CHAPTER LI
LOYAL LEGION ACTIVITIES -- MRS. DAVIS'S "IN MEMO-
RIAM" -- VISIT TO CHICAGO -- STANLEY AT TOLEDO --
DEATH OF DOCTOR JOHN DAVIS -- REVIEW OF MRS.
HAYES'S LIFE -- DEATH OF GENERAL DEVENS --
WEALTH AND POVERTY -- DEATH OF GENERAL SHER-
MAN -- EXPENSES IN WHITE HOUSE -- OCTOBER 1890-
APRIL 1891
OCTOBER 13, 1890.--Rutherford and I reached In-
dianapolis about 10:30 this morning. Met General Lew
Wallace at station;--drove with him to the Denison House.
Soon met our friend Judge Martindale and his interesting
family.
Our Philadelphia friends, Governor Beaver, Colonel Nichol-
son, General Brown, Major Lambert, General Merrill, and other
Companions met us later. In the evening at the Grand Hotel,
with Peck, recorder, on the invitation of General Wallace, I
acted as commander. Installed eight or ten new Companions.
Then an agreeable banquet. Made an offhand speech; very well
received. Before dark visited the Columbia Club and met a
goodly number of friendly people. A small talk there.
October 14. Tuesday. -- Breakfast with the Martindales. In
the afternoon to St. Louis which we reached, passing over the
great bridge about 7:30 P. M., and at the Lindel soon after.
Visited the headquarters of the St. Louis Companions; also the
rooms for receiving. Here often during the stay. Liquor and
refreshments, but very little intemperance.
October 15. Wednesday. -- Commandery-in-Chief in one of
the hotel parlors. Washington State Commandery authorized
and other routine business. Drove to the park out Washington
Street. Walked to the bridge and took cars over to East St.
Louis. Reception for us by Companion Kearnes in the evening.
Very fine in all respects. These people are more hearty and
jovial than those of the Northern cities.
(605)
606 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
October 16. Thursday.--Visited Merchants' Exchange. A
short speech. The exposition; a few words in the great music
hall to a big crowd. Again in the directors' room in reply to
Governor Stannard. The grand banquet in the evening very
successful. My speech satisfactory; many congratulations. One
said: "I liked your remarks."
October 17. Friday.--With Miss Virginia and Miss Almy
Breckinridge to Shaw's Garden and Park and a beautiful lunch
at their home.
P. M. Late at the reception room. Good-bye to Pearce, Cor-
bin, Powell, Devol, Merrill, and all the rest. One of the most
gratifying visits and affairs I ever enjoyed. A fine city, great
future.
Visited Professor Woodward and the Manual Training
School. All good.
Otocber 18. Saturday.--Reached Toledo about 8 A. M.
At breakfast on the train met Colonel Hay. A long and most
agreeable talk. Hay and Nicolay will issue their Lincoln in ten
volumes soon; then a full edition of the writings of Lincoln.
Went to Birchard's. . . . A fine visit of several hours.
October 19. Sunday.--Leaves have fallen a good deal since
we left, but the grove is still beautiful.
Ashley, a good-natured, "whole-souled," unscrupulous dema-
gogue, is nominated for Congress by the Republicans. He be-
gins with an attempt [at] a rush.
During my absence many agreeable things said to me about
my Administration. The tide grows more favorable and is
really strong my way.
Mr. Albritton preached a noble sermon today. It stirred both
intellect [and] heart. While he was speaking, I thought of this
as my speech at soldiers' meeting: --
We gained all we fought for by our victory, viz., 1. Union,
2. Liberty, 3. Stable popular government.
Next, we gained immeasurably more than we then thought
of, viz., 1. General education, 2. Peace, 3. Equality of right,
condition, and hope.
LOYAL LEGION ACTIVITY 607
So far as laws and institutions avail, men should have equality
of opportunity for happiness; that is, of education, wealth,
power. These make happiness secure. An equal diffusion of
happiness so far as laws and institutions avail.
Paralysis! Did I feel or only imagine a numbness of head,
of the right leg, and a difficulty in controlling the tongue? This,
after the close of the sermon. In any event, I am content. I
have had my share of the good of this world and can now
follow my darling Lucy! Probably this is too serious; only an
unusually bad cold.
October 20. Monday. -- No severe frost yet. Many trees are
green. The large-leaved plants are untouched. The Japanese
ivy for the most part is still green. On the west part of my bay
it is bronzed beautifully; on the east part still green. The Vir-
ginia creeper has lost all of its leaves.
October 21. Tuesday.--Miss Avery came from Cleveland
last evening. Reading and writing letters. I call this week my
vacation. I have no preparation to make for any speech or
meeting this year. Nothing until after New Year's day 1890
[1891]. I may make two speeches in Chicago in November at
the Ohio Club and at the Congregational Club--the first on
Ohio people and the other on the prison question.
Evening read the last chapter of the capital autobiography of
Joseph Jefferson.
October 22. Wednesday. -- I could not help thinking yester-
day of the fatal stroke sixteen months ago! The darling!
Correspondence. Frances writes pleasantly from the woman's
prison at Sherborn where she is visiting Mrs. Johnson. Very
glad to have my darling daughter interested in the fallen and
unfortunate. She finds a more earnest and deeper character in
the friends of humanity than she supposed existed anywhere
until she made the acquaintance of the men and women of the
Prison Association.
Gathered in the scraps of the Warren and Parkersburg meet-
ings, of the Cincinnati Prison Congress, [and of] the Indianapolis
and the St. Louis Loyal Legion reunions. My scrap-books are
to contain my autobiography. They will show my doings.
608 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
October 23. Thursday. -- Attended a full prayer-meeting and
then an official board meeting. The board meeting was to re-
ceive reports from the convassers for subscriptions for the com-
ing year. A pretty industrious canvass was made. The results
are rather slender.
