APPENDIX B
THE LAST DAYS OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES AND
COMMEMORATIVE OFFICIAL ACTIONS FOL-
LOWING HIS DEATH
MR. HAYES was almost constantly occupied during the last
few months of his life with the various philanthropic and
public interests to which he had so long given his time and
strength. He attended the national Grand Army Encampment at
Washington in September, marched in the procession with his
old comrades of Eugene Rawson Post, made many speeches at
camp-fires and reunions, and presided at the meeting of the Army
of West Virginia, when the lights in the great tent suddenly went
out and the proceedings were continued to the close in utter dark-
ness. He also presided at the dedication at Arlington Cemetery
of the monument to General George Crook. Wherever he ap-
peared he was greeted with prolonged cheers. Then followed in
rapid succession a visit to New York to attend meetings of the
Peabody and Slater trustees, and to be an honored spectator of
the great naval and military parades, celebrating the quadricen-
tennial anniversary of the discovery of America, and to share in
the festivities that accompanied them; participation in the Indian
Conference at Lake Mohonk over which he presided; and a jour-
ney to Chicago to take part in the dedication of the Columbian
Fair buildings. On all these occasions he was the recipient of
every courtesy possible, and his appearance in public instantly
was followed with cheers and shouts of acclaim.
He had hardly returned to Spiegel Grove when the country was
saddened by news of the death of Mrs. Benjamin Harrison,
Thereupon he journeyed to Indianapolis to attend the obsequies,
and accompanied President Harrison on his way back to Wash-
ington as far as Columbus. Early in December occurred the
annual meeting of the National Prison Congress, that year at
(157)
158 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Baltimore. Mr. Hayes presided as usual, making the opening
address, in which he pleaded for wise restriction of immigration,
and urged that in "the whole territory of duty embraced in the
great subject of criminal jurisprudence" the spirit of the Golden
Rule should guide and control men's decisions.
Late in December Mr. Hayes was in Cleveland to preside and
speak at a banquet of Kenyon alumni, and at Columbus to ad-
dress the Ohio College Association on his favorite theme, the im-
portance of manual training in our educational system. Monday
morning, January 9, 1893, he set out from Spiegel Grove on his
last journey. He went to Columbus to attend a meeting of the
trustees of the State University. He was engaged in university
duties and in visiting relatives and friends until Thursday after-
noon when he took the train for Cleveland. There he was a
guest until Saturday of Mrs. Linus Austin, a relative and inti-
mate friend, at whose home his son Webb lived. Friday he was
busy with the affairs of Western Reserve University and he
visited the University School in which he had been greatly in-
terested. Saturday afternoon at the Cleveland station, as he was
about to depart, accompanied by his son Webb, for Fremont, he
was seized with an attack of angina pectoris. His son quickly
obtained brandy. A modicum of this together with external
application somewhat relieved the intense pain which the sufferer
described as like that which attended his severe wounding at
South Mountain. His son urged him to return to Mrs. Austin's;
but he longed to be at home. "I would rather die at Spiegel
Grove," he declared, "than to live anywhere else." He was made
as comfortable as possible in the drawing-room of the Pullman
car, and reached Fremont at seven, still in great pain, but no
worse for the journey. Dr. Hilbish, the family physician, fore-
warned by telegraph, met the train and accompanied the sufferer
to Spiegel Grove, where he at once took to his bed. Dr. Hilbish,
who continued in almost constant attendance, doing everything
in the power of medical skill, was at first hopeful; but it was not
long before hopefulness gave way to gravest apprehension. Mr.
Hayes himself had little doubt that his hour had come. During
the three days that he lingered he talked freely and cheerfully
with members of the family. While his suffering was greatly
DEATH OF PRESIDENT HAYES 159
relieved by anodynes, he chafed at being confined to his bed-
the first experience of the kind since he was wounded at South
Mountain, more than thirty years before. Tuesday there seemed
to be a change for the better and hope was quickened; but after
ten that night conditions became rapidly worse, and near eleven
he painlessly breathed his last in the arms of his son Webb, who
had raised him to a sitting position, his cheek against the cheek
of the son.
Messages of condolence poured in from far and wide, and
flowers from every part of the land soon filled the house. The
funeral took place Friday afternoon. Colonel Henry C. Corbin,
a close personal friend, had charge of all arrangements for the
day. In spite of the snow and severe weather hosts of people
travelled far to be present. Mr. Cleveland, soon to be inaugurated
as President a second time, came from Lakewood, New Jersey.
President Harrison, detained at Washington by the state of his
health, was represented by four members of his Cabinet, Messrs.
Foster, Noble, Rusk, and Wanamaker. The Army was repre-
sented by Colonels Henry C. Corbin, Marshal I. Ludington, and
Joseph C. Breckinridge. The Navy was represented by Captain
John A. Howell and Commanders Francis W. Dickins and Ed-
ward S. Houston. Delegations were present from both houses
of Congress; and the Legislature of Ohio came in a body, headed
by Governor McKinley, with his staff, and the state officers.
Delegates from Loyal Legion commanderies and from other
societies, and many other men of distinction were present, com-
pletely filling the spacious house. Thousands of people stood in
the snow outside while the brief service was celebrated. This
consisted of the reading of the Twenty-third Psalm by the pastor
of the Fremont Methodist Church, the singing of the hymn, "It
is Well With my Soul" by a Cleveland choir, assisted by Mrs.
Fred H. Dorr, of Fremont, a warm personal friend; an im-
pressive prayer by President Bashford, of Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity; the favorite hymn, "God be With You Till we Meet
Again"; and the reciting by the entire company of the Lord's
Prayer.
The procession to Oakwood was headed by Troop A of Cleve-
land (of which Webb Hayes was a member), the Toledo Battery,
160 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and the Sixteenth Regiment of the Ohio National Guard. Next
to these marched members of the Grand Army of the Republic
and of the Sons of Veterans. The honorary pallbearers were all
men that had beeen close friends of Mr. Hayes: Secretary
Charles Foster, representing the President; Governor William
McKinley; Dr. J. L. M. Curry, agent of the Peabody and Slater
funds; Major E. C. Dawes, representing the Loyal Legion of
Ohio; General Wager Swayne, representing the Loyal Legion
Commandery-in-Chief; General Manning F. Force; Colonel Wil-
liam E. Haynes, of Fremont, Member of Congress; and William
Henry Smith, the most intimate personal and political friend.
The actual bearers were members of his old regiment, the famous
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the grave-side the
service was "very brief and simple," the press account records,
"but the grouping of figures rendered it indescribably solemn and
impressive." When the coffin had been lowered among the boughs
of evergreens that hid the frozen earth, the Sons of Veterans fired
a parting salute and the bugles sounded taps. And so as the
wintry sunlight faded in the west, all that was mortal of the man
that had nobly filled so large a space in the better history of his
time and country, lay at rest beside the grave of his soul com-
panion, whom, through four years of sorrow, bravely borne, he
had longed to join in that fuller life, to which, as he confidently
trusted, death was the portal. His last recorded words as he lay
on his death-bed were: "I know that I am going where Lucy is."
Manifestations of popular sorrow and discriminative eulogistic
appraisals of Mr. Hayes's character and career were innumerable.
The President, the executive departments, the two houses of
Congress, and the Supreme Court paused in their duties to give
appropriate expression of their sense of the national loss. The
public authorities of Ohio took similar action. All the many and
various societies of which Mr. Hayes was an active member,
military, philanthropic, and educational, and the trustees and
faculties of the universities on whose boards of control he had
long intelligently and efficiently served, held commemoratice meet-
ings, listened sympathetically to speeches of approbation and sen-
timents of grief, and placed upon their records resolutions or min-
utes setting forth in eloquent phrases their estimate of the quali-
DEATH OF PRESIDENT HAYES 161
ties and achievements of Rutherford B. Hayes, and expressing
their admiration of his character and their personal devotion to
him as associate or leader. The press of the country joined the
chorus of acclaim with hardly a discordant note. Universal senti-
ment recognized that a distinguished public servant and a good
and noble man was lost to the better activities of the world.
OFFICIAL ACTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMEMOR-
ATIVE OF THE LIFE AND MANIFOLD PUBLIC
SERVICES OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
Proclamation of President Harrison Announcing the
Death of Mr. Hayes.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, D. C., January 18, 1893.
To the People of the United States:
The death of Rutherford B. Hayes, who was President of the
United States from March 4, 1877 to March 4, 1881, at his home
in Fremont, Ohio, at 11 P. M. yesterday, is an event the announce-
ment of which will be received with very general and very sin-
cere sorrow. His public service extended over many years and
over a wide range of official duty. He was a patriotic citizen, a
lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and
conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal
comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the
honored head of a happy Christian home. He has steadily grown
in the public esteem, and the impartial historian will not fail to
recognize the conscientiousness, the manliness, and the courage
that so strongly characterized his whole public career.
As an expression of the public sorrow it is ordered that the
Executive Mansion and the several Executive Departments at
Washington be draped in mourning and the flags thereon placed
at half-staff for a period of thirty days, and that on the day of
the funeral all public business in the Departments be suspended,
and that suitable military and naval honors, under the orders of
the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, be rendered on that day.
162 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Done at the city of Washington, this 18th day of January, A. D.
1893, and of the Independence of the United States of Amer-
ica the one hundred and seventeenth.
(Seal) BENJ. HARRISON.
By the PRESIDENT:
JOHN W. FOSTER, Secretary of State.
Owing to the condition of the health of President Harrison,
he was represented at the funeral by the Honorable Charles Fos-
ter, Secretary of the Treasury, the Honorable John W. Noble,
Secretary of the Interior, the Honorable John Wanamaker,
Postmaster-General, and the Honorable Jeremiah S. Rusk, Sec-
retary of Agriculture.
ACTION OF WAR DEPARTMENT
GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 4.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, January 19, 1893.
I. The following proclamation (order) has been received from
the President: [Printed above.]
II. In compliance with the instructions of the President, on
the day of the funeral, at each military post, the troops and cadets
will be paraded and this order read to them, after which all labors
of the day will cease.
The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.
At (lawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards at
intervals of thirty minutes between the rising and setting of the
sun a single gun, and at the close of the day a national salute of
forty-four guns.
The officers of the Army will wear crape on the left arm and
on their swords; and the colors of the Battalion of Engineers, of
the several regiments, and of the United States Corps of Cadets
will be put in mourning for a period of six months.
The date of the funeral will be communicated to department
PRESIDENT HARRISON'S PROCLAMATION 163
commanders by telegraph, and by them to their subordinate com-
manders.
By command of Major-General Schofield:
R. WILLIAMS, Adjutant-General.
The Army was represented at the funeral by Colonel Henry
C. Corbin, later lieutenant-general, Colonel Marshal I. Luding-
ton, later major-general, and Colonel Joseph C. Breckinridge,
later major-general.
ACTION OF NAVY DEPARTMENT
GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 406.
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
WASIIINGTON, D. C., January 19, 1893.
The President of the United States announces the death of ex-
President Rutherford B. Hayes in the following proclamation
(order): [Printed above.]
It is hereby directed, in pursuance of the instructions of the
President, that on the day of the funeral, where this order may be
received in time, otherwise on the day after its receipt, the ensign
at each naval station and of each of the vessels of the United
States Navy in commission be hoisted at half-mast from sunrise
to sunset, and at each naval station and on board of flagships and
vessels acting singly a gun be fired at intervals of every half-hour
from sunrise to sunset.
The officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will wear the usual
badge of mourning attached to the sword hilt and on the left arm
for a period of thirty days.
JAMES R. SOLEY,
Acting Secretary of the Navy.
The Navy was represented at the funeral by Captain John
A. Howell, later rear-admiral, Commander Francis W. Dickins,
later rear-admiral, and Commander Edward S. Houston, later
rear-admiral.
164 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
ACTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE
UNITED STATES
Wednesday, January 18, 1893.
Mr. Attorney-General W. H. H. Miller addressed the court
as follows:
"It is my painful duty to announce to the Court the death of
Rutherford 13. Hayes, ex-President of the United States. At his
home in Fremont, Ohio, after a brief illness, at the ripe age of
three score years and ten, this eminent public servant last night
passed from the life that now is into the life hereafter. This is
not the time for eulogy, yet I am constrained to say that in his
death the country has lost one who was a good citizen, a good
soldier, a good President, and above all a good man."
The Chief Justice, Melville W. Fuller, responded:
"The Court receives the announcement of the death of ex-
President Hayes with the sensibility due to his eminent public
services and his private virtues; and as a mark of respect to his
memory will now adjourn until tomorrow at the usual hour."
Present: The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Field, Mr. Justice
Gray, Mr. Justice Blatchford, Mr. Justice Brown, and Mr. Jus-
tice Shiras.
ACTION OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 18, 1893.
MR. SHERMAN:-- Mr. President, it becomes my painful duty
to announce to the Senate the death of Rutherford Birchard
Hayes, at his residence in Fremont, Ohio, last evening at 11
o'clock. By the usage of the Senate, when one who has been
President of the United States dies during the session of the
Senate, it has, as a mark of respect to his memory, recorded his
death upon its journal and suspended its duties for the day.
President Hayes held high and important positions during
his life, having been a gallant and distinguished Union soldier
during the war, a Member of Congress, three times Governor of
the State of Ohio, and President of the United States. He was
SUPREME COURT AND SENATE 165
a man of marked ability, untarnished honor, unblemished char-
acter, and faithful in the discharge of all his duties in every rela-
tion of life, against whom no word of reproach can be truthfully
uttered.
It was my good fortune to know President Hayes intimately
from the time we were law students until his death. To me his
death is a deep personal grief. All who had the benefit of per-
sonal association with him were strengthened in their attachment
to him and in their appreciation of his generous qualities of head
and heart. His personal kindness and sincere enduring attach-
ment for his friends was greater than he displayed in public inter-
course. He was always modest, always courteous, kind to every
one who approached him, and generous to friend or foe. He
had no sympathy with hatred or malice. He gave every man his
due according to his judgment of his merits.
I therefore, as is usual on such occasions, move that the
Senate, out of respect to the memory of President Hayes, do now
adjourn.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore:- The Senator from Ohio moves
that, out of respect to the memory of ex-President Hayes, the
Senate do now adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; and (at 12:13 P. m.) the Senate
adjourned until tomorrow, Thursday, January 19, 1893, at 12
o'clock meridian.
ACTION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE UNITED STATES
January 18, 1893.
MR. HAYNES, Democrat of Ohio [late Lieutenant-Colonel Wil-
liam E. Haynes, Tenth Ohio Cavalry] :--Mr. Speaker, the tele-
graph this morning brings us intelligence of the death at Fre-
mont, Ohio, of ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes. My residence
has been in Fremont for many years. I have personally known
General Hayes for fifty years, and I shall speak of him as a
citizen with whom I have been so long acquainted. I knew the
general in the army. I knew him as governor of the State, and
166 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
while he occupied distinguished positions and conspicuous sta-
tions in public life for so many years. At his own home he was
beloved by all, taking an interest in all the institutions of his
city and State, discharging wisely and well the duties that de-
volved upon all good citizens in the community.
Of his public services, many gentlemen in this chamber are
better prepared to speak than I am. His death will excite uni-
versal sorrow, not merely in the city of his residence, not only
on the part of those who were intimately acquainted with him,
but among all the people everywhere who remember his great
public services and his noble private character and life. Of his
public conduct as President of the United States, as governor of
his State, as an officer in the Union army, history makes record
and bears witness to his distinguished services. I wish to speak
more particularly of my recollection of the ex-President as a
citizen and a neighbor in the community in which he lived. He
had been a resident of the city of Fremont from early boyhood.
He studied and practiced law there, and, after the expiration
of his term as President, he returned to Fremont and again took
up his residence there.
He interested himself at all times in all matters of general in-
terest to the community. He was liberal, charitable, unostenta-
tious, and so conducted himself in every way that all men, re-
gardless of their political affiliations, honored him as a man as
well as because he was ex-President of the United States. Since
his retirement from the Presidency he had devoted a large share
of his time to the educational interests of the country and to
philanthropic movements. He was president of the Peabody Fund
and of the Slater Fund, devoted to educational purposes in the
South. He was one of the trustees of the Ohio University, and
he gave a great part of his time and large contributions to such
matters. After his retirement he did not engage in any private
business, but gave his entire time to the public. He abstained
from taking any part in political controversies, recognizing at all
times and on all occasions, in public and in private life, that he
was an ex-President of the United States; and I think I can truly
say that he was one of the best examplars of true American
citizenship.
TRIBUTES IN THE HOUSE 167
I know of no distinguished man retired from public position
who better deserved the good will and the high opinion of every
one who came in contact with him or who enjoyed them in
higher measure. He was easily approached, ready at all times
to assist in all undertakings where the public were to be benefitted,
at the same time abstaining from any occasion where there was
a probability of difference of opinion or dissension. As a general
in the army he was beloved by the soldiers who served with him;
as governor of the great State of Ohio, no man ever retired from
that position with more of the respect and good will of the people.
As President of the United States, history and time will give him
the place to which the results of his Administration entitled him.
As Chief Magistrate of the Republic, in a trying and turbulent
time, he conducted as able and successful an administration as
any man could possibly have done under the circumstances. In
his own town and State, where he was known by nearly all his
fellow citizens, no other death would excite such universal sorrow
as that of ex-President Hayes.
MR. ENOCHS, Republican of Ohio [Brevet Brigadier-General
W. H. Enochs] :-Mr. Speaker, I was intimately acquainted
with General or President Hayes. I served with him in the army
from the spring of 1863 until the war practically closed in 1865.
I never found a more patient, more faithful, brave, and upright
man than was General Hayes.
He was a soldier because he knew he was right and that he was
on the right side. He had no doubts of his part in that great war.
He knew absolutely that he was right. He was fighting in de-
fense of his country. His blood enriched more than one of the
great battle-fields of the war that we all might enjoy the blessing
of a united country; that this Republic might live. Without
malice, without ostentation, without anything else in view except
his duty as a soldier of our country, he served in that great war
from the beginning to its close.
He entered the army in the first instance as a major, was next
promoted to a lieutenant-colonel, a promotion won on the battle-
field, next to a full colonel, next to a brigadier-general, and then
a major-general of the United States Army. As he won his
168 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
eagles and stars, honors won in line of duty on the battlefield,
they belonged to him. He had won them honorably on the fields
of battle in defense of his country.
No man has ever come in contact with ex-President Hayes in
the army or in civil life who did not love him. No soldier in that
war was more popular than he. He never sought by political in-
fluence, by coming to Washington from the Army of the Potomac,
where he served, or when with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Val-
ley, to seek promotion or advancement through political influ-
ences. He won his promotion as a soldier in the field, and when
he got that promotion it belonged to him of right.
Without any malice, as I have said, without any feeling except
the love of the Stars and Stripes, leaving a clear wife and family,
going through that war from beginning to end for the love of
his country, he has left an example worthy of emulation by every
American citizen.
At the close of the war his farewell order to his brigades and
division reminded them as they recollected their struggles and
hardships that they would be reminded of each other and of the
friendly relations that had so long existed between them. He
retired from the army without pride or splendor, and went into
the ranks of civil life as easily and as rapidly as he had won pro-
motion. He became a private citizen with as little effort, abso-
lutely, as he became a major-general during the war. He went
back to his business, but before a very great while he was elected
to represent his State in the Congress, without an effort on his
part.
He remained there, and the people of Ohio elected him gov-
ernor of that State. He was a model governor. There was
nothing rash about his conduct of public affairs. He was quiet,
unostentatious, always maintaining the dignity and character and
greatness of his State. We reelected him again, and after he
had retired for a few years elected him for a third term. While
serving as governor in this term he was made the nominee at Cin-
cinnati for President upon the Republican ticket. After a great
struggle, after unusual difficulties, he was declared duly elected
President of the United States.
He entered upon his duties under trying circumstances, but his
TRIBUTES IN THE HOUSE 169
Administration will in future times compare with any that his
country has had, in my judgment. He was honest and faithful,
always and under every circumstance devoted to his country. Not
long since, in Washington, as an example of an American citizen
who loved his country above almost everything else, he marched
almost the entire distance with the Grand Army of the Republic
at the head of the Fremont Post, Grand Army of the Republic.
At the close of the war he could have retired; nevertheless he
has been one of the busiest men in Ohio, devoting the later years
of his life to benevolence and to education. He has been for
some years president of the board of trustees of the Ohio State
University, and by his efforts has sought to make it one of the
great educational institutions of his country. The later years of
his life were spent in trying to do good, trying to do something
for his fellow man; without malice or hate toward any, but full
of good feeling and good will for everybody. In every walk of
life he always did his duty - a faithful, devoted husband, a kind
and affectionate father,- and was always a conscientious and
honest American citizen, a devoted patriot, and above all, a de-
voted Christian gentleman.
MR. OUTIWAITE, Democrat of Ohio:- Mr. Speaker, I feel it
my duty to say a few words. Ex-President Hayes was, while
governor of the State of Ohio, my fellow-townsman and neigh-
bor, and I learned to know him well. As a public official the strik-
ing characteristic of the man was his conscientious performance
of his duty. As a soldier he was brave, constant, faithful, and
patriotic. He showed these qualities upon one occasion when,
having won by a charge with his men a difficult position to win
and to hold, being assailed by a strong force opposed to him, he
received a serious wound, such as might have taken an ordinary
man away from the field; but believing that his presence was nec-
essary there to maintain the position, he remained and held it until
he was carried away from the field of battle on account of his
wound. The discussions and dissensions that arose over the most
important incident in his life are hushed now. Everyone appre-
ciates that a great citizen, a prominent statesman, a patriot, and
leader among men has passed away; and as he was at one time a
170 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
member of this body, holding therein a prominent position, it is
eminently proper that this House should pay honor to him upon
this occasion.
While he took a high position as a statesman, as a soldier, and
as a patriot, we must not forget that he took as high a position as
a private citizen. In his life were exemplified integrity, purity,
love of humanity, probity, faithfulness, and other good qualities
that make a man esteemed and loved by all who know him.
In his home, to as great a degree as in the home of any citizen
whom I ever knew, domestic felicity reigned supreme. There was
to be found as beautiful an example of an American household
as poet could ever portray. Feeling, as I said, that this House
may well pause from its duties to pay tribute to the memory of
such a man, I have joined in these ceremonies. We may profit by
the lessons of his life and character. They should be transmitted
to the youths of our land and [to] coming generations.
MR. CURTIS, Republican of New York [brigadier-general
United States volunteers] :- Mr. Speaker, it is eminently proper
on this occasion for us to pause in our legislative labors to pay
tribute to one who has been President of the Republic.
Not so much from what I shall say, am I induced to address
this House, as in recognition of the fact that the district I have the
honor to represent was closely allied, through one who was its
Representative here for a long term of years, with the Administra-
tion of President Hayes; which, whatever may be the opinion of
men now, will go into history as one of the most memorable, clean,
strong, and patriotic administrations that this country has ever
enjoyed.
William A. Wheeler, who was honored by my district for a
longer term as Representative in this House than that accorded
any other man who has ever represented it, was selected as his
associate upon the ticket on which they ran as candidates for
President and Vice-President; and the last time that I had an op-
portunity to confer with ex-President Hayes was when he came
from his home in Ohio to attend the obsequies of Mr. Wheeler,
who had been so intimately and honorably associated with him
during his Presidential term.
