Ohio History Journal

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                    59

by DANIEL R. PORTER

The spirits of a discontented Congressman from Cincinnati were decidedly

lifted late in January 1867 by a letter from William Henry Smith, Ohio's

Secretary of State. The letter sounded out Representative Rutherford B.

Hayes as a possible gubernatorial candidate. This was the first indication

Hayes received that he was being considered instead of incumbent Gover-

nor Jacob D. Cox as the Republican party's standard bearer in the Ohio

election of 1867. His overly cautious reply to Smith and to other similar

correspondents belied real interest in, if not a desire for, the governorship.1

In fact, throughout his political career, Hayes regularly assumed the pos-

ture of a reluctant candidate.

The Ohio election of 1867 was destined to be one of the most important

of the period. Basically the national Republican party's leadership during

the Civil War crisis and the nature of its Reconstruction program were

under review by the voters, but on the surface the most publicized issue

was Negro suffrage. Congressional leaders of the party caucused in May

1866 and decided that the question of Negro suffrage should be a state

issue.² Hayes concurred with this general policy decision but Governor

Cox, who opposed the Radical Republican wing of the Union party led

by Benjamin F. Wade of Jefferson, Ohio, took a position against Negro

voting rights. Cox could not keep the issue off the October ballot where

it appeared in the form of a state amendment in which the word "white"

would be deleted from the voting requirement, thereby enabling Negro

males over twenty-one years of age to vote.³ The Governor, who had once

proposed that a separate Negro state be carved from the deep South, lacked

the political strength and veto power to defeat the suffrage proposal in

the legislature, with the result that its fate was put in the hands of the

people. To help secure passage of the constitutional amendment, the Radi-

cal Republicans needed a strong candidate for governor, a man who had

associations outside the Western Reserve, who was unimpeachable in char-

acter and morals, who had a distinguished war record, and who was not

too closely identified with the unpopular views of tile Radicals.⁴

William Henry Smith of Cincinnati had emerged as a prominent Ohio

Republican spokesman and manager during the Civil War years. His in-

fluence secured the nomination and election of Clevelander John Brough

as governor in 1863. Since it was generally conceded by party leaders that

the time was right for a candidate from southwestern Ohio, Smith began

a private canvass for a possible nominee even before the controversial con-

stitutional amendment resolution had passed the legislature. Hayes replied

to Smith's letter in February. He coyly declined to allow his name to go

before the Republican state convention, but added that he was flattered

by tile offer, would enjoy running, and was not "indifferent" to the honor.