The Golden Rule furnishes the true solution of many difficult
problems in government and society. Bishop Haygood, an ex-
slaveholder and an ex-confederate soldier, has given us the best
book on the negro question. The title of his work, a phrase
of three or four words, tells the whole story: "Our Brother in
Black." When reformers, religious teachers, and statesmen, and
the general public lift themselves up to the height of the argu-
ment contained in that pithy title, there will no longer be a
negro problem, nor a problem of capital and labor, nor any
question as to the treatment of the criminal. The words of the
quotation are familiar; the idea is not clearly and hospitably
received. The author of "Pilgrim's Progress," seeing a con-
vict carried to his punishment, said: "There goes John Bunyan,
but for the grace of God." I have often quoted, and shall con-
tinue to quote as long as I speak on prison reform, the significant
words of Governor Horatio Seymour in his inaugural address
as president of the National Prison Association: "I never yet
found a man so untamable that there was not something of good
on which to build a hope. I never yet found a man so good that
he need not fear a fall."
How will that do for an opening in Chicago?
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, October 24, 1890.
MY DEAR GENERAL:--Your visit was greatly enjoyed by us
all. We hope it will be often repeated. Do not postpone; do
not wait for a special invitation. Your words about Lucy touch
me. They are very kind--very pleasant to hear.
Do not allow them to worry you out of your place. It is only
a year until, in all probability, your friends will again come into
power. A year is nothing. For your own sake, for the men's
sake, for all of us, hold on. The tide will surely turn.
GERMAN ELEMENT IN AMERICA 609
I had a delightful time at Indianapolis and at St. Louis. I
send you a paper showing Indianapolis.
Kind regards to Mrs. Force and Horton.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
GENERAL M. F. FORCE,
Soldiers' Home, Sandusky.
October 26. Sunday.--A warm, moving, eloquent sermon on
the [text]: "Nevertheless Thy will not mine be done." --Luke.
The efficacy of sincere prayer is this: It does not always pro-
cure the thing prayed for, but it does better--it brings what is
best for you. Eloquence is earnestness, enthusiasm, warmth,
honesty.
FREMONT, October --, 1890.
MY DEAR SIR:--I am in receipt of your valued favor of the
20th instant in behalf of the Executive Committee of the Ger-
man Citizens of Kentucky and Southern Indiana who celebrated,
October 5, 1890, the two hundredth anniversary of the arrival
of the first German immigrants who settled in the United States.
Your request that I should give you "an estimate of the German
element in the United States" finds me altogether unprepared
justly and adequately to respond to your wishes. Circumstances
permit me to write only a few unconsidered sentences.
All the world thoroughly understands the transcendent merit
of German scholars, philosophers, statesmen, soldiers, poets, and
musicians. All the higher walks of life are filled with Germans
of world-wide fame. But "the plain people," as Mr. Lincoln
called his countrymen, who have adopted America as their
home--what shall be said of them? On several vital points
they afford a valuable and much needed example to our Amer-
ican society of British origin. They are, as a general statement,
models of thrift, industry, economy, and contentment. They
know and illustrate in their lives the worth of social and family
intercourse and happiness.
39
610 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
During the larger part of my life I have lived where the Ger-
man element was large, and in the town and county of my home,
German names and homes are to be seen in every direction.
Would that all my countrymen could possess and enjoy their
well known and sterling virtues!
You allude with favorable comment to my appointment of
Carl Schurz as Secretary of the Interior. Too independent of
party for present popularity, those who know him well will al-
ways think of him as a gentleman of the purest character, and
as an able, patriotic, and scholarly statesman.
Sincerely,
[Unaddressed.] RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, October 27, 1890.
MY DEAR AUNTIE DAVIS: -- In the hurry of leaving home for
New York this afternoon I have just received your "In
Memoriam." I have hastily run my eyes over it. You have done
it so well. Most heartily I thank you for it. With swimming
eyes I read it--and look and look at the portraits! I shall want
many copies.
Good-bye. All thanks -- all good wishes to you and the
doctor.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MRS. ELIZA G. DAVIS,
Cincinnati.
October 27. Monday. -- In the evening, about 7 P. M., on the
Lake Shore Railroad for New York to attend the meeting of the
trustees of the Slater Educational Fund to elect a successor to
our excellent general agent, Dr. Haygood, now a bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
[New York], October 29. Wednesday.--Met Mr. Gilman
and Governor Colquitt; soon after all the other members except
Chief Justice Fuller. Made a careful and prudent speech in
favor of Mr. [J. L. M.] Curry for executive officer of the Slater
Board. Successful.
MRS. DAVIS'S "IN MEMORIAM" 611
October 30. Thursday.--On the Congressional Limited to
Baltimore. [By] 8:30 at the Rennert Hotel. Called on by
Senator H. S. Davis, of West Virginia. A cheerful and inter-
esting talk. He is for a railroad to South America!
October 31. Friday.--With [President] Gilman visited the
Johns Hopkins University. Spoke to the historical class under
Herbert Adams. The negro condition in the Virginia Military
Land District of Ohio. Then with Mr. Enoch Pratt visit the
Pratt Library, a branch of it also, and the Johns Hopkins Hos-
pital.
Met Dr. Curry and arranged to have him take Bishop Hay-
good's duties.
[Spiegel Grove], November 2. Sunday.-- . . . Ruther-
ford read in the last Century a good talk by John Hay on Lin-
coln. Read also in John Fiske's book on "Civil Government in
the United States." Massachusetts with her town system and
public schools bred an intelligent and wise people. Virginia with
her county system and large plantations bred leaders.
November 3. Monday. -- The evening mail brought sad news.
[Cousin] Russell Bigelow, in the asylum [recently attacked with
acute mania], died from exhaustion and lack of sleep Sunday
about noon. A noble boy, pure, ambitious, scholarly, and of
muscular frame, with a long life before him apparently, gone!
His afflicted mother! I wrote to her, but what can be said?
[This] evening learned [too] that Mrs. W. P. Howland, of
Jefferson, a lady I knew well and with whom I staid, a delegate
last week here to [the meeting of the] Women's Christian Tem-
perance Union, was killed instantly on her arrival home after
she got off the train, by a freight train coming unexpectedly.
