he
do but take it? To refuse it would have
been to invite revolu-
tion and anarchy.
I beg to quote, in this connection, what
I wrote and pub-
lished at the time respecting this
unhappy business: "To prove
that one of these candidates is not
entitled to the electoral vote
of either of these States is not to
prove that the other candidate
is entitled to it. The election was
vitiated in several States by
fraud and intimidation. And it would be
difficult for a perfectly
unprejudiced judge to determine which of
the two candidates
had the better moral right to the
office.
"When, therefore, it is demanded
that Mr. Hayes shall
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 351
resign because his title to the
Presidency is tainted with fraud,
the question arises whether anybody has
a better title. Doubt-
less the irregularity of this process by
which he was put in power
has greatly distressed him, as it has
distressed all patriotic citi-
zens. But the last election was, in
fact, no election. Who was
rightfully the President it was
impossible to determine. Some-
body must be invested with the office.
And the Congress at
length agreed upon a plan by which the
matter should be settled.
By that plan Mr. Hayes was designated.
His legal right to the
office is as good as the National
Legislature and the Supreme
Court can make it. His moral right is as
good as that of Mr.
Tilden, and better than that of anybody
else."
This statement may not express the
opinions of all honest
men; but it expresses the opinion of one
who tried hard to see
the rights of the case; and I have no
doubt that this was sub-
stantially the view which President
Hayes took of the situation.
That his acceptance of the Presidency
was regarded by him as a
patriotic duty, nobody who knew him
could question.
The only utterance of his during that
exciting controversy
was a private letter to Senator Sherman,
afterwards published:
" You feel, I am sure, as I do
about this whole business. A
fair election would have given us about
forty electoral votes at
the South -at least that
many. But we are not to allow our
friends to defeat one outrage and fraud
by another. There must
be nothing crooked on our part. Let Mr.
Tilden have the place
by violence, intimidation, and fraud,
rather than undertake to
prevent it by means that will not bear
the strictest scrutiny."
It was not possible for Rutherford Hayes
to say anything
else but that, or to do anything which
was essentially contrary
to that.
How manfully he took up the duties of
his high office, and
with what patience, firmness, and
courage he discharged them,
there is no time now to tell. That the
administration of Mr.
Hayes was in all respects the ablest,
the purest, and the most
suecessful administration that this
country has had since the
death of Abraham Lincoln is an opinion
for which I am prepared
to give good reasons. The reins of
government were placed in
his hands at a time of the greatest
difficulty; every influence was
352 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
hostile; his party was in a minority in
both houses of Congress;
his exasperated opponents were by no
means loth to hamper and
cripple him; and against all these
discouragements he steadily
carried forward his administration on
firm lines of well-chosen
policy until he had won the confidence
of the whole American
people.
"The President," says one biographer, "found the
country greatly agitated by antagonisms
and alarms; its cur-
rency debased; its industry and trade
depressed, and its credit
unsettled, and subject to the issue of
an existing crisis unprece-
dented in its bearings. He left it at
peace in all sections, with a
currency unequalled in stability and
abundance; with industries
and trade in all branches at the maximum
of healthful activity,
and with the public credit higher than
ever before, at home and
abroad, and second to that of no other
nation."
One of the most distinguished supporters
of Mr. Tilden was
Charles Francis Adams, Jr. After the
close of the Hayes admin-
istration, Mr. Adams, speaking at a
meeting of the Reform Club
in New York, volunteered this testimony:
" President Hayes was no choice of
mine. I did not vote
for him. I never considered him honestly
elected, though he was
legally inaugurated. Still, bygones are
bygones, and as a fair-
minded man I gladly and publicly concede
that President Hayes's
administration, taken as a whole, has
been no less honorable
to himself than creditable to the country.
It has been cleanly
and honest and of good repute. That, in
some respects, it has
fallen short of its own great promises,
is apparent to all the
world. But that is of course. It could
not have been other-
wise, for it promised the impracticable.
Taken as a whole, how-
ever, it has been an administration
which will bear comparison
with the best and purest of those which
have preceded it, and it
is an administration which the great
mass of those who mind their
own business would be glad to have
continued for the next four
years."
The friends of President Hayes can
afford to let a sober
verdict like that stand as the
sufficient answer to the vilification
of those creatures who pursued him with
their malice while he
lived and now crawl forth to spit their
venom on his new-made
grave. There is a class of miscreants in
whom a character like
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 353
that of Rutherford B. Hayes awakens an
instinctive antagonism.