About the same time Hayes wrote to his favorite uncle, Sardis Birchard,

at Fremont revealing his innermost feelings: "This is the truth as I now

see it: I don't particularly enjoy Congressional life. I have no ambition for

60                                               OHIO HISTORY

Congressional reputation or influence--not a particle. I would like to be

out of it creditably. If this nomination is pretty likely, it would get me

out of the scrape, and after all that I am out of political life decently."⁵

Hayes publicly refrained from indicating his desire for the nomination

because his record in Congress was undistinguished and, besides, it was too

early to know if Governor Cox would fight for a second term. He hesitated

from January to May before making a final decision. To his uncle he wrote

again on February 7, "I have decided not to run. The principle reason is

I do not like in these times to leave a place [Congress] to which I have been

chosen on my own request."⁶ In a letter to Smith, he set down the condi-

tions for his candidacy. He would run only if tile electorate of the Second

Congressional District [Cincinnati] approved,⁷ if the Hamilton County dele-

gation to the nominating convention supported him, and if no other Ham-

ilton County Union Republican wanted to run.8

The action in late May of the Ohio legislature placing the Negro suf-

frage question on the October ballot and assurances that he was indeed the

leading and logical Cincinnati contender for tile nomination, finally con-

vinced Hayes that he should run. Therefore, on May 23 he wrote Smith

that he would throw his hat in the ring since the legislature "squarely stood

up to the suffrage issue," unless, he added, General Robert C. Schenck

wanted the honor.⁹

On June 9 at the Republican state convention in Columbus, Rutherford

B. Hayes was nominated on the first ballot. A month later he resigned from

Congress to launch his campaign. His strategy became apparent in the

opening speech at Lebanon on August 5 in which he stressed the Negro

suffrage issue.10 He received strong support from the Western Reserve

newspapers. But outside this loyal Republican citadel, Hayes could count

only on tle Toledo Blade, the Dayton Journal, and the Columbus Morning

[Ohio State] Journal, for aid in passing the amendment. There was ques-

tionable support for his candidacy, and none for Negro suffrage, from the

three large Cincinnati dailies, the (Gazette, the Commercial, and the En-

quirer.11 The friendly press emphasized his war record. The Morning Jour-

nal called him "the gallant standard-bearer of Union Republicanism in

Ohio . . ." and cooed ". . . no one of the old Kanawah Division but will

vote for General Hayes with a will, unless he sympathizes with the guys in

grey."12

The unpopular suffrage issue put the Republican party on the defen-

sive. "Undoubtedly," a Missouri correspondent wrote, "the Negro suffrage

issue will lose the party the votes of many whose Republicanism has not

been based upon reasoning or conviction of duty." Ratter than say "Negro

suffrage," the Republican press used the phrase "loyal manhood suffrage,"

following the party belief that a loyal man of any color was more entitled

to vote than a white Copperhead. Besides, the Morning Journal stressed,

Ohio had a voting population of 470,000 while there were estimated to be

only 4,000 Negro males over twenty-one. The issue was therefore essen-

tially a moral one without too much political risk.¹³

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                    63

The Governor-elect busied himself before his January inauguration in

putting his personal affairs in order and in finding a Columbus residence

for his family. He rented a house at 51 East State Street.19 Late in Decem-

ber, he began the process of screening applicants for key appointments.

Power of appointment along with that of pardon and parole were about

the only executive functions permitted the state's governor under the Ohio

Constitution of 1851.20 Secretary of State Smith had indicated his intention

to resign in January, and there were also a few key staff appointments to be

made at once, including the person to work as the Governor's private secre-

tary. Unfortunately for Hayes, word of his activities reached the ears of

William Henry Smith, who, as much as any other individual, had put him

in the State House. Smith chided Hayes for making appointments without

consulting him. The Governor replied on January 7 that he had made but

one appointment and would make no others until he talked with the Sec-

retary.21 The unpleasant episode was resolved to the satisfaction of Smith,

but the incident gave Hayes a preview of trouble to come over patronage

appointments.

In his last message to the newly convened Fifty-eighth General Assembly,

Governor Cox on January 6, 1868, urged a broad legislative program: estab-

lishment of an agricultural and mechanical college, creation of the office

of county superintendent of schools, distribution of state school funds pro-

portionately according to the number of pupils in actual attendance, con-

struction of a reform school for girls as well as an intermediate prison to

separate young offenders from hardened criminals, revision and codifica-

tion of the criminal laws, display of the governors' portraits in the State

House, reactivation of the office of commissioner of immigration to recruit

labor, and the recommendation for a geological and insect pest survey of

the state.²2 The details for the program were presented by Cox apparently

without consultation with the Governor-elect.

A few days later, Governor Hayes delivered his inaugural address in the

State House rotunda in front of the giant canvas, "Perry's Victory." He

proffered no new or challenging program to the Democratic legislature

except to endorse Cox's message. Hayes reviewed the Negro suffrage, bank-

ing and currency issues, which he dismissed as being of national concern,

but urged that the next constitutional convention should grant the Negro

the right to vote. He reported that the state debt was under control, taxes

were in proportion to actual value of property, and that Ohio need not

concern itself further with public works. Above all, when it became ap-

parent early in January that the legislature might withdraw Ohio's 1867

ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Hayes pleaded caution on the

part of the legislature until another public referendum could be held. To

the General Assembly, he urged the avoidance of "the evil of too much legis-

lation"; and recommended the watchwords "economy, wisdom and pru-

dence."23

It was soon apparent to the new Governor that the Democratic legisla-

ture would not heed his advice. For the next several months he appeared

to withdraw from the active political arena. He wrote his Uncle Sardis on

64                         OHIO HISTORY

January 17, "I am enjoying the new office. It strikes me at a guess as the

pleasantest I have ever had. Not too much hard work, plenty of time to

read, good society, etc., etc." He assumed the task begun by William Henry

Smith and Governor Cox of commissioning copies of the portraits of former

governors to be made. The idea had been authorized by legislative resolu-

tion in 1867 and had been implemented by Smith. Hayes sat for his own

portrait by Columbus artist John Henry Witt, who frequently had painted

copies of the portraits of past governors in his 81 South High Street studio.

The Hayes portrait reflected the Governor's "easy manner, pleasant hand-

shake, general genialiity."²⁴ Its whereabouts today is unknown.