TRIBUTES IN THE HOUSE 171
I will not undertake to review the career to which such fitting
tribute has been paid by gentlemen from the State of Ohio, in
which Mr. Hayes was born and bred and by which he was hon-
ored by an important appointment in the army, then as a Repre-
sentative in this House, later as its governor, and finally selected
to occupy the highest position in the country. Mr. Hayes has
stood before the world a man exceptionally pure in private life,
well educated in the duties of the profession which he had chosen,
patriotically inclined to perform whatever duties the exigencies of
the Government might require of him in its most perilous times,
and well equipped to discharge the duties of the executive of his
State. He came to the Presidency under such circumstances as
sealed his title with an assurance of validity that has been given
to no other man filling that high office.
First, he was a successful candidate under the laws and practice
which for ninety years had been frankly acquiesced in by the
people; and secondly, when the embarrassments and difficulties
which grew out of the election in certain States partially under
military control had been settled and determined by an act of Con-
gress, the joint act of bodies previously organized, and their acts
accepted by the people long before the time when these difficulties
arose which they were called upon to determine, he was declared
duly elected. My friend from New York (Mr. Cockran) a few
days ago referred, in discussing a constitutional question, to this
case as illustrating one of the great advantages of the present
Constitution, that an existing body, unquestioned in its organiza-
tion, is provided to decide upon matters of difference which could
not be determined by a body chosen at the same election out of
which those differences arose.
With that final indorsement of the Congress of the United
States, Mr. Hayes assumed the Presidency at one of the most
critical periods of this nation's history. The difficulties which had
existed from 1861-65 had not been entirely settled. He came to
the discharge of his office with the disposition and the inclina-
tion to perform the duties of that high position acceptably to the
people of the entire country. Whatever criticism may be made
as to his action with respect to certain national questions - ques-
tions which had never before arisen, - all concede that Mr. Hayes
172 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
brought to these duties a strong consciousness of the importance
of so administering Federal affairs that the people of all the States
should derive the greatest benefit.
No eulogium which may be hastily passed here on this occasion
will do justice to this man and the time in which he lived and
performed such an important and honorable part. He possessed
one quality in marked degree. He had an ease and grace of ex-
pression, a force and ability as an offhand speaker, that I do not
believe has been excelled by any man in public life. Fortunate
in his family relations, which brought no scandal and no anxiety
to his Administration, fortunate in all official relations in public
life, nowhere has been given a better example of what should be
the course and action of an ex-President than is exhibited in the
life which he led after his retirement.
Devoting himself to labors of charity and philanthropy, seeking
to improve the administration and the policy of the eleemosynary
and penal institutions of the country, he lived in a quiet dignity,
which has never been surpassed since the time of him who stood
first in the hearts of the American people, their first President,
as shown in the private life which he spent at Mount Vernon after
leaving the Chief Magistracy.
As General, as Representative, as Governor, as President, he
is worthy of the honor that is paid to a citizen who has held our
highest office; and history will do justice to his Administration
and his character.
I have spoken as the Representative of the people of a district
because of its share in his Administration, and in their name I
have made these hasty and unprepared allusions to the qualities
of a Chief Magistrate whose very simplicity of life is as deserv-
ing of remembrance as the high qualities which won him honor
and distinction.
MR. O'NEIL, Republican of Pennsylvania: - Mr. Speaker, in
the death of ex-President Hayes the country has lost one of its
most distinguished citizens, a loss which the country will widely
and deeply feel. I first met General Haves when he became a
member of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and I sat with him in this
House until he resigned from the Fortieth Congress to take the
TRIBUTES IN THE HOUSE 173
oath of office as governor of Ohio. Before I met him I had been
informed by a near relative in Ohio of the great ability and high
character of General Rutherford B. Hayes, who was to take his
seat in the next Congress, and this relative expressed the hope that
I would early make his acquaintance. I did so with very great
pleasure, and I soon learned the sterling worth of the man who
subsequently attained such distinction in the country. I happened
to sit within one seat of his, and from the day that I met him
here until the last time I had the pleasure of seeing him in the
city of Philadelphia, not very many months ago, our friendship
was unbroken.
Mr. Hayes had one remarkable trait which to me is a great trait
in a man who holds a high position; he was patient, he was a
listener, and therefore a most agreeable man to visit upon official
business. You left him feeling that he was your friend, and that
if he could comply with your wishes or requests it would give
him pleasure to do so. He was a statesman with a heart. When
I look back over the Congresses in which I have served, I do not
know that I have ever met a gentleman of finer qualities than he
possessed. He was refined, was graceful in manner, and was al-
ways attentive to his business as a member of this House, both
on the floor and in his committees, and he soon rose to prominence.
When he left Congress to take the oath of office as governor of
Ohio he received the congratulations, the sincere congratulations,
of his fellow members without distinction of party.
I was also in the convention of the Senate and the House when
it was declared from the desk, Mr. Speaker, you now occupy, by
the acting Vice-President of the United States (Senator Ferry of
Michigan), that Rutherford B. Hayes had received a majority of
the electoral votes of the States and was elected President.
Soon afterwards I had occasion to visit him as President, and
that visit and all subsequent visits to him in that capacity were
very pleasant, for he always had the kindliest manner and mani-
fested the most evident desire to let you regard him as a friend
and feel that, if possible, your interviews were not in vain.
I feel, sir, today, as I said when I arose, that by the death of
Mr. Hayes this country has lost one of its most distinguished citi-
zens. Ex-President Hayes had many friends in the city of Phila-
174 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
delphia. His social visits there were many, and he was always
received with the kindness and the respect due to his high char-
acter. One special reason why he was a favorite in Philadelphia
was that its citizens felt that he had been one of the distinguished
governors who had helped in a marked degree to make the great
Centennial Exposition of 1876 a success.
I think it fit and proper that Congress should pause in its busi-
ness and adjourn (as I suppose will be presently proposed) as a
mark of respect to the blameless official and social life of this
patriot and statesman who served his country well. I regret his
death. I realize that I have lost a friend, although I have not
seen so much of him of late as in former years, and from the bot-
tom of my heart I desire to mingle my tears with those of his
family. I knew his family. I was acquainted with them socially.
I knew his young children when he came here. I saw his sons
growing to manhood. I knew his respected wife, and I may with
propriety say that I have never seen a finer illustration of true
American womanhood than in Mrs. Hayes, the wife of the Presi-
dent, who herself died not many months ago. What I have said
on this occasion has been uttered because of my admiration of
him whose departure has been so sudden and with whom I had
been on friendly terms during many years.
MR. HOLMAN, Democrat of Indiana: - Mr. Speaker, I wish to
add but a few words to the sentiments which have been expressed
touching the life and character of President Hayes. I met him for
the first time on this floor in the closing hours of the Thirty-ninth
Congress. I shook hands with him in the aisle to my right for
the first time. I was charmed by his unassuming, cordial, and
kindly manner, and notwithstanding the fierce political contro-
versy that afterwards arose between the two great political parties
of our country over the question of his election to the Presidency,
I always entertained a great admiration for his character.
The sensibilities of all our people will be deeply touched by his
death. He held the greatest office known to the world and filled
it well. The Administration of President Hayes will go into
history, gentlemen, as the expression of the whole American
people, as well those who differed with him in political opinion
TRIBUTES IN THE HOUSE 175
as those who agreed with him, that he gave to our country one
of the purest administrations our Government has ever known.
He was himself a pure man, a Christian gentleman. His noble
and patriotic efforts to reform the civil service of the Govern-
ment, greatly demoralized by the War for the Union, deserved,
especially in view of the hostility which those efforts encountered
within his own party, imperishable honor.
He in the main failed in his purpose, but that was because his
party was not up to his own high standard of public duty. To me
the earnest efforts of his Administration to secure pure and honest
government appear, in the midst of all his high honors, his highest
honor. How noble his efforts to heal the wounds of our in-
testine war! He was a man of a kindly and forgiving spirit,
and I know of no quality in the human heart more to be admired.
How admirably this humane sentiment adorned his character!
"Forgiveness! it is an attribute of God Himself,
The sound that openeth heaven,
Restores once more fair Eden's faded bloom
And flings Hope's golden halo o'er the waste of life."
The country, greatly demoralized by war, was restored to
peace and purity under his Administration, and the Union of the
States was in spirit restored.
Standing by the open grave of this illustrious citizen, how
natural the thought that greater than being President, better than
to have commanded an army, history will write down that he was
a just and good man.
"Peace to the good man's memory. Let it grow
Greener with years and blossom through the flight
Of ages."
MR. PATTISON, Democrat of Ohio [later Governor of Ohio]:-
Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding the fact that I was associated with
General Hayes as a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio
Wesleyan University, of Delaware, Ohio, I had not thought of
saying anything at this time. I wish, however, to add simply a
statement, which possibly may have been forgotten by the gentle-
men who have said so much in respect to his memory. I think
176 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
one and perhaps the most preeminent characteristic of General
Hayes has been overlooked. You will pardon me, I am sure, if I
attempt in a few words and in plain and simple language to add a
tribute to his memory. I surely would not attempt to add any-
thing to the many beautiful eulogies that have been delivered.
Nothing more perhaps need be said to his purity and patriotism
as a citizen, his bravery as a soldier, his greatness and ability as
a statesman, and his success as the President of the United States.
But it seems to me that no eulogy to General Hayes would be en-
tirely complete, or do full justice to his character, without calling
attention, not only to the fact that he was an honest man, and up-
right citizen, an able and distinguished statesman, but also that he
was a Christian. This, to my mind, was the foundation of his
glory and the great secret of his remarkable career. Possibly no
other man ever occupied the White House who had a greater rev-
erence for God and the divine truths of Christianity; and it was his
abiding faith in the Almighty, his sense of human weakness and
dependence, and his strong belief in a Divine government of the
world that gave him courage and strength to meet the emergencies
of perhaps one of the most important administrations during the
last half century of our history. He, I believe, like every other
man who has occupied the Presidential chair, not only recognized
the God of the universe, but also believed that there was an over-
ruling Providence directing all the affairs of this great Republic.
General Hayes had the highest respect for law and order, for
the sanctity of the Sabbath, and never in all his public life forgot
that this was a Christian nation; and it should be remembered,
and to their credit, that all the great men of this country have rec-
ognizd the hand of an All-wise Being in the shaping of its destiny.
As one of the younger members of this body, from the great State
of Ohio, of which General Hayes was an honored and most dis-
tinguished son, I pay my simple tribute not only to him as an hon-
ored citizen, a brave and gallant soldier, but also to him as a
Christian gentleman.
MR. HAYNES, of Ohio:--Mr. Speaker, as a further mark of
respect to the memory of ex-President Hayes, I move that the
House do now adjourn.
THE GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION 177
The motion was agreed to; and accordingly (at 2:40 p. m.)
the House adjourned.
PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR McKINLEY AND
ACTION OF OHIO AUTHORITIES
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
COLUMBUS, OHIO, January 18, 1893.
To the General Assembly:
It is my painful duty to announce the death, at 11 p. m. yester-
day, at his home in Fremont, Ohio, of Rutherford B. Hayes,
who was a Representative in Congress, three times Governor
of this, his native State, and President of the United States. He
was also a soldier of exceptional distinction in the late war, and
during his retirement to private life occupied his time in good
works and generous benefaction. His death is an event of great
public sorrow. Out of respect for the memory of the great
citizen, soldier, and statesman, I recommend that appropriate
action be taken by the General Assembly. The executive will be
pleased to cooperate with you in a suitable expression of the
sorrow of the people of Ohio over this sad event.
WILLIAM MCKINLEY, JR.
Following the reading of the governor's message, Mr. George
F. Aldrich, the representative from Sandusky County, and Sen-
ator Nichols, in the Senate, each offered the following resolu-
tions, which were unanimously adopted:
"WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to remove by death
Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-President of the United States of
America, and ex-governor of Ohio, soldier, statesman, and pa-
triot; therefore be it
"Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that
in pursuance of and in accordance with the message of the gov-
ernor, a joint committee of four on the part of the senate and
five members of the house, be appointed by the Speaker of the
House and President of the Senate, to cooperate with the state
officials in making suitable preparation for attending the funeral
12
178 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and other observances, and to prepare appropriate resolutions to
be reported to this General Assembly for its adoption."
Speaker Laylin appointed Messrs. Aldrich, Clapp, McElroy,
Holcomb, and Beaird on behalf of the House, and Messrs. Nichols,
Lampson, Fox, and Stewart were appointed on behalf of the
Senate, and the joint committee, organized by the election of
Senator Lampson as chairman and Representative Aldrich as
secretary, proceeded to the governor's office, where they were
met by the governor and state officers. Governor McKinley
presided and Representative Aldrich was made secretary. A
resolution was unanimously adopted that the governor and state
officers, with members of the General Assembly, should attend
in a body the funeral exercises at Fremont. It was further de-
cided to have a provisional brigade of the Ohio National Guard
participate in the funeral exercises, to be composed of Troop A
of Cleveland, the Toledo Light Battery, and the Sixteenth Regi-
ment of Infantry, Ohio National Guard; and, by direction of Gov-
ernor McKinley, the following general order was issued from
the headquarters of the Ohio National Guard:
"The State is called upon to mourn the death of one of its
most illustrious citizens. Ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes
died at his home, in Fremont, Ohio, Tuesday, January 17, 1893,
at 11 o'clock p. m.
"It is with profound sorrow that the Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief announces the death of this distinguished and
much loved citizen and soldier. It is appropriate that the Ohio
National Guard (of whom the deceased was for six years com-
mander-in-chief) should testify with the people of the Nation
their deep sense of the great loss sustained by the death of him
who had always been a friend and patriot.
"It is, therefore, ordained that the colors at general head-
quarters, the State Arsenal and on all armories in the State, be
placed at half-staff, from the receipt of this order until and in-
cluding the day of the obsequies, and that the officers of the
Ohio National Guard wear the usual badge of mourning three
months; and that on ceremonies, during this period, regimental
colors be properly draped with crape.
ACTION OF PEABODY TRUSTEES 179
"On the day of the funeral a salute of thirteen guns at sunrise
will be fired at these headquarters by a battery designated, and
during that day one gun every half hour, and at sunset a Na-
tional salute of forty-four guns will be fired.
JAMES C. HOWE,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
By Command of the Governor."
ACTION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE PEABODY EDU-
CATION FUND OF WHICH RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
WAS A MEMBER
At the annual meeting of the board of trustees of the Peabody
Education Fund, held in New York October 6, 1893, the Honor-
able Robert C. Winthrop, chairman of the board, spoke in com-
memoration of Mr. Hayes' services as a trustee in these words:
"We were shocked by the announcement that ex-President
Hayes was no more. He died at his home in Fremont, Ohio, on
the 17th of January last. Elected in October, 1877, (to the
vacancy created by the death of the Hon. Samuel Watson, of
Tennessee), General Hayes had been associated with us for more
than fifteen years, and had notably distinguished himself by his
devotion to our work. That work, indeed, could hardly have
sustained a greater loss. In common with the Slater trustees of
whom he was the president, we had relied confidently on his
services in the great cause of national education at least to the
end of our own Trust. His general career and character have
been abundantly and admirably delineated in the tributes which
have been paid him by others. Nothing, certainly, could have
been juster or happier than those of President Gilman of Johns
Hopkins University, and of Dr. Curry of our own board, both
of whom were associated with him in the Slater Trust. 'He was
a man,' said President Gilman, 'of lofty ideals, of unfailing pa-
triotism, and of unselfish devotion to the good of his fellow
men. To his lasting honor be it remembered that after retiring
from the highest station in the land he devoted his strength and
time, without thought of reward, to philanthropy and education.'
180 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Dr. Curry, on the same occasion, most felicitously alluded to ex-
President Hayes as having 'solved the problem,' so often pro-
pounded by the press, of what should be done with our ex-Presi-
dents so as not to lose to the country their 'gathered experience
and wisdom.' 'He consecrated his sound judgment,' said Dr.
Curry, 'his wide intelligence, his tenderness, his generosity,- all
the powers of body, mind, heart,--to the illiterate the unfor-
tunate, and literally went about, over the whole land, doing
good. Identifying himself with national organizations of char-
ities, he was an effective worker in behalf of prison reform
and the bettering of the condition of the Indians. In all mat-
ters of education he was deeply interested. The education of
the negro appealed strongly to his better nature and to his best
activities.' I eagerly adopt these tributes and make them a part
of our own report, as they are of the Slater report, adding only
an expression of the warm regard and affection with which
General Hayes in these latter years had inspired me personally,
and which I had the best reason for thinking were not unrecipro-
cated."
The Honorable William M. Evarts, one of the two surviving
members of the original Board of Trustees, appointed by Mr.
Peabody, reported the following minute, which was placed on
the records of the annual meeting of October 6, 1893.
"The sudden death of ex-President Hayes, without any premo-
nition of advanced years or failing health, in the midst of his
most active labors in the service of the board, gave much poign-
ancy to the grief of this bereavement, for which we were wholly
unprepared. For fifteen years he had been most constant in his
devotion to the interests of the Trust from the first moment he,
while President of the United States, was elected a member of
the board, down to the date of his lamented death. Not only
was he present at all our annual meetings, but with most signal
advantage to its power and influence in the portion of the country
feeling the benefits of Mr. Peabody's benevolent charity, Presi-
dent Hayes accompanied Dr. Curry in some of his visits to the
South, aiding thus our general agent's valuable service in inspir-
MR. EVARTS'S TRIBUTE 181
ing and confirming the zeal and constancy in these communities
in the diffusion of education in its most useful forms.
"President Hayes entered upon the Presidential office at the
most dangerous juncture in the working of the national suffrage
which the country has been called upon to experience. The study
of that crisis and of the high qualities of courage, prudence, and
patience with which his Administration met the perils which sur-
rounded it, and the calm temper and comprehensive patriotism
which brought the stormy contentions to a prosperous issue,-
these belong to the annals of our Government and the public
life of the Chief Magistrate who was called to his great office in
those unruly times. That in the height of these contentions Pres-
ident Hayes should have been selected with so much personal
warmth and affection for membership of this board was as grate-
ful to his feelings as it was for every member to express their
full appreciation of the great character and conduct of their
elected associate.
"Since his retirement from the Presidency, our honored as-
sociate has presented to his countrymen a signal example of con-
stant and active employment in the highest sphere of philan-
thropic labors in the work of this board, in the administration of
the Slater Fund, and in open and practical efforts for the succor
of the unfortunate and distressed upon the largest scale of be-
nevolent sympathy. In this conduct of President Hayes, his
great public career both ends and gains lustre from this record
of his private enlistment in these latter noble services to society.
"The personal qualities of our late associate and friend warmly
endeared him to every member of this body, who feel the sorrow
of a personal bereavement in parting from him."
TRUSTEES OF THE PEABODY FUND
THE BOARD AS ORIGINALLY APPOINTED BY MR. PEABODY, FEBRUARY, 1867.
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop .................... Massachusetts.
Hon. Hamilton Fish ........................ New York.
Right Rev. Charles P. McIlvaine ............. Ohio.
General U. S. Grant ........................ United States Army.
Admiral D. G. Farragut ...................... United States Navy.
Hon. William C. Rives ...................... Virginia.
182 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Hon. John H. Clifford ....................... Massachusetts.
Hon. William Aiken ......................... South Carolina.
Hon. William M. Evarts .................... New York.
Hon. William A. Graham .................... North Carolina.
Charles Macalester, Esq. ................... Pennsylvania.
George W. Riggs, Esq ........................ Washington.
Samuel Wetmore, Esq ....................... New York.
Edward A. Bradford, Esq .................... Louisiana.
George N. Eaton, Esq ....................... Maryland.
George Peabody Russell, Esq ................. Massachusetts.
TRUSTEES APPOINTED TO FILL THE VACANCIES.
Hon. Samuel Watson ........................ Tennessee.
Hon. A. H. H. Stuart ........................ Virginia.
General Richard Taylor ...................... Louisiana.
Surgeon-General Joseph K. Barnes, U. S. A... Washington,
Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite ............. Ohio
Right Rev. Henry B. Whipple ................ Minnesota.
Hon. Henry R. Jackson ...................... Georgia.
Colonel Theodore Lyman .................... Massachusetts.
President Rutherford B. Hayes ............. Ohio.
Hon. Thomas C. Manning ................... Louisiana.
Anthony J. Drexel, Esq ...................... Pennsylvania.
Hon. Samuel A. Green ....................... Massachusetts.
Hon. James D. Porter ....................... Tennessee.
J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq ..................... New York.
President Grover Cleveland .................. New Jersey.
Hon. William A. Courtenay .................. South Carolina.
Hon. Charles Devens ........................ Massachusetts.
Hon. Randall L. Gibson .................... Louisiana.
Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller ............. Illinois
Hon. William Wirt Henry ................... Virginia.
Hon. Henderson M. Somerville ............... Alabama.
Hon. William C. Endicott .................... Massachusetts.
Hon. Joseph H. Choate ...................... New York.
George W. Childs, Esq.................... Pennsylvania.
Hon. Charles E. Fenner ..................... Louisiana.
Daniel C. Gilman, LL. D ..................... Maryland.
Hon. George Peabody Wetmore ............. Rhode Island.
Hon. John Lowell .......................... Massachusetts.
Hon. George F. Hoar ........................ Massachusetts.
Hon. Richard Olney ......................... Massachusetts.
President William McKinley ................. Ohio
Hon. J. L. M. Curry, Honorary Member and General Agent, Washington.
ACTION OF SLATER TRUSTEES 183
ACTION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE JOHN
F. SLATER FUND OF WHICH RUTHERFORD
B. HAYES WAS PRESIDENT.
At the first meeting, subsequent to the death of Mr. Hayes, of
the board of trustees of the John F. Slater Fund, Dr. J. L. M.
Curry, general agent and chairman of the education committee,
presented the following report:
Death has thrown a dark shadow over the threshold of our
session. On the 17th day of January, our colleague, ex-Presi-
dent Hayes, the first and only President of the Board, died at
his home in Fremont, Ohio, and it was a sad duty and privilege
to pay the homage of official and personal respect at his funeral.
Two times he was a Representative in Congress, three times he
was Governor of Ohio, during the war he rendered gallant serv-
ices as an officer of high rank, and for one term he was Presi-
dent of the United States. In these positions he forgot not his
obligations to his fellow men, but labored for their welfare with
unceasing assiduity and patriotic devotion.
When one retires from exalted position, the full light of pub-
lic observation and curiosity is turned upon him. How to deport
himself, how to preserve the dignity that should attach to high
station, what to do, in what pursuits to engage so as to be useful
and contented, are questions not easily answered. The press
has been fruitful of suggestions as to the best method of not
losing to the country such gathered experience and wisdom.
Legislators and publicists have even proposed amendments to
the Federal Constitution, in order to accomplish the desired end.
President Hayes solved the problem most satisfactorily, in a way
preserving a dignified self-respect and the confidence and ad-
miration of the people, and making his life increasingly useful.
Having held the highest and most honorable office in the world
was no excuse for abandonment of personal duties nor for cessa-
tion of labors for his country's weal. He consecrated his sound
judgment, his wide intelligence, his tenderness, his generosity-
all the powers of body, mind, heart--to the illiterate, the un-
fortunate, and literally went about, over the whole land, doing
good. Identifying himself with national organizations of char-
184 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
ities, he was an effective worker in behalf of prison reform and
the bettering of the condition of the Indians.
