Ohio History Journal

Howells' Campaign Biography

Of Rutherford B. Hayes:

A Series of Letters

Edited by LEO P. COYLE*

 

 

In 1860 William Dean Howells wrote the campaign Lives and

Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, his first ven-

ture in the field of biography. Sixteen years later, his literary posi-

tion assured, Howells again projected a campaign biography. This

time the subject was Rutherford B. Hayes, who occupied the White

House from 1877 to 1881.1

The second campaign book, avowedly partisan, was virtually

churned out by Howells in a burst of forced energy. The result was

a curious little volume filled with a hodgepodge of discursive ele-

ments: graphic battle scenes, homely wisdom, banal moralization,

charming nostalgia, intrusive propagandizing, childlike delight,

sparkling enthusiasm, crisp, clear, sprightly anecdotes, hopelessly

pedestrian commentaries, and a rather forgivable obviousness.

In the Howells canon, the campaign biography of Hayes must be

considered, relatively, hack work; yet the book glints of genius,

and Howells, though he apologized frequently to the reader for

serving hasty pudding, was somewhat chagrined when his enthu-

siastic little book was regarded indifferently by the public.

* Leo P. Coyle is a member of the department of English at John Carroll

University, Cleveland.

1 I have chosen to let the correspondence tell the story. Unless otherwise indicated

the letters are published here for the first time. I should like to thank the heirs of

William Dean Howells, particularly Prof. W. W. Howells, for permission to

publish the Howells letters here reproduced. My thanks also to Mr. William A.

Jackson and the Houghton Library, Harvard University, for permission to publish

several letters from the extensive Howells collection in that library. I am indebted to

Mr. Watt P. Marchman, Director, Rutherford B. Hayes Library, Fremont, Ohio, for

his patient and generous help and for permission to publish the many letters credited

herein.

HOWELLS LETTERS ?? BY THE HEIRS OF W. D. HOWELLS 1957

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The correspondence between Hayes and Howells concerning the

biography reveals a bit of literary history and records a friendship

that was firmly established by Howells' marriage to Elinor Gertrude

Mead of Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1862. Elinor Mead Howells was

Hayes's cousin and had, indeed, become acquainted with Howells

while visiting the Hayeses in Ohio. The depth of the relationship

of the two families was somewhat tenuous as far as Howells him-

self was concerned until Hayes's nomination for the presidency in

1876. In a letter dated June 18, 1876, Howells congratulated Hayes

on the nomination and added, "Elinor sends her love, in which the

children all join, to her favorite cousin Lucy, [Mrs. Hayes] and

I beg to be most respectfully remembered. I dare say she may not

recall me personally, but then even you may not--and you have

seen me."²

Shortly after Howells' congratulatory letter was written, his

publisher suggested that he do a biography of Hayes, who was then

governor of Ohio:

Princeton, Mass.

July 18/76

My dear Mr. Howells,

What do you think of a life of Gov. Hayes? Who is better fitted to

write it than the "accomplished scholar & able critic," W. D. Howells?

Who knows but that it might recuperate the waning fortunes of both of

us? 70,000 copies sold of the miserable life of Fremont, when he was Candi-

date for President, & I see the Appletons are to publish a life of Tilden,

& that would produce a healthy competition.

Would the usual 10 per cent. & a continuance meanwhile of the Atlantic

salary be sufficient inducement for the extra work? Could it be ready and

finished by Sept 1st?

I am staying here & trying to be lazy for this week, & this "happy thought"

is the result. If you choose to answer any of these conundrums, please

address me here any time before Saturday; afterwards at Cambridge.

Hoping that you succeed in "keeping cool" this weather I am,

Yrs very truly

H. O. Houghton³

2 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

3 Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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HOWELLS AND HAYES               393

 

Howells was enthusiastic about the proposal and wasted little

time in writing Hayes:

July 20, 1876

Dear General:

I have just received this letter from my "owner," proposing something

that I confess I felt tempted to propose to him the instant you were nomin-

ated. The objection is "nepotism," not to say "Caesarism." I desire your

election far more than any profit the book would bring me; but if you

think a biography from my pen would help, and not hurt the good cause,

I will gladly go on and write it. Perhaps, in this connection, it might be well

to consult with some such mutual friend as Comly.⁴ In case the matter

strikes you favorably, will you kindly get Mitchell⁵ to cause somebody to

send me the materials of your life? I should want every scrap that could be

raked up, whether seemingly important or not. I should think Laura⁶

might interview herself and Mrs. Hayes for personal matters, which of

course I should use so as not to cause you loathing. Whoever gets together

the materials would be paid for his pains (or pleasure,) and I should want

him to indicate any works on the war in which your career was mentioned.