Hayes attended the Republican national convention in May. In June, to

prepare for his first major public address since the inauguration, he spent

considerable time drafting a Fourth of July speech for delivery in Youngs-

town. The speech contained a reference to the need to care for widows and

orphans of Civil War veterans. This endorsed a pledge that the Ohio Grand

Army of the Republic had made at its January convention in Cincinnati.²⁵

But Hayes had no specific recommendation as to how such undertakings

should be financed. He made no reference to Negro suffrage and had made

none since the legislature had acted to rescind Ohio's ratification of the

Fourteenth Amendment.²⁶

Hayes resumed active political leadership in September and October by

campaigning in behalf of the Republican candidate for secretary of state

in the mid-term election of 1868. Boldly invading Democratic territory as

well as electioneering in the safe Republican counties in the northern half

of the state, he spoke often, and on election eve made his final address in

Cincinnati. Throughout the campaign, a Hayes program for the state failed

to develop; he kept to the dictum: "That government is best which governs

least." Yet his exposure to the problems of the day during the campaign

certainly helped him to shape a program soon to be announced. When a

Cincinnati riot in October elicited adverse local reaction because of state

inaction, Hayes stood by his Jeffersonian principles by privately enunciat-

ing his conviction that "the governor can [not] nor ought 'to prevent

breaches of the peace . . . .' If there was an insurrection or mob which civil

authorities could not control, I could call out the military (if there was

any?) but it is the business of the civil authorities to take care of 'breaches

of the peace.' The governor has no civil authority."27

After meeting 134 days during the first half of 1868, the legislature re-

convened on November 23 for a special session. Governor Hayes addressed

both houses, presenting for the first time a modest program. He urged again

the enactment into law of certain matters which Governor Cox had re-

quested, particularly the creation of the office of county superintendent of

schools and a geological survey. To these he added requests of his own for

laws to revise assessment, taxation, and the state accounting systems; to build

a fireproof lunatic asylum replacing the Columbus home which had burned

on November 18 with the loss of six lives; to inspect all state structures

with the view of fire prevention; to appoint five commissioners to seek

ways to stamp out the Texas cattle fever which was infecting Ohio herds;

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                     65

and to prevent election fraud by insuring minority representation on elec-

tion boards, voter registration, and a cessation of the practice of "coloniz-

ing" or repeating voters.

This embryonic program composed of recommendations for immediate

state needs had little effect on the lawmakers and barely pleased the Gov-

ernor's supporters, not for what he said, but for what he left out. The

Morning Journal editorialized: he "has narrowly escaped the opposite ex-

treme [to that of verbosity] by leaving us too much to our own good devices

in matters we would have been glad to receive the benefit of suggestion."²⁸

The long and expensive sessions of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly and

its acts repugnant to Republican policy provided Hayes with his 1869 cam-

paign strategy. The Democrats, thirsting for power after a long drouth,

had enacted a large body of law filling two volumes. Major laws included

the means to maintain and improve rural roads, new municipal and crim-

inal codes, broader powers for local subdivisions to issue bonds for public

works, regulation of insurance companies, railroads and medical practi-

tioners, creation of an Ohio Geological Survey, the authorization to con-

struct a new Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum, election reform laws, and a

host of other much-needed domestic legislation after years of concern for

war measures.29

Governor Hayes, however, singled out only especially controversial acts

with which to taunt the Democrats in the forthcoming election. These acts

included the rescinding of an 1867 resolution to ratify the Fourteenth

Amendment; the "Visible Admixture" law, which prohibited suffrage to

any person having "a distinct and visible admixture of African blood"; and

acts to "Preserve the Purity of Elections," which disenfranchised disabled

veterans in the national asylum in Dayton and prevented college students,

prone to Republicanism in that age, who were non-residents in tile county or

city of their schooling, from voting. Clearly, Negro suffrage would play a

part in the campaign of 1869 also.

Renominated by acclamation on June 23, Hayes endorsed the five-plank

Republican state platform to support the Grant administration: to endorse

Grant's inaugural address; to support Republican reconstruction policies

and the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment; to condemn the Democratic

legislature for reckless expenditures, failure to enact new assessment and

tax laws, and for its attempts to disqualify certain voters; and, as the only

positive measure, to establish a soldiers' orphans' home.30

His campaign for reelection was launched at Wilmington on August 12

by a long and tedious speech. He defended the fiscal policies of the new

Grant administration and its efforts to retire government bonds without

new taxes. He bemoaned the fact that Ohio tax revenues had doubled be-

tween 1863 ($11,859,573) and 1868 ($21,006,322). He reported a reason-

able state debt of ten million dollars, but lamented the total city and coun-

ty debts of about fifteen million dollars. He urged lower taxes so that in-

dustry and citizens would not be driven from the state in time of recession

or high interest rates. "The last General Assembly," he asserted, "was in

session too long [260 days] and too often -- that its legislation was exces-

66                                                OHIO HISTORY

sive, expensive, unnecessary, and in some instances oppressive. We say

that it authorized expenditures, local debts, and local taxes, in a manner

and to an extent that endangers the prosperity of the State. We therefore

maintain that there ought to be a thorough, and sweeping reform in the

Legislature. . . . long sessions are the fruitful source of all sorts of abuses."