Mr. Howland a leading lawyer of Ashtabula County, a senator
in the Legislature when I was at Columbus, and a stanch friend
of mine.
Alas! how near we are to the line that divides us from the
deepest sorrows, the saddest of calamities!
November 4. Tuesday. -- This is the day of the general elec-
tion. I anticipate Democratic gains--a Democratic Congress.
612 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
The first election of importance after a new President is affected
by the disappointments of office-seekers, and the other failures
to meet extravagant hopes. In this case also the new tariff
law--the McKinley bill--is easily misrepresented as increas-
ing the cost of all goods. On the whole, all that is saved in the
general disaster is gain. But we shall see. For McKinley him-
self, defeat, if it comes to him, is no serious disaster. The sober
second thought will perhaps elect him governor. The seesaw of
political life is to be counted on.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, November 4, 1890.
GENTLEMEN:--I beg you to receive my thanks for an invita-
tion to attend the "Old Roman" banquet in honor of Allen G.
Thurman. Judge Thurman has a host of valid titles to the
admiration and regard of his countrymen.
I have special reasons to recall with grateful feelings his
thoughtful kindness to me when as one of the judges of the
Supreme Court he heard my first case before that tribunal. May
he long live to enjoy the esteem and affection which are now
gathered around him.
I regret that my engagements prevent me from being present
at the banquet.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
THE THURMAN CLUB,
Columbus.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, November 5, 1890.
MY DEAR SIR:--I thank you for your interesting and ex-
cellent brief in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy. Without
investigation or serious thought about it, I have followed Haw-
thorne and Emerson, both of whom seemed fair-minded on the
question. Your brief comes nearer to fixing my attention on
this head than anything I have read. Nothing yet said that I
have seen has so staggered me as your facsimiles of the hand-
writing of Shakespeare. If authentic? Could a man who had
written so much as appears to be his work at twenty-five or
DEMOCRATIC GAINS 1890 613
thirty years of age do it with that hand? Could he have such
a hand? Perhaps so, but--
Then your talk about his education and that of his family
and the will do suggest, if not compel, doubts.
I have turned it over to my son, a lawyer of Toledo, who is
a devoted Shakespearean student and collector.
With best wishes.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
EDWIN REED, ESQUIRE,
Chicago.
P. S.--Your commendation of that Administration, it is
pleasant to see.--Can you send me another copy? I want it
for a lady who reads and thinks--Mrs. John W. Herron, of
Cincinnati.
November 5. Wednesday.--Last evening a meeting of the
official board of the church. A good attendance. Finance, the
business. A good spirit. Fourteen hundred dollars raised of the
seventeen or eighteen hundred we should raise. A general dis-
position to make it up. Kridler, now past seventy, spoke sensibly
about "educating the church to give." Mr. Emerson, a farmer
of Ballville, is one of the best and most sensible men in the
board.
The election passed off quietly. A good vote polled. I have
as yet heard nothing, but I look for Democratic gains in all
quarters and a Democratic House.
Am getting up my talk before the Congregational Club at
Chicago:--There are but two ways to preserve public order in
great nations. One is vast military establishments in time of
peace, and that mode every day grows less trustworthy, and
the other is absolute justice in the spirit of true fraternity among
men--in the spirit of the Golden Rule, and that with every
rolling year avails more and more. Indeed it is the only sure
reliance of civilized society.
Let us all strive "to hasten the current of that stream of
tendency which makes for righteousness."
614 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
November 6. Thursday.--Today the corner-stone of our
jail to be laid. I will make my first speech in this town on one
of my hobbies, prison reform.
Laura Mitchell came this evening. She will make us happy.
November 10. Monday.--I agreed to attend the Ohio So-
ciety in Chicago. . . . Wrote letters all of the forenoon;
too many for comfort. And how absurdly prolix many corre-
spondents are! One page is long enough.
Read with Laura, or rather Laura read to me, from [Wil-
liam] Morris' "Wolfings."
SPIEGEL GROVE, November 10, 1890.
In America the opportunities, the work, and the influence of
women grow wider and wider. Whether we like this tendency
or not, we cannot fail to see it. We ought to recognize it in
the training of our girls. The weak point in female education
in this country is the neglect of health. We have too much
bending over books and too little open-air exercise. Too many
studies, too little work and too little out-of-door play.
My wish for the American woman is that she may always be
an elevating influence--man's inspiration. Let him go forth
to duty while she weaves the spell which makes home a paradise
to which he may return, ever welcome, whether he is victor or
vanquished.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
Unaddressed.]
November 11. Tuesday. -- A happy visit with Laura to
Birchard and Mary and the two boys. All were in excellent
case. . . . We returned before seven. Read some chapters
of Morris' book. Correspondence, of course. A book on the
veto power, in which ample justice is done to me. It is by Al-
bert Bushnell Hart. The first number of the "Harvard His-
torical Series."
November 17. Monday.--Arrived at Chicago on time--be-
fore breakfast. At the Grand Pacific. Rained all day. Met
CONGREGATIONAL CLUB CHICAGO 615
committee of Congregational Club, William Henry and Delavan
Smith, General Lake, and many others. At my room all day.
In the evening at the supper of the Congregational Club. Mr.
Wines with me during the day. He made a capital speech;
closed with a feeling tribute to Mrs. Hayes.
I was introduced by Mr. Moore with words of welcome and
flattery. Well received. A fairish speech, offhand. Altogether
a gratification. At 10:40 Colonel Corbin saw me off. Met
McKinley; brave and cheerful over his defeat. A fine specimen
of all that he purports to be -- an American statesman.
November 18. Tuesday.--To Columbus. Reached the of-
fice of Captain Cope, secretary of Ohio State University, at about
11 A. M. Godfrey and Schueller of the board present. Ad-
journed until 2:30 P. M.