My book could not be long, and I should try to make it good otherwise.

--if you have any reluctance about this, pray deal frankly with me. Heaven

knows I would not give any dirty rogue grounds to bespatter a reputation for

highmindedness which the nation will be proud of in you, whether you're

elected or not.

--I had hoped to have a paper in the magazine [the Atlantic Monthly]

from Carl Schurz,⁷ but to my great grief, he's going too actively into the

campaign to be able to write.

Yours sincerely

W. D. Howells⁸

 

In a few days Howells received the following reply:

 

Columbus 23d July 1876

My dear Mr. Howells:

Yours of the 20th is the biggest of all these mercies. I see the absurdity

of your wasting your labor on such a work. But if there is "money in it"

4 Gen. James M. Comly, war comrade, editor of the Ohio State Journal, and per-

sonal friend of Hayes.

5 John G. Mitchell, husband of Hayes's niece Laura.

6 Laura Platt Mitchell, daughter of Hayes's sister, Fanny Hayes Platt.

7 Republican senator from Missouri, later secretary of the interior under Hayes.

8 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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394    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

it needs no apology from me. Yes indeed, if the thing is to be done again

it would particularly please me to be honored by your doing it. No doubt

your work would sell. The only objection, if it is one, that I see is the fact

that Robert Clarke & Co. have J. Q. Howard at work on the same.⁹ Their

little book is three fourths printed, and will be in market in ten days or so. I

will send you a copy and you can judge. No doubt a half barrel of stuff,

letters, speeches, mem., Diaries &c &c can be sent you, out of which you

would get up a romance that would be taking. I called to talk it over with

Gen Comly but failed to meet him. Another good point. You could make

it an excuse to visit Ohio. Love to the wife and bairns.

Sincerely

R. B. Hayes10

W. K. Rogers11 was dispatched with source materials on Au-

gust 8. The documents entrusted to Howells were extensive and

varied in nature. Included were the following excerpts from Hayes's

diary: October 4, 1838, to July 4, 1839; June 1, 1841, to February 1,

1847; November 21, 1848, to May 15, 1851; May 17, 1851, to

May 15, 1861; June 7, 1861, to February 18, 1862; February 25,

1862, to October 4, 1862; December 2, 1862, to March 12, 1864;

April 23, 1864, to May 1, 1865; November 30, 1865, to December

23, 1871; December 31, 1871, to September 9, 1873; September 13,

1873, to May 25, 1876.12 The diary of Chloe Smith Hayes, the

governor's paternal grandmother, was submitted for coverage of the

period from October 3, 1840, to January 20, 1845. The diary of

Hayes's mother covering the period from June 30, 1846, to Octo-

ber 20, 1866, was also submitted. Numerous scrapbooks were sent,

including those of Richard M. Corwine and W. K. Rogers, the

governor's law partners. The Hayes scrapbooks dealing with law,

political speeches, and personal matters from 1859 to 1872, as well

as a book of private materials dated 1876, were sent to Howells.

Additional materials included Hayes's private letterbook from No-

vember 1, 1869, to June 17, 1872, and the private letters of Hayes,

9 The Life, Public Services, and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes (Cincin-

nati, 1876).

10 Houghton Library, Harvard University.

11 William K. Rogers, Hayes's law partner and closest friend, later the official

presidential secretary.

12 See the five-volume Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, edited by

Charles R. Williams (Columbus, 1922-26).

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HOWELLS AND HAYES              395

 

J. T. Webb, and J. D. Webb, his brothers-in-law, from 1861 to 1865

inclusive. Two volumes of genealogical records were included in

the shipment along with Hayes's recollections of his sister Fanny

and his memoirs of the battles of South Mountain, Cloyd Moun-

tain, Winchester, Berryville, Opequon, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar

Creek. Other materials consisted of exercise and account books kept

at Kenyon College from 1838 to 1841, campaign books, numerous

original drafts of speeches, addresses, remarks, messages, and ma-

terials covering local as well as family history.

Rogers quickly set to work with Howells. Upon his arrival he

wrote to Hayes:

Townsend Harbor [Mass.]