In conclusion, he urged state construction and maintenance of an orphans'

home, basing his recommendation upon a recently published estimate that

there were 150,000 to 200,000 soldiers orphans as inmates of various county

infirmaries or subsisting on township charity in 1868. A bill (S.B. 343)

to create the home, in spite of bipartisan support, had been tabled in the

senate by a single vote.31 At last, Hayes's philosophy and platform seemed

to be evolving.

To oppose Hayes, the Democrats before July 7 had wildly considered

nine candidates until General William S. Rosecrans, then a California resi-

dent, was chosen. A party platform of thirteen planks praised the previous

legislature, supported greenbacks, urged workmen's legislation, and damned

Hayes's attacks on the legislature as "false in fact, malicious in spirit, and

unworthy of gentlemen occupying elevated positions."32

The campaign pitting two prominent Civil War generals was viewed by

impartial observers as very close until Rosecrans unexpectedly withdrew

as the Democratic candidate for governor on August 7. Four days later, a

reluctant George Pendleton of Cincinnati accepted the nomination. Re-

publican hopes soared as a result of Democratic adversity; Hayes now had

a less popular adversary. Although Pendleton's enemies conceded he was

polished, composed, tactful, and adroit,³³ it was possible for Republican

partisans to draw a sharp contrast between Hayes, the valiant general, and

Pendleton, the Peace Democrat. While Hayes was "crowning the banners

of Ohio with glory, Pendleton was doing all he could to drape these ban-

ners in white in token of surrender," a Republican spokesman claimed.³⁴

Hayes campaigned chiefly in Union and doubtful counties with a less

strenuous schedule than in 1867. He won by 7,501 votes. Tile voting pat-

tern was similar to that of 1867 except Hayes lost his home county, Hamil-

ton, together with Brown and Knox. He picked up majorities, however, in

Scioto, Lawrence, and Madison counties.³⁵

The Hayes victory speech was delivered from a balcony of the American

House in Columbus. He termed his reelection a decision of Ohioans to

stand by the Republican plan for Reconstruction and to complete it by

ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. How the legislature would react

to his leadership remained in doubt.

While Republicans gained a small majority in the senate, the house

was now composed of 53 Republicans and 54 Democrats, five of whom

might be persuaded to vote for Republican measures. But a reform ticket

in Hamilton County had elected five independent Republicans pledged to

neither party. These mavericks controlled the balance of power, and the

house was organized along bipartisan lines.³⁶

Early in December 1869, Hayes began to assemble ideas for his 1870

legislative program. From E. C. Wines, of the New York State Prison As-

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                      67

sociation and author of its important 1868 report,³⁷ he solicited further

information on prison reform. Hayes indicated he would not make any

"sudden or sweeping reform" but desired to encourage the formation of

"correct opinions and hope that gradual but steady advance may be made

towards a reformatory system," particularly to implement Cox's earlier

request for an intermediate prison.38

The Hayes legislative message of January 3, 1870,39 reported a reduction

in the state debt of nearly a million dollars to $9,855,938. Since a tax in-

crease of 44% had burdened Ohio taxpayers since 1867, new laws to pre-

vent increased taxes by implementing fiscal reforms in accordance with a

March 18, 1867 law were recommended. The Governor cautioned the leg-

islature about its propensity to hold long sessions: urged adequate, fixed

salaries for all public employees; and recommended curbs on the powers

of county commissioners and municipal officials to levy taxes and contract

debts. "All large expenditures should meet the approval of those who are

to bear the burden." Let a majority of the voters approve public levies, or

limit the rate of taxation which may be levied locally, Hayes pleaded.

His suggestions for penal reform were made for the benefit of young

inmates, as two-thirds of all the prisoners were under thirty. He reported

that the present system was defective in that the young mingled with hard-

ened prisoners and the administration failed to educate convicts in habits

of thrift and self control. His proposals included a new prisoner classifica-

tion system according to age and the construction of a new state penitentiary

or the enlargement of the present one.

In education, Hayes again asked for the office of county superintendent

of schools, a codification of school laws, and the substitution of township

boards of education for the existing and overlapping system of township

and subdistrict boards.