[At] 2:30 P. M. Godfrey, Schueller and now Wing and self
make a quorum. President Scott and Cope with us. An im-
portant meeting. My aim to get a renewed application for in-
dustrial education. The new grant from Congress of fifteen
thousand dollars a year, to be increased one thousand dollars a
year, is a handsome addition to our income. We divided between
equipment and new instruction.
November 19. Wednesday. -- Fine weather today and yester-
day. The board labored faithfully, joined by Miller and Massie,
and were reasonably successful. The industrial department
agreed to; thirty thousand dollars for building; also fifty thou-
sand dollars for geological museum and library.
November 24. Monday. -- I by an oversight missed the Bible
meeting in the Episcopal church last night. I am sorry. I wanted
especially to attend. The religion of the Bible is the best in the
world. I see the infinite value of religion. Let it be always
encouraged. A world of superstition and folly have grown up
around its forms and ceremonies. But the truth in it is one of
the deep sentiments in human nature.
Evening at the concert of the Schubert Quartette, of Chicago,
in the Presbyterian church. A very large and fine audience.
This is the first of a series of entertainments for the winter,
mostly popular lectures,--six for one dollar and twenty-five
616 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
cents. An auspicious opening of the course. As usual in such
cases, learning that I was in the audience, the performers sent
word that they wished to pay their respects. A hand-shaking of
course. Agreeable people.
During the day, correspondence. A little meditation on my
offhand talk to be given at the Ohio Society in Chicago. A brag
will be in order.
November 25. Tuesday. -- I paid three hundred dollars in
aid of Mrs. Noyes, widow of General E. F. Noyes, today in
check to Mr. W. Hooper. It will, I hope, with the amounts
subscribed by others give her a home. Also fifty dollars today
in aid of parsonage, etc., of the Episcopal church.
Read up Ohio in the wars of the United States. I leave out
the civil side of this brilliant story, with Stanton and Chase and
the rest of our honored public men; with Bishop McIlvaine and
Bishop Simpson and the long line of eminent clergymen who in
the pulpit stimulated the patriotism of our country, and speak
only of those who on the battlefield upheld their country's cause.
November 26. Tuesday. -- Mrs. Davis tells this of Lucy, a
schoolgirl at the Wesleyan Female College. Lucy, a stranger, per-
haps homesick, with sparkling eyes and a beaming face said,
"Something is going to happen today." "Why, what is it, dear,"
said [a schoolmate] Mrs. Davis. "Mother is coming tonight,"
was the reply.
Well, the darling daughter, Frances away from Spiegel two
months, since September 24, at Cincinnati, New York, Boston,
etc., will come home tonight!
November 27. Thursday.--The rich and the so-called for-
tunate owe a duty to the unfortunate. The first and by great
odds the chief duty is simple justice. They owe them just laws,
just methods of business, and a fair share of the good things of
the world, such as education, property, opportunity.
December 2. Tuesday.--Returned last evening from Toledo
where I spent Sunday with Birchard and Mary and Sherman.
In the evening of Thanksgiving on a sleeper for Chicago. At
Toledo Mr. Isaac N. Smead with his son came into the cars.
Pleasant chat until 10 P. M. Slept as usual on the train--rest-
OHIO SOCIETY CHICAGO 617
ful, somewhat wakeful, until called at early daylight by the
porter "near Chicago." Was soon joined by a committee of the
Ohio Society who came out ten miles to meet me -- Major Wil-
liam E. Bliven and Mr. Jones. Escorted to pleasant quarters
at the Grand Pacific. Breakfast with the two. Soon after,
Colonel Corbin came. Walked over to the military headquarters.
Met there General Williams, General Miles, commander of the
Department or Division. General Miles talked of the Indian
troubles--the Messiah that had come to them. He thinks the
army should have charge of the Indians. "You can't suddenly
turn them into farmers. I saw a pile of ploughs that would do
in an old country where the ground has been broken for years,
but utterly worthless to break the hard ground of the dry West,"
etc A poor chance for the Indian to become civilized. "He gets
arms of the best patterns from the traders."
Passed the Masonic building going up; of steel, to be eighteen
stories high. "Can't build much higher. The lower part too
dark," etc.
Lunched with Judge Gresham and others (Major Butter-
worth) at Union League Club. Judge Gresham is trying a
habeas corpus case. A son-in-law of Judge Otis is imprisoned
for contempt in refusing to testify as to violations of the Inter-
state Commerce Law on the ground that it would criminate him-
self. The law has undertaken to relieve from danger by en-
acting that he cannot be injured by his testimony being used
against him.
Major Butterworth told of a lunch when a few defeated Re-
publican Congressmen -- McKinley, C-, and another -- were
talking over their defeat. McKinley said: "Oh well, we don't
care. We'll soon get back." "Oh, now," said C--, "none of that.
It is well enough to say that at home. But here among our-
selves we need not lie about it." Major Butterworth is capital
company in all such social gatherings; an able man, independent
to a degree that hurts him with the machine men.
After lunch at my room. Slept and meditated my speech at
the Ohio Society banquet.
In the evening with Judge Thoman to the parlors where for
an hour or more a stream of ladies and gentlemen were intro-
618 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
duced to me. Miss Mary Ballard stood with me; Miss Mary
Otis, Miss Florence Smith, and a host of others. Among them
many old acquaintances. Escorted Mrs. Bliven to the dining
table. Sat at the right of the president (with Miss Florence
Smith between Thoman and me). After the banquet I spoke
thirty minutes and Major Butterworth ten or twelve. Dancing
by the young folks.
Judge Thoman called early Saturday morning and saw me
on the cars--8 A. M. Reached Toledo about 4 P. M. [At]
the home of Birchard wrote the short speech introducing [Henry
M.] Stanley to the audience at the People's Theatre in the
evening.
[At] 7:30 drove to the Boody House. Met there Major Pond,
the agent of the lecturer. Was taken to the room of Stanley.