Aug. 11, 1876.

Dear Gov.

I reached the farm where Howells is staying--a wonderfully beautiful

part of the country--night before last, and went to work with him imme-

diately.

He is a little sensitive about interfering with Howard's book; but there

is no occasion for this, and I have fortified him in his purpose, all I can.

I have yielded to his urgent request to stay several days longer than I

intended, and now expect to remain until Monday--have a letter from

Mr. Forbes13 asking me to stop and see him, on my return.

Is there any objection to an announcement of Howells' book, as brought

out for the Nat. Com.?

This is his understanding through Mr. Forbes. It raises a point however,

with respect to Howard's book. I do not regard it as a matter of importance,

and have so expressed my opinion; the distinction between the two books,

as to sanction and authority of authorship is obvious and plain.--wd. like

to have word from you about it, however.14

After a preliminary glancing over of the diaries, by Howells, I find him

dissipating all his time over the oldest of them all, and he now tells me

that upon a careful examination of the trunk full of material I have with me,

the "Life and Character" he prefers to write is your grandmother Chloe

13 J. M. Forbes of Boston, a capitalist from whom the Hayes party solicited cam-

paign funds.

14 The biography was not sponsored by the Republican National Committee. How-

ells disclaimed all indebtedness in his preface: "This book is my own enterprise, and

has been in nowise adopted or patronized by the man whose life and character I have

tried to portray." (p. iii)

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396     THE OHIO     HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Hayes' i.e. (as Mrs. Howells names her) "Grandma Chloe Smith Hayes".15

Whether this would answer the purposes of the Nat. Com. quite so well,

may be questioned.

There is a very genuine enthusiasm in this state, for our ticket. The news-

papers and everybody I meet, on the cars, and elsewhere, are warm in the

good cause. It is hard for people here to understand the doubt we feel

about the result, or rather, to appreciate that the contest is really to be a

close one.

Time to send to mail is up. Love to Mrs. Hayes and all. Letter will reach

me at N. Y. Nat. Com. Rooms.

Howells wants Howard's book, as soon as possible . . . .

Very Truly

W. K. R. [ogers]¹⁶

 

Howells appreciated Rogers' aid and made significant progress

in the few days he was with him. He wrote Hayes:

 

Townsend Harbor,

August 13, 1876.

Dear Governor:

Mr. Rogers left us this morning, but I expect to see him again tonight

in Cambridge. I can't speak in words cordial enough to express my love and

gratitude to him; and my thanks to you for sending him with all that

glorious material. Never was there such a chance for a delightful book, and

I've the greatest mind to turn traitor to you and all the Committees, Central

and otherwise, and hand you down to fame irrespective of Presidential

nomination. As it is, I am making a sketch that I lament to have so meagre,

so inadequate in size and scope. However, it's impossible to kill the interest

of the subject by any sort of straight jacketing. I've already written 65 of

these pp., and please heaven I shall have it all in the printer's hands by

Sept. 1, and a few days there will put it in the public's hands. Mr. Rogers

will tell you of my plan (as poor Mr. Johnson used to say.)

--I have just got a letter from Mark Twain,--who is one of the best

political thinkers I know,--in which he says: "I shall read that biography,

though the letter of acceptance of the nomination was amply sufficient to

corral my vote without further knowledge of the man. Which reminds me

15 She was a descendant of Samuel Smith, seventeenth-century resident of Weathers-

field, Connecticut. Smith was also an ancestor of Mrs. Howells.

16 Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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HOWELLS AND HAYES              397

 

that a campaign club in Jersey City wrote a few days ago and invited me to

be present at the raising of a Tilden & Hendricks flag there and take the

stand and give them some "counsel." Well, I could not go, but gave them

counsel and advice by letter, and in the kindliest terms, as to the raising

of the flag, advised them 'not to raise it.' Get your book out quick, for this

is a momentous time. If Tilden is elected I think the country will go pretty

straight to--Mrs. Howells's Bad Place."

Elinor joins me in a constantly rising regard for all your family.

Yours truly,

W. D. Howells17

 

On August 17, 1876, after a week's work, Howells wrote to

Hayes: "I have my first proofs, which do not cause me to tingle

with shame. But it may be bad for all that. Proofs of all will go

to Mr. R."18

Howells' work continued, for on August 20 he wrote to Webb C.