In all matters of education, he was deeply interested. As
president of the trustees of Ohio State University, he favored
the adoption of advanced methods and ideas, the rejection of low
ideals, and the securing in the faculty of the broadest scholarship.
The education of the negro appealed strongly to his better na-
ture and to his best activities. With earnestness and power
he pleaded for National aid to fit the freedmen for the responsi-
bilities and privileges of suddenly acquired citizenship. He be-
lieved in the capability of the race, in its ultimate uplifting, but
was not misled by sanguine expectations, or imperfect data, or
hasty generalizations, into Utopian schemes. He thought that,
along with and as a part of the state-provided means for general
education; should be carried on a system of industrial training,
dignifying labor, teaching self-reliance, and making compara-
tively easy an honest livelihood.
It was a happy thought in Mr. Slater to put him at the head of
this Trust. His associates recall that at any personal inconven-
ience and sacrifice he attended the meetings of the board and
the committees, and that no one more conscientiously and
wisely met the obligations he assumed. He was unsparing of
self, discreet in speech, sagacious in counsel, courageous in fol-
lowing his convictions, and set a stimlating example of prompt-
ness, patience, courtesy, hopefulness, and faith. The visit of
observation and inspection which he made with me through the
Southern States in 1891, gave him unmixed pleasure. While the
people honored him and gave him cordial welcome and enter-
tainment, he, with rare modesty, never claimed anything of at-
tention or precedence because of the high honors he had en-
joyed, but gave constant and unwearied consideration to the work
which was before him.
In the career of General Hayes is a lesson for youth and old
age, a model of unsectional patriotism, a condemnation of what
is low and base and merely material, an inspiration to noble liv-
ing, a shining illustration of what can be beneficently done by one
who has administered the highest civil functions and filled the
measure of political ambition.
ACTION OF SLATER TRUSTEES 185
Pardon a personal reference: When law students and fellow
boarders at Harvard Law School, I learned to love and respect
him. The intimacy of our later years, in connection with the
two great education trusts, brought us into most unreserved
companionship, and he so grew upon me that I have no hesita-
tion in pronouncing him one of the best men I ever knew.
In commemoration of Mr. Hayes's great services in the work
of the board, the trustees adopted and placed on record the fol-
lowing appreciation:
The founder of this Trust, Mr. John F. Slater, before making
his generous gift for the education of the freedmen, consulted,
at his home in Norwich, with the Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, the
tenure of whose office as President of the United States had then
recently expired. President Hayes had been for several years
one of the trustees of the Peabody Fund, and the knowledge he
had thus gained with respect to education in the Southern States
and his interest in all questions pertaining to the moral and social
welfare of the country made his counsel of especial value. When
this board was selected his name stood first upon the list of mem-
bers and he was designated by Mr. Slater as the president. The
nomination was confirmed by the Legislature of the State of
New York in the original Act of Incorporation.
In the ten years which have since elapsed the trustees have
held sixteen meetings and at every one of them President Hayes
has occupied the chair and has guided the deliberations. Usually
he came from his distant home in Ohio for the single purpose
of attending these meetings. In the intervals he carried on a
voluminous correspondence with the general agents of the fund
and with his colleagues. Thrice since our organization he has
made long journeys in the South for the purpose of observing the
condition of the freedmen and the progress of education among
them. Before our last annual meeting he accompanied Dr. Curry
on an extended tour through several of the Southern States. He
was everywhere received with the respect due to the high station
which he had held in the Government of the United States, and
also with marked regard for his personal character, for his con-
ciliatory action toward the South while he was President, and for
186 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
his subsequent devotion to the advancement of public instruction,
In our manifold official relations, we who were his colleagues
have come to know him well. We remember how carefully he
considered every proposition which was suggested for the ad-
vancement of our work, how he arranged in advance the order
of business for every meeting, and how he advised the executive
officers in those particulars which were left undetermined by the
board. We cannot forget that he was particularly interested in
the promotion of manual instruction, that he repeatedly visited
those schools in New York where industrial education is effi-
ciently encouraged, and that in his public addresses he often ex-
pounded and defended the methods he had observed and the
principles in which he believed.
In paying this tribute of respect to his memory, we naturally
recall his own appreciative words as he spoke of those members
of this board who were successively removed by death--words
which seemed to his colleagues in every case so just and so ap-
propriate that they were adopted by the board as their own and
recorded upon the minutes. In his remarks upon the life of Mr.
John F. Slater, he took pains to put on record the interpretation
given by the founder to Christian education, a phrase employed
in his original letter to this board.
The qualities which gave distinction to President Hayes in his
public career were manifested in the position that he held as
president of this board. His directness, his simplicity, his kind-
liness of disposition, his fidelity to every engagement, his readi-
ness to cooperate in every good undertaking, his freedom from
self-seeking, his punctuality, patience, careful attention to details,
and his sympathy with the efforts of those who labor for the
good of their fellow men, were constantly apparent. He did not
concern himself with the financial affairs of the Trust and was
not disposed to make suggestions regarding the details of school
management, but he understood perfectly the difficulties of the
problem of educating the freedmen, and was willing to take time
to remove these difficulties. He never doubted that great results
were to come from the united efforts of patriotic people in the
South and in the North. His public and his private utterances
on this subject were vigorous and inspiring.
ACTION OF NATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS 187
The tributes already paid to the memory of President Hayes
in every part of the country have been so numerous and so cor-
dial that no attempt need now be made to recapitulate the inci-
dents of his life or to analyze his character. The trustees, how-
ever, unanimously place upon record their respect for a man of
lofty ideals, of unfailing patriotism, of wise counsels, and of
unselfish devotion to the good of his fellow men. To his lasting
honor, be it remembered that after retiring from the highest
station in the land he devoted his strength and time, without
thought of reward, to philanthropy and education. It is an honor
to this board that their president during the first ten years was
a man of personal distinction, of unquestioned uprightness, of
great wisdom, and of unfailing devotion to the work in which he
was enlisted. Others will succeed to the office which he held
among us, but none can fill his place. We mourn the death of
a prudent adviser, a faithful colleague, a devoted leader, and an
honored friend.
ACTION OF THE CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL
PRISON ASSOCIATION OF WHICH RUTHER-
FORD B. HAYES WAS PRESIDENT.
The annual congress of the National Prison Association met at
Chicago June 7, 1893. The association was formed in 1870,
and held its first congress in October of that year at Cincinnati.
Mr. Hayes, then Governor of Ohio, presided. Congresses were
held at Baltimore (1873), St. Louis (1874), and New York
(1876), Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, being presi-
dent of the association in that period. The next congress was
at Saratoga in 1884, when Mr. Hayes became president of the
association, and so continued by annual election to the end of
his life. He devoted much time and effort to the cause, and
presided at every congress,--Detroit (1885), Atlanta (1886),
Toronto (1887), Boston (1888), Nashville (1889), Cincinnati
(1890), Pittsburgh (1891), and Baltimore (1892). At each con-
gress he made a significant and inspiring opening address.
That expression of appreciation might be given by members
of the association of the great interest Mr. Hayes had taken
188 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
in philanthropic work, and especially in the cause of prison
reform, and in love for his memory, the opening session of the
congress in 1893 was devoted to the delivery of eulogies of his
character and tributes to his worth.
The opening address was made by General Roeliff Brinker-
hoff, of Ohio, and was as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The National Prison Association meets to-night in the shadow
of a great bereavement, caused by the death of our honored
president, Rutherford B. Hayes. For the first time in eight
years, at our annual congress, we miss his presence, his counsels,
and his encouragement. To him more than to any other man is
due the commanding position of influence obtained by this asso-
ciation in prison matters, and, therefore, it seems eminently
proper that we should set apart this opening session for the re-
ception of testimonials to his memory.
To his achievements as a soldier and statesmen, the whole coun-
try has borne testimony in a thousand ways; but to-night we
honor him as a philanthropist and as a friend. To the world at
large, General Hayes as a prison reformer is of little conse-
quence; and his work in that direction is deemed one of the
vagaries to which eminent men are sometimes disposed. To us,
however, who know the importance of the prison question, and
who believe that its solution is of more vital importance to the
American people, and more essential to the perpetuity of the
Republic, than the solution of the questions about which political
parties are now contending, General Hayes as a philanthropist
has rendered a service as worthy of remembrance as any deeds
of his contemporaries in statesmanship or in arms. The country
can survive under high tariffs or low tariffs, under free coinage
or restricted coinage, but it cannot survive a demoralized people,
with crime increasing like a tide that knows no ebb. To devise
means to avert these dangers demands the best thought of our
best men; and hence we honor the memory of our great leader
to-night.
The prison question is not restricted simply to the considera-
tion of persons already in prison, but reaches out to the larger
GENERAL BRINKERHOFF'S TRIBUTE 189
problems of prevention and reclamation, which lie outside of
prison walls.
The active interest of General Hayes in the prison question
dates back to 1867, when he was first elected Governor of Ohio.
The Board of State Charities in that State had just been created,
and he became its helper and protector; and in its prison work
he was specially interested. Soon after he went out of office, in
1871, in a spasm of hostility caused by needed criticisms of dere-
lict institutions, the board was abolished; but four years later,
in 1875, when General Hayes was again elected governor, he
succeeded in securing the restoration of the board; and from
that time to the day of his death, he was its unfailing supporter.
During the fifteen years I have been upon the board, there was
no other man from whom I received so much encouragement and
inspiration and help as from General Hayes. His readiness to
respond to demands upon his time, in furtherance of our work,
is indicated by the following letter, which I received in reply to
an urgent request that he would come and help us at the second
annual meeting of our State Conference of Charities and Cor-
rections in Ohio, last year; and this is only one of many in-
stances:
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, May 14, 1892.
MY DEAR GENERAL.: -I am just home after a protracted ab-
sence, and find a heap of letters to attend to, but yours of yester-
day I take up first. You can hardly realize the demands on my
time. Your work in all parts of the good cause of charities and
correction gives you a right to call on the friends of the work.
Without hesitation, therefore, I will try to attend September 13,
at Cleveland, and if possible give a short testimony in behalf
of the Board of State Charities.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
He came according to his promise, and responded to the ad-
dress of welcome, and participated in our discussions, and was
helpful in many ways. How large a concession this was to the
Board of State Charities can be apprehended more fully when
we remember that he was the president of the board of trustees
of the Slater Fund, which took weeks of his time every year; the
190 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
president of the Indian Conference; the president of the Negro
Conference; the president of the Ohio Archaeological and His-
torical Society; the president of the National Prison Associa-
tion; the commander of the Loyal Legion; and an active member
of boards of trustees for half a dozen colleges; and an annual
participant in scores of military organizations; and he was con-
stantly in demand for all sorts of gatherings, civil and religious.
His heart, however, was mainly in philanthropic work, because,
in his view, it was for God and humanity. To this work he de-
liberately devoted his life, after he left the Presidential chair; and
upon his return to Ohio, he declared that the only public office he
would again be willing to accept would be that of a member of
the Board of State Charities.
In 1870, when the National Prison Congress was organized at
Cincinnati, Governor Hayes was present, and was selected to
preside over its deliberations, and was deeply interested in its
proceedings. In 1884, when the National Prison Association was
reorganized, he became its president, and was reelected annually
until he died. During the past eight years, he has been present
at every one of our annual meetings, and the priceless value of
his services is known to all our members. In his annual ad-
dresses, he discussed all the various phases of the prison question
in a broad-minded, practical way, and his conclusions rarely
failed to carry conviction to his audience. Whilst he was no
theorist or sentimentalist, still his purview of prison questions
was from a lofty standpoint, and dealt with causes rather than
remedies-prevention rather than cure. His favorite theme, or
hobby, as he sometimes called it, was education, and especially
industrial education. I do not remember an annual address in
which he did not refer to it in some form. In 1885, at Detroit,
he said: "If I were asked to name a measure of reform which is
practically within our reach, and best fitted to prevent, or at
least largely to diminish, crime, I would say, let our young people
of both sexes, and of all conditions, be taught, as a part of their
education, to know the value of work, to catch the spirit of work,
and to form the habit of work, not only with their brains but also
with their hands and eyes. The young man who despises labor
GENERAL BRINKERHOFF'S TRIBUTE 191
carries with him into every walk of life one of the most danger-
ous temptations to crime." In 1887, at Toronto, he said: "Prison
reform recommends the general education of the youth of both
sexes in industrial pursuits, employing and training the faculties
of both body and mind in productive labor, as an efficient means
of preventing crime." In 1888, at Boston, he said: "If the young
of all conditions of life and of both sexes, were trained to in-
dustrious habits, taught some form of useful labor; if education
gave them the love of labor, the spirit of labor, and the ability to
labor, we should soon see the tide turn in our prison statistics.
Instead of a constant demand for more prison room, we should
be gladdened by a permanent decrease in our prison calendar."
In 1889, at Nashville, he said: "Education, as I undertake to em-
phasize, is the means by which any prison can best reform the
convict. . . Let me give one of my favorite crotchets
which is, that no education is a fit education, complete and per-
fect, for any American boy or any American girl, that does not
fit him and her to earn their own living by the labor of their
hands." In 1890, at Cincinnati, he said: "I believe that, in this
country of ours, no education is complete for the rich man's son
or daughter, or the poor man's son or daughter, which does not fit
the boy or girl to make an honest living by his or her hands."
And, "I think no education is better fitted to prevent crime than
this, added to our present excellent common-school education."
Another favorite theme was the non-partisan management of
prisons; and he often referred to it as an absolute necessity in
the reformation of prisons. In 1885, he said: "Party politics and
the prison have no agreement. All experience proves that party
management is the ruin of a prison, and adds no permanent
strength to the party having it. The divorce between the prisons
and politics should be total and absolute." In 1891, at Pitts-
burgh, he said: "Merit, ability, experience, ought to be the con-
trolling consideration in all appointments of prison officers. Mere
partisan appointments corrupt the prison, and add no strength
or prestige to the political party that makes them. It was said
in the war, 'a good colonel makes a good regiment.' A good
warden, with ample power, will make a better prison, even under
192 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
a bad system, than a poor warden under the best system. The
spoils doctrine is nowhere more out of place than when it con-
trols the appointment of prison officials."
On a still higher plane, he constantly inculcated the law of
Christian brotherhood, and the duty devolved upon us as our
brother's keeper, and God's helper. In 1886, at Atlanta, he said:
"We believe that society is so compacted together, that Providence
hath so ordained and doth govern things, that, whether we would
have it so or not, we must be, and are, our brother's keepers. No
man's family is safely entrenched against vice and crime, and the
shame and wretchedness to which they lead. Let the outcast and
the criminal be forgotten or disregarded, and our whole society
will suffer from the taint of human degradation. Like a blood
poison, it will spread through and through the social system, until
it reaches the heart. This serious and mighty truth imposes a
duty which no society can afford to neglect. Civilized society
can not neglect it and live. No well-informed Christian society
ever will neglect it." In 1887, at Toronto, he said: "Society is
silent and inactive in the presence of many recognized evils, be-
cause society has no faith -they are accepted as inevitable, and
endured because they are believed to be beyond cure; but in a
world that God governs, no notion can be more false or harmful;
- in God's world, what ought to be done can be done. The
longer it may take to remedy a recognized evil, to right an ad-
mitted wrong, the sooner will wise men set about it; the
harder the task, the more zealously good men will do their duty
in trying to accomplish it." In 1888, at Boston, he said: "The
citizen can not be loyal to his country and faithful to her true
significance if he neglects the children of misfortune, of poverty,
of weakness, and of wickedness, who are, or who are in danger
of being, enrolled in the ranks of crime. From the dawn of
human society, it has been an irrepealable condition of its exist-
ence that all men are indeed their brothers' keepers.
'Verily, verily,
By each help you hold to them,
In so much your fingers touch
Of His robe the living hem.'"
GENERAL BRINKERHOFF'S TRIBUTE 193
General Hayes was preeminently a Christian man, and his
whole life, like Handel's oratorio of the Messiah, was keyed on
the Christ ideal, and yet, I have learned since his death, he was
never a member of a Christian church. He was an adherent
and member of the board of trustees of the Methodist
church at Fremont, Ohio, and for many years a member of
the board of trustees of the Methodist college at Delaware,
Ohio, but he was not a communicant. Why this was so I do
not know; but I was often with him, and repeatedly, in long
journeys, and in his own house for an entire day at a time, with-
out interruption from others, and yet, in conversations protracted
for hours, the whole trend of his philosophy in solving the rid-
dles of life was Christian. This was more apparent in private
conversations than in public utterances; and yet, as you have
doubtless noticed, like a golden thread, it runs through nearly
all his annual addresses before the prison congress. Some in this
audience to-night will remember that pathetic closing of his an-
nual address before the congress at Nashville, shortly after the
death of his wife, when, with tears, he said: "What spirit shall we
invoke to guide all who speak and all who act upon the great
questions relating to human conduct and to accountability under
human laws? During almost forty years, it has been the crown-
ing felicity of my life to dwell with a companion, now gone to
the world beyond, whose gift and whose delight it was to shed
happiness on all around her. Her joy was so radiant, because
her life was the very incarnation of these few humble and
precious words, which fell naturally from her lips: 'I know that
I am not good, but I do try to treat all others as I would wish
to be treated if I were in their places.' Surely, surely, my
friends, if our laws and their execution, and if communities and
individuals, can be penetrated and controlled by the spirit of the
Golden Rule, a solution will be found for every problem which
now disturbs, or threatens to disturb, the foundations of our
American society."
Those who heard, and any who will read, that Nashville ad-
dress, will understand the power of this utterance more fully, in
the knowledge that it followed the boldest arraignment ever made
by a Northern man in the heart of the South of that barbaric
13
194 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
custom of wager of battle, in the duello system, which still sur-
vives. Those present will remember the breathless silence of
that great audience, and its failure to respond. Nevertheless,
those utterances were as magnificent as those of Paul on Mars'
Hill, under similar circumstances, and I have no doubt with sim-
ilar result. In all my intercourse with public men, I have never
known one whose conversation and conduct was more exemplary
than that of General Hayes. In reply to a commendatory re-
mark upon this, he once said to me: "In avoiding the appearance
of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily de-
prived myself and others of innocent enjoyments." His talk was
always interesting and instructive, and always clean. He liked
a good story, and sometimes told one; but off-color anecdotes and
profanity were an abomination. Upon the whole, as a model
American citizen, in character and conduct, in all the relations
of life, I do not believe we have a better example in American
history.
He is not yet appreciated in his true proportions by the world
at large; but, to me personally, he has been an inspiration in all
that is best in what I have attempted in my life-work, and as
the years recede, and as his life is seen in its true perspective in
history, I am very sure that no American President, who has yet
lived, will be remembered more gratefully by the American peo-
ple. General Hayes was a typical American in his develop-
ment and in his career, and made his way to all the positions he
occupied by honest and persistent effort. He was not a brilliant
or showy man, and manifested no transcendent genius in any
department of human endeavor, except, perhaps the genius of
common sense; but, in every position he was placed, he man-
ifested a broad-minded comprehension of its requirements, and
discharged its duties ably, and with marked integrity. By many
he has been considered a favorite child of fortune, and possibly
there may be something in that. He certainly was fortunate in
his home surroundings beyond the average of men. He was also
fortunate in the affection of an uncle, Sardis Birchard, his
mother's brother, who left him an estate which relieved him in
middle and later life from the drudgery of money-making; but
beyond that he was as fully the architect of his own fortune as
GENERAL BRINKERHOFF'S TRIBUTE 195
any of his contemporaries in public life. In fact, I am not sure
but he had larger physical difficulties to overcome than most
men. Apparently, he was fortunate in a temperament so calm,
deliberate, and self-poised as to enable him to make the most of
every situation, without haste and without mistake. As we knew
him, this was doubtless the fact; and yet, according to his own
testimony, this temperament was as surely an acquisition as the
eloquence of Demosthenes was an acquisition over a stammering
tongue. In my last journey with him, last December to Balti-
more, we were together for a night and a day, and in our long
talk we discussed many things, and among others the power of
heredity and the possibility of overcoming it. He stoutly com-
batted the Lombroso fad, now so prevalent, of criminal neces-
sity, and maintained that the heredity was rare that could not be
overcome by proper training, or a moral purpose; and, to illus-
trate his meaning, he gave me his own experience. "I was born,"
he said, "with a temperament, inherited from both sides of the
house, that was nervous to the verge of disaster. I went all to
pieces on the slightest provocation, and it brought me constant
trouble. As I grew up, I became aware of my danger and its
causes, and deliberately determined to overcome it. By ab-
stemious living, by physical and mental exercises, and by con-
stant will-power, I battled my enemy, until, in the course of
months and years, I became master of the situation, and came to
maturity a free man. Practically, I have no nerves. I can cut
off thought, and go to sleep at a moment's notice, whatever is
impending." He gave me several examples; but I have time now
for only one. "When the battle of Winchester was on, my com-
mand was seventeen miles away, when Sheridan ordered that
headlong rush to the front. We reached the verge of battle
badly blown, and were halted for twenty minutes of rest before
going in. The thunder and blaze and smoke of the great fight
filled the air, but I knew what I needed, of all things, just then,
was sleep; and so I threw my bridle to an orderly, wrapped my
gloves together for a pillow, threw myself on the ground, and
slept for twenty minutes, as peaceful as a child, when the order
came for the charge, and they woke me up. No, no," he said,
"heredity is not an insurmountable barrier, or an excuse for
196 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
wrong-doing. Every one has a bad heredity, in some direction,
and a part of our discipline in this world is to overcome it.
Heredity is no excuse for crime, and the business of reforma-
tories is to train men out of crime; and they ought to do it in
most cases, at least with the young."
Possibly General Hayes may have overestimated, somewhat,
his physical disabilities, and possibly better opportunities may
have come to him than is the lot of the average man; but yet,
after all, it was the preparation he brought to the opportunity,
more than the opportunity itself, that made him great.
And now that he has gone out into the Infinite, it seems to me
that the lesson to learn from his life is, that the only way to
attain greatness is to be great, and the only way to get good is to
do good.
"And I remember still
The words, and from whom they came.
Not he that repeateth the name,
But he that doeth the will !"
ACTION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE OHIO
STATE UNIVERSITY OF WHICH RUTHERFORD
B. HAYES WAS PRESIDENT
At a meeting of the board of trustees of the Ohio State Uni-
versity, held at Columbus January 19, 1893, the following me-
morial minute was adopted and placed on record:
Rutherford B. Hayes was born at Delaware, Ohio, October
4, 1822, and died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.
lie entered Kenyon College in, 1838, at the age of sixteen, and
was graduated in 1842, being awarded the first honors of his class.
He began the study of law at Columbus, but entered the law de-
partment of Harvard University in 1843, graduating in 1845.
He was admitted to the bar the same year and began the practice
of his profession at Fremont, but subsequently located at Cin-
cinnati.
In 1852 he married Lucy W. Webb, of Chillicothe, Ohio.
On the fall of Fort Sumter he abandoned his practice and
began the work of raising troops. On June 7, 1861, he was
STATE UNIVERSITY ACTION 197
commissioned by Governor Dennison, major of the Twenty-third
Ohio Infantry. After five months' service in West Virginia, he
was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. His intrepid conduct at the
battle of South Mountain, where he was wounded, secured his
promotion as colonel, on October 24, 1862, of the Twenty-third
Ohio.