Sat with him alone a few minutes. He is short, long-bodied, but
lower limbs short, strongly built; face healthily florid, hair gray,
with bright, friendly expression. Easy and agreeable in con-
versation, inviting confidence; very pleasant, said: "You would
like to see Mrs. Stanley." She came in with him, a handsome,
stylish young woman, English rosy complexion, a head taller
than Stanley; converses in a handsome lively way. Her mother,
Mrs. Tennant, a well-preserved, cordial person.
We soon walked together, led by Major Pond, three squares
to the theatre. As soon as ready there (wraps off and the like),
Stanley and I walked on to the stage alone; sat a moment on the
sofa. I introduced him. He put on an easel his manuscript in
large, coarse handwriting; stood erect, after a bow and moderate
applause, and spoke rather too low--decidedly too low tones --
but with good elocution, manner, and pronunciation, reading not
at all. The lecture, so called, was so well committed that he
delivered it as if offhand conversation. He did not need his
manuscript. The matter was too much of his opinions of and
relations with Emin Pasha and too little of his travels, of Africa,
and of his adventures.
Sunday, at the Triangle. Walked with Mary to her church--
Congregational. Heard Mr. Williams the pastor preach a good,
sensible sermon on the text, "Ethiopia shall stretch out her
hands," etc. A hopeful talk on the negro.
HENRY M. STANLEY AT TOLEDO 619
Monday, called on my old friend [Clark] Waggoner. Talked
of his fight with the Standard Oil Company on the pipe-line
question. Hopes with confidence that the city will succeed in
getting a good supply of cheap gas (three cents per thousand
feet), and that the Standard will sell out their plant--their
pipes in the streets. We shall see. Also [of] his successful
fight against Ashley. Afternoon, with Birchard home.
December 3. Wednesday. -- Emerson says: "Why nature
loves number five." Why I love number one: I was elected
city solicitor thirty or forty years ago by one majority--the
best lawyer's office in Cincinnati at the time -- at a time of life
when one's first office tastes sweet in the mouth.
Dr. William K. Rogers, Jr., came from Columbus. Mrs.
Rogers [his mother] had seen a notice of the sale of the Hayes
Block [in Duluth] at a low figure; knew my old friend was
in the bank of Hall and Company that recently failed; fears her
estate in Rogers' name may be involved in the catastrophe. I
don't see how we can lose the Hayes Block or be involved with-
out my hearing of it. W. K. Rogers is totally unfit to cope
with business and business men. He is easily duped; trusts all
men who profess friendship; in short, needs a guardian in all
business matters. He seems to lack a sense of duty and re-
sponsibility. Withal a good man, of culture, of ability, and
the talents that would fit him for a professorship in a college.
I wired R. P. [Rutherford, who is visiting Duluth] in Scott's
name: "How are you? What is the situation? Reply
promptly." No answer as yet. Young Dr. Rogers seems all he
should be. Intelligent; appreciates his father's worth and weak-
ness. I hope Mrs. Rogers' property is not lost and that my
own is in no trouble. But I am somewhat anxious about it.
With Dr. Rogers visited the new opera house. It may be
ready to occupy in a month or six weeks. It promises very well.
Correspondence and my books. The Northwestern Congrega-
tionalist, of St. Paul, contains a stenographic report of my speech
on Prison Reform before the Congregational Club of Chicago.
It looks well in print; is perhaps my best speech on the question.
620 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
December 7. Sunday. -- Webb came early and went to church
with me. Our new pastor preached a warm, earnest, eloquent
sermon to a full church. Talked with Webb on Dr. R. S.
Storrs' sermon on Thanksgiving Day. The wickedness of our
system of gathering wealth into a few hands, leaving a multi-
tude, of necessity, in want. Webb left about 4 P. M. after a
good visit. In the evening Rutherford came after a happy trip.
He found our affairs at Duluth in quite as good a condition as
he expected. The prospect of "the farm," as city property, is
good; would sell now for one hundred thousand dollars to one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Rogers well and
doing well.
December 8. Monday. -- Rutherford brought home another
book of William Morris. He thought as it is on the right side
of some parts of the labor question that I would like it. It is
entitled "News from Nowhere, or an Epoch of Rest." It treats
of the "Solidarity of Labor." But it is not well done. Its talk
of marriage is loose. Its use of low words and phrases is fre-
quent. Not a book up to the subject nor equal to the author's
other works.
FREMONT, December 8, 1890.
MY DEAR SIR: -- I congratulate you on the completion of your
wonderful work, "The Genesis of the United States." The col-
lection and preparation for the press of such a mountain of
materials and host of interesting and rare portraits and maps
make the beautiful volumes you have published an unique addi-
tion to our early history. I cannot speak of the contents of the
volumes except from a very hasty and cursory examination.
I am confident that your work will prove of great and per-
manent value.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
ALEXANDER BROWN.
December 9. Tuesday. -- No author, but I have written a
good deal--mostly trash--that has been printed. As a mem-
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 621
ber of the American Historical Association, I am called on by
Paul Leicester Ford to furnish a list of my published writings.
Rutherford has got it ready and will send it as requested.
December 10. Wednesday.--The wealth of our country is
increasing rapidly and enormously. The question of its distribu-
tion presses more and more urgently. The great question in our
day and generation plainly is the property question--the ques-
tion of wealth. Shall it be held, controlled, owned by a few?
Or shall it be wisely, equitably, that is widely distributed?
More and more, wealth gives power, estimation, reputation.
Shall only a few have it? Wealth, education, opportunity,
power, go together. Shall they belong to a few, or to the many?
They will rule always in a free country. Who shall rule, the
few or the many, a plutocracy or a democracy? That is the
question.
In the evening met Colonel Brigham and Mr. Williams at the
depot. They want Chamberlain to be president of the Ohio
University. It will strengthen it with the farmers; make it,
in fact, a mechanics and farmers' college, and gain thus in the
Legislature the needed votes for its liberal support. This is
their argument. They say Mr. Wing is with them and that
Massie will probably aid. Godfrey will on personal grounds
oppose, they say. I gave them no assurance; would consider it,
try to hear the case impartially. [I] believe in making the col-
lege a people's college, a college for farmers and mechanics in
the best sense--something different from the common, old-
fashioned classical college. The truth is, I fear Chamberlain is
not large enough in head and character for the place. But-?