Hayes, the governor's son, that he was "making history at the rate

of 30 . . . pages a day." The younger Hayes had offered his assis-

tance to Howells, and in the same letter Howells wrote:

 

You ask me to let me [sic] know if you can help me. Yes: take some

short hand writer by the hair of his head, and Gen. Comly by the beard,

and set them down together, if for but half an hour, and have the short

handist put down (and afterwards translate into longhand) whatever the

general can remember or imagine about your father in camp and battle.

If you can get at any other comrade of his, make him similarly disgorge.

Then send the result to me instantly at Cambridge, Mass., Riverside Press

(where I'm going to finish the book,) and I will be your slave forever.

Elinor is copying out from your father's book the whole Hayes pedigree.

It makes me almost sick, and I'm going to vote for Tilden after all, I

believe.¹⁹

 

Webb C. Hayes sent Howells a bundle of letters containing com-

mendations of his father and was generally helpful to Howells. He

17 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library. The complete text of the Mark Twain

letter may be found in Mark Twain's Letters, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine (New

York, 1917), I, 281-283.

18 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

19 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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398     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

largely replaced Rogers in the liaison position. On August 23 How-

ells wrote the son:

 

Please tell him [R. B. Hayes] not to be appalled by anything he finds

on the proofs sent Mr. Rogers--if he cares to read them. I am always absurd

in my first proofs. Still I'd be glad to have him note any very brazen lies or

particularly tinkling follies.

One thing I should like to give him his choice about: after he is wounded

at South Mountain, does he prefer to lie twenty feet before or twenty feet

behind his men, who continue fighting? His diary says behind; his short-hand

statement says before. I'd have made it behind, for a Presidential candidate

is always corrupt and unreliable; still, if I'm wrong, perhaps he'd better

telegraph me. I'm writing up his battles, and the work interests me im-

mensely.²⁰

 

Governor Hayes proved somewhat sensitive to Howells' treat-

ment of certain topics. The following letter instructs Howells in

political delicacy:

Columbus, O., 24 Aug., 1876

My Dear Mr. Howells:

You will see how I am overwhelmed when I tell you that I have not

had time to read pp. 19 to 36 incl. until this morning. I did not think of

your using the youthful follies of the Diaries so much, or I perhaps could

not have sent them. But I see no harm done if you don't. However, there

must be caution in using them. No quoting of anything on political or

semi-political topics capable of being turned to account by the adversary.

For instance, Mr. Howard mentions that I was a member of the Sons of

Temperance. This should have been omitted. That subject is not safe.

Prohibitionists and liquor men are alike crotchety and sensitive. Keep all

on that score out of the book, or, if in, strike it out. I am a liberal on that

subject, but it is not to be blabbed. I am sure you are going through safely and

prudently. Don't be disturbed by what I say. Be careful not to commit me

on religion, temperance, or free-trade. Silence is the only safety. One word

as to the use of the name Chillingworth on p. 27. Does it not look, as you

have expressed it, as if you regarded him as a law writer? You know, of

course, he is a religious controversialist, read for his logic and style. He is

to be classed with Shakespeare and Milton.

20 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library. Hayes was apparently content to

lie twenty feet behind his men. See the Sketch of the Life and Character of Rutherford

B. Hayes (New York and Boston, 1876), 6.

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HOWELLS AND HAYES              399

 

--Lord how I pity you! Do forgive me. I wouldn't have done it if I had

thought it possible that I should become a nuisance to my friends.

Sincerely

R. B. Hayes²1

 

Howells acceded to Hayes's suggestions. On September 2 he

wrote to the governor:

 

I'm just at work again after a week of dysentery and an awful scare lest

I shouldn't be able to finish the book. But now I'm all right.

I've cut out some of the things--extracts from your journal whilst at the

law school--which were the only things I could think of as being at all

carpable--and I'm not sure now that every word wouldn't have added to

people's liking for you. Your life has needed no reservations from your

biographer; I should have stuck to the temperance facts if I hadn't found

them in your diary which you had a right to control, but as it is they go out.²²

 

Howells jubilantly announced the completion of his book on

September 7, 1876:

 

Dear General Hayes:

I have this afternoon finished my book, and am a free man once more. As

soon as it's printed and bound, of course copies will go to you and Mr.

Rogers. What its fate or mission will be, heaven knows; but I can't help

believing that it will receive vastly more notice than the other lives.