As commander of brigade or division he fought in the battles
of Cloyd's Mountain, Winchester, Berryville, Opequon, Fisher's
Hill, and Cedar Creek. At the last-named battle, on the recom-
mendation of General Sheridan, he was promoted to the rank of
brigadier-general. On March 13, 1865, he was promoted to the
rank of brevet major-general for gallant and distinguished
services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia, and par-
ticularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. He
was wounded six times in battle, and had four horses shot under
him in his four years' service.
His political services began with his appointment to the office
of city solicitor of Cincinnati, to which office he was subsequently
elected, and which he filled with marked ability for three years.
He was elected to represent one of the Cincinnati districts in the
Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. While serving as a Mem-
ber of Congress in 1867 he was elected governor of Ohio, and
was reelected in 1869.
While serving his second term as governor he was influential
in securing the legislation under which the Ohio State University
was located and organized.
In 1875, against his personal wishes, he was again renominated,
and reelected governor of Ohio. While serving his third term
as governor, he was elected President of the United States.
On May 13, 1887, be was appointed a member of this board
of trustees, and at a meeting held November 22, 1892, was
elected its president. He attended and presided at the meeting
of the board held at Columbus, January 10 and 11 1893, and on
Thursday, January 12, left for Cleveland with the purpose of
making inquiry relating to the position of director of the new in-
dustrial department. On Saturday, the 14th, while in Cleveland,
and about to depart for home he had a severe attack of neu-
ralgia of the heart. He continued his journey, however, and ar-
198 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
rived at home that evening. He died surrounded by his family,
at the family homestead at Fremont, at 11 o'clock P. M., Tues-
day, January 17, 1893.
The members of this board feel deeply the irreparable loss
the university has sustained in the death of President Hayes and
share in the general sorrow of the State and Nation.
A great and good man is dead, a life full of honor is ended,
an illustrious career is closed, and nothing can be said that
will add to his reputation. That belongs to our common history.
Of pure life, of unsullied honor, of gentlest disposition, of
lofty courage, moral, temperate, industrious, free from every
vice, blessed with every virtue, almost faultless, the life of this
good man will always remain with us a shining model for the
students of our university to imitate.
His life was most happy, his success most brilliant. The love
others bore him carried him over every obstacle and bestowed
upon him the highest honors of the republic.
Unassuming in his manners, polite, scholarly, studious, accom-
plished, he made all who knew him his friends. He bore without
complaint the most severe and unjust censure. In reply he
uttered no word of resentment. He had charity for all, malice
for none. A Christian and a gentleman, he lived above the
ordinary feelings and passions of his fellow men, and leaves to
us the imperishable memory of his good name, his virtuous life
and noble character.
Mr. R. J. Alexander in presenting the above memorial and
resolution said:
"Ex-President Hayes will be a grand character in our coun-
try's history. His whole life seemed to have been a triumphal
march. With an exalted sense of truth and right, he showed the
highest courage in their maintenance. A warm friend, kind to
all, abounding in charity, social, liberal, courteous, all were at-
tached to him who knew him. With active intellect, rare good
sense, sincere, earnest, eloquent, and with ready use of language,
he was a great orator. None of our public men could so well
entertain an audience, for his words had no sting, his heart no
bitterness. 'When he was reviled he reviled not again.'
STATE UNIVERSITY ACTION 199
Wounded and sore, he spoke no words of resentment. By pro-
fession and practice he was a Christian. Free from envy, pride,
arrogance, and avarice, without repulsive dignity, of most happy
disposition, he will always be honored and loved by the people
he served so well. His name in the future will be a tower of
strength for this university and an inspiration for the students
in its halls. Mr. President, I move the adoption of the memorial
and resolution."
The motion having been seconded, the president stated that
further remarks were in order.
Mr. D. M. Massie spoke as follows:
"General Hayes played a great and honorable part in the his-
tory of our country. Others better qualified than we will pay
the well deserved tribute to his fame as a soldier, statesman, and
ruler. It was our privilege to know him after he had achieved
the highest possible place among his countrymen. Herein we
are most fortunate, for there could not be a more charming
great man than ex-President Hayes. Education and experience
had given him wide knowledge and great wisdom. A kind heart
made him considerate of the opinion of others. He never used
his position to impose his ideas or wishes upon his associates,
and was always willing to receive suggestions from others and to
lend his aid in assisting them in efforts in behalf of a worthy
cause. Herein is the best and greatest part of General Hayes's
career. He was always actively engaged in promoting the truest
and best interests of his fellow men. Called by the nation to the
highest place in the land, he discharged the duties of the great
office worthily and well. When it was finished he did not rest
on his laurels, but used his great influence in active work in be-
half of education, advancing the cause of truth. What more
can any man do, be he great or humble, than help forward the
cause of truth wherever and whenever he can. We all know how
much he did for the university, how wise he was as a counsellor,
how active as a friend, and what a tower of strength he was to
us. There will be many memorials and monuments erected to
his memory, but none shall be more worthy of him than our
university, in whose organization and development he bore so
200 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
conspicuous a part. Through it, though dead, he shall still speak
in living words to generations yet unborn."
Mr. W. I. Chamberlain spoke as follows:
"When General Hayes retired from the Presidency of the
United States, he did not settle down to a life of mere literary
enjoyment, so tempting to one of high scholarship; nor, on the
other hand, did he turn his attention to increasing the ample for-
tune he had partly earned and partly inherited. He quietly and
unselfishly gave his last twelve years of life to the service of
his fellow men--the prisoners, the negroes, the Indians, the
poor and downtrodden. But if he had a special hobby it was
the industrial education of the common people. The beautiful
School of Industrial Art, just erected at the Ohio State Uni-
versity, has the words Hayes Hall cut deep in the great stone
arch above its main entrance, to remain for centuries a memorial
to the illustrious statesman who inspired its erection, and did so
much to put the university on an ample and enduring financial
basis. Just one week ago, in perfect health, he looked through
the completed structure, and expressed his deep gratification at
its elegant adaptation to its future work. We can never forget
his constant devotion to the industrial interests of this great in-
stitution.
"He was, if possible, the most democratic of all our Presidents.
There was never the least exclusiveness, arrogance, or assump-
tion of superiority. From seeing and conversing with him, no
one who did not know the facts would have guessed, that in suc-
cession he had held the highest places in the power of the State
and Nation to bestow. No secretary or attendant travelled with
him. He arrived always unannounced, and gripsack in hand,
he went quietly on foot or by street-car to the hotel or office
where he was to meet the board, to which he freely gave his
valuable services.
"He always showed the most courteous deference to the opin-
ions of all his associates. None ever came close to him in asso-
ciation without being made better and more unselfish by the con-
tact, for they felt him to be the highest type of the unselfish
Christian gentleman. His faith in God and in the future was
STATE UNIVERSITY ACTION 201
serene, and his belief in the honor and good sense of the Amer-
ican people really brought to a crucial test, was well-nigh as
unshaken as his faith in God. No life is worthier of imitation
and remembrance. The memory of the just is blessed."
The vice-president, Mr. Schueller, calling one of his associates
to the chair, said:
"De mortuis nil nisi bonum has become a maxim in such gen-
eral use, that it has advanced almost to an indisputable axiom,
to the greatest disadvantage of all truly good and great men.
This maxim, more than anything else, has falsified history and
distorted character, elevated rascals to glory and turned scoun-
drels into saints. Thus it has become almost a farce, and is con-
sidered by many a fabrication, to speak in high terms of appre-
ciation of a beloved dead, who, by his words and deeds, deserves
the greatest honors bestowed upon him by his countrymen, nay,
by all mankind, to whose interests he had devoted the latter part
of his eventful life.
"No posthumous transformation of character is needed in be-
half of our departed colleague and president of our board, ex-
President Rutherford B. Hayes. His life has been an open book
with leaves unsullied, inscribed but with kind words and good
deeds originating in an all-loving mind. Being a political op-
ponent, and meeting him for the first time three years ago with
a certain degree of misgiving, all ill feeling that may have ani-
mated me vanished before his genial demeanor, pure character,
and self-sacrificing love for all that is noble and good, like clouds
before a bright summer sun, leaving but reverence and admira-
tion. Ever since leaving the Presidential chair of the nation, he
has devoted his life exclusively to the elevation of mankind. His
constant aim has been to raise the people to a higher level of
intelligence and corresponding morality, by educating mind and
body harmoniously, thereby ameliorating the social condition and
material resources of the laboring classes. Not, as it is gener-
ally preached and practiced, by giving alms which degrade and
degenerate, but by giving them self-reliance in their physical
powers and intellectual faculties, and thus aiding them to become
independent laborers and not mendicants or beggars.
"The words of Schiller, in the prologue prefacing his trilogy
202 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
'Wallenstein,' voice my feelings and sentiments in regard to our
departed friend better than any words I might give utterance to:
'A noble master occupied this place,
And bore us upward to the realms of art
Upon the wings of his creative power.
A brilliant model rouses emulation
And leads the judgment on to higher love;
For he who satisfies the best of his own age
Lives not for them alone, but for all future time.'"
Remarks expressive of their deep sense of personal loss in the
death of their distinguished colleague, and of appreciation of his
noble character were also made by Messrs. Lucius B. Wing and
T. J. Godfrey.
The secretary (Alexis Cope) said:
"On Thursday of last week, after the meeting of this board,
President Hayes came to the office, and said in his pleasant way:
'Now let us go up and call upon the governor. He is going to
talk to the State Board of Agriculture and we can go up with him
to the senate chamber and hear his speech.'
"We walked up to the governor's office together, saw the gov-
ernor, and went up to the senate chamber, where we heard him
make a short address, and then came back to the office.
"On the way the President said: 'You know we have always
taken a great interest in McKinley and hope to see him President
some day.'
"He soon started for the train and I took his grip to go with
him. He protested that the weather was very cold and that I
must not think of going to the station. I insisted, and he re-
luctantly consented. He took my arm and we walked to the
station together. Arriving there we found his train a half-hour
late. He proposed that we take a cup of coffee, so we climbed
onto the high stools in the luncheon room and had our coffee.
Something drew him to talk of his early life, of his father's
death, and his Uncle Birchard taking him, a half-orphan boy,
under his care; a care that left no childish or boyish want unsat-
isfied. He seemed to be nervously depressed and anxious for
companionship.
STATE UNIVERSITY ACTION 203
"When we parted he said he would go to Cleveland to see a
proposed candidate for the position of director of manual train-
ing. We learn that he went to see this person, walking several
blocks in the face of a violent snow-storm. This was the last
public service President Hayes performed.
"It touches us deeply that this service was in behalf of the
university, and that the exposure incident thereto may have
caused or contributed to the illness which resulted in his death.
"But touching as this reflection is, we know that President
Hayes, could he have chosen the field in which his life should be
given up, would have chosen no other than that of loving service
to his fellow men. Could he have chosen the manner of his death,
he would have chosen that which came to him; the sudden pang,
and the peaceful, unconscious passing of the spirit.
"A friendly intimacy which, during the years he has been a
trustee of the university, has constantly grown and strengthened,
justifies me in thus confidently speaking of our beloved friend
and associate.
"He was fortunate and happy in his life; he was happy also
in his death. The rancor and bitterness which followed the dis-
puted Presidential contest in which he was successful were rap-
idly passing away. He saw his countrymen turning toward him
with constantly increasing reverence and respect, and was happy
in the reflection that in discharging the duties of his high office
as his conscience dictated, he had made 'the safe appeal of truth
to time.'
"We may congratulate ourselves that of the many important
public trusts he held at the time of his death, the university was
foremost in his heart. He was the most active and perhaps the
controlling agent in its organization and location. He shaped the
necessary legislation, procured its passage, and appointed the
board of trustees which located the university, prescribed its gen-
eral courses of study, and elected its faculty. His interest in it
was constant and he was always ready to make any sacrifice of
time and personal effort to serve it. In the years to come his
name and fame will be dear to all who come within its influence."
204 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
ACTION OF TRUSTEES OF WESTERN RESERVE UNI-
VERSITY OF WHICH RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
WAS A TRUSTEE.
At a meeting of the board of trustees of the Western Reserve
University, held at Cleveland March 1, 1893, the following resolu-
tion in honor of Mr. Hayes was adopted:
In common with the people of the United States, we mourn
the death of Rutherford B. Hayes, which has taken away a man
whose patriotic services as a soldier, whose pure and able ad-
ministration of the Government, whose noble devotion of his last
years to works of philanthropy and the promotion of the public
good, and whose true and upright life made his example worthy
of the imitation of all "who love their fellow men." And as
Trustees of the Western Reserve University we especially mourn
the loss of one whose exalted character, clear mind, and sound
judgment have contributed so greatly to the success and pros-
perity of this institution.
ACTION OF TRUSTEES OF OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVER-
SITY OF WHICH RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
WAS A TRUSTEE.
At a meeting of the board of Ohio Wesleyan University, held
at Delaware June 22, 1893, the following minute in honor of
the memory of Mr. Hayes was adopted and placed on record:
The Board of Trustees desires to place on record its high
appreciation of Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-President of the United
States, who died January 17, 1893.
President Hayes has been for nine years past an honored
and valued member of this board. His wide experience, his
great wisdom, his deep interest in the cause of higher education,
and his sympathy with all that is noble and good, gave to his
services as a member of this board an exceptional value. He
entered heartily into all plans for enlarging the work and in-
creasing the usefulness of the university, for which he cherished
the highest regard. He was faithful in his attendance upon the
meetings of the board, and allowed no other of the numerous
WESTERN RESERVE AND WESLEYAN 205
calls that pressed him to deprive the board of his presence and
counsel.
We recognize the worth of his distinguished service; and as
a corporation and as individuals, shall always cherish his memory,
which will be to us all an inspiration to imitate his virtues, and
to live lives of equal value to society and to the world.
DAVID S. GRAY, Chairman,
JOHN M. WALDEN,
WILLIAM LAWRENCE,
ISAAC F. KING,
WILLIAM A. INGHAM,
GEORGE W. ATKINSON,
CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS,
RICHARD S. RUST,
Committee.
ACTION OF THE FACULTY AND ALUMNI ASSOCIA-
TION OF KENYON COLLEGE FROM WHICH RUTH-
ERFORD B. HAYES GRADUATED IN 1842
On January 18, 1893, the president of Kenyon College reported
to the faculty the death of ex-President Hayes, Kenyon's most
noted alumnus. It was voted that if the president be unable to
attend the funeral, Professor Devol be requested to represent the
faculty. It was further voted to appoint a committee which shall
express the sentiments of the faculty in the form of resolutions.
Prefessors Devol, Brusie, and Peirce were chosen. This com-
mittee will also transmit copies of the resolutions to the rela-
tives of the deceased, and attend to publication.
On January 20 the above committee reported the following
resolution:
"The faculty of Kenyon College desire to express their deep
sense of the loss which the college has sustained in the death of
General Rutherford B. Hayes, LL. D., of the class of 1842, and
to pay tribute to the memory of his pure and noble character.
"The public services of Mr. Hayes are familiar to every in-
telligent citizen of the nation. His bravery, his wise statesman-
206 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
ship, his philanthropy are known to all his countrymen. We,
however, especially rejoice that it was the privilege of Kenyon
to have nourished such a son, and we point to him as a type of
the lofty character which colleges should aim to produce, -that
of the patriotic, cultured, Christian gentleman. As such, Kenyon
will cherish his memory as one of her most precious possessions.
"It is ordered that this memorial be entered upon the records
of the faculty, that it be published in the Kenyon Collegian,
and the daily papers, and that a copy be sent to the family of the
deceased."
MEMORIAL EXERCISES OF KENYON COLLEGE ALUMNI
IN MEMORY OF
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, CLASS OF 1842.
Rosse Hall, Gambier, Ohio, June 28, 1893.
President of Alumni Association, Hon. George T. Chapman, '56.
Music by the Band
Prayer of Invocation ......................Rt. Rev. William A. Leonard
Hayes the Student and Friend ..................Hon. Guy M. Bryan, '42
Hayes the Alumnus ................................Col. J. E. Jacobs, '58
Music - "Lead, Kindly Light,"
Kenyon Glee Club.
Hayes the Lawyer ............................Judge M. M. Granger, '50
Hayes the Soldier ............................Gen. John G. Mitchell, '59
Music by the Band.
Hayes the Statesman ............................. Hon. Columbus Delano
Hayes the President .........................Hon. J. Kent Hamilton, '59
Music by Kenyon Glee Club.
Hayes the ex-President and Philanthropist ............Wm. C. Reynolds
Hayes's Religious Character ...........................Rev. John H. Ely
Singing--"Old Kenyon, Mother Dear."
Benediction ................................... Rt. Rev. Boyd Vincent
ACTION OF TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT
At the annual reunion of the Twenty-third Regiment, O. V.
V. I. held at Lakeside, September 4, 1889, the following resolu-
tions were adopted:
WHEREAS, At this, our Annual Reunion, we have to bear testi-
mony to the steady depletion of our ranks and to the annual de-
tails for service in the Grand Army beyond; and,
ACTION OF KENYON COLLEGE 207
WHEREAS, At this, our annual meeting, we have to ac-
knowledge with unfeigned sorrow the departure of one who was
early identified with our organization, an active participant with
us in our joys and sorrows, and one who at all times was ever
ready with heart and hand to console the afflicted and to lessen
life's burdens; and
WHEREAS, We recognize in the life of Lucy Webb Hayes a
lamp by which our feet may be guided to a better life, and while
we regret her departure hence, we accept with humility the man-
date of the Great Architect of the Universe and yield cheerful
acquiescence to His will; therefore,
Resolved, That we renew our allegiance to each other, and
offer to our honored commander, comrade, and friend our last-
ing friendship until the final summons shall call each and all of
us to the silent camping ground of the dead.
Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the records
of our association and a copy be sent to our honored commander
and his family.
J. C. BOTSFORD,
J. S. ELLEN,
BEN KILLAM,
Committee.
At the annual reunion of the Twenty-third Regiment, O. V.
V. I. held at Lakeside, Ohio, on the 16, 17, and 18th of August,
1893, the following resolutions were adopted:
WHEREAS, Our old commander, General Rutherford B. Hayes,
closed his eyes in death on the 17th day of January, 1893, at his
home in Fremont, Ohio, his spirit winging its way to the God
who gave it; and
WHEREAS, By his death this association has lost its best friend,
while the Nation has lost one of its wisest statesmen and most
patriotic citizens, and humanity one of the purest and most ex-
emplary of men on earth; and
WHEREAS, The loss to his family, to the Nation, and to the
world is irreparable, and seems to each and all of us, as almost
too much to bear complacently; and
208 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
WHEREAS, We know that he had no dread of death or the
future, but regarded the great change as a sure and certain pro-
motion from this world of care, sorrow, and disappointment to
a life beyond the grave, where he would be joined by wife and
friends gone before, with powers and opportunity for doing
good, so far beyond our comprehension as to be indescribable;
therefore be it
Resolved, That the members of this association will cherish
his sainted memory as long as life shall last, not forgetting that
he taught and lived the Divine instruction, "Love one another"
and "Do right," and that as he believed he would be with us in
spirit at all our future meetings, so we hope and pray it may be
granted him and us; and that when these reunions are over and
the roll of the Twenty-third Regiment is called on Judgment Day
every member shall respond, "Aye, Lord, here am I."
CYRUS W. FISHER,
D. H. KIMBERLEY,
JAMES HAYR,
Committee.
MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION OF THE
UNITED STATES OF WHICH RUTHERFORD B.
HAYES WAS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
IN MEMORIAM
BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
United States Volunteers
"The impartial historian will not fail to recognize the conscien-
tiousness, the manliness, and the courage that so strongly
characterized his whole public career."
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Major Twenty-third Ohio Infantry June 7, 1861; Lieutenant-
Colonel, October 24, 1861; Colonel, October 24, 1862; discharged
to accept promotion October 19, 1864.
TWENTY-THIRD OHIO RESOLUTIONS 209
Brigadier-General U. S. Volunteers October 19, 1864; resigned
and honorably discharged June 8, 1865.
Brevetted Major-General U. S. Volunteers March 13, 1865,
"for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of
1864 in West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of Fisher's
Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia."
President of the United States March 4, 1877, to March 4,
1881.
Elected July 6, 1881, in the Commandery of Illinois. Class I.
Insignia 2175.
Transferred to Commandery of Ohio May 3, 1882. Charter
member.
Commander of Commandery of Ohio February 7, 1883-May 4,
1887.
Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief October 21, 1885-October
17, 1888.
Commander-in-Chief of the Order October 17, 1888-January
17, 1893.
Born October 4, 1822, at Delaware, Ohio.
Died January 17, 1893, at Fremont, Ohio.
NOTICE OF THE DEATH OF RUTHERFORD
BIRCHARD HAYES,
BY THE OHIO COMMANDERY OF THE
MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES,
JANUARY 18, 1893
Companion Brevet Major-General Rutherford Birchard Hayes
died at 10:45 last night at his late residence, Spiegel Grove, near
Fremont, Ohio.
Companion Hayes was a member of the Ohio Commandery of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States from
its organization and was its first Commander. At the time of his
death, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Order.
Due notice of the date of the funeral services will be given
through the press.
14
210 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Instructions have been given for forwarding the Commandery's
floral tribute.
A committee of Companions will be appointed by the Com-
mandery to prepare a memorial tribute, in conformity with
the Commandery's by-law.
At the request of the Recorder-in-Chief, Lieut.-Colonel Cor-
nelius Cadle has been appointed to represent the Commandery-
in-Chief at the funeral.
The following named Companions are appointed to represent
the Ohio Commandery at the funeral services:
Major Wm. McKinley, Bvt.-Brig.-General R. P. Kennedy, Bvt.
Major-General M. F. Force, Bvt. Brig.-General B. R. Cowen,
Major-General M. D. Liggett, Bvt. Major-General James Barnett,
Captain John M. Lemmon, Bvt. Lt.-Colonel R. L. Nye, Bvt. Ma-
jor James L. Botsford, Major W. R. Thrall, Bvt. Major T. M.
Turner, Bvt. Brig.-General W. H. Enochs, Lt.-Colonel H. C.
Corbin, U. S. A., Bvt. Major-General John G. Mitchell, Bvt.
Brig.-General John S. Casement, Bvt. Major-General J. Warren
Keifer, Bvt. Major-General C. C. Walcutt, Bvt. Brig.-General W.
H. Raynor, Bvt. Major-General A. C. Voris, Bvt. Brig.-General
T. W. Sanderson, Lieut. E. S. Wilson, Major W. D. Bickham,
Lt.-Colonel W. B. Nesbitt, Bvt. Lieut.-Colonel W. R. Warnock,
H. S. Buckland, Esq.
All other Companions who can do so are requested to attend
the services.
By order of
MAJOR GENERAL JACOB D. Cox, U. S. V.,
Commander
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER
Recorder.
COMMEMORATIVE MEETING OF OHIO
COMMANDERY
At a meeting of the Ohio Commandery, at its headquarters in
Cincinnati on February 1, 1893, there were present a much larger
number of Companions than usual at stated meetings. After
routine business had been transacted, the commander, Major-
General Jacob D. Cox, said:
OHIO LOYAL LEGION ACTION 211
COMPANIONS: - We have been looking forward to this evening
with an extremely pathetic interest. Among the bereavements
which the Loyal Legion has had to suffer all too frequently dur-
ing the past few years, none has come to us more suddenly and
unexpectedly than the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the
Order, who was so recently our commander in this commandery
also.