Webb and Mr. Lawrence came over to see into the difficulty
of the Carbon Company works here. The natural gas company
has suddenly cut off the supply of gas from the factories. They
have so extended their pipes to Detroit, Sandusky, and Nor-
walk that they can only supply gas for domestic purposes. They
find this more profitable. They induced the factories to come
to this region, and now for gain destroy them! This is mo-
nopoly. Hateful always.
In the evening discussed magnetism, the human article, with
622 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
Mr. Lawrence. There is in it much--mostly mystery--we
agree.
December 11. Thursday.--In the evening attended a full
meeting of the post. It is a happiness to see the joy it gives the
old fellows simply to meet together, irrespective of what is done
or said. Officers all elected by acclamation. Captain Young
bubbled over with happiness seeing the harmony of the "old
post." I was with Greene elected delegate to the state encamp-
ment.
Our banks all a little nervous. Rutherford goes to Cleveland
to see if he can get cash if needed for a run on the savings
bank of which he is cashier. He does not wish to give the sixty
days' notice if he can avoid it.
December 12. Friday.--I am "a radical in thought (and
principle) and a conservative in method" (and conduct). . . .
An address of President White, "Evolution and Revolution,"
contains sound and liberal talk. "Righteousness exalteth a na-
tion." "Righteousness means rightness, right doing, right deal-
ing, the cultivation of this in the individual and in society." "To
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God."
E. W. Bemis on socialism writes well. State action, state
regulation, state control, are his words. Not state socialism, nor
communism, nor nihilism which is anarchy.
The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does
not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous suc-
ceed best in accumulating wealth.
December 13.--Clear, lovely winter morning. I have often
thought of watching a sunrise and trying to describe in cold
black ink its brilliant glories. This morning, about half past
six, the rosy blush spread over the sky near the evergreens at
the small southeast gate. By 6:45 the colors were in strata and
so remained with small change for fifteen minutes, viz., first
at the earth, lowest, a stream of rosy golden, irregular in width,
apparently ten to fifteen feet, then a stream of blue, or light
greenish blue, about as wide as the golden below, then golden
and rosy again extending laterally north and south for perhaps
three or four hundred yards, then blue and again rosy shading
EQUAL RIGHTS OF ALL MEN 623
off to leaden-colored sky. At 7:15 the first fiery red of the
upper rim of the sun appeared among the evergreens; the streams
of alternate blue and rosy disappeared, and the whole southeast
sky, up forty or fifty feet or more, was brilliantly and beauti-
fully rosy and silver; and higher up the clouds, each a bundle,
became also a rosy silver. About 7:20, the whole round fiery
red sun was above the horizon and the light of day rapidly drove
away the rosy golden colors with the silver sheen, and the world
was awake. While I wrote this the sun has passed under clouds
and the appearance at the evergreen trees and north and south
of them now is a stream of six to ten feet wide all along the
horizon of blue; then four to ten feet of brilliantly rosy red, and
above it a dull leaden blue up to the white blue of the sky.
Broad daylight and I turn off the gas.
December 15. Monday. -- Democracy and Republicanism in
their best partisan utterances alike declare for human rights.
Jefferson, the father of Democracy, Lincoln, the embodiment
of Republicanism, and the Divine author of the religion on which
true civilization rests, all proclaim the equal rights of all men.
December 16. Tuesday. -- The sudden death of an excellent
man; not an intimate friend, but one always esteemed, Henry
C. Noble, Esq., of Columbus. He and his wife were among the
friends who went with us to Washington in 1877. They were
with us returning in 1881. Lucy and Mrs. Noble were good
friends, not intimate. Mr. and Mrs. Noble came to her funeral.
I wrote today a note of sympathy to Mrs. Noble. Remember-
ing the comfort I got from kind words about Lucy, I praised
Mr. Noble; not extravagantly but judiciously, as I could truth-
fully do.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, December 16, 1890.
MY DEAR MRS. NOBLE:--I have learned that it is pleasant to
know that others appreciate the virtues of those we have loved
and lost, and this comfort surely is yours. Your husband, in
sterling worth, was a rare man indeed. He was able, honorable,
and so trustworthy and good. You need not be told of his ex-
cellence. You know it better than others. I but express briefly
624 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and feebly what his whole circle of friends and acquaintances
would wish you to know they feel. God grant you His support
in these desolate days is the prayer of all of his friends and of
yours,
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MRS. HENRY C. NOBLE,
Columbus.
December 17. Wednesday.--Reading all that I can get hold
of on the negro question. I find nothing which overthrows or
even tends to overthrow the position that education will help
him wherever he needs help, will strengthen [him] where he is
weak, and will aid him to overcome all evil tendencies. The
question then is how best to educate him.
To Cleveland this afternoon.
December 18. Thursday.--With D. Z. Norton visited the
"University School" of Anderson. It is on a plan that strikes
me favorably. It has as its course for eight years, ten to eigh-
teen, training "all around," so arranged as to interest and enlist
the boys in the work. Work, industrial; sports, baseball, foot-
ball, and the like; studies; swimming, skating, and gymnastics;
lunch, a simple meal at the school. Boys are weighed, measured,
inspected, their defects noted. Exercises fitted to correct de-
fects, forty-five minutes to one hour. Rest is doing something
else. Dined with Mrs. Norton and Mrs. Castle (1398 Euclid).
Spent the evening with Mrs. Austin and Mattie.