Their abuse is the unfailing meed of
every honorable character.
They are as sure to fly into a passion
at the sight of a good man
as the devils were to cry out when the
Man of Nazareth ap-
peared. One of the highest credentials
of Mr. Hayes to the
possession of an unsullied character is
the fiendish malignity
with which in certain quarters he has
been pursued and assailed.
Let me seek, now, in a few closing
paragraphs, to set forth
what seem to me the elements of his
greatness.
And first, I would name the simple
dignity and manliness
of his habitual conduct. There was no
surplusage of manners;
there was always just the simple,
sincere, unpretentious gentle-
man. "Nor does he," said one
who knew him well, "wear a
smirking face, as if he were a candidate
for admiration; but a
fine sunny countenance, such as men and
women respect and
children love. He doesn't run to meet
you, and call you 'my
very dear sir!' He takes you by the
hand, with a cordial kind-
ness which recognizes the universal
brotherhood of man, and im-
presses you that he is a man who gets
above nobody, and nobody
gets above him." An old citizen of
Columbus, who has always
been radically opposed to President
Hayes in politics, said yester-
day: "I have always loved Hayes,
ever since he was here in the
Governor's office. I was a clerk in one
of the departments in
the State House then; and whenever he
wanted any information
in the office, instead of sending a
messenger, and ordering some-
body to hunt it up for him, he was apt
to come round himself,
and sit down by the clerk, and look
matters over with him, in a
perfectly friendly, unpretending way. He
put on no airs because
he was Governor; he was just a man like
all the rest of us; and
I formed a very strong personal
attachment for him."
His sturdy independence is next to be
noted. No man ever
stood more squarely on his own two feet.
He would take no
favors that cost him any sacrifice of
manhood. He was ambi-
tious; no doubt about that; from his
youth he cherished the
hope of winning honor from his fellow
men, but he meant to
win it by deserving it, not by scheming
for it. He never asked
for a nomination; never winked an eyelid
to secure one. When,
after his third election to the governorship, the people of Ohio
Vol. IV-23
354 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VoL. 4
began to couple his name with the
Presidency, he gave himself
no concern about it. "No man," says Mr. Howells,
"could
hear himself much talked about for the
chief place in a nation
like this without feeling some share of
the popular excitement,
but no man was less capable of pushing
himself for such a place
than Hayes. We have seen many letters of
his, written during
the period when the movement in his
favor was gathering
strength and form-and they all point to
the fact that, while he
was not indifferent to it, he was firmly
resolved to have nothing
to do with it. In one of these letters,
shown us by his corre-
spondent, he wrote: 'I am not pushing,
directly or indirectly.
It is not likely that I shall. If the
sky falls we shall all catch
larks. On the topics you name, a busy
seeker after truth would
find my views in speeches and messages,
but I shall not help
him to find them. I appreciate your
motives and your friend-
ship. But it is not the thing for you
and me to enroll ourselves
in the great army of office-seekers. Let
the currents alone.'"
"I can do nothing," he wrote
to another intimate friend, "to
aid myself." And then, in allusion
to reports that he had en-
tered into alliance with certain
politicians, he says: "The truth
is, I am in no way complicated,
entangled or committed with the
parties you name or anybody else."
I suppose that no Presi-
dent, for the last fifty years-perhaps
no President since Wash-
ington-has gone into office so
absolutely free from obligations
as he was. When his cabinet was
announced, that fact was evi-
dent. Nothing was ever plainer than that
that cabinet was
made by one hand, for one purpose--not
to pay debts, not to
please the politicians, but simply to
give the country a good
administration.
Closely related to this trait of
independence was his calm
self-reliance. He knew himself, and he
knew that there was one
man in Ohio who could be depended on. He
knew his powers,
and was assured that they would not fail
him. He knew his
purposes, that they were unselfish,
honorable, worthy of realiza-
tion, and he expected to realize them.
In his diary, while the
discussion was going on about his
candidacy, these words were
written: "With so general an
impression in my favor in Ohio
and a fair degree of assent elsewhere *
* * I have supposed
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 355
that it was possible I might be
nominated. But with no oppor-
tunity and no desire to make
combinations or to lay wires, I
have not thought my chances worth much
consideration. I feel
less diffidence in thinking of this
subject than perhaps I ought.