I had habituated myself to think of General Hayes as of one
who had, if any man had, the assurance of a quiet and protracted
decline of life in happiness and in rest. He had lately to bear
his own great griefs; yet he had so far overcome them that I
think he looked upon the remaining portion of his own life as a
quiet period of decreasing activity, not to be dreaded or shunned,
but to be calmly and hopefully used. With the appearance of
robust health, with absolute system of habit, prudent care, cheer-
ful employments, full of good works, not rusting but living a
life which was a model for men retired from great public re-
sponsibilities, we had the right to expect that we should greet
him here frequently in years yet to come. Thus it was that the
blow came suddenly, almost stunningly.
You will wish to hear from some of his Companions who were
closely associated with him in his military career or who have
learned to appreciate him as a statesman and a patriot; but, be-
fore calling on either of these, I shall ask you to listen to the
reading of a letter written by one whom we used to greet very
often -now becoming old and feeble, but whose voice and heart
retain the melody and activity of youth--our old friend, James
E. Murdoch. Companion Captain George A. Thayer, who has
the letter, will kindly read it.
CAPTAIN THAYER:
COMMANDER AND COMPANIONS: - My venerable neighbor,
James E. Murdoch, has kindly delegated me to deliver to you
his message for this memorial occasion. Now among the eight-
ies, he finds it best that most of his remaining strength should
be husbanded in bed. Among his many regrets that the great
outside world, in which his interest has lain so long, is slipping
212 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
away from him, the most serious I think is that he loses touch
with this Companionship.
With that sort of perversity which often characterizes men who
have won eminent success in another field, I think he feels that
the greatest honors of his life were that he cheered the soldiers
of the Chattanooga army by his readings; and that the patriotic
ardor of audiences all over the north was stirred by his recita-
tions of Buchanan Read's poem of "Sheridan's Ride," verses
which he declaimed so often that he might feel as if he had been
an active participant in the Shenandoah campaign.
It is said of King George IV, who was subject to various hal-
lucinations, that he had persuaded himself that he was present at
the battle of Waterloo. On one occasion he appealed to the Duke
of Wellington to testify that he had indeed fought at Waterloo.
Wellington diplomatically answered: "I have often heard your
majesty say you were there."
If Mr. Murdoch was not with Sheridan in person, he was there
in spirit. This is his letter:
"ROADSIDE,"
READING ROAD AND OAK STREET,
CINCINNATI, OHIO, February 1, 1893.
To the Commander and Companions of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of Ohio,
James E. Murdoch, from an Invalid's Headquarters, sends fra-
ternal greetings.
Among the irksome taxes assessed by Father Time upon a
protracted lease of life, the hardest to bear by an active mind
is physical disability to take part in the love-feasts of our Order,
and those sad gatherings where the last honors are paid to the
memory of departed Companions.
The hand of death has removed from the Companionship of
our Order a master spirit and a national leader. Rutherford B.
Hayes has run his earthly course and finished his mortal career.
At the call of the Omnipotent Commander he has joined the
army of the faithful, whose ranks are daily filling up by a "draft"
whose fiat is imperative and admits of no "substitute."
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 213
The words of Holy Writ tell us to "mark the perfect man and
behold the upright." Among the men of mark called to the fore-
front of national command, there has been no one (save two ex-
ceptioiial cases) to whom the spirit of the scriptural text will
more aptly apply than to him whom the Loyal Legion so deeply
mourns and so truly honors. Of our venerated chief it may be
truly said, his motives were pure and his actions honorable; in the
field or in the cabinet, his conduct was fearless and above re-
proach; his record bears the stamp of those attributes which mark
the character of a pure man and a true American citizen.
The voice, face, and form of our beloved Commander-in-Chief
are indelibly impressed on the "tables of my memory" as the fea-
tures of one "who loved his fellow men," and strove to live by
the Golden Rule, which enjoins us to do unto others that which we
would others should do unto us.
In the spirit of patriotic fraternity I am ever, Commander and
Companions,
Faithfully yours,
JAMES E. MURDOCH.
THE COMMANDER:
Among those who were your committee to represent you at the
funeral of President Hayes, was Lieutenant-Colonel W. R. War-
nock, to whose honorable career as a soldier have been added the
laurels of distinction at the bar and on the bench. Fresh from
the moving scene of Fremont, it is fitting that we should ask him
to give expression to the feelings which the memory of our dis-
tinguished Companion aroused, and which we all would fain
share with him.
COLONEL WARNOCK:
COMMANDER AND COMPANIONS :- In the few minutes allotted
to me I can only speak of our late Companion, General Hayes, in
the most general terms.
Rutherford B. Hayes was a great man. Not because he was
made great through the fulsome praise of a subsidized press.
Not because he was made great through the affected or purchased
enthusiasm of claquers or henchmen. Not because he was born
to a title, or inherited a crown; but because he was born with a
214 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
true nobility of spirit that ripened into a broader manhood that
made him the leader of men.
Rutherford B. Hayes was great, not only in what he did for
his country, but he was great in the simplicity of his character.
He was the same simple, dignified gentleman in the White House
that he had been in his home at Spiegel Grove.
Rutherford B. Hayes was not only great in his simplicity and
great in what he accomplished, but he was great in the influence
that he exerted over this land for all good and worthy objects.
He solved the problem, and answered the question that has
been so often asked, What shall an ex-President do? How could
it have been answered more eloquently, more completely than for
twelve years as trustee of different institutions; as the constant
attendant upon reunions of old soldiers, gatherings for all worthy
purposes, devoting his life, devoting his time, devoting his energy,
giving his means to the building up of those institutions which
are for the benefit of his fellow men.
I was very much struck a few days ago, when as a representa-
tive of this commandery of the Loyal Legion, I attended his
funeral at Fremont. For the first time I saw his modest home.
For the first time I saw his library. I saw the surroundings. I
got an idea of how the man lived at home. A complete, ideal
American home; and I said that it was characteristic of the man
that had lived among us all these years, who had lived in that
modest home at Fremont, as the evidences showed that he had
been living.
No reference to Rutherford B. Hayes is complete without a
reference to his domestic life, and to her whose name to-day is
a household word in every Christian home throughout America.
The home of Rutherford B. and Lucy Webb Hayes was the
model home of America. But Rutherford B. Hayes is no more.
No tender tokens of regret, no sorrows we can cherish will avail
anything to him. As one has well said, there will be music and
song, revelry and mirth, the seasons in their bright rounds will
come and go, hope and joy and great ambitions will rise up as
they have risen, battle storms will smite the earth, peace smile
upon it, love bless it, hate curse it, history will write great chap-
ters in the Book of Time, generations will pass away on the swift
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 215
flight of years, but he will come to us again no more forever.
His life is blended with that mysterious tide which bears on its
current events, institutions, empires in the awful sweep of des-
tiny. Neither praise nor censure, nor love nor hate, nothing can
touch him further.
When the wealthy men of this land die and leave their fortunes,
even though they may be colossal, to their families, what good
does that do to the world or to the cause of humanity? But
when such a man as Rutherford B. Hayes dies, a man whose life
has been filled up with good deeds and good works, a man who
gave four years of his life to the perils and the hardships of a
soldier's life-when such a man dies, then his courage, his pa-
triotism, his endurance, swells that heritage of patriotism which
has given to the world this glorious republic of ours, and made
us a free people.
Hayes, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Logan, Doubleday,
and Meade. Look at the list of heroes that have gone on before.
Ah, my Companions of the Loyal Legion, we are now like a
forest in which more than half of the trees have been cut down.
The winters have snowed their years upon us; our steps begin
to falter, and we are growing old. The battle of life will soon be
over. Heroes are waiting for us from Shiloh, Andersonville,
Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga; from every battle-field for
the defense of human rights the heroes come, and as we gather
in, one by one, to swell that grand reunion above, may we all
be so fortunate as to hear from the Supreme Commander of the
Universe, "Well done good and faithful servants."
THE COMMANDER:
We have here to-night one of our best known Companions,
General Keifer, whom I never meet without thinking of his
service at the very beginning of the war. His was a name en-
rolled in one of those regiments of Ohio volunteers that were
designated by the small numbers of the first contingent of the
State. Some of you remember the First and Second Regiments
that went off to Washington at the very first call when Sumter
was fired upon, and we who remained behind to organize other
regiments thought we had been left almost alone because they
216 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
had gone to the capital of the country in advance of us. Next
after them came the Third Ohio with the then Major Keifer in
the list of its field officers. When we assembled at Camp Denni-
son to break ground for the Ohio Camp of Instruction, a train
load of troops came from the North, and a train load of lumber
from the South. The men unloading the boards from the cars,
carried the lumber on their shoulders to the foot of the hills
skirting the valley to make a camp there. The Third Ohio was
on the north end of the line of regiments that faced the railroad,
and made the beginning of that camp about which for a little
while centred almost all of the interest of the State of Ohio in
her young men preparing for the war. The Third Ohio was or-
dered away to take part in the first campaign in West Virginia,
and there met with the Twenty-third Ohio, of which, as Cincin-
natians so well remember, Rosecrans was the first colonel, Scam-
mon its second, with Stanley Matthews for lieutenant-colonel,
and Hayes its major. The association that began in that early
campaign under McClellan, was honorably and even gloriously
continued to the very end. Hayes and Keifer fought as com-
rades in campaigns in Virginia of the West, and in Virginia of
the East, among the mountains, in the Valley of the Shenandoah,
not always in the same corps, but participating in the same great
events. He certainly is competent to speak of Hayes as a soldier,
as well as of his larger public and political career in which his
own honors also culminated about the same time with those of
our departed Commander. I therefore, invite you to listen to
General Keifer.
GENERAL KEIFER:
COMMANDER AND COMPANIONS:--To make a fitting address
and one worthy of our departed Companion, would require more
of thought and care than I could give under the circumstances in
which I have been recently situated. I have been very deeply im-
pressed, as have all who knew General Hayes, with his sudden
death.
At the time of his death and burial I was myself indisposed
and was unable to attend his funeral. I feel that it was a great
privation to me and I felt also that General Hayes - ex-Presi-
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 217
dent Hayes--was a man of all others who never overlooked an
occasion to pay due respect to the death of any comrade. He
was in that respect a model.
I have reflected a great deal about this matter of paying due
regard and respect and honor to the dead - especially since our
Companion's death. I have had a thought of gratification in line
with a thought that belongs to me, and that is this: That as an
organization, not only in Ohio, but all over the United States, the
Loyal Legion has done its duty in the highest sense it could in
honoring the distinguished dead, soldier and statesman, while he
lived. I believe in honoring the living while it will do them some
good. I think, in that respect then, the Loyal Legion of the
United States, the Commandery of Ohio especially, have always
been proud, in the life-time of Hayes, in honoring, in giving
preference to, and in tendering him on all occasions proper re-
spect; and therefore we can come, with the feeling of having
done our duty, to consider him when he is in his grave.
I knew General Hayes very well; early in the war I met him,
and I had occasion in more than one instance to personally come
in contact with him during the war, and to get the key to the
character of the man from pretty close observation and some
striking incidents.
I met him, in October, 1861, in the valley between Rich and
Cheat Mountains in the Tygart's Valley campaign, when a por-
tion, at least, of the Twenty-third Ohio, with other troops, were
sent to Camp Elkwater to reinforce General Reynolds's command,
partly located in the valley and partly upon the top of Cheat
Mountain.
I shall not go into that campaign; but sometime we ought
to, and perhaps can, revive some of the history that belongs to
that early incident, where General Lee was sent to organize an
army to attack and take the positions at the mouth of Elkwater
and on Cheat Mountain; and where as a matter of fact he made
a most signal failure. There Major Hayes came with a portion
of his regiment. He was then a man of mature years, sound and
deliberate judgment, the same I have seen him exhibit under all
circumstances since: sincere, candid, frank; never putting on any
show that was not absolutely essential to the occasion under
218 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
which he was acting. He was the same as a soldier, as a citizen,
as President of the United States, as Governor of Ohio, all the
way through life.
I did not meet him for a number of years after meeting him
at the place I have named. But incidentally I saw him in the
Shenandoah Valley a time or two during the brilliant campaign
of Sheridan in 1864. At the battle of Opequon, sometimes called
Winchester, on the 19th of September, 1864, there was an inci-
dent in the military history of General Hayes that he himself,
when he would talk frankly and freely at the fireside, always
spoke of as though it was the crowning incident and event in
his military career. The battle of Opequon was in a certain sense
commenced by a portion of the troops of the Sixth Corps very
early in the morning, forcing a crossing over the stream known
as Opequon Creek; there was a suspension, and the Sixth
Corps and the Nineteenth Corps were brought into position; and
about 12 o'clock an effort was made by those corps, with General
Crook's corps absent, so far as taking part in the then engagement
was concerned, with the exception of being moved to the left of
the other forces, and intended to be thrown into Winchester, or
to the south of Winchester to cut off the retreating troops of
General Early's forces. But we were so far unfortunate in our
attempt to force the enemy back that our right was broken, and
the Nineteenth Corps was driven back, and a portion of troops
of the Sixth Corps, and the battle did not seem to be with us.
The whole movement of General Crook's forces, composed of two
divisions, one commanded by General Hayes and the other by
General Duvall, was changed.
General Crook's command was thrown to the right, and in-
structions were given to it to move around the right of our army
to the left of the Confederate forces, commanded by General
Breckinridge. It was ordered to attack and force back the ene-
my's left in every way possible.
General Hayes moved his division in the direction of Stephen-
son's depot, and suddenly found in his front a swamp or morass
that was regarded, in that country, by the residents, as entirely
impassable. They treated it so, and did not cross it. The troops
of Hayes's command encountered this apparently impassable
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 219
swamp, opposite of which was the infantry of General Breckin-
ridge's corps of the Confederate army.
Hayes's instructions were to charge whatever was before him.
A successful charge seemed impossible, but General Hayes took
in the situation, knowing that the soldiers in a body could do what
individuals could not do; and, knowing the importance of success
and the consequence to the whole army of a failure of the move-
ment, he gave the command to charge through the swamp, and
with his sword drawn dashed on horseback at the head of his
command into the morass.
The charge was audacious! Breckinridge's old soldiers stood in
awe until the gallant command was upon them. They were driven
in disorder from their well chosen position. If there was any
credit to any special one that day, it was to General Hayes. Had
he hesitated, as he might well have hesitated, as many might have
hesitated--yes! as many general officers would have hesitated,
as the day was fast passing - it is not at all sure that the battle
of Opequon would have been won.
He was in the general movement with General Crook that
passed around the Confederate left, and skirted along the moun-
tain, across the Cedar Creek Valley, and drove Early out at Fish-
er's Hill, three days later.
Late in the afternoon of the 19th of October, after Sheridan
had reached the battle-field at Cedar Creek, and after his cele-
brated ride, made immortal by the poem of T. Buchanan Read, I
met him again under peculiar circumstances. We had some ad-
versities during the morning, and it had fallen very heavily upon
Hayes's division and the other division of Crook's Army of West
Virginia. Hayes's troops were broken up considerably. An
order was given to assume the offensive about three o'clock in the
afternoon, and to make a general attack all along the line. The
instruction to General Getty, who commanded the Second Di-
vision of the Sixth Corps, the left of which rested upon the val-
ley turnpike near Middletown, was to charge forward; and to me,
then commanding the Third Division of the same corps, to dress
to the left and protect General Getty's right in the charge.
General Wheaton, commanding the First Division, to the right
of the Third, was ordered to go forward, protecting my right.
220 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
In making the preparation for the attack that was soon to be
made, I rode to the left of my line to understand the position
fully. I found some troops that did not belong to the Sixth
Army Corps. On questioning them, I found they belonged to
Hayes's division. I looked about and found General Hayes was
a little distance back. There was no firing, except a little skir-
mish in advance, for before that General Early had ceased to be
aggressive, and had fallen back upon an amphitheater of hills, and
was hastily fortifying. Hayes was dismounted, resting with
some of his staff around him. I explained to him the orders,
and asked him whether he was going forward with the troops
that belonged to him. He put his hand up to his head, then
mounted his horse, and said: "I have no orders, but, if you are
ordered to go forward, I'll go too, without orders. If your orders
are to go forward, I will fill the gap with my men." This illus-
trated his character as a soldier.
The attack then made won the battle of Cedar Creek. He
never sought to shirk a duty or spare himself. He was a great
man in the great things that he had to do. He dealt with the
things that were before him. He was never dealing with imagi-
nary things. If he had work to do, he devoted himself to that.
In that way he crowned himself with greatness; and this was in
military matters and in civil matters, in official life, in private life.
And this is the highest encomium that we can pronounce upon an
American citizen. He was, like Americans, born to no greatness.
They have no expectancy in the line of blood as American volun-
teers, Amrican soldiers, American citizens. Everything we
call accident, if you please, luck, if you please- I don't care what
you call it - if it is in the hands of the masses, has to be won by
the successful man. He wins his accident, if he is worthy of it,
or his luck. Hayes lived in a great epoch in this country; in a
period of great things and great events, and he filled to the full
all of the opportunities that were brought to him. In the army
he was devoted to his work; brave, patriotic, capable of com-
manding an army, but proud to command a division or a brigade
and to become a success there. He never worried because he was
not at the head of the army. He would have been a patient
colonel all the time. These were the things that had much to do
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 221
with making up the elements of greatness in the man. There are
many things that we might say about President Hayes that ought
to be said by a person who takes the pains to take his history up
step by step. To generalize upon his life is to say to you only
the things you well know.
He succeeded after the war in his profession, became a mem-
ber of Congress and three times governor of Ohio; the President
of the United States, and in all these exalted positions, he was
singularly pure, true, and great. I served in the Congress of the
United States during the entire period of his Presidential term,
saw him frequently and under all circumstances- and it was not
always fair weather; but President Hayes was cheerful and on
duty all the time by day and by night faithfully, and making his
work count for the present and for the future. President Hayes
never had a scandal about the White House. Nobody ever
dreamed of his being anything but patriotic. Everything was
clean and pure about him. Men criticized him from one stand-
point, and some from another; yet as has been said before to-
night, he never turned aside from his duty as he saw it. He had
his standard of duty, and he lived up to it. And the result of
it was, that if he erred and had shortcomings, he had no apolo-
gies to offer; and criticism has never fazed his pure administra-
tion of the Presidency.
And when dead, he stood higher in the nation's estimation,
with all the tests that can be applied to him, he stood higher, than
at any other time.
Hayes was prepared all the time to die. He had a singular
cast of mind. Perhaps, since the death of his wife, whom he
adored and loved so much, he had some things that were peculiar
about him. It was said that when he went upon a journey, he
carried in his trunk fine large photographs of his wife. The first
thing he did when he went into his hotel room, where he was
going to stay overnight, was to take them out and stand them
around the looking-glass or upon the bureau, where they were in
sight during the time he was to remain there. He never talked
much about his bereavement. He hardly ever spoke of that,
especially to strangers; and I am told not to his friends; but I
am told that was his sorrow; and it is said that one of the things
222 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
he uttered last was, "I am going where Lucy is." A friend of
his and mine was present in the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago
when President Hayes reached there very shortly after the sud-
den death of his friend General Crook. He went with General
Hayes into the room where the body of the dead general lay.
President Hayes, without a tear stood for a few moments and
viewed the body and turned around and said: "Colonel, I never
envied General Crook before." What that all meant coming from
the uttermost depths of his soul you can probably imagine. He
was prepared to die. Notwithstanding his death summons came
so suddenly, I have no doubt there was with him no regret: al-
though we learn from a few things that he did say in his
fatal sickness, that he thought his life had been exceptionally
happy: yet he was ready and was willing to die.
We look upon Hayes as one of us. He was not young.
Seventy years of age. He had lived past the three score years
and ten. He had lived to that full, round period of life
when he could afford to die. He had done his work as a citizen.
Why could he not die, feeling that he had accomplished the work
set before him as an American citizen? He was a patriot and
statesman, and above all a pure American citizen.
You very frequently hear it said that he lives, though he is
in his grave. President Hayes was so fond of his military life
that I believe that he felt in a broad sense that he never would
die. On a former occasion I have referred to that incident at the
close of the life of a Revolutionary general as an illustration.
General Rufus Putman, distinguished in the Revolutionary War
-doing some very brilliant deeds, was a devoted friend of Wash-
ington and a great patriot. When the Revolution ended he came
West and settled near and finally at Marietta, Ohio. He devoted
his life to good works. He was a patron of the public schools
as fast as they could be established. He was a devout Christian,
building up the church; and he was one of the first in the then
wild West to advocate the establishment of Sabbath-schools. He
was above all a proud patriot soldier of the Revolutionary War.
When he was old, tottering and feeble, and no longer able to go,
as was his custom, to his church, a very sincere minister of the
Gospel called upon him at his house and asked whether he was
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 223
prepared to die. It is said that he tottered from his rocking-
chair with his cane in his hand, and straightened himself up and
said: "No! no! I shall never die! I shall live forever in the
great deeds that I have helped to perform in giving liberty to
America."
We see in this life, I believe, of our dead distinguished Com-
panion what warrants us in also saying: He will never die! He
will live forever in the great deeds he helped to perform in the
cause of humanity.
THE COMMANDER:
We would like to hear a word from our Companion Judge
Samuel F. Hunt of the Superior Court:
JUDGE HUNT:
COMMANDER AND COMPANIONS OF THE LOYAL LEGION: - Per-
haps no better word can be said of any man than that he has left
the priceless legacy of a good name.
Rutherford B. Hayes filled every position he held with singular
fidelity.
There are those here to-night who have spoken of his services
on the field of battle. He did not hesitate at the call of an im-
perilled country. He realized the very consciousness that that
country bore the name and the sign and the glory among the na-
tions of the earth. He saw that idea inscribed on the banners
of armies, and knew it to be stronger than its bayonets. He be-
lieved with Lincoln that the South would make war rather than
let the Nation live and that war should be accepted rather than
let the Nation die. He devoted himself to the cause with single-
ness of purpose. He had an undying affection for those who
bore the heat of battle. It was my fortune to stand with him as
we together delivered addresses at the dedication of the monu-
ment to the soldiers and sailors of Hancock County, and listen
to his story of the privations and hardships of those who died
for the cause.
It can be said of him, too, that he faithfully met every obli-
gation in civil life. As solicitor of this city, as Member of Con-
gress, as Governor of Ohio, and in the discharge of the high
224 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
duties of President of the United States, he responded to every
call of duty.
He assumed the Presidency under circumstances, perhaps the
most trying in the history of the Republic, and yet his Adminis-
tration was characterized in a spirit of glorious magnanimity for
all parts of our common country. There was neither pelf nor
self in his conduct of public affairs. The historian must say,
that there was neither scandal nor gossip in public places during
the four years he administered the affairs of government.
He thought that the cause of education had a right to the best
zeal and the warmest affection of every citizen, and thus devoted
his late years to this great work. He extended a helping hand
and thus exemplified the lasting truth that the individual is only
small while humanity is great and after all the title to immortality
is to associate one's name with some overwhelming truth or some
undying cause.
The name of Rutherford B. Hayes will stand as year shall
follow year, as the patriotic soldier and as the upright citizen.