In the two final chapters I have quoted a good deal from your messages

and speeches, and made the book more fully representative of you in that

respect than I had expected to do. It's horribly crude, I feel; and the haste

with which I worked was subversive of all my literary principles and habits.

I've done the work in twenty-eight days, and have made a thorough use of

the material. . . .

Yours truly

W. D. Howells23

21 Houghton Library. Hayes alludes to William H. Chillingworth (1602-1644),

whom he studied in law school "to discipline the reasoning faculty." See The Works

of W. Chillingworth, M.A., Containing His Book, Intituled the Religion of Protestants,

a Safe Way to Salvation, Together with His Sermons, Letters, Discourses, Contro-

versies, &c., &c. (London, 1836).

22 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

23 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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400     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Before September 15 Hayes had received the Sketch of the Life

and Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, for on the 15th Hayes

wrote:

 

My Dear Mr. Howells:

I am almost ashamed to confess how much I am delighted with your book.

Of course it is due to your partiality for the stock, your Buckeye feeling,

and your party preference. But at any rate it is so beautifully done that I

can go through the cannons to defeat, if necessary, feeling that I have been

honored so immensely beyond my merits that I must be happy in any event.

Our love to all beneath your roof.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes²⁴

 

On September 16 Hayes's son requested certain changes and

corrections in the text of the second edition, an edition never to be

realized. The text of his letter follows:

 

To William Dean Howells:

On page 11 begin at line 10 and in place of "the help of one of those

faithful friends whom it is cruel to call servants and whom in this case the

children both regarded with filial affection" correct so as to read "the help

of a faithful friend and relative whom the children both regarded with filial

affection"--

Again in line 15 in place of "faithful Asenath" read "much loved

Arcena 25

On page 45, line 15, Miss Lucy Ware Webb of "Chillicothe". Her Ken-

tucky kinship is made most too strong.²⁶ Her father was the only son of

Dr. James Webb of Lexington, Ky. Her mother was one of eleven children

of Isaac Cook of Chillicothe who was a descendant of the Cooks of Walling-

ford, Conn. Her forefathers on her mother's side as well as on her father's

24 Houghton Library.

25 Arcena Smith, cousin to Hayes's mother. She lived with the family for many

years as a helpful companion until her marriage comparatively late in life.

26 The genealogical passage alluded to is here reproduced: "Her family was Ken-

tuckian, of that sort which seems to assemble in itself whatever is fine and good in the

Southern civilization, but she was herself born in Chillicothe, Ohio, where her father,

Dr. James Webb, formerly of Lexington, Kentucky, had been long in practice. Her

great-grandfather had, like her husband's, been an officer of the Revolution; and other

ancestors had been people of note and substance in their native state. Her father was

for many years a colonizationist, but he died without carrying out his plans regarding

the slaves on the family estate in Kentucky, and his children, after his death, freed

them without conditions. The grateful blacks at once came to Ohio and settled as

near their late owners as possible, where they long remained." (pp. 45-46)

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HOWELLS AND HAYES             401

 

side took part in the Revolutionary War. Kentucky, besides being a slave

state, was neutral during the late war and hence mother never boasts of her

Kentucky blood. All of her most loved aunts and cousins are on the Cook

or Connecticut side of the house. Father would be much pleased if you

could make a statement bringing in Mother's Conn. ancestry.

On page 193, line 11. Instead of "a letter written home" read "a letter

written to friends at home"--

We are all very much pleased with the "Life". Father says when flattery

is well done it is always pleasant. Mother read, enjoyed and cried over cer-

tain portions of the "Life".

We are all well but quite busy.

Very respectfully,

Webb C. Hayes

P. S. These corrections are not of the greatest importance, but still if you

could make them without too much additional work or expense, father would

be much pleased.

W. C. H.²⁷

Howells took cognizance of the foregoing letter in his reply to

Hayes's warm letter of congratulation:

Sept. 20, 1876.

My dear Sir:

Your letter gave me the very greatest pleasure, and I shall always treasure

it. I was afraid that perhaps my work had not satisfied you; I knew how

crude it was in many ways; but I was more than wishing that it should seem

to you better than it was.

I wish on all accounts that it could have come out two months earlier;

but that is a matter that it is of no use to mention now.

I have your son Webb's letter, and I will see that the corrections are

made in the second edition. I regret them, but I do not see how I could

have avoided that about Arcena. ...

Please tell Mrs. Hayes that I am most cordially grateful to her for liking

the book.