It seems to me that good purposes and
the judgment, experience
and firmness I possess would enable me
to execute the duties of
the office Well. I do not feel the least
fear that I should fail."
There isn't a grain of conceit about
that, but it is a man that
you hear talking.
His faith in principle was also perfect.
The right is for him
the expedient-the thing that ought to be
done, can be done; it
is, after all, the easiest and safest
thing to do. It was this that
made his choice so clear and his
counsels so unfaltering in the
days when financial follies had become
epidemic.
And, finally, the one comprehensive word
which sums up
his highest and strongest qualities as a
public man is patriotism.
This takes your thoughts, perhaps, to
the tented field-to the
bivouac and the march and the battle;
and it took him thither,
beyond a doubt, and made of him a
soldier of whom Grant said:
"His conduct on the field was
marked by conspicuous gallantry,
as well as the display of qualities of a
higher order than mere
personal daring." But the
patriotism of General Hayes was not
consummated when he tore off his
shoulder-straps and unbuckled
his sword. The best of it, the bravest
of it, was yet to come.
The patriotism of General Hayes was love
of country, of the
whole country-not of any section-though
he was proud of
his own commonwealth; not of any
party-though he was a
loyal Republican-but of the whole land,
the whole people.
There are plenty of men to whom
patriotism is a mere senti-
ment; the only motive that really moves
them in public affairs
is love of party. To that their real
loyalty is given; their con-
duct abundantly shows that they would
rather see their country
suffer loss at the hands of their own
party than prosper at the
hands of their opponents. No matter how
beneficent a measure
may be, it shall not prevail if they can
help it, unless their party
can hold the offices. The other party
they count as the enemy;
it is the word by which they uniformly
speak of it; it is the con-
ception under which they always think of
it. Their political
356 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VoL. 4
plans stop short, therefore, with the
promotion of the success of
their own party; the other half of their
fellow citizens are prac-
tically aliens. Now this is not the
spirit of patriotism. No
thorough-going partisan can claim to be
a patriot. He is a kind
of semi-patriot, a lover of half his
country; and even as a half-
truth is the worst sort of a lie, so
this intense partisanship which
makes a man think of his political
opponents as enemies, is the
root of the most pestilent political
immoralities. Now President
Hayes was a man who, although a loyal
supporter of his own
party, never lost sight of the fact that
his primary obligation was
to the country, and not to the party. He
would not sacrifice the
public interest to the interest of his
party. To him party was
only an instrumentality, not an end; he
would use it just so far
as he could make it serve justice and
righteousness, no further.
When he saw that parties were coming to
exist mainly for the
sake of holding the offices he struck at
that vice with all his
strength. "This system," he
said, "destroys the independence
of the separate departments of the
government; it tends directly
to extravagance and official incapacity;
it is a temptation to dis-
honesty; it hinders and impairs that
careful supervision and
strict accountability by which alone
faithful and efficient public
service can be secured; in every way it
degrades the civil service
and the character of the government. It
ought to be abolished.
The reform should be thorough, radical
and complete." He did
what he could to secure this end. And he
determined to take
the stumbling blocks out of his own
path. "Believing," he said
in his letter of acceptance, "that
the restoration of the civil
service to the system established by
Washington and followed by
the early presidents, can be best
accomplished by an executive
who is under no temptation to use the
patronage of his office to
secure his own re-election, I desire to
perform what I regard as
a duty, in stating now my inflexible
purpose, if elected, not to
be a candidate for election to a second
term." He said it and he
stood by it. Nobody who knew him had any
doubt that he
would do so. Congress sneered at his
proposition to reform the
civil service and refused to make any
appropriation by which the
work could be carried on; but in spite
of Congress he introduced
the reformed methods into some of the
most important offices;
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 357
and when he believed that certain high
officials of his own party
were using their patronage to reward
political workers, he incon-
tinently turned them out and told their
successors that the offices
must be conducted on strictly business
principles. He had done
what he could in the same direction when
he was Governor of
Ohio. In one of his inaugural addresses
he strongly urged that
our State institutions be put upon this
basis; that officers and
employes should be appointed on business
principles and not as
a reward for political activity.