THE COMMANDER:
We have with us to-night a Companion who was lieutenant-
colonel of the One-hundred-and-twenty-fifth Ohio Infantry, and
afterward, for a time, pastor of the church which General Hayes
attended while Governor of Ohio. I will call on Colonel D. H.
Moore.
COLONEL MOORE:
COMMANDER AND COMPANIONS:-I came just this near being
connected in military service with General Hayes: That in 1861,
when a pastor at Marietta, I was tendered the chaplaincy of the
Thirty-sixth Ohio. I did not feel that I was competent to be a
chaplain, and so declined. Otherwise, I might have participated
in that union of those two wonderful regiments, the Twenty-
third and the Thirty-sixth, when they mingled in each other's
blood in the battles of Virginia.
Subsequently, going into the service, I was near enough to
General Hayes, Colonel Hayes, or whatever his title might have
been at that time, to hear the roar of his guns at South Moun-
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 225
tain. After that, the fortunes of war carried me southward, and
I was in nearer touch to our distinguished Commander of this
evening, General Cox, than to our lamented Commander whose
memory we cherish in our hearts. After the war I was called as
a pastor to our church in Columbus, at the time General Hayes
was Governor of the State, in 1868. Whatever trials he had en-
dured up to that time, I am a competent witness that he endured
patiently the trials which I inflicted upon him week after week
as he sat in my congregation.
I am sure, Companions, that I learned the secret of that great
man's greatness during these two years I was permitted to sus-
tain that intimate relation with him and with his household. Not
a member of the church, not a communicant, yet he was never
out of his place in the sanctuary. In all his walk and conversa-
tion respecting and recommending the principles of our most
holy religion, he showed to me the secret of his power as a com-
mander, and of his character as a citizen. He believed in God.
The faith that he learned from his Vermont mother, and the
truth of the gospel that he took into his young heart as a boy in
Ohio, he carried with him everywhere; and like another great
American, there never was a period in his history that he would
not rather have been right than President.
To my thought, looking back over the life of this wonderful
man, whom we all lament, his greatest characteristics were those
that shone out when he was the object of so much contumely,
vituperation, malice, and slander. A man can endure all things
better than these. But these he endured as though they were not
majestically lifting himself above the storms that beat piteously
upon him, and showed how a man may suffer and be strong, and
be courageous and triumphant. Have you ever thought that
his death has been the means of bringing out some of the broader
and better elements of the American character? How those
voices that were rasping in criticism have softened into tenderness
and pity at his bier. And how from the South, as well as from
the North, from the lips of political opponents as well as from
political friends and supporters, has come sincere and earnest
this final verdict: "Lo! this was a true man. This was a great
man. This was a good man, the noblest work of God."
226 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
The following letters of regret and appreciation were received
by the recorder of the commandery:
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, February 1, 1893.
MY DEAR SIR: -I very much regret that it is not possible for
me to accept the invitation of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal
Legion to be present at the Memorial Meeting to be held for the
late Commander-in-Chief, General Rutherford B. Hayes. Gen-
eral Hayes was a splendid soldier and a loyal and affectionate
comrade. His career, both in the army and in civil life, was
great and useful. His example is most valuable and instructive.
I had an affectionate regard for him, and would have been glad
to give expression to it at your meeting, if circumstances had
allowed my presence. Very truly yours,
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER, BENJ. HARRISON.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1893.
MY DEAR SIR: -Your note of the 28th is received. Nothing
would give me greater pleasure than to join with you on next
Wednesday evening in an expression of praise and well-deserved
honor of Rutherford B. Hayes, but my duties here are of so
pressing and imperative a character that it is impossible for me
to leave. Very truly yours,
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER. JOHN SHERMAN.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR,
COLUMBUS, January 31, 1892.
DEAR SIR:-I very much regret that I will be unable to be
present at the memorial services of the Ohio Commandery upon
the death of our late Companion, General Rutherford B. Hayes.
Nothing but an imperative engagement here would prevent my
participation in that sad but interesting occasion.
I knew General Hayes well, and admired his great qualities
from the first day I met him, in 1861, at Camp Chase, up to the
day of his death. He was the first major of the regiment in
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 227
which I served, and in every rank he held he was the same sim-
ple, dignified gentleman and brave and kindly officer.
His old comrades of the Twenty-third Ohio have lost a dear
friend, one whom they loved so well. The State has lost one
of its most distinguished citizens and benefactors, and the country
one of the purest and most dignified Presidents we ever had.
Please convey to the Commandery my sincere regrets, and be-
lieve me, Sincerely yours,
WM. MCKINLEY, JR.
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER.
BELLEFONTAINE, OHIO, January 30, 1893.
DEAR CAPTAIN:-Your invitation to be present at the Ruther-
ford B. Hayes memorial meeting received. The dangerous ill-
ness of my wife prevented my attending the funeral, and her con-
tinued and perilous sickness will prevent my being present at the
memorial meeting on Wednesday evening next.
Permit me to add my tribute to the worth and character of
Rutherford B. Hayes. For more than thirty years I was well
and intimately acquainted with him, and in every walk of life
he was full of the spirit of loyalty, and courageous and manly in
the performance of every duty, public and private.
My acquaintance began at the very beginning of the war,
when as a young man I joined the Twenty-third Ohio as a second
lieutenant, and from that hour until his death, retained his
personal friendship, and, like all the young officers who served
under him, remember well his courtesy, his kindness, and the
words of encouragement which he was ever ready to bestow upon
the younger members of the regiment.
No soldier who ever went into the great war ever bore upon
his shoulder or sleeve an insignia of rank or station that was
more ennobled by the wearing of it than that which distinguished
the rank and character of Rutherford B. Hayes.
In the camp, the march, the bivouac, or the battle, he was at all
times, and under all circumstances the splendid soldier and the
Christian gentleman. Filled with an abounding loyalty and an
unending devotion to his country, he gave himself without re-
228 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
serve to the preservation of the Union and the liberties of the
people.
His whole army service can almost be summed up in the char-
acter of it by recalling the remark he made to me on the battle-
field of South Mountain, when, as the adjutant-general of bri-
gade, I went to carry him orders (luring the battle and conduct
his command to position on the field; turning to me, he said: "I
shall depend upon you for orders today; give them to me dis-
tinctly, and then depend upon me for executing them."
It was only necessary for him to know his duty to perform
it; and he performed it at all times with a forgetfulness of self
that was the highest measure of devoted patriotism.
So inseparably is interwoven in the memory of every old
Twenty-third Ohio boy the gentleness and tenderness of his lov-
ing and devoted wife, that it is almost impossible to think of him
without at the same time recalling her. She came to our camps,
and shared with us our tents and our discomforts, only to make
their hardships seem easier and their duties and dangers lighter.
I recall the very moment of her arrival, in the midst of the mud
of a West Virginia winter. At the instance of Colonel Hayes,
I went to the boat to meet her and escort her to camp, and I cau-
tioned her against the mud. "Oh," she exclaimed, "you must
know I came prepared for everything, and I am ready for it."
There was not a tent in the camp that was not more cheerful for
her coming; there was not a sick face which did not become
brighter in her presence. The memory of Lucy Webb Hayes is
as dear to the boys of the Twenty-third Ohio as are the visions
of their angel mothers who have gone before.
As one who knew, and had the opportunity of sharing the lov-
ing-kindness of the one and the gentle motherly love of the
other, I come, and with loving hands would place a tribute upon
the graves of Rutherford B. Hayes and his noble and devoted
wife.
The nearly thirty years of time which have passed since that
great conflict has only tended to soften its animosities, and at the
same time to unite as with bonds of steel the ties of friendship
which were formed amid the smoke of conflict and the thunders
of battle.
TRIBUTES OF OHIO COMPANIONS 229
The men who stood side by side at Mission Ridge, Antietam,
South Mountain, and Gettysburg, who marched with Sherman
and followed the banners of old Pap Thomas, are standing side by
side, as they stood more than a quarter of a century ago; and as
the call of the death angel comes to them one by one, the ranks
are closing, and elbows are touching to the right as they touched
on the fields of conflict, and [they] are answering with unfalter-
ing courage the last challenge, and responding to the last roll-
call "Here!" as they responded so many years ago.
The coming generations, inspired by their heroism and imbued
with their patriotism, will transmit "a government of the people,
by the people, and for the people," to all the ages.
Yours, very respectfully,
ROBT. P. KENNEDY.
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER,
RECORDER, LOYAL LEGION,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
MOUNT VERNON, OHIO, January 31, 1893.
DEAR CAPTAIN :-Severe indisposition will prevent me from
being present at the meeting of the Ohio Commandery of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, on to-
morrow evening, where Companions will naturally give expres-
sion to the grief caused by the decease of our late loved and
respected Companion, ex-President of the United States Ruther-
ford B. Hayes, and commemorate and do honor to the many
distinguished and valuable services rendered by him to our coun-
try. The career of General Hayes as a private citizen, as a
legislator, and as Chief Magistrate of his State and of the United
States. all bear evidence of the sincerity of his convictions, and
his manliness in acting in accordance with them, while his in-
tegrity as a soldier reflected additional lustre on our arms.
I am, with great respect, your Companion,
GEORGE W. MORGAN.
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER,
RECORDER,
Cincinnati.
230 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
ZANESVILLE, OHIO, January 28, 1893.
MY DEAR SIR AND COMPANION :-It pains me to find that I can
not attend the meeting of Ohio Commandery, February I, and
hear the comrades tell their recollections of our dead comman-
der-in-Chief, Rutherford B. Hayes; but duty requires me at
work in court in one of our neighboring counties on the morn-
ing of February 2.
Writing a friend who knew him and admired him for years, I
last week expressed my feelings thus:
"The very sudden death of President Hayes came as a heavy
shock to me. From my college days I have admired him and
held him to be thoroughly manly, pure, honorable, brave, and
capable. Noble and good and great men have sat in our Presi-
dential chair, but no one nobler or better, and few greater than
he. It seems to me that time will make more plain how faithful,
capable, and useful he was in all the relations of life."
I hope it will be possible for you to tell the Companions at
the meeting that one who is most unwillingly absent would so
speak of our great and good dead commander, if I could be with
you that night. Very truly yours,
MOSES M. GRANGER.
CAPTAIN ROBERT HUNTER,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
ACTION OF COMMANDERY-IN-CHIEF
CIRCULAR No. 2.
Series of 1893.
HEADQUARTERS, PHILADELPHIA, January 18, 1893.
I. The Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief in great sorrow an-
nounces the death on Tuesday, January 17, 1893, of Companion
Brevet Major-General RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, Commander-in-
Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States.
II. To the Companions of the Order, who venerated him in
military and civil life, it is unnecessary to recite his career. It is
the history of the Republic.
ACTION OF COMMANDERY-IN-CHIEF 231
III. Appropriate action will be taken by the Commanderies
of the Order, and as a mark of respect, the colors will be draped
for three months.
By command of
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN J. ALMY, U. S. N.,
Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief,
Commanding.
JOHN P. NICHOLSON,
Brevet Lieutenant-Golonel U. S. V.,
Recorder-in-Chief.
IN MEMORIAM
The committee to whom was referred the preparation of a
minute commemorative of Companion ex-President Rutherford
B. Hayes, deceased, late Commander-in-Chief of this Military
Order, submitted the following:
In commemoration of its deceased Commander-in-Chief the
Commandery-in-Chief recalls that in May, 1861, he wrote pri-
vately of himself "that this was a great and necessary war, and
that it demanded the best strength of the whole 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."
Upon being importuned to leave the field and canvass in his
own behalf a congressional district in which he had received a
nomination which was unsought and unwelcome, but if followed
up would probably result in his election, his reply was: "Your
suggestion was certainly made without reflection. An officer fit
for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer
for Congress, ought to be scalped. You may feel perfectly sure
I shall do no such thing." Being nevertheless elected, he did
not take his seat until the war was over. Grant's commendation
of his military service was that "his conduct on the field was
marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of higher
qualities than mere personal daring."
232 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
At a later period, when it was obviously possible that he would
be nominated for President of the United States, in reply to a
friend who begged leave of him to labor to that end, he wrote:
"I am not pushing directly or indirectly. It is not likely that I
shall. If the sky falls we shall 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 find them. I appreciate your
motives and your friendship. But it is not the thing for you and
me to enroll ourselves in the great army of office-seekers; let the
currents alone." In the same connection, he wrote in his diary:
"I feel less diffidence in thinking of this subject than perhaps I
ought. It seems to me that good purpose and the judgment, ex-
perience, 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."
In his letter of acceptance he announced: "Believing that the
restoration of the civil service to the system established by Wash-
ington, and followed by the early Presidents, can be best accom-
plished by an Executive who is under no temptation to use the
patronage of his office to secure his own reelection, 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."
In the contest following the election he wrote to the Hon. John
Sherman, his friend and representative in the Senate of the
United States: "You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole
business. A fair election would have given us about forty elec-
toral 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."
And the words in his inaugural, "He serves his party best who
serves his country best," were the keynote maintained throughout
his Administration. At its close, returning to his neighbors in
TRIBUTE OF COMMANDERY-IN-CHIEF 233
Fremont, he said: "The question is often heard, 'What is to be-
come 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 the progress of his family, his
town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will
have work enough to do, and that work of a sort which yields
more individual contentment and gratification than belong to the
more conspicuous employments of the life he has left behind."
This was so emphasized by his remaining years that his face in
its coffin wore a look of ineffable peace; and the prayer with
which he was committed to his grave was pervaded with thanks-
giving for his life.
This was the soldier, the President, the man, who reckoned
it becoming to himself to serve this Military Order, and who
served it faithfully and loved it well. The Order has been hon-
ored by that service, more even by his manhood than it has been
by the exalted station he associated with that service. His vir-
tues are its heritage, his affection for it is a lasting contribution
to its ties.
WAGER SWAYNE,
Brevet Major-General U.S.A.
LEWIS MERRILL,
Brevet Brigadier-General U.S.V.
ARNOLD A. RAND,
Colonel U.S.V.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA
WHEREAS, In the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mil-
itary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, this sacred
Companionship loses its most distinguished representative, the
234 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Nation loses a preeminent citizen who had honored and been
honored by the foremost elective administrative and executive
position on the face of the earth, and the world loses a great and
a good man; it is fitting that the Commandery of the State of
Pennsylvania should express its loving regard for his memory,
and its deliberate estimate of his high personal worth, and of his
important public services; therefore,
Resolved, That in Rutherford Birchard Hayes we see a typical
American citizen and a typical volunteer Union soldier of the
war for the preservation of the nation's existence. Born in the
common walk of our American life, he rose by his industry, his
intellectual ability, and his personal character, to a position of
honor in our national Congress, to the governorship of his native
State, and to the Presidency of the United States. Volunteering
for the defense of the national government in the hour of its
peril, he won honor and did good service by conduct that Gen-
eral Grant characterized as "marked by conspicuous gallantry as
well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere per-
sonal daring"; and this while he had none of the advantages of an
early military education. And when the war was over, and he
had served his term as President, he deemed it a privilege and
an honor to walk with the humblest private soldier in the ranks
of the Grand Army of the Republic along the main avenue of our
national capital, which his devoted patriotism had aided to save,
and which his simplicity and purity of personal worth had given
added grace to, when he passed from Capitol to White House as
the nation's President.
Resolved, That we honor the memory of him whom we mourn
because of his stainless personal record, and of his unflinching
fidelity to duty in every position which he was called to occupy;
because of his high courage on the field of physical battle, and
of his higher courage in the moral field of conflict, by putting
country above party in an honest effort to perfect by fraternal
feeling that peace between conflicting sections which had been
won by the sword; and we bear love for his memory because of
PENNSYLVANIA COMMANDERY 235
the warm heart that endeared him to every soldier or citizen who
knew him as he was.
LEWIS MERRILL,
Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. V.
JAMES M. FORSYTH,
Commander U. S. Navy.
SAMUEL BELL,
Brevet Lieut-Colonel U.S.V.
EDWIN N. BENSON,
WILLIAM MCCONWAY,
2d Lieutenant 102 Penna. Infantry.
H. CLAY TRUMBULL,
Chaplain 10th Conn. Infantry.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
The Board of Officers of the New York Commandery of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, shar-
ing in the sorrow of the whole Order on the announcement of
the sudden death of its Commander-in-Chief, Brevet Major-Gen-
eral Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, late President of the United
States, having assembled in special meeting, deem it proper at
this time to record their sense of his worth.
Entering the service of his country on the 7th day of June,
1861, as major of the Twenty-third Regiment of Ohio Volunteers,
General Hayes served with distinguished ability until the close
of the War of the Rebellion, rising to the rank of brigadier-
general, and receiving a well-merited brevet of major-general "for
gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in
West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and
Cedar Creek, Virginia."
The people of his own State three times testified their appre-
ciation of his worth as a citizen and his virtues as a man by elect-
ing him their governor, and the people of the whole United
236 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
States affirmed their judgment by electing him to the highest of-
fice in their gift. Never has his earnestness of purpose, rectitude
of intention, fidelty to duty, loyalty, courage, or patriotism been
questioned. His unstained record is the proudest inheritance he
could have left to his children. As his companions in arms and
in our Order, we share in their pride in his life, and more than
others realize the loss they and the country have suffered by his
death.
Resolved, That we offer to the family of our deceased Com-
panion the tender sympathy of this Commandery in their sorrow.
Resolved, That this minute be spread upon the records of this
Board, and that the Recorder transmit an official copy thereof
to the family of General Hayes.
WAGER SWAYNE,
Brevet Major-General U.S.A.
Commander.
CHARLES N. SWIFT,
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel U.S. Vols.
Recorder.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MAINE
The Commandery of the State of Maine, Military Order of
the Loyal Legion of the United States, in all honor and affection
adds its leaf of memory to the many tributes which his attached
companions and grateful countrymen have placed upon the grave
of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Brevet Major-General and Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Order, who died January 17, 1893.
His record as a soldier is honorable and without stain. He
responded promptly to the call of his country, served her faith-
fully and well, and sheathed his sword only when the war
was ended, although months before he could have exchanged,
without the slightest impeachment of his honor, the military serv-
ice for the post of civic usefulness to which he had been elected.
The record of his civic services is long and illustrious ..
NEW YORK AND MAINE COMMANDERIES 237
The recital of his illustrious services is eloquent eulogy: sol-
dier, statesman, patriot, companion, and citizen, in every capacity
he was faithful and loyal, and merited well of his countrymen,
not only for duty rightly done in their behalf, but for the noble
example of American manhood he gave to the world. Under the
guidance of principle and patriotic devotion, he steadfastly trod
the path of duty with firm and assured step, without halting or
swerving; and therefore history will hold for him the growing
fame which attends the memory of the true and just.
The Loyal Legion reciprocates with full hearts the great love
and honor in which he held the Order, and will bear in grateful
remembrance the distinguished services which he took pride in
rendering it.
The closing words of his address at the celebration of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Order give the
keynote of his character as a statesman and patriot, and deserve
to be remembered by his countrymen and companions as the ut-
terance of one whose deeds illustrate his precepts:-
"Let the American people - and especially let all who stood by
Lincoln on the perilous edge of battle in support of the rights of
human nature--remain steadfastly true to the ideas and the
thoughts for which they fought in the great war, and we shall
then do all that in us lies to link the destiny of our country to
the stars and to entitle her institutions to share in that immor-
tality which, under the allotment of Providence in the affairs of
nations, belongs only to eternal justice in the dealings of man
with his fellow man."
SELDEN CONNOR,
Brigadier-General U.S.V.
WM. B. LAMPHAM,
Brevet Major U. S. V.
SAMUEL W. LANE,
Captain U.S.V.
Committee.
238 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS
The Board of Officers sorrowfully announces to the Com-
mandery the death, on January 17, 1893, at his home in Fremont,
Ohio, of General Rutherford B. Hayes, Commander-in-Chief of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States,
and presents tender tribute to his memory.
The whole Order mourns his loss, and its draped banners tell
not only of official grief, but testify the tenderness and affection
of many a heart.
The death of General Hayes brings vividly before us the de-
voted service, the virtues and many excellent traits of his char-
acter-his sturdy early life, his successful practice at the bar,
his foresight of and preparation for the conflict which he felt to
be inevitable, his early entry into service as major of the Twenty-
third Ohio Volunteers, his faithful performance of every duty,
until with well-merited promotion, he was appointed to the rank of
brigadier-general, with brevet of major-general of volunteers,
for "gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of
1864 in West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's
Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia."
His fame with us, as a military organization, will not alone
rest upon his military record, and while his memory will be
honored as that of a gallant soldier, he will be remembered by all
who had personal or official intercourse with him for his unselfish
devotion to duty, his sweetness of temper and purity of life, his
tenderness of heart, and his philanthropic instincts.
As President of the United States he knew full well the dan-
gers of politics and the difficulties of statesmanship, and with
record unstained by the contaminations of the one, and dig-
nified by the successes of an Administration which brought to
the country a new era of peace and good will, he served the na-
tion without fear, and returned to private life without reproach.
Impartial history will write his name high upon the temple of
fame as one who served his country faithfully in a great crisis
-to whom the fates decreed self-denying duty -who served his
God and loved his fellow men.
MASSACHUSETTS AND CALIFORNIA 239
To the Loyal Legion General Hayes has been a most devoted
officer, and this Commandery might well repeat in tribute to his
memory the touching words and tender phrases which he pro-
nounced before it in praise of another- mourning his loss as
one who has led us faithfully, guiding to higher, more lofty pa-
triotism - earnest in all labor, wise in all council, pure in mo-
tive and in life, an ideal commander, a typical American.
THOMAS SHERWIN,
Brevet Brigadier-General U S. .
ARNOLD A. RAND,
Colonel U.S.V.
Recorder.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Brevet Major-General of Volun-
teers, ex-President of the United States, and Commander-in-
Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States, died at his home in Fremont, Ohio, on Tuesday, January
17, 1893.
His record is a part of the history of our country; in what-
ever position he was placed he did his full duty; he was a gallant
soldier, a statesman who considered only the interest of his coun-
try, a man of the purest character, upon whose name no blemish
rests.
He always took the most active interest in the Loyal Legion,
and never missed a meeting of his Commandery or of the Com-
mandery-in-Chief.
The country and our Order cannot well spare such a noble
character.
We extend to the Commandery of Ohio our sympathy in the
loss of a well-beloved Companion, and with a heart full of sorrow
we give our sincere condolence to the bereaved family of our de-
ceased Companion.
W. R. SMEDBERG,
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel U.S.A.,
Recorder.
240 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN
General R. B. Hayes, the Commander-in-Chief of the Loyal
Legion of the United States, is dead. It is therefore eminently
fitting that this Commandery should briefly express its apprecia-
tion of the life and character of the distinguished soldier and citi-
zen who reflected honor upon our Order by his official relation to
us.
In many respects General Hayes is worthy of the highest ad-
miration and praise. As a lawyer he was not astute to make the
worse appear the better reason; as a statesman he was not elo-
quent to command the applause of listening senates; as a soldier
he was not a military genius to plan and win great campaigns and
bring the world to his feet; but, as both citizen and soldier, no
man has excelled him in the faithful and intelligent discharge of
his duty to his country, to his fellow men, and to his Creator.
Before the war General Hayes was a close and careful legal
practitioner. When Sumter was fired upon he did not hesitate a
moment, but laid aside his briefs and his books and immediately
volunteered. During the war he rose from captain to major-
general on his merits alone. After the war, in places of the
highest public trust, he discharged the functions of office so faith-
fully that even his enemies said "well done." His entire life
showed him to be a truly great man, in that he had great fixed
principles around which his whole life revolved.