He urged increased powers for the Board of State Charities, but declined

to salary them. He called the housing and treatment of the insane "atro-

cious," reporting that 900 incurably insane persons were lodged in county

infirmaries and another 100 in county jails, necessitating more space be

added to existing asylum structures. He further asked for an appropriation

of the necessary funds to build an asylum for tile incurable alcoholic to be

administered along the lines of the New York plan, a provision which Mrs.

Hayes endorsed. Still considering indigent persons, the governor said that

the state should find the means to support, house, and educate all orphans

who need this care.

Next, the Governor gave his support to the establishment of a land grant

agricultural and mechanical college. This was the first time in his admin-

istration that he had done so. During the war a fund had been created by

the sale of land script issued to Ohio by the federal government. On Jan-

uary 1, 1870, the fund totalled $404,911. Under the provisions of the grant,

the state was bound to provide not less than one college on or before July

2, 1872. The principal objective of the institution would be to teach agri-

cultural and mechanical sciences, the pure sciences, classical studies, and

military tactics. Governor Cox had urged the legislature to decide on the

68                                                 OHIO HISTORY

use of the fund in his January 1868 message,⁴⁰ in which lie had reported

that for four years the issue had been debated only. The problems which

had stood in the way of founding the college were the selection of a site

and the belief of Republicans in some quarters that it was ridiculous to

give farmers and mechanics a college education.⁴¹ Hayes realized that now

was the time to act if the fund were to be utilized.

Finally, he requested the enactment of voter registry laws to "purify"

elections and minority party representation laws for election boards. He

offered no method of accomplishing these goals, however. He stressed the

immediate need to repeal voting restrictions placed by the last legislature

on students, institutionalized veterans, and persons of mixed blood. The

Governor also strongly advocated the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend-

ment to the United States Constitution. The new Hayes program, the first

he had espoused bearing his own ideas concerning state needs, fared well

in the legislature.

Hayes took the oath of office for the second time on January 10, 1870,

once more against the backdrop of "Perry's Victory." His address was com-

posed almost entirely of words of advice to the forthcoming state constitu-

tional convention. He suggested that railroad construction should be speeded

by repeal of the constitutional provision which prohibited the legislative

branch from authorizing any political subdivision to give aid to any com-

mercial enterprise. End the spoils system, he advocated, by making most

state offices non-political; place appointments and retention in office upon

merit and experience. He expressed his belief that judges should be ap-

pointed to long terms with adequate salaries to discourage bribery in urban

centers.⁴²

Thus in a single week, Governor Hayes enunciated more policy and

political philosophy than he had during his entire first term. While still

paying lip service to the Jeffersonian doctrine of that government governs

best which governs least, he was making, early in 1870, bold and idealistic

long-range proposals in the science of government, recommendations which

have not been fully attained a century later. His program was practical

enough, however, to be implemented at least in part during his second term.

Specifically, the legislature enacted into law the Hayes recommendations

for a fixed public employee salary schedule, construction of a Girls' Indus-

trial School at White Sulphur Springs, an enlargement of the state peni-

tentiary, a graded prison system, an increase of responsibilities for the State

Board of Charities, a board to select the site for and create the Ohio Agri-

cultural and Mechanical College, a board to build and govern a soldiers'

and sailors' orphans' home in Xenia, a voter registration law, and the re-

peal of voting restrictions he had requested. But it was Ohio's approval of

the Fifteenth Amendment on January 20 which gave Hayes his greatest

satisfaction. At a celebration in the Columbus Opera House on April 13

marking the national ratification of the amendment, Hayes declared: "The

war of races, which it was confidently predicted would follow the enfran-

chisement of the colored people -- where was it in the [local] elections of

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                      69

Ohio last week? . . . There was barely enough angry dissent to remind us

of the barbarism of slavery which has passed away forever."⁴³

Only in the making of appointments did the public and the legislature

harass the Governor. No sooner had Hayes resolved his difficulty with Wil-

liam Henry Smith on this subject early in 1868, than still another differ-

ence arose in May between the two friends concerning the appointment

of a state school commissioner. Hayes had made a pledge to schoolmen

that lie would appoint their candidate even if the former Secretary of State

disapproved. Smith then told Hayes to hereafter "apply elsewhere for infor-

mation."⁴⁴ Hayes believed his only course with Smith should be one of

reconciliation.

Hayes's appointment of John S. Newberry of Cleveland on April 21, 1869,

as the first state geologist won him the enmity of the powerful Colonel

Charles Whittlesey, the state's leading man of science. He abused Hayes

"terribly"⁴⁵ because Newberry, who had been appointed earlier to the

United States Geological Corps by the Democratic Buchanan administra-

tion, at the time of his Hayes appointment was residing outside of Ohio.