December 19. Friday.--I called yesterday on Mr. Covert
of the Leader; gave him the report of Comrades Alfred Arthur
and David Kimberley of their capture of one hundred and forty-
five rebels in the Morgan raid near Buffington, Ohio. Published
in the Leader today. Also talked over the Mohonk Negro Con-
ference. . . . This afternoon to Sandusky. At the Soldiers'
Home welcomed by General and Mrs. Force and the fine boy
Horton. Mrs. Horton is as ever an angelic old lady. A good
visit throughout. "As if in camp again," among the veterans
and the general's books and with the general.
DEATH OF DR. JOHN DAVIS 625
December 22.--In the evening, a quarterly conference meet-
ing. The returns of collections not as good as they should be.
Mr. Albritton a good deal discouraged. Made a gloomy talk,
chiefly on the point of the discords in the church. Mr. Kridler
thought the picture too dark. No other one spoke. Seeing we
were about to adjourn in a downhearted state of mind, I made
an earnest appeal for better feeling, criticized the pastor for
"showing the white feather"--a phrase he had used--and
complimented him warmly on his sermons; told him how he
was uplifting us all, referred to the time of year as a hard one
for raising money, and the year itself as a year of unusual
money depression. The effect of the talk was good. I called
for a rising vote in favor of harmony and of sustaining our
pastor. It was carried with much good feeling. We adjourned
feeling well--better than at any time for a year or more.
December 24. Wednesday.--Read Emerson on Montaigne,
Shakespeare, and Napoleon this week. Began "A Dream by a
Modest Prophet," by General Leggett.
December 25. Thursday.-- . . . A happy Christmas
day [at Toledo] with our excellent hosts, Birchard and Mary.
But all day I was thinking of the dear one gone.
December 26. Friday. -- We hear that our old friends in Cin-
cinnati, the Davises, [who] had their usual happy Christmas,
with probably Huntington and Adda of the party, were plunged
into sorrow by the sudden death of Dr. John Davis. About nine
he died. Fanny and I will go down tomorrow. They were of
our nearest Cincinnati friends. They were at our wedding; en
route to Washington with us in 1877; at the silver wedding De-
cember 30, 1877; returned with the party of our friends when we
left Washington in 1881, and were at the funeral of Lucy in
1889. He was true and warm in his friendship. Mrs. Davis
wrote the missionary "In Memoriam" of Lucy and succeeded
Lucy as President of the Woman's Home Missionary [Society].
A long list of events marks the intimacy and long continuance
of our friendship.
40
626 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
FREMONT, OHIO, December 26, 1890.
MY DEAR DOCTOR: -- I send you the long delayed letter of Mr.
Evarts, merely that you may see it. It does not change facts.
The affair is finally settled greatly to my satisfaction, and most
beneficially, I am confident, for the cause.
I hear from Lake Mohonk that they fear you cannot attend
the next Conference on the Negro Question. I hope you will
strain all points to get there. We have now reached the time
when both sides of the old line can shut their eyes to the blunders
and offenses of the past and deal exclusively with the present
and the future. There is enough ill nature in official bodies --
enough raking up of the past in Congress and in the press, -- to
make it very desirable to have one example of a harmonious
meeting of the representatives of all sections to discuss the in-
teresting problem. Of course there will be discords, but we may
hope that the prevailing temper will be good.
The sudden death of an intimate friend in Cincinnati calls
me there at once.
With all best wishes to Mrs. Curry and yourself.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
DR. J. L. M. CURRY.
December 27. Saturday.--With Frances reached Cincinnati
about 10 P. M. Rooms good but cold -- very. The hasty fire
barely touched the climate. A deep snow.
December 28. Sunday. -- In Cincinnati, Burnet House; cold
and clear; eight inches snow here. After a good breakfast we
walked in the clear, crisp air to 323 Elm street, Aunty Davis'
--alone now! Dr. Davis died almost instantly--a bursted blood
vessel in the brain--after a most happy Christmas with family
and guests. All kissed him under the mistletoe, and then! He
went upstairs with Huntington to smoke, had a short spell of
coughing, in a few minutes was no more. Born January 4, 1821,
would have been seventy in a few days. Funeral: first, private,
at the house, then at the church. Many (five) speakers. One
CHARACTER OF DR. DAVIS 627
took as initials of his virtues the letters which spell CHRIST --
viz., conscientiousness, humility, reverence, intrepidity, simplic-
ity, trustworthiness. Others left the impression of his excellent
life and character. . . . Evening again with Auntie Davis.
She was calm,--but what to do? A large house, alone; or
must she load herself with the care of a houseful of relatives?
Sad, indeed.
December 30. Tuesday.--Thirty-eight years ago my wed-
ding! Lucy! . . .
December 31. Wednesday.--Visited today by a comrade of
the Twenty-third, Harrison Brown, Company B, now living at
Jefferson, Ohio. He lost his left arm by a shot at an impudent
rebel prisoner in Camp Chase on the dead line, or past it. The
shot barely grazed the man shot at and after crushing Brown's
arm is now in his hip. He is a powerful man; has double
teeth all round; wants and deserves a pension. Was a wild
boy; grossly insulted by his sergeant, he knocked him down,
and was sent three months to Camp Chase.
I sent "Jane Eyre" and "David Copperfield" to his daughter,
a thirteen-year old. I must, if he gets his pension, tell him to
come to our reunions at Lakeside.
January 1, 1891. Thursday.--A time to pause, to cast up
accounts, to recall the past year, to plan for the new year, to
make good resolutions. Walter Scott in his "Journal," January
1, 1826, says:--"A year has passed -- another has commenced.
These solemn divisions of time influence our feelings as they
recur. Yet there is nothing in it; for every day in the year
closes a twelvemonth as well as the 31st of December. The
latter is only the solemn pause, as when a guide, showing a wild
and mountainous road, calls on a party to pause and look back
at the scenes which they have just passed. To me this new
year opens sadly."
Last evening I intended to look in on the last meeting of the
year in our Methodist church to see if it was observed as it
was when I was young. Then the old year was "watched out"
and the New Year was "watched in" with prayers, hymns, and
628 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
solemn exhortations. Those meetings were often very im-
pressive and solemn. But stopping a little before nine o'clock
the lights were put out and prayer-meeting over.