Yours sincerely,

W. D. Howells²⁸

 

Charles Eliot Norton wrote Howells a note in which he praised

both Hayes and the biography.²⁹ Howells answered:

27 Copy, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

28 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

29 Norton's letter is in the Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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402     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Townsend Harbor, Mass., Sept. 24, 1876.

Dear Friend:

I'm exceedingly glad you have read my book with a good opinion of

Hayes, who merited a better book than I could make in three weeks. My

work does not at all represent the richness and beauty of the material put

into my hands; but if I had six months for it, I could have given it the

color I wanted. However, if you've got from it the notion of a very brave,

single-hearted, firm-willed, humorous, unpretentiously self-reliant man, I

haven't quite failed. As I studied the material I had to check myself in the

claims I wished to make for him; I had to remind myself that if I praised

him so much, I should inflict a real discomfort upon the man personally,

which I had no right to do. Some lines from [sic] Lowell's from the Elm-

Tree ode--

Soldier and Statesman, rarest unison,

High-poised example of great duties done

Simply as breathing--

embodied my conception of him better than anything I could have said

(of course!), but I took them out of my title-page where I had them, because

I felt that it was better to understate than to overstate such a man. . . .

Yours ever,

W. D. Howells³⁰

 

The rosy glow of Howells' accomplishment waned rapidly, how-

ever. On October 8 Howells wrote Mark Twain: "The Life of

Hayes hasn't sold 2000 copies. There's success for you. It makes me

despair of the republic, I can tell you. And the bills continue to

come in with unabated fierceness."31   The biography had not re-

cuperated the waning fortunes of Howells and Houghton. The most

substantial return that Howells was to realize on his effort was a

week at the White House in 1880.

The relationship of Howells, as his biographer, and Hayes has

an interesting epilogue. On June 25, 1889, Hayes's wife Lucy died.

Shortly thereafter Hayes began to think seriously about a biographer

for her. In a note to William Henry Smith, politician-journalist and

close friend of Hayes, the ex-president revealed his choice:

30 Mildred Howells, ed., Life in Letters of William Dean Howells (New York,

1928), I, 226-227.

31 Ibid., I, 228.

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HOWELLS AND HAYES      403

 

SPIEGEL GROVE (Which signifieth the place

of GOOD spirits), August 14, 1889.

My Dear Friend:--Still thinking with a mixed feeling of tender pain and

of exquisitely pleasant memories of the darling who has left!

I keep myself uncommitted on the question of by whom shall a bio-

graphical sketch be written. If at all? My thoughts rest on Howells, W. D.

He knew her--admired her, and knows of the environment, having written

my campaign life. What do you think?

Sincerely,

Rutherford B. Hayes³²

 

Exactly one month later Hayes wrote Howells: "Several persons

want to write a book about Mrs. Hayes, and ask me to turn over

materials therefor. I decline so far. If any such sketch is to be made

you are my choice, if it will ever be practicable for you to do it."³³

Howells had lost all zest for biography, however:

 

Mt Auburn Station

Cambridge, Sept. 9, 1889.

Dear friend:

I find your note of the 14th awaiting my return from Ohio.

I should most gladly associate my name with yours again in any possible

way, and feel touched by the proof of your confidence in me which your

request gives. But at present I see no hope of being able to attempt a

memoir of Mrs. Hayes. The Harpers control my writings for use in their

publications; and though I suppose they would grant me the privilege of

writing such a memoir, I am so pressed with work already undertaken that

I cannot do it.

You can readily believe it costs me much to say this. I never did see Mrs.

Hayes without feeling the rare quality which gave her a kind of divine

right to the best homage and affection of all who knew her; and I need not

tell you how wholly I honor and love you, and how deeply I sympathize

with you.

Elinor joins me in all the regards and regrets of this letter.

Yours sincerely

W. D. Howells³⁴

32 Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, IV, 501.

33 Houghton Library.

34 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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404     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Hayes was importunate. He had set his heart on a noble tribute

to Lucy and had set his mind on Howells as the instrument of

that tribute:

Mohonk Lake

30 Sep. 1889

My Dear Mr. Howells:

I am here for a few days--will be at 5th Ave Hotel 3 & 4th with Fanny

[his daughter].

I am so solicitous about the sketch of Lucy that I venture to trouble you

again. If I can get the Harpers to consent that you write the book--they to

publish it--how then? I can see Mr. Joseph W. Harper. Please write me to

5th Avenue Hotel. If a good talk with you will help, I will come to Boston

and meet you there or at your home.