"When he was Governor," says
Mr. Howells, "he was importuned by
old and dear friends to
turn out the Democratic State Librarian
and give the office, one
of the few in the Governor's gift, to a
most worthy and compe-
tent Republican. He refused. "The
present incumbent," he
wrote, "of the librarianship is a
faithful, pains-taking old gen-
tleman with a family of invalid girls
dependent on him. His
courtesy and evident anxiety to
accommodate all who visit the
library have secured him the endorsement
of almost all who are
in the habit of using the books, and
under the circumstances, I
can not remove him. Old associations,
your fitness and claims
draw me the other way, but you see,
etc., etc. Very sincerely,
R. B. Hayes."
It is in this determination to keep the
claims of party
subordinate to the interests of the
whole public that I discern
the keynote of President Hayes's
patriotism. That famous
phrase of his inaugural in 1877,
"He serves his party best who
serves his country best,"
illustrates his divergence from the com-
mon run of politicians. How impossible
it is to get that con-
ception into the mind of the average
political leader. And yet
how bright the maxim shines in the light
of President Hayes's
example. No recent President was less of
a partisan; none was
so successful a political leader. He
found his party in the
slough of despond, and he left it on the
heights of victory.
And this he did by simply ignoring all
schemes of party ag-
grandizement, and giving himself, with a
single eye and a reso-
lute purpose, to the service of the
whole country.
What he did for the pacification of the
South was done upon
the same principle. He had helped to
conquer the South; but
he was man enough to see that the era of
subjugation must come
358 Ohio Arch. and His. Society
Publications. [VoL. 4
to an end; that the South must be free
to govern itself. There-
fore he pledged himself, in his letter
of acceptance, to put forth
his best efforts "in behalf of a
civil policy which will wipe
out forever the distinction between
North and South in our
common country." That promise,
also, he kept. The South
was pacified. No ideal condition of
things was realized in that
quarter; but a great political
improvement took place. The
negroes certainly fared no worse than
they had done under
the policy of repression; the temper of
the Southern people was
marvellously improved, and the new era
was well begun. So
perfect was this work of peace, that the
Southern question,
which for a quarter of a century had
been the burning question
of our politics, was not mentioned in
the first message of Presi-
dent Hayes's successor. What a triumph
of statesmanship that
was, let the future historian tell.
With the even mind of the man who has
performed great
duties manfully, and borne great trials
uncomplainingly, Presi-
dent Hayes laid down the burdens of
office in March, 1881, and
turned his face homeward. Malignants
among his opponents fol-
lowed him with their curses; the
spoilsmen of both parties barked
at his heels, of course; the men whose
interest in politics was
mainly selfish all hated him with a
cordial and justifiable hatred,
and never lost a chance to revile him.
The dispraise of such
men is a decoration. Woe to you when
they speak well of you!
The President bore to his home the
grateful assurance that
the men to whom office is simply plunder
owed him no good
will. But he carried with him, also, the
respect, the honor, the
affection of the great body of honest
people of both parties.
To his old neighbors in Fremont, who
greeted him on
his return, he said:
"The question is often heard, 'What
is to become of the
man-what is he to do-who, having been
chief magistrate of
the Republic, returns at the end of his
official term to private
life?' It seems to me that the answer is
near at hand, and
sufficient: Let him, like every other
good American citizen, be
willing and prompt to bear his part in
every useful work that will
promote the happiness and progress of
his family, his town, his
state and his country. With this
disposition he will have work
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 359
enough to do, and that work of a sort
which yields more in-
dividual contentment and gratification
than belong to the more
conspicuous employments of the life he
has left behind."
Manly words are these; but what luster
his life since that day
has shed upon them! How modestly, how
patiently, how in-
dustriously he has given himself, in the
last dozen years, to all
kinds of work. To the wise dispensation
of great charities, to the
study of the conditions of the dependent
classes-more especially
to the great cause of education in all
its phases, he has conse-
crated the ripeness of his wisdom, the
maturity of his manhood.
Few men in this land have done so large
an amount of un-
remunerated service. "I
thought," he said to me a year ago, as
he paused on the threshold of my study,
"that when I laid down
my official cares I should have a
tolerably easy life; but I have
been kept about as busy for the last ten
years working for other
people, as I ever was in my life. And I
don't deny that I enjoy
it." To our own university the
service that he has rendered has
been invaluable; the loss that it has
suffered in his death it is
not easy to compute.
President Hayes was reticent, I judge,
about his religious
experience. He was brought up in the
Presbyterian church;
with his wife, while she lived, he was a
constant attendant upon
the Methodist church; I do not know that
he formulated for
himself any creed; he was content,
probably, with a very short
statement of some of the fundamental
truths of religion. He
was profoundly interested in the truth
which constitutes the
heart of all faiths; and he was a
sympathetic and appreciative
listener in the house of God. He asked
me, not long ago, if I
knew a certain minister of our own
communion. I replied that
I had known him from his seminary days.