Both facts fanned Whittlesey's fire.

Hayes applied a single test in making most of his appointments: had the

candidate been a loyal Union man during the war? In his victory speech of

October 14, 1869, he had interpreted his reelection as a public desire "to

refrain from electing to public office any person against the country during

war.^"46 He made certain to guarantee minority party representation on all

state boards, but he tried to make sure that he appointed only those Demo-

crats who had actively supported the Union. The loyalty of the appointees

was not always easy to ascertain, and the first few months of his third term

were troubled by poor patronage decisions.

The greatest appointment crises which Hayes faced occurred in connec-

tion with the ratification by tile senate of his appointees to the new board

of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home and the appointment of the

superintendent of the State House. Senators present at the session of April

16, 1870, were evenly divided seventeen to seventeen. In secret session,

the senate was deadlocked; Democrats criticized the Hayes nominees because

they were all former soldiers, too many belonged to the G.A.R., and not

enough were Democrats [one].⁴⁷ The Governor and his clerks waited in

their offices throughout tile night for a decision. At 2:30 A.M., the appoint-

ments to the board of the Orphans' Home were approved, but the State

House superintendent nominee was rejected. The Governor immediately

offered a substitute nomination, and at 5:00 A.M., on Sunday, the legisla-

ture adjourned with all appointments confirmed.⁴⁸

Much has been made of the Hayes policy of appointing minority party

representatives to state boards and commissions. The truth is, tills practice

was born of necessity since Hayes did not have the opportunity of work-

ing with a clear Republican majority in both houses until his third term.⁴⁹

Reviewing the General Assembly of 1870 with its dramatic ending, the

Governor praised the legislature's work done in a "longer session than was

70                                                  OHIO HISTORY

required, longer than I had hoped." With legislative matters settled for a

while, Hayes turned his attention to affairs of a more personal interest.

C. T. Webber of Cincinnati painted his portrait that was to be hung along

side of those of his peers, and he continued to make additions to the State

House portrait collection. On July 4, 1870, he laid the cornerstone for the

new Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum. The event was hailed as the beginning

of a new era in the treatment for Ohio's insane.50

In September, the Governor campaigned for the party ticket in eastern

and northern Ohio. He closed the canvass on October 8 with a major ad-

dress in Cincinnati. In it he praised America's neutral position in the

Franco-Prussian War and the Grant administration's policy of favoring gold

over paper in the payment of the national debt. In his first well-reasoned

and erudite explanation of current Republican fiscal policies, Hayes ex-

plained, "Any man of sense knows that just in proportion to the gap be-

tween the value of gold and the value of paper money, in that proportion

is your currency unsound, your business disturbed, and labor in danger of

not receiving its full reward. Now this ugly gap that was between the value

of gold and greenbacks before Grant's election has been partially closed-

is getting a little narrower all the time--and since the commencement of

the present administration the people have gained sixty millions of dollars

by the increased value of the currency."51

Meantime family history became a hobby of Hayes early in 1870, and he

pursued the search for genealogical records with increasing interest through-

out his second term. A recurring eye infection during the last year of office

in the second term offered him an excuse to travel for rest and relaxation,

to seek further ancestral facts, and to pursue new business ventures. His in-

terest in contemporary Ohio politics waned, as he reported to a friend on

March 1, 1870, "I too mean to be out of politics. The ratification of the

Fifteenth Amendment gives me the boon of equality before the law, ter-

minates my enlistment, and discharges me cured."52

Time and again to his political correspondents or in his Diary, Hayes re-

marked how the great domestic issues of the day had consumed his energy

--freedom for the slaves, unity of the nation, Negro suffrage.53 It was almost

as if Hayes as governor served merely to achieve Negro suffrage and tidy up

Ohio after the war. He seemed totally uninterested in or unwilling to grap-

ple with the new issues of post-war Ohio, issues arising from the growth of

cities, the industrial revolution, the rapid changes in transportation and

communication, and woman suffrage, with all the attending social, politi-

cal, and economic ills. During the final year of the second term in office,

Hayes in all respects became backward looking in politics. His disillusion-

ment with corruption and poor administration in Washington, his pre-

occupation with family history, and his desire to improve his personal

finances made him a veritable schoolboy waiting anxiously for the summer

recess.