He had a loyalty to his country, a fixedness of purpose, a
broadness of view, and a simplicity of life which lifted him above
ordinary men. When commanding his troops in the field it was
suggested to him that he better get a furlough and go home to
promote his political prospects. He promptly replied that any
man who would leave the field under such circumstances for such
a purpose ought to be scalped. When selected for the Presidency
of this great nation, with a lofty patriotism and a wise and ex-
alted statesmanship, he declared that he would not be a candidate
for reelection, and conscientiously kept his word. When as
President he was urged by party leaders to take a course which
would result in injury to our currency and our credit, he clearly
WISCONSIN COMMANDERY'S TRIBUTE 241
foresaw the consequent evils and courteously but firmly insisted
that the Government should keep its money sound and its plighted
faith unsullied.
After filling the highest official place, he retired to his quiet
country home to actively devote his ability and experience to the
public good wherever the way opened before him, whether it was
in mending public highways, or on national boards of charities
and reform, or in the administration of immense benevolences.
General Hayes as a professional man was high-minded and
honorable. As a soldier he was brave and thoroughly devoted to
his country's service. As a public official no man, however dis-
tinguished, ever left a cleaner record behind him. As a citizen
no one has been more public-spirited or a better example to this
place-seeking, gold-hunting age. As a Christian gentleman, as a
model husband of a model wife, and as a faithful father, no
words of commendation can be overdrawn. When such a life
has gone out from among us, we honor ourselves in honoring the
man who lived it.
JOSEPH V. QUARLES,
CHARLES H. Ross,
GEORGE F. SUTHERLAND,
CHARLES H. ANSON,
FREDERICK C. WINKLER,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
On the evening of January 17, 1893, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States,
Brevet Major-General Rutherford B. Hayes, at his home in Fre-
mont, Ohio, passed from the life which now is to that which
awaits us all beyond the grave. As Companions of that Order,
and a part of the survivors of those who fought to maintain the
integrity of the Union and the authority of its Government during
the great civil war, we desire to express our deep sorrow at the
loss of our honored and beloved commander, and our apprecia-
16
242 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
tion of his personal bravery as a soldier, and his eminent skill
and dauntless courage as a commander of men on fields of battle,
where it was only by the exercise of such qualities that victories
were won which saved our common country from destruction.
He fully possessed all those elements of character, which, if they
did not excite wild enthusiasm, certainly did attract and retain
the esteem and absolute confidence of those placed under his
command. They knew that he not only shared with them all the
hardships and dangers of a soldier's life, but that he was as ready
as any of them to die, if need be, that the government of a free
and united people might live. . . . Though often wounded,
as soon as strength was regained he returned to the fields of
strife, and only retired when the last armed foe had surrendered
to the reestablished authority of the lawful government. He
fought a good fight and was literally "without fear and without
reproach."
It is not inappropriate to refer to the distinguished services of
our late Commander in the civil branch of the Government . ..
He was called to the discharge of the highest executive duties
by his State and the Nation during the formative and reconstruc-
tive period after the war, when the passions of men were greatly
stirred and momentous issues divided the allegiance of his own
party and excited the bitterest hostility of its opponents. It is
doubtful if the country yet appreciates what it owes to the fact
that its executive authority was then in the hands of a man who
thoroughly believed that public office is a trust for the whole
people, who was without ambition of reelection, of great cool-
ness of temper, of high moral convictions, and of dauntless cour-
age in the assertion and maintenance of them; all resting upon a
private life so pure and free from blemish that hostile criticism
found no place for lodgment.
We cannot express our estimate of the life and character of
our late Commander in more just terms than in the language of
another Companion, now the President, who has just proclaimed
to the people of the United States: "He was a patriotic citizen,
a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious
and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a
ILLINOIS COMMANDERY'S MINUTE 243
loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and faithful neighbor,
and the honored head of a happy Christian home."
JOSEPH B. LEAKE,
JOHN MASON LOOMIS,
ARTHUR C. DUCAT,
ISRAEL N. STILES,
JOHN E. SMITH,
WALTER Q. GRESHAM,
GEORGE L. PADDOCK,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Tlie committee appointed to formulate resolutions expressive
of our feelings upon the death of our Commander-in-Chief, re-
spectfully report the following:
Resolved, That we formally express a profound sense of our
bereavement in having lost by death our eminent Commander-
in-Chief; a soldier, brave on the field of battle and true in the
performance of his duty; a citizen of proved and unblemished
integrity; a Companion and comrade, wise as a counsellor; and
a man, faithful as a friend.
Resolved, That by his death we but the more fully appreciate
the many excellences of his character, his varied attainments,
the soundness of his judgment, the evidence of his philanthropy,
the purity of his motives, and the distinguished ability and suc-
cess with which he filled many important offices -including that
of President of the United States, the highest in the gift of the
American people.
Resolved, That official copies of these resolutions be trans-
mitted by the Recorder to the family of the deceased and to the
headquarters of the Order.
THOMAS WILSON,
HENRY E. ALVORD,
JOSEPH S. FULLERTON,
Committee.
244 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF OHIO
The splendid leaders, who something more than a quarter
of a century ago won for themselves fame and distinction upon
the battle-fields of their country, and for their nation an imper-
ishable heritage of renown, are fast passing away.
The soldiers of the Union, under whose banners the greatest
armies of the world's history went from conflict to conflict, and
from conquest to conquest, and before whose triumphant legions
the hosts of rebellion and disunion fell as the grain falls before
the reaper, are being summoned, one by one, by the Omnipotent
Commander-in-Chief to join the victorious battalions of their
faithful comrades, who have passed the final reviewing-stand,
and over the great river into the peaceful camps beyond.
What shall we say of this splendid soldier who has just been
"mustered out" of earthly service?
What a splendid life-work he has left as an heritage for those
who are to come after! How full of good deeds are the years
which were allotted him on earth!
His works and charities enrich and ennoble his memory, and he
has left behind him a wealth of good deeds more priceless than
worldly riches.
Rutherford B. Hayes was one of nature's noblemen. Unas-
suming, he yet possessed the courage of strong convictions, and
was ever ready to defend his opinions and judgment to the last.
That he was a courageous soldier, not one of those who knew
him will for a moment doubt.
With an earnest reliance upon a Divine Power he was free
from hypocrisy and pretension.
He went to the battle-field like one of the knights of old, ap-
parently without fear, and with an esprit that inspired his com-
rades with his own courage, and won the admiration of every
soldier who saw or knew him.
While he seemed to be reckless in the exposure of his own per-
son and forgetful of his own safety, he had the most solicitous
care for the soldiers whose lives were entrusted to his keeping,
OHIO COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 245
and he guarded with the greatest devotion those who were subject
to his command.
Every battle-field which saw his presence witnessed his devo-
tion. Every contest testified to his intrepid valor, whether lead-
ing the splendid regiment with which his name is and will be
forever associated, or in wider fields, gathering the renown which
his patriotism, courage, and ability won from the willing hearts
of his countrymen.
That he was an enthusiast in behalf of the country and the flag
he so dearly loved, and a patriot filled with the spirit of loyalty
and devotion, no one who remembers his early history in the war
can question.
Leaving his home at the first call to arms, he refused the most
seductive and tempting offers to return to private life, and re-
mained to see the gigantic rebellion crushed, and the flag of his
country everywhere honored and respected.
True in his friendships and lasting in his devotion to his old
comrades, he never forgot a friend, nor failed to remem-
ber the sacrifices they had made. And those who had served with
or under him always found him the same generous, manly, and
kind-hearted companion.
His devotion to his old companions in arms was earnest and
sincere.
He stood by the dead form of his old commander, Major-
General George Crook, and gave testimony, in tears, to his ten-
derness of heart, and bowed his head in loving admiration of
the soldier who had filled all hearts with his gentleness, and the
country with his fame and glory.
He followed with uncovered head and reverent love the sol-
dier's bier, no matter whether it contained the great leader or
the private soldier; to him they were alike- companions in arms.
The political preferments which came to him at the hands of
his countrymen did not spoil him nor destroy his usefulness and
sincerity; but from every position to which he was elevated by the
suffrages of the people, he came with a self-consciousness of
having performed his duty ably, honestly, and faithfully; and
after generations will do him the justice to recognize him as one
246 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
of the wisest and best of the nation's great leaders in the most
trying hours of national reorganization.
His judgment was just, and his aims pure; and he put his hand
to every undertaking with the firm resolve to perform his part
with an unshaken confidence in the final triumph of honesty and
truth.
In private life he was no less distinguished than he was while
occupying positions of great public confidence and trust, and his
endless charities and self-sacrificing devotion to the welfare of
the more unfortunate of his fellow men, are but further proofs
of the greatness of his heart and the finer instincts of his nature.
In his home life he was the kind-hearted and indulgent father,
and the most devoted of husbands.
There is not in all the land a more beautiful domestic story
than that which tells of the love and tenderness of Rutherford
B. Hayes and his noble and devoted wife.
The most touching incident connected with his death was that
moment when, informed by his physician that his life was fast
going out, he said, with an evident sense of relief in being freed
from life and care, and with an abundant hope and faith in the
hereafter, "I know that I shall soon be where Lucy is," and then
his spirit winged its eternal flight and joined the loved ones on
the other shore.
The country has lost one of its great statesmen and one of its
most faithful defenders.
His old army comrades have lost a brave commander, an
honorable associate, and a wise counsellor.
The Loyal Legion one of its most devoted and beloved Com-
panions.
And as citizens we have, each and all, lost a devoted com-
rade, a true and faithful friend.
That which remains for us to cherish is the memory of this
clean-handed, mild-mannered, clear-minded, noble-hearted pa-
triot, statesman, and philanthropist -
"A combination and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man."
MICHIGAN COMMANDERY'S MINUTE 247
"Rich in saving common sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity, sublime."
WILLIAM MCKINLEY, JR.,
ROBERT P. KENNEDY,
MOSES M. GRANGER,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
The Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal
Legion records its deep sense of loss in the death of the dis-
tinguished Commander-in-Chief of the Order, General R. B.
Hayes. It is a loss great in itself and saddening in the force
with which it brings home to our minds the rapid departure of
the men foremost in the late war and foremost in our member-
ship. Each Commander-in-Chief of the Loyal Legion has served
until removed by death.
General Hayes's life was distinguished for service. He gave
devoted service to his family, to his country, to his fellow men, to
his God. His patriotism, ability, conscientiousness, and high
standard of honor made his service not only of great value in its
time, but exalts it as an example to be emulated and a memory to
be cherished.
His career need not be recounted here. It is known to the
whole country and adds to the glowing illustrations of American
manhood and American possibilities.
General Hayes's motto seems to have been "I serve," and in
the difficult part of ex-President of this country it led him to
seek paths of usefulness to humanity rather than a life of idle
dignity.
The Loyal Legion will not only recall with pride General
Hayes's chief place in its membership, but it will delight in his
many gracious words to and of the Order. The best enunciation
of the purpose and character of the Loyal Legion is to be found
248 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
in his speeches, and they can always be drawn upon for all-suf-
ficient reasons for the existence of the Order.
W. H. WITHINGTON,
R. A. ALGER,
I. C. SMITH,
O. M. POE,
F. W. SWIFT,
SAMUEL E. PITMAN,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
The death of General Rutherford B. Hayes, Commander-in-
Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States and nineteenth President of the United States, has filled all
our hearts with sadness, and led all members of our Order to
bow their heads in grief and tears.
He was born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822, and died
at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.
His life has been one of sincere devotion to the welfare of
his fellow men, and of earnest work in the broadest fields of
usefulness, with the greatest self-abnegation and as high achieve-
ments as it has been permitted any man to attain, with the ex-
ception, possibly, of the first President of the Republic.
In his efforts to promote the welfare of his fellow men, he
sought and performed the hardest service, where his personal
peril was the greatest, and exposure and hardships were un-
avoidable. No public honors, none of the allurements of political
life, no services that might be rendered the State in secure retreats
in time of war, had any such influence as tended in the least to
draw him from that higher and more perilous service required by
his country, to resist and overthrow armies organized for her de-
struction. He was carried by the instincts and impulses of his
nature away from all civic honors into the military service and
to the field of battle at the first dawn of war. He graced and
adorned every position and every rank held by him, from major,
MINNESOTA COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 249
in 1861, to that of major-general in 1864, and rendered most
gallant, conspicuous, and valuable services on many fields of
battle. In leading a charge with his regiment and carrying the
enemy's position and holding the same although severely wounded
at South Mountain in 1862; in moving a portion of his com-
mand in a manner to check the raid of the Rebel General
Morgan in Ohio in 1863, and forcing the surrender of a por-
tion of that force; in successfully storming the position of
the enemy at Cloyd's Mountain in 1864, at the head of a small
force; in conducting the retreat of the defeated assaulting
column at Winchester in July, 1864, without disaster; in leading
the assault across what was considered an impassable morass
upon a Rebel battery, with a small detachment of forty men, and
capturing the same at the second battle of Winchester; in his
successful pursuit and capture of men and material of General
Early's command at Fisher's Hill in September, 1864; and in out-
manoeuvring and defeating the enemy in his front at Cedar
Creek in October, 1864, he not only demonstrated his deep de-
votion to his country in her hour of peril, and his readiness to
sacrifice his own life for the happiness and welfare of others, but
also demonstrated the possession of the highest soldierly instincts
and qualities, and an unflinching determination to preserve and
perpetuate the constitutional government established for us by
our fathers.
Immediately upon the defeat of the Rebel armies and the res-
toration of the authority of the Government, he flew from the
field to the forum and took an active and prominent part in the
adjustment of all those intricate and difficult public questions
evolved by and growing out of the war; in demanding the res-
toration of the rebellious States by their old territorial lines
and organizations to the Union; in standing everywhere and
always for the sacred character of the public debt contracted
in the conduct of the war, and insisting that it must be paid in
money that is legal tender in all nations; in demanding that
discharged Federal soldiers in the seceded States, without regard
to color, must have at least all the rights, legal and civil, that had
been conferred by the proclamation of President Johnson upon
the paroled soldiers of the Rebel armies; in working out the re-
250 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
sumption of specie payment at the earliest time practicable after
the close of the war; in efforts, marked and able, to secure a free
ballot and fair count at all elections, and an improved and honest
civil service; in recommendations and measures to establish the
national credit upon foundations immutable and everlasting;
in taking the first steps and adopting the first policies, even to
tendering a cabinet position to prominent officers of the Rebel
armies and appointing one to that position, to restore fraternal
feeling between the loyal and disloyal States and their respec-
tive inhabitants, and thereby laboring to secure the quiet and pro-
tection of the negro race in the South, and securing to that weak
and defenceless race during his Administration a quiet and pro-
tection not before enjoyed, after the war; and in the general
administration of the office of President, with a purity and
patriotism unexcelled, he exhibited the highest qualities of states-
manship and showed himself to be more a tribune of the people
than the vigorous, dashing leader of any party.
Considering his services and achievements, military and civil,
and his labors since the close of his official career to ameliorate
the condition of the criminal and unfortunate classes throughout
the land, we must conclude that he stands second to no statesman
or philanthropist of any age; and in the sombre and subdued light
that surrounds his tomb we discern, more clearly than in the noon-
tide splendor of his life, those high moral traits and aims which
prompted all his acts, and the zeal and ability devoted to their
development and establishment, that vastly surpass those of com-
mon men, as well as those of most of the leaders of his time, and
in comparison with which the glory of party leaders simply,
however bright, pales and fades away; and the election of such
a man by the common acclaim of his countrymen to the seat that
had been filled by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jack-
son, Lincoln, and Grant, demonstrates as well their clear discern-
ment of his real merit and character as the patriotism and high
qualifications of this illustrious soldier and citizen for the exalted
position.
Resolved, That in the death of our Commander-in-Chief the
Order has lost one of its most illustrious members, distinguished
for his military services not less than for his high civic career;
OREGON COMMANDERY'S MINUTE 251
the Nation one of its purest statesmen; the world a devoted
philanthropist and one of its wisest men.
Resolved, That this Commandery tender the sympathy and con-
dolence of all our members to all other Commanderies of our
Order in this common bereavement, and that each member will
wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.
Resolved, That this Commandery tender to the relatives and
friends of the deceased our deepest sympathies in their affliction.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to
each member of the family of the deceased, and to each Com-
mandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States.
ALEX RAMSEY,
JOHN B. SANBORN,
J. W. BISHOP,
EDWIN C. MASON,
C. B. HEFFELFINGER,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF OREGON
Whereas, The life, character and public services of Ruther-
ford B. Hayes typify the highest ideal of American manhood,
Christian living, and exalted statesmanship, illustrating the senti-
ment that to be great and good is to have the homage and admi-
ration of the American people, and dying, leave a name as well
as fame worthy the emulation of those who come after; and
Whereas, After he had adorned the highest position in the
power of the American people to give, and stood in first place in
the hearts of his countrymen, he honored the Military Order of
the Loyal Legion of the United States, in which he with us was
a Companion, by accepting and acting as Commander-in-Chief of
that organization; thus adding the lustre of his good name promi-
nently to the illustrious record of names whose military service
in the time of the nation's greatest peril not only entitles them
to membership with the association, but also to the gratitude
and esteem of every loyal citizen; therefore be it
252 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Resolved, By the Commandery of the State of Oregon, that in
the death of Rutherford B. Hayes, Commander-in-Chief of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the
country to which he belonged has lost one of its purest, best, and
most illustrious citizens, good citizenship one of its most exem-
plary members, and this organization a Companion in whom
every Companion felt a just pride, and to whose life, character,
and services we point as an example for the emulation of the
youth of our land, conscious that the name Rutherford B. Hayes
will stand enshrined in the hearts of our people and in the his-
tory of our times as one of the noblest products of free
American institutions.
JOHN W. FRENCH,
JOHN H. WOODWARD,
STEPHEN R. HARRINGTON,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI
The members of the Loyal Legion of the Commandery of
Missouri, in common with their brethren throughout the United
States, have heard with profound sorrow of the death of their
Commander-in-Chief, General and ex-President Rutherford
Birchard Hayes.
Distinguished alike in his military and civil career, he has left
to his country, to his comrades, and to posterity a character which
all men will delight to honor, and the influence of which will
deepen and broaden as time rolls on. His contemporaries and es-
pecially his companions in arms can feel a just pride in knowing
that the history of our country, already luminous with great lives,
will gain additional lustre in bearing upon its pages the record of
a citizen whose ambitions and achievements were always con-
spicuously blended with public and private virtue.
Men upon whom devolve the responsibility of legislation and
the administration of public affairs will take courage in the as-
surance here presented, that the American people love and
venerate a statesmanship which pursues the ways of wisdom and
MISSOURI COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 253
patriotism undismayed by madding strife and untempted by sel-
fish greed. Women from whose maternal purity posterity must
draw all that is beneficent and uplifting in the civilization of the
future, will gather inspiration from the reverence which a great
people has paid to the sweetness of life and the noble dignity
that characterized the wife of our departed friend.
No braver soldier than Rutherford B. Hayes ever drew sword
in a just cause, and none ever sheathed it more gladly in the hour
of triumph. While the fight was on, he was the incarnated
energy of war, always in the front of battle, unwearied and un-
dismayed. When it was over, he was foremost to assuage the
bitterness of defeat, and to rekindle the fires of fraternal love for
a reunited country.
It was a fitting complement to his services as a soldier that
the great State of Ohio, rich in illustrious sons, thrice elected
him to the highest office within her gift. His administration of
public affairs as governor of his State needs no encomium other
than the recital of these exceptional and distinguished honors.
Succeeding in 1877 to the august office of President of the United
States, after a political conflict of unparalleled fierceness and one
that was fraught with great public peril, he assumed the duties
of Chief Executive under circumstances that were well calcu-
lated to daunt a spirit less serene and self-poised. His services
as President are a part of the history of our country. The
period of his Administration was one of grave political and eco-
nomical problems in the solution of which there was but little
guidance from the lamp of past experience. Whatever opinions
may be held as to the political tenets of President Hayes, or as to
his wisdom in solving the complex questions of that day, the
American people with undivided voice will bear grateful testi-
mony to his purity of life, his integrity of purpose, magnanimity
of conduct, and his patriotic zeal in the creation of a new era of
national brotherhood, in which the bitterness of the past would
be swallowed up, and upon which the new citizenship that was
born of the war would be all-embracing and ever-abiding.
Retiring to the walks of private life, his subsequent years were
characterized by a dignity of bearing, a genial suavity, and a
gentleness of temper that made him a favorite in every circle,
254 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and nowhere more welcome than to the society of his well-beloved
comrades of the war.
The Loyal Legion of the United States paid him the highest
honor of their Order by a unanimous election as Commander-
in-Chief to succeed the lamented Sheridan. His presence, which
has so often graced its gatherings, will be seen no more.
His fervid eloquence, which has so often rekindled the old
fires, is forever hushed. But his intelligence, so broad, so wise,
so strong, and so pure, will remain a living influence to the youth
of our land, instructive and inspiring.
Be it Resolved, That this memorial be placed upon the records
of the Commandery, and that a duly authenticated copy of the
same be transmitted to the family of the deceased with the tender
sympathies of the Companions of the Order.
NELSON COLE,
Junior Vice-Commander-in-Chief,
JAMES F. How,
of the Army of the Tennessee.
S. H. FORDYCE,
of the Army of the Cumberland.
FRANK R. RICE,
of the Army of the Potomac.
M. S. STUYVESANT,
of the U. S. Navy.
W. H. POWELL,
of the Army of West Virginia.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF NEBRASKA
The Commandery of Nebraska, of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion, has official information of the recent death of its
distinguished and beloved Commander-in-Chief, General Ruth-
erford Birchard Hayes; therefore,
Resolved, That we unite with the sorrowing Companions of
the entire Order in expressing a grief that is poignant and
without consolation.
NEBRASKA COMMANDERY'S MINUTE 255
We do not offer worship at the shrine of greatness, measured
by the world's judgment; but we come with lamentations over
the loss to our Companionship of a valiant soldier, a pure citizen,
and a shining type of American manhood.
A Christian without a creed, a philanthropist without preten-
sion, benevolent without ostentation, and of conspicuous charity
to all, his nobility of character was emphasized in valorous deeds
of war, in magnanimous deeds of peace, and in that exalted
heroism which "suffers and is silent."
Loving and cherishing the memory of his estimable private
virtues and his eminent public worth, we bow in reverent and
sorrowing submission to this dispensation of the Great Ruler of
all destinies - the God of our faith.
To the family, mourning for him whom they loved, and in
whom they trusted without measure, we tender in their great be-
reavement our deep sympathy and earnest condolence.
Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the minutes
of the Commandery, and that an engrossed copy be sent to the
family of the deceased.
JOSEPH W. PADDOCK,
MICHAEL V. SIIERIDAN,
THADDEUS S. CLARKSON,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
'COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF KANSAS
Companions in an Order founded upon the rock of country-
love, and embodying that exalted patriotism which cherishes the
motto that "it is sweet to die for one's country," we have been
summoned to consider a central and eternal fact, that God rules
in the affairs of man. Our ranks and battalions are broken, and
melt away as He chooses to recruit from the earth to multiply
and marshal the hosts of eternity. The fleeting existence of man
here is lost in the immovable will of God; and the deeds of time
must stand ready to yield to the decrees of Omnipotence, which
often come through thick darkness in the hands of an unseen
256 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
messenger. When least expected the gates of futurity are swung
back to let in some one most cherished by his associates, most
needed by his kind.