"Well," he said, "I
heard him preach last Sunday at
Brattleboro, Vt. And it was a
very fine sermon. You know," he
added, with a humorous
twinkle, " we always think that a
man who agrees with us is an
able man. But the text of this sermon
was a striking one:
'The Second is Like Unto It.' That was
all there was of the
text; but it was enough, I assure you,
to furnish the foundation
of a very strong discourse."
360 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
I could easily believe it. "The
second is like unto it,"-
equal to it. It is what our Master says about the second
great
commandment of the law. The first great
commandment is
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart," the
second is like unto it-equally binding,
equally fundamental,
equally religious. "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself."
The fact that had made its impression
upon the President's mind
was the equivalence of these
commandments. That indicated
his hearty recognition of both of them.
But I suppose that if
he had been challenged to confess his
faith, it would have been
uttered in the words of the beloved
apostle: " He that loveth
not his brother, whom he hath seen, how
can he love God whom
he hath not seen?" And if the word
of that apostle is true--
that "every one who loveth is
begotten of God and knoweth
God," then the unselfish ministry
of the last ten years would
prove that the first great commandment
was also the law of his life.
It is not easy to convince our hearts
that this good friend of
ours is not to be seen among us again.
He was wont to come
frequently; it was good to hear of his
arrival; it was pleasant to
meet him in the street; there was always
a little more courage
for work after we had looked for a
moment into his face. Here
was a man, we said to ourselves, who has
lived. What an answer
is his life to the plea of the mercenary
politician that success is
impossible to the unselfish
patriot! Who among all these
schemers and tricksters will ever reach
the height on which this
man stood-
"Who never sold the truth to serve
the hour
Nor paltered with the Eternal God for
power!"
But he has passed. And what remains to
us is the memory of a
clean-handed, clear-minded,
simple-mannered, great-hearted man,
and the faith which his life has
quickened in our hearts, that
"All good things await
Him who cares not to be great,
But as he saves or serves the
State."
He has gone. "The good gray head
that all men knew,"
will not again be seen in our
assemblies.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. 361
"No more in soldier fashion will he
greet
With lifted hand the gazer in the
street.
0 friends, our chief state-oracle is
dead:
Mourn for the man of long-enduring
blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate,
resolute,
Whole in himself, a common good.
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest, and with least pretense-
Great in council, and great in war-
Rich in saving common-sense,
And as the greatest only are
In his simplicity sublime."
338 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES.*
BY REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., LL. D.
We have studied here, more than once, the lesson of some
great life. In no other form does Truth present herself with so
much quickening for the intellect, with so much invigoration of
the will. For this reason chiefly was the Word made flesh. All
highest revelation to men must come through the form of a man.
The story of a life worthily lived is more convincing than logic,
more instructive than philosophy; it carries an element which
transcends all the formularies of science; it contains within it-
self all that gives the moving thrill to music, and immortality to
verse.
Thrice, already, since the summer rest, have we been in-
vited to such a sympathetic study of great lives that had sud-
denly ceased from among us: The editor and essayist, Curtis;
our Quaker poet, Whittier; the laureate of England, Tennyson.
To-night we are called together to reflect for an hour upon the
meaning of a life whose sudden termination has brought to this
commonwealth and this nation a great bereavement. To the
people of Ohio, and especially to the people of Columbus, the
death of President Hayes comes a great deal closer than that of
either of the notable men whom I have named. To them our
debt was large, but it was mainly intellectual. For the enrich-
ing of our minds, for the quickening of our better purposes we
owed them much. But President Hayes has been our neighbor
and our friend; he has walked with us by the way; he has
* Rutherford B. Hayes became an interested and active member of
the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society soon after its organization
in 1885. In 1890 he was made a life member and at the meeting of the
Society held in Chicago, Ill., October 19, 1892, he was elected a trustee and
president. He served in that office till his death, January 17, 1893. Mr.
Hayes regarded the Society as the agent of a most deserving and valuable
work. He had many plans for the greater development and accomplish-
ment of the purposes of the Society. His untimely death was a loss to
the Society as it was to the many public organizations to which he was
so unselfishly devoting his wise and noble energies.- E. O. R.