On January 4, 1872, Hayes placed a statement in the Ohio State Journal

to the effect he would not be a candidate for Senator, "either in or out of

caucus." To a friend he wrote in March, "I go out of politics with tile end

?? of the colored people -- where was it in the [local] elections of

?? of the ?? people -- where was it in the [local] elections of

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                    71

of this term. The old questions interest me so much that the new ones

seem small." But during the last few weeks of his second term Hayes was

disturbed by nocturnal visitors sounding him out as a senatorial candidate.

Privately, he may have desired the attention and the office, but publicly he

would not declare for it in deference to the incumbent, John Sherman.

Again, his reticence would in the future stand him in good stead. Sherman

would have occasion to repay the debt.5⁴

Ensconced as a country squire at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, the estate

he had inherited from his uncle, former Governor Hayes enjoyed life to the

fullest until early in 1875. Then an Ohio Republican party caucus unani-

mously agreed to boost Hayes for a third term, "a feather," he allowed,

"I would like to wear." Yet to all correspondents, he typically refused to

entertain the idea of his candidacy publicly. Tile next few months Hayes

weighed in his mind and recorded in his Diary the reasons for and against

acceptance. On the negative side, he continued to be interested in provid-

ing a substantial estate for himself and his family. His personal debts had

approximated two years before $46,000, which, when paid, would give him

a net worth of about a half million dollars. He had also become concerned

about his health, having coughed up blood on occasion and having fre-

quently been bothered by summer colds, perhaps an allergy. He was dis-

turbed, too, by the corruption, unwise appointments, and "ultra measures"

directed toward the South by the Grant administration. More importantly,

there was talk about a third term for Grant--all liabilities for any Repub-

lican gubernatorial candidate of Ohio.

On the positive side, however, was the enticing possibility, which friends

were prone to remind him and which some party leaders firmly believed,

that if Hayes could win a third term as governor, he would then be prime

presidential timber.55

The Republican state convention met in Columbus on June 2 and nom-

inated Hayes over Judge Alfonso Taft of Cincinnati, 396 to 151. Taft

then withdrew, making the Republican choice unanimous. Hayes at first

declined the nomination, but later, lured as any man might be by the pros-

pect of the presidency, accepted "to rebuke the Democracy by a defeat for

subserviency to Roman Catholic demands."56

The question of separation of church and state along with the then in-

famous Geghan bill, which had passed the 1874 session of the legislature,

was to be the dramatic issue of the Hayes campaign against incumbent Dem-

ocratic Governor William Allen. Tile Geghan bill merely permitted equal

opportunity for religious worship for persons of all denominations in public

jails and asylums, but it was considered to be a sinister plot on the part of

Irish and German Catholics in the Democratic party to secure state spon-

sorship of sectarian religious education in the public schools, to win public

support for parochial schools, and to take over the Democratic party in Ohio.

Early in 1870, while Governor, Hayes had stated his general position con-

cerning religion in the schools. In a letter to a Cincinnati correspondent,

he said, "We must not let them push religion out of the schools, but we

72                                                OHIO HISTORY

must avoid forcing it on anybody. You may ask, How are these two things

accomplished? Well, it is easier to do the thing than tell how to do it.^"57

With the heated discussion among Protestants over religious questions

in 1875, Hayes was quick to take another tact. He now made the complete

separation of church and state his major issue. The nominating convention

inserted such a plank in the platform: "Free education, our public school

system, the taxation of all for its support, and 'no division of the school

fund.' " Religion in the schools and institutions of the state had always been

accepted if Protestant in form and content; Catholic observances or public

support, direct or indirect, for Catholic education was unthinkable to the

Republicans. Repeatedly, at the beginning of the campaign, Hayes had in-

structed A. T. Xikoff, his campaign manager, to prepare a pamphlet on

the Geghan bill and the school question which he believed would have an

impact on Protestant voters.)58

Hayes opened his campaign in Marion, Lawrence County on July 31 with

a major speech which he would reuse in other numerous appearances until

election day. He first argued against the Democratic plank to abandon the

gold standard in favor of greenbacks which to Hayes was the second most

important issue of the campaign. Sound money principles remained a na-

tional Republican objective, and Hayes and his supporters simply reaffirmed

the policy. He then traced in great detail the dangers inherent in the

Geghan bill by showing the threat it posed to the constitutional doctrine

of the separation of church and state, a doctrine he claimed was being chal-

lenged by the Catholic Democrats. His appeal was intended to arouse

Protestant prejudice and win non-Catholic Democratic votes. "Government

nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects,"⁵⁹ he exclaimed.

A. T. Wikoff over-scheduled the Hayes party. Often, Hayes, suffering

from summer colds, was forced to give two to three major addresses a day,

an effort he deemed injurious to health. Ohio was deluged by rain during

August causing floods that resulted in poor attendance at political rallies.