Our Companion, our countryman, our trusted friend and Com-
mander-in-Chief, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, was thus sum-
moned, and before we could feel the coming event he passed
through, and the gates were closed behind him.
In common with the Companions of the Loyal Legion in our
whole country, we now come together clothed in the sanctity of a
great grief, to coin, as best we may in words, a tribute of respect
and affection to the memory of our late Companion and Com-
mander. We recognize that the name of Rutherford Birchard
Hayes requires no expression of homage, no marble to mark his
couch of lasting earthly sleep, to perpetuate its memory. For al-
most a third of a century, from April 15, 1861, when he put on
the royal robes of American citizenship, the uniform of a volun-
teer soldier, to January 17, 1893, the day of his death, his
name was woven into the grand fabric of our nation's his-
tory, a continuous thread of gold, not more brilliant as a general
in war than attractive as the Governor of his State and the Presi-
dent of his country in peace; and in neither of these does it shine
more brightly than in his daily walk as a pure, upright man. In-
deed, it may be truthfully said that his fearless gallantry and
intrepid coolness in commanding an army upon the field of battle,
or his equally unselfish and dispassionate administration of the
affairs of his State and Nation as Governor and President, were
not more grand in themselves, more valuable for the honor of his
country and the emulation of his kind, than the even tenor of his
simple, pure, and faithful private life, which was a sublime illus-
tration of possibilities and accomplishments in a government
where the citizen is the sovereign, and the subject the ruler of
his country.
Could the life and character of Rutherford Birchard Hayes as
a private citizen be made the accepted model of men in our
cherished country, then would the problem of representative re-
publican government be solved, and the American Union be per-
petuated as long as the loom of time continues to weave months
and years into centuries.
KANSAS COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 257
The simple, unostentatious elements of a true manhood were
the source and the substance of his towering grandeur as a soldier
and statesman. He never sought to pluck fruit from the tree
of political cunning, nor to disguise his acts in the specious robes
of deceit. He always moved direct and fearlessly along the path
of a well matured judgment and deeply inwrought conviction.
Hence he was not popular when the incumbent of civil trusts, but
gathered public confidence and favor as soon as he left them to
the test of time and the unprejudiced judgment of men; and it is
safe to predict that the student of coming generations will turn
back the pages of history in vain for a page more brightly illum-
inated than the one whereon the public administration of Ruther-
ford Birchard Hayes will be recorded.
Those who knew him best will never recall one expression of
uncharity, one declaration of envy or passion. He stood at all
times the defender of the assailed, turning a deaf ear to the un-
generous criticism of men, as if believing everything false which
ought not to be true. This was particularly true of him in his
feelings toward those who had borne arms for their country with
him. As an illustration of this characteristic, and as a lesson for
the careful study of us all, it may be well to recall an incident re-
lated by him in an informal talk made to his own commandery
some four years ago, and only made public since his death.
General Sheridan, in his history of the world-renowned Shen-
andoah campaign, relates that when riding through our shattered
forces to gather them up and assume command, there arose out
of a hollow before him a line consisting entirely of officers of
Crook's army and of color-bearers. The army had been stam-
peded in the morning, but this singular group was not panic-
stricken. In Sheridan's own words: "These officers seemed to
rise up from the ground, one of whom was Colonel R. B. Hayes,
since President of the United States." The reader is left to un-
derstand that there were no privates, no army, nothing but of-
ficers and color-bearers.
In correcting this error of history General Hayes said: "The
fact is that in the hollow, just in the rear, was a line of men, a
thousand or twelve hundred probably, and they had thrown up a
little barricade and were lying behind it. He came up and saw
17
258 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
these officers and did not see the men, or seems not to have
seen them; but I had no idea at the time that he did not see the
private soldiers in that line, but he now tells that singular story
of a line of officers, a line of color-bearers, and no force."
He made the correction of this error the occasion for drawing
a moral at once characteristic of himself and valuable to us all.
He said: "I do not, of course, mention this by way of criticism.
It only shows that the wisest, best, and bravest men cannot see all
that occurs in a battle, and this has led me very often to regret to
see the accounts that we sometimes see in print. We hear that
such an organization behaved badly, from a person who perhaps
knew nothing of the situation of that organization. Soldiers, it
seems to me, should be very charitable toward their neighbors. It
is so difficult to put ourselves in their places. . . . And so
with three-fourths, I don't know but nine-tenths, of the unpleas-
ant controversies that we see in the magazines and papers between
soldiers. . No one is authorized to say that in some dis-
tant part of the field there was bad or inexcusable behavior. There
may have been disaster, but if I had been there with my own
troops the same disaster would perhaps have occurred. Let us
then be charitable to our comrades and companions." Rare
indeed is it in the composition of men that the rugged forceful-
ness of the soldier and the severe methods of the statesman are
thus warmed and illuminated by the higher and sweeter impulses
of charity and forgiveness. Upon his whole life appears in liv-
ing letters: "To err is human, to forgive divine."
It is painful to contemplate the oft-repeated tolling of bells,
the reappearance of the emblems of mourning which tell of be-
reavement, and sadder still to dwell upon the constantly recur-
ring vicissitudes in the destinies of our Companions, who are
taking their "leave of absence" to rejoin us no more in our
councils here. But it is a sweet sorrow, a gentle dispensation of
an indulgent Providence, when they go out from us leaving such
a priceless legacy of name and fame, as a comfort to the living
and an inspiration to the generations to follow, as did our Com-
mander-in-Chief, Rutherford Birchard Hayes.
Your committee respectfully recommend that this memorial
IOWA COMMANDERY'S TRIBUTE 259
be spread upon the records of the Commandery, and that copies
thereof be sent to the members of the family of the deceased.
GEO. T. ANTHONY,
HORACE J. SMITH,
ABNER J. ALLEN,
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF IOWA
The Commandery of Iowa, Military Order of the Loyal Le-
gion of the United States, pays this tribute to the memory of
our late distinguished Companion and Commander-in-Chief,
Brevet Major-General Rutherford Birchard Hayes, who died
January 17, 1893.
The years of his distinguished and useful life were cast in
eventful times; times that called for the strongest and sternest
qualities of manhood, and told with unerring certainty the true
character and qualities of men. Of the pages of all history
whereon the success of men are written, none contain a more
honorable or brilliant record than those which tell of our la-
mented Companion.
The echoes from Sumter had hardly died away when the voice
of our Commander was heard in the assemblies of the people
pleading for the Union. At once he organized a literary club of
which he was a member into a military company of which he
was made captain. Though not received into the service, this
company under his discipline and drill became so proficient that
over forty of its number were called to fill commissioned of-
fices in the army, several of them as generals.
June 7, 1861, he was commissioned major Twenty-third Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, to the drill and discipline of which he devoted
his entitre energies, thus fitting it for the distinguished services
it rendered under his leadership.
October 24, 1861, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and
October 24, 1862, to colonel of his regiment. October 19, 1864,
he was promoted to brigadier-general, on the field of Cedar
260 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Creek, by order of General Crook, for gallant services; and on
March 18, 1865, was brevetted major-general "for gallant and
distinguished services during the campaign of 1864."
Declining to quit the field to accept civil honors, our Compan-
ion remained at the post of duty until June 9, 1865, when, with
the Rebellion crushed and the Union saved, he retired from the
army to take the seat in Congress to which he had been elected.
Twice a Congressman, thrice Governor of his State, and once
President of the United States, was the career in civil life that
awaited him. The same patriotic devotion to country and to duty
that marked his career as a soldier emphasized his services as a
legislator and executive officer. Such honors as were his come
to but few men, and few indeed are they who so well deserve
them. While we point with pride to the record of our Com-
panion as citizen, soldier, and civil officer, it was as a Com-
panion that he stood with and nearest to us in these later years.
He was ardently devoted to our order, ever giving it his active
support from the (lay he stood as a charter member of the
Commandery of Ohio until the day he was called from the hon-
orable position of our Commander-in-Chief by death.
With grateful hearts we reciprocate the love and honor in
which he held the order.
JOSIAH GIVEN,
Brvet Brigadier-General U. S. V.
C. H. GATCH,
Lieut.-Colonel 135th Ohio Infantry.
J. N. PATTON,
Lieutenant 136th Ohio Infantry.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF COLORADO
In the death of our Commander-in-Chief our order suffers
an irreparable loss; for among the distinguished patriots who pre-
ceded him in command and to the Beyond, none exhibited greater
interest and ardor in the well-being and honorable standing and
COLORADO COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 261
career of the Loyal Legion than he; and while we testify in
mournful accents to our deep sorrow at his death, we do feel
an honorable pride in the history of his career, and in the flag
and the civilization that it represents, that made it possible for
an obscure orphan boy to rise from the common level of the
average citizen to the rank and power of the most influential and
powerful potentate on earth.
He was born October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio, and was a
descendant from George Hayes, a Scotchman, who came to
America and settled in Connecticut in 1682.
His early years were so carefully cared for that in 1842 he
graduated with high honors as valedictorian of his class at Ken-
yon College. The three following years he devoted to the study
of law at Harvard Law School. After his admission to the
bar in 1845, he opened a law office at Fremont, Ohio, where he
remained until 1850, when he removed to Cincinnati, in search
of a wider and more promising field for his activity.
For eleven years he gave his entire attention to the law, and
in 1861 was standing in the very front rank of his chosen pro-
fession, when President Lincoln issued his first call for seventy-
five thousand volunteers to defend the Government. He im-
mediately tendered his services to the Governor of Ohio, and was
appointed major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volnuteer Infantry.
His military career was an active one in the enemy's country.
He soon distinguished himself for meritorious service, and rose
to the command of a division in the Army of West Virginia.
March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major-general for gallant and
distinguished services during the campaign of 1864.
Upon the urgent solicitation of his many friends in Cincinnati,
he accepted a seat in the Thirty-ninth Congress as representative
of the Second Congressional District, and took his seat December
4, 1865; was reelected to the Fortieth Congress in 1866, and was
elected Governor of the State of Ohio in 1867, to which position
he was reelected in 1869. He was tendered the nomination of
his party for reelection in 1871, but declined the honor.
In 1875, after much urgent solicitation from his party friends,
he accepted the nomination for Governor of Ohio, and for the
third time was elected to that distinguished and honorable posi-
262 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
tion. The following year the Republican National Convention
nominated Governor Hayes for the Presidency of the United
States. He was elected, and March 4, 1877, was inaugurated at
Washington, D. C. His administration of the government was
patriotic and without scandal. He did all that in him lay to
reunite the North and South under one Constitution and one flag.
>From the first, like many before and since, he declared he would
not accept a second nomination, and like none, either before or
since, he was consistent.
At the close of his official career in 1881, he asked the ques-
tion, "What shall the ex-President do?" Answering the question
himself, he said, "Let them do all in their power to promote
the welfare of their fellow man." During the twelve years of
retirement, from 1881 to 1893, he exemplified his earnest belief
in this precept.
He was elected a member of the First Class in the Order by
the Illinois Commandery, July 6, 1881; was transferred to and
chosen Commander of the Commandery of Ohio, February I,
1883, in which capacity he served until May 4, 1887, when he
declined another election. He became Senior Vice-Commander-
in-Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States October 21, 1885; was elected Commander-in-Chief Oc-
tober 17, 1888, and by reelection held that distinguished po-
sition until the day of his death.
He took the most intense interest in the welfare of the Order,
and never missed a meeting of his Commandery or of the Com-
mandery-in-Chief. In 1883 he was elected President of the Na-
tional Prison Association, in the work of which he took deep in-
terest and accomplished much good. He believed firmly in prison
reform and advocated it, though never injudiciously. He took
great interest in all educational movements, especially in the
South; was a member-at-large of both the Board for the Direc-
tion of the Funds for Southern Education and of the Board of
Education for Freedmen. In 1886 he presided over a large
convention of directors of education in the South, and was the
prime factor in movements for the bettering of the school sys-
tems there. He took great interest in the manual training schools
and all other educational enterprises for the elevation and ad-
COLORADO COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 263
vancement of the colored race; and they may well say that in his
death they have lost one of their most active and efficient friends.
He was much sought after by educational institutions in the
North; he was at the same time a trustee of the Western Re-
serve College at Cleveland, Ohio; of the Ohio Wesleyan College
at Delaware; and of the Ohio State University at Columbus,
Ohio. The new manual training building at the latter university
was named in his honor "Hayes Hall," a fitting monument to his
fame.
Descending from the exalted position of President of the
United States of America to the walks of private life without
ostentation, he devoted his days to doing good. In all efforts
for the advancement of the people, in all desirable reforms, he
was earnest and active, and his ability made him a leader. In
that hardest of all hard stations to fill, that of ex-President,
he won the approbation and respect of all, as he had done in the
several exalted public positions which had sought him.
The Companions of the Second Class of our order, as well
as all other of the virtuous youth of America, can find for imi-
tation and emulation no name more conspicuous in all the public
and domestic virtues than that of our deceased Companion,
Rutherford Birchard Hayes. A friend has said of him:
"Some say, 'No kind of genius made him great-
He was a common, plodding sort of man.'
My answer is: If you can imitate
That bravery which took him to the van
Of bloody battle for our Nation's life;
If you can reach a manhood true as his
To public trust, to neighbors, home, and wife;
If you, between dread Scylla and Charybdis,
Shall ever safely guide through stormy days-
With many foes on board - our Ship of State;
Poets to you a monument will raise,
And on it put the sentence, 'He was great
In all that Heaven delights to recompense:
His genius wore the garb of Common Sense.'"
CYRUS W. FISHER,
Committee.
264 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF INDIANA
It is hard to bow with resignation to the stroke of death that
took from us our beloved Commander-in-Chief. Did we not be-
lieve that the Great King doeth all things well, the spirit of puny
rebellion would fain put out its hand in opposition; but it is bet-
ter, as we lay him away under the snow, to count the days of
the years of our own lives and be reminded that the ripe age of
three score and ten that crept upon him is also creeping upon us.
The country has produced but few men whose lives were so
beautifully rounded out in all the qualities that go to make up a
man. As a boy he was a leader of boys, and the pride of a
widowed mother, who believed in him. As a man he went not in
the paths of the ungodly, but with an ambition to attain the ut-
most of his possibilities, he strained every nerve for the accom-
plishment of that end.
When our country's flag was fired upon by traitors he sprang
forward among the first to defend it. With a warm but hasty
farewell to wife and children, he gathered together a company
of his friends and led them, as their captain, to the nearest camp
of patriots, where they became a part of the Twenty-third Regi-
ment Ohio V. I. Without drill they were pushed into Virginia,
to become victors in the first battles of the war. Promotion
began at once; he was first made major, then lieutenant-colonel,
then a colonel's eagle served him until 1864, when, while command-
ing a brigade amidst the horrors of the 19th of October, on the
bloody field of Cedar Creek, he was made a brigadier-general.
There were brave men there that day, but none more brave than
General Hayes.
When the last armed foe had surrendered at Appomattox he
returned to again embrace the loved ones at home, but here
new fields opened to his view. While leading his brigade in
Virginia he was elected to represent his district in Congress.
Before his term expired he resigned to accept the office of
Governor of his State.
A second and third time did the people of Ohio honor him with
their suffrages. We all remember the stirring times of 1876, when
INDIANA COMMANDERY'S EULOGY 265
it required the utmost wisdom and forbearance to avoid an event
second only in importance to the great rebellion itself. Dur-
ing the whole period there was not the slightest ground for be-
lieving that General Hayes sought in the remotest degree to in-
fluence the action of the Electoral Commission. which declared him
elected to the Presidency. Accepting this, the highest position
within the gift of the people, he promptly set about putting in
force the principles laid down in his letter of acceptance. In
thus with Spartan courage obeying his convictions of duty as
the official head of a great nation rather than the head of a
great political party, he was sometimes under the necessity of
disregarding the advice of political friends. Their displeasure
did not deter him from going straight ahead with what he be-
lieved to be right, although their defection often hampered him
in the accomplishment of his purposes. Yet in spite of all, self-
government was restored to the South; specie payments were re-
sumed; civil service was rescued from annihilation; and the na-
tional debt was refunded at a low rate of interest.
No candid man of whatever party will fail to acknowledge
these beneficent and patriotic services during this dangerous
period of reconstruction, nor the purity of purpose that graced
every act of his public career. Released from the cares of state,
he sought repose under the shadows of the oaks at Speigel Grove,
at Fremont, Ohio. At the side of a wife distinguished for her
nobility of character, surrounded by children that did honor to
such parents, in the midst of books of careful selection, he en-
joyed the happiness of a home adorned with love, intelligence,
and religion.
Companions, we mourn not with the conventional sorrow usual
on these occasions, but as children we suffer the heartache of be-
reavement. Our nation mourns, but bows submissively to the
decrees of Him whose ways are past finding out.
A defender of our flag has been called home. He had no
thirst for military fame, but drew his sword to preserve a na-
tion's liberties and to set the bondman free.
Firm in discipline, yet those whom duty required him to punish
loved him. On the long and weary march the soldier, fainting
under his heavy knapsack, had his burden lifted from his back
266 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and tied to the commander's saddle, or was himself placed
thereon.
His scars attest his courage on the field of battle, yet was he
never drawn into a reckless exposure of person to win applause,
or when such would serve no good purpose. In civil life his out-
stretched arm was ever leading in works that would promote the
welfare and happiness of his fellow man. The prisoner in his
cold and lonely cell; the unfortunate, whether from appetite,
disease, or unfortunate circumstances; the widow; the orphan;
the ignorant, and even the depraved, drew upon his sym-
pathies according to their needs. Every fibre of his great soul
was wrapped in a tissue of tenderness.
He was not callous, but keenly sensitive to the arrows of ad-
verse criticism by disappointed place-hunters, but conscious rec-
titude lifted him above resentment, and that page of his record
remains spotless from the fact that he sought the greatest good
to the whole people.
In the world and of the world, whatever he was or was not,
few men during the last two decades so impressed themselves
upon history, upon civilization, and upon the hearts of his con-
temporaries. His amiability and open-handed courtesy were
conspicuous points of his character, but these were never tar-
nished by obsequiousness or loss of dignity.
Standing on the summit of earthly honors, he drank the ap-
plause of his countrymen at every turn of his pathway during
the closing years of his life; yet in the quiet of his soul he turned
and "with the grasshopper sang his evening song."
His greatness was not the flash of the meteor racing across
the sky, but the steady light of living, operating truth.
The immortal Lincoln will forever stand at the top of the roll
of statesmen developed by the Rebellion, because of his annoint-
ing by Almighty God. Morton won laurels as a leader in the
hour of trial. Untimely death shortened their days of usefulness
and glory. The lengthened years of Hayes were filled with en-
thusiastic service in the cause of learning and humanity. He did
not write his name on the sand washed by the waves or drifted
by the winds, but on the hearts of a people of a great nation; and
of his virtues will we speak to our children for their emulation.
WASHINGTON COMMANDERY'S MINUTE 267
We have laid his form by the side of his beloved wife on the
wooded shores of Lake Erie, and as we turn away to our homes,
let us not think of them as sleeping there under the snow or green
sods, but as arm in arm in the bright halls of the "mansions not
made with hands," greeting kindred spirits gone before.
"I know that I am going where Lucy is," were sweet and
fitting words to close the lips that will be heard no more forever.
WILLIAM C. STARR, Lieut.-Colonel U. S. V.
JOHN LEE VARYAN, Adjutant U. S. V.
J. S. OSTRANDER, Brevet Major U. S. A.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
The shadow of death has again fallen on the chair of the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and for the second time in five years we are
called on to mourn the death of an illustrious Companion and
the head of the Order of the Loyal Legion.
General Rutherford B. Hayes was one of the marked men
of our time, and he illustrated in his career as well perhaps as
any other citizen, the spirit and genius of our American life.
Born in humble station in the early history of the West, and
with only ordinary opportunities for advancement, he achieved
by industry, perseverance, and the development of high char-
acter, the highest honors in his own country, and assured fame
throughout the civilized world.
General, Governor, President, Commander-in-Chief of the
Loyal Legion, these high places, all of which he successfully
filled, measure the extent and fulness of his abilities, and they
will surely give him high place in American history.
General Hayes's life was distinguished by the best qualities of
human nature; patriotism and philanthropy were exhibited in
all his public and private life; and patience, industry, courage,
and fortitude were natural traits of his character. Whatever
his relative rank may be in history among generals and Presi-
268 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
dents, he will be one of the most eminent men of his day for
love of country and love of his fellow men.
HENRY C. BOSTWICK,
Major and Surgeon 9th Kansas Cavalry.
B. W. COINER,
L. P. BRADLEY,
Brigadier-General U. S. V.
Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF VERMONT
As Companions of the Loyal Legion, we join the other com-
manderies of our order in placing upon record our sense of
heavy loss in the death of its Commander-in-Chief. As com-
rades we mourn the departure from earth of one who right
worthily wore the army blue, and who held responsible command
on battle-fields where many Vermont soldiers faced the foes of
the Union. As Vermonters we claim as belonging in good part to
us one who was born but three months* after his father left our
State for his new home in Ohio, and who was of Vermont
parentage for two generations.
His biographers have told us that the ancestral motto on the
coat of arms of the Hayes family was the single word "Recte,"
-and rectitude expressed in a single word his rule of life. As a
lawyer, he was upright and straightforward. As a politician, he
was high-minded and patriotic. As a soldier, he was brave,
modest, devoted to duty,--rising by his merit alone from the
rank of major to that of brigadier and brevet major-general;
and winning enviable laurels by his firmness and capacity as a bri-
gade commander under Sheridan in the battles of Winchester,
Opequon, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. As a Member of Con-
gress, it is recorded of him that he never shirked responsibility, or
dodged a vote, or was connected with any measure of which an
honorable and loyal man could be ashamed.
* This is an error. Hayes was born October 4, 1822, more than five
years after his parents left Vermont.
VERMONT COMMANDERY'S TRIBUTE 269
Thrice elected Governor of the great State of Ohio, the
office sought him and not he the office, and he left it with a high
reputation for executive ability and for tireless promotion of
measures of public beneficence. Called to the Presidency of the
United States under more trying circumstances than any Chief
Magistrate since Washington, he so bore himself in that high
office as to win the respect of good men of all parties, and the
hatred of traitors, bigots, and public plunderers.
In private life his political enemies were glad to be known as
his friends, and all who had intercourse with him recognized his
genuine courtesy, kindness, and manly worth. In every capacity
he left an unsullied record, and proved himself, if not one of
the world's greatest, one of its truest and best- a genuine Chris-
tian gentleman.
General Hayes was devoted to the interests of the Loyal
Legion. He was a charter member of the Ohio Commandery;
was four times elected its commander, and for nearly five years
held the highest office in our order, which he was filling with
undiminished honor when he died. In this as elsewhere he was
blameless, respected, and beloved.
Let his life be an example and a guide to us in all that is pure
and unselfish in motive, honorable in conduct, and well-pleasing
to God and man.
GEORGE G. BENEDICT,
E. HENRY POWELL,
F. STEWART STRANAHAN,
LEVI G. KINGSLEY,
FRED E. SMITH,
Committee.
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