My love to Nellie and the darling girl.

Sincerely,

Rutherford B. Hayes³⁵

 

Although loath to be abrupt with a man for whom he had the

deepest respect, Howells was forced to put a certain end to Hayes's

hopes:

Mt. Auburn Station

October 4, 1889.

Dear Gen. Hayes:

I have been unwilling to write in answer to your last letter, because I

do not see my way to meet your wishes. I could not now undertake the work

of such a sketch; I do not know the ground it would cover; and while I

should gladly do my best to please you in it, I feel it would be a most

delicate and difficult task, if I did attempt it. Besides I do not see the time

for it in the engagements pressing upon me. It is not a question of the

Harpers, merely, but of opportunity and the right mood.

It would make us all very happy to see you here, but it's only honest to

say that I don't believe a talk would help me to any other conclusion.

Elinor and Pilla [Mildred] join me in love.

Yours sincerely

W. D. Howells³⁶

 

Hayes died in 1892. He lived long enough, however, to see the

35 Houghton Library.

36 Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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HOWELLS AND HAYES             405

 

publication of a slim memorial volume which paid tribute to his

wife Lucy.³⁷ William Dean Howells played no part in its prepar-

ation.

Howells was to write one more essay dealing with Hayes. The

manuscript was destined, however, to be consumed by fire. Howells'

most significant reward for having written the campaign biography

was a week in the White House. On July 1, 1918, Howells wrote

to Colonel Webb C. Hayes: "At last I have begun to write my

recollections of a 'Week in the White House,' and when I shall

have them typewritten I should like to send you a copy, and ask

you to go over it, and keep me from an old man's forgetting and

other blundering."³⁸

When Colonel Hayes received the manuscript, he gave Howells'

memoir a careful reading. The essay was then read by Charles R.

Williams, Hayes's biographer, and       Rutherford   Platt, Hayes's

nephew. The verdict was unfavorable. Apparently with complete

justice Colonel Hayes wrote to Howells: "The article abounds in

inaccuracies and irrelevancies .... It would be remarkable indeed

if you recalled the incidents which would give the personal touch

desired in 'A Week at the White House' after a lapse of forty

years."³⁹ Colonel Hayes's letter, compassionate in tone, attempted

to soften the blow, but one can sense the exquisite pain and pride

suffered by the sensitive Howells in his humble reply:

 

Kittery Point, Maine

October 12, 1919

Dear Colonel Hayes:

When I shall presently have burnt the MS. of my "Week in the White

House," that will be the end of it, for I shall not touch the subject again,

though I feel all the generosity of your offer to help me relieve what seem

to you its injurious shortcomings. I had let the matter go too long, and had

forgotten much of the history of the time, as a man of eighty-one must.

37 See Mrs. John Davis, Lucy Webb Hayes: A Memorial Sketch, As Read at the

Annual Meeting of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal

Church, Held at Indianapolis, November, 1889 (Cincinnati, 1890). The volume also

contained a memorial poem by Miss M. A. Lathbury, a memorial paper by Mrs. R. S.

Rust, and addresses delivered by Mrs. Hayes at several annual meetings of the society.

38 Webb C. Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

39 Webb C. Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library.

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406     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

I thank you for keeping me from wronging, as you feel it, even the lightest

facts in my recollection of one of the purest and noblest men who ever

lived. It is very touching to learn of his purpose of honoring me with the

public appointment he had in mind for me, and I duly value that mem-

orandum which you have sent me from his diary.⁴⁰

You may be sure that I remember the pleasant beginning of our acquain-

tance in Cambridge, and I shall be glad of the meetings which I hope are

to come.

I am here for a few days since closing our house at York Harbor, but

tomorrow I go with my daughter to Boston, and then New York, and South

for the winter.

Yours sincerely,

W. D. Howells⁴¹

 

Time had balanced the ledger and within a year William Dean

Howells was dead.

40 Howells was to have his choice of foreign appointments. He declined the honor

but was instrumental in procuring assignments for other men of letters. See Lyon N.

Richardson, "Men of Letters and the Hayes Administration,"New England Quarterly,

XV (1942), 117-127.

41 Webb C. Hayes Papers, Rutherford B. Hayes Library. Published in Life in

Letters, I, 392.

• 16