Hayes pleaded with Wikoff to reduce his schedule. The colorful Carl Schurz

came to Ohio to aid the Republican campaign on September 27. The Cin-

cinnati Euquirer charged that the Republican state committee was paying

the speaker $10,000 to woo the German vote. Schurz stressed tile danger of

inflation if the nation's monetary system were taken off the gold standard.

Hayes was jubilant over the naturalized German's participation which gave

the campaign national attention. But the practical, vote-getting effect of

Schurz's intellectual speeches upon the German laborer, shopkeeper, and

farmer was dubious except in Hamilton County where Hayes received a

majority of 1.00 votes. Hayes won the election by a mere 5,544 votes, even

less than his small margin in tile 1869 election. As soon as the results

were known, however, the loyal Republican press touted him as a presi-

dential possibility."60

The inauguration on January 10, 1876, was a grand affair marked by

cordiality between outgoing Governor Allen and Hayes, both of whom had

not let the campaign destroy their personal friendship. In his inaugural ad-

74                                                 OHIO HISTORY

In the quiet period between the time of his inauguration and his nom-

ination for President, Hayes gave serious thought to the two most important

administrative powers given Ohio governors: appointments and pardons.

He had experienced repeated rebuffs for his bi-partisan appointments, a

practice deemed necessary in an effort to secure both senate and party ap-

proval. Also, his party expected him to appoint only staunch Union men

to state posts. Early in April 1876, his appointment of a Democrat and a

Republican to the Dayton State Hospital board caused a major flurry, and

a private apology from the Governor was necessary. One of the men had

been a Copperhead, the other was a libertine. In his Diary on April 11,

Hayes confided, "Some mistakes have been made, but, on the whole, I have

been fortunate. One or two things I must bear in mind. No man should be

finally determined on until the people where he resides have been heard

from, after he is seriously talked of, or nominated for the place."

Of all interests and responsibilities, Hayes took the power of pardon

most seriously. His official correspondence throughout his three administra-

tions concerned pardon cases more than anything else. In April 1870, the

Cincinnati Gazette had severely criticized Governor Hayes for commuting

the sentence of one Steinmetz, a Toledo murderer. This event, his ex-

perience as a defense lawyer in Cincinnati before the war, and his concern

for penal reform, prompted him to list on April 11, 1876, his "rules" for

the "perplexing" task of pardon-granting. He reminded himself to take time

to consider each case, to consider group pardons as a unit, to pardon no

man not provided with employment or an income, to release no man with

out a home or one of a friend who will welcome him, and to listen to the

advice of the legal authorities on the case.63 Rarely, in the past, had Gover-

nor Hayes applied all of these considerations in granting pardons, perhaps

fortunately.

The origin of Hayes's concern for prison administration and reform

stemmed from reading the first annual report of the Board of State Chari-

ties of 1868 and the reports of E. C. Wines, New York State correctional

officer. As governor, however, Hayes evolved no comprehensive prison re-

form policies which might cost the taxpayers sizeable sums of money. He

did continue to support the State Board of Charities, but insisted it be un-

salaried and advisory only. His specific recommendations concerning the

classification and separation of prisoners at the Ohio Penitentiary had been

recommended earlier by the Board in 1868. His greatest contributions to

penal reform would come after his retirement from public life.64

Upon leaving office in 1872, Hayes listed in his Diary twenty-two contri-

butions he felt he had made to the state during his first two terms. Among

these were seven which actually had been proposals of his predecessor and

of William Henry Smith when Secretary of State. Of these twenty-two con-

tributions, five were historical projects designed to preserve, perpetuate,

and promote a knowledge of the past. But of them all, both lasting and in-

consequential, only one action tested his courage and convictions, demon-

strated his political fortitude. He won against great odds, prejudice, and

GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD B. HAYES                                   75

popular disapproval tile right of Negro suffrage in Ohio. He did it through

his personal popularity which in turn affected the composition of the Ohio

General Assembly; and he did it at a time when only a minority of Ohioans

approved.

The second major Hayes achievement was the sum total of his enlight-

ened stand to transform penal institutions into true reformatories and to

improve the care of mental patients and orphans--an equally unpopular

position with that of Negro suffrage. His success was not complete in this

respect, but he did help create a more favorable climate of opinion upon

which his successors might build.

Rutherford B. Hayes earned tile sobriquet: "The Good Governor."65

THE AUTHOR: Daniel R. Porter is

Director, The Ohio Historical Society.