The happy old custom of New Year's calling by gentlemen
has nearly disappeared. . . . I read Walter Scott's
"Gurnal," as he often spells it, [and] newspapers, and wrote a
few letters. I did not make as many calls as I intended. . . .
General Buckland and I talked over the usual topics. We nat-
urally drifted into the war. The famous cold New Year's day
of the war, January 1, 1864, was referred to. He was at
Memphis. In a few hours [the mercury fell] from 70 degrees + to
16 degrees +. He told of his surprise that old Mrs. Harring-
ton in 1837 should recall his father, Sergeant Ralph Buckland,
as a soldier of the war of 1812 and talk of him as she worked
at weaving. It was only twenty-five years past; and here we
are talking of the beginning of the war almost thirty years ago as
if it happened last week.
January 2. Friday.--In the evening heard a lecture to a
large audience in the Presbyterian church by Major H. C.
Dane, of Boston, on the naval battles of the Rebellion. It was
well done, and delighted the audience. The three battles de-
scribed were the Monitor fight with Merrimac, March 9,
Sunday, 1862, the capture of New Orleans, and the battle of
Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864. The whole lecture was spirited,
graphic, and extremely interesting. In regard to the battle in
Hampton Roads, the new point was that the arrival of the
Monitor was an accident (?). No order or advice sent her
there. I mean, no order from Government. She was to make
a trial trip from New York and return. But she sailed down
the New Jersey coast; stopped over night; came within sound
of the guns of the battle and Worden sailed towards the fight.
The battle of Mobile Bay was, according to Major Dane, the
turning-point. If it had failed, intervention would have ruined
the Union cause. Doubtful. But it was a great battle. De-
scribing the horror of these sea fights as he did, the wonder is
that so few comparatively are lost. The proportion of killed
and wounded is less than in land fighting.
MONITOR AND MERRIMAC 629
January 3. Saturday.--Emerson says: "In Europe crime
is observed to increase or abate with the price of bread."
Crimes increase as education, opportunity, and property de-
crease. Whatever spreads ignorance, poverty, and discontent
causes crime.
Who are guilty? Criminals have their own responsibility,
their own share of guilt, but they are merely the hand. The
brains that contrive and control have also their responsibility,
their share of guilt.
Whoever interferes with equal rights and equal opportunities
is in some sense, in some degree, some real degree, responsible
for the crimes committed in the community.
January 4. Sunday.--Webb made us happy by appearing
at breakfast this morning. He always makes the day joyous
with his spirit and cheerful and entertaining talk.
[With him] discussed the statement of the lecturer, Major Dane,
that the Monitor did not sail from New York for Hampton
Roads, but was under orders to make a trial trip and return
to New York. Now, in the "Battles and Leaders of the Civil
War," by the Century Company, we find a totally different ac-
count, [showing clearly that the Monitor was ordered to Hamp-
ton Roads. This account was] written by S. Dana Greene,
Commander United States Navy, who was the second in com-
mand -- the executive officer -- of the Monitor in the battle with
the Merrimac. He says there were fifty-eight men all told on the
Monitor. What other fifty-eight men, what other so insignificant
force, ever fought so momentous a battle? . . .
January 5. Monday.--Sent to War Department -- Major
Davis of the "War Records"--a box containing three or four
books, copies of letters, endorsements, orders, reports of the
brigade in [the] Department of West Virginia commanded by
me in 1863 and 1864 and by H. F. Devol in 1865, together with
papers of that period.
Read Walter Scott's "Journal," Woodberry's "Talks with
Emerson," and the "Life of R. H. Dana" by Charles F. Adams.
January 6. Tuesday. -- During the night felt uncomfortable;
took a small glass of Sauterne; was wakeful; thought for a long
630 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
time of Lucy--her wonderful career, capacities, and how she
touched closely such a vast variety of people and of life; her
travels, her recollections of events, scenes, and characters! A
wife, mother, grandmother, as a woman; her child history, with
a widowed mother, in narrow circumstances; her life in the
country with her grandfather and grandmother--and her
famous uncles, in Chillicothe, the ancient metropolis of Ohio,
with its able men and attractive and noted women; her visits to
Kentucky, both in the country and in Lexington; her going to
college and mingling with the boy students, with the cronies of
her two brothers, the only girl in the Ohio Wesleyan University
at Delaware; her life in Cincinnati, where she knew both the
humble and the upper four hundred; her life at the Ohio Wes-
leyan Female College; married life in Cincinnati with a young
lawyer, slowly rising; her growing family of boys, with at last
one daughter; the war which she was in the midst of, in camps,
in tents, in newly-built log cabins, in hospitals of sick, of
freshly wounded, in the mountains of West Virginia near
Hawk's Nest, in the Kanawha Valley, in Maryland near
Antietam, in Frederick City, Washington, Baltimore, where-
ever camps and hospitals were found; the wife of a Member of
Congress during the exciting scenes of the reconstruction period,
knowing and meeting all the noted generals and statesmen; sit-
ting up all night in the House of Representatives to see the bills
passed in spite of "filibustering" over the vetoes of President
Johnson; once the first person to enter with her husband the
great reception of General Grant in 1866 (this done purposely
to see the whole affair); a trip of ten days or more with a Con-
gressional party to see the South in the holidays of 1865-6.
visiting Lynchburg, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis,
Jackson, New Orleans, with Vice-President Foster, Senators
Wade, Lane, Ramsay, Norton and Members of Congress and
their wives; having visited Richmond (just after the close of
the great conflict), and Petersburg, with passes from General
Grant which enabled her to see all of the awful desolation,
spending days in Richmond and Petersburg; having seen the
Grand Review in May in Washington; at Columbus three terms
of the governorship, having passed through exciting campaigns;
REVIEW OF MRS. HAYES'S LIFE 631
engaged in the benevolent enterprises of the time; always at
home with the inmates of the Deaf and Dumb, [the] Blind,
[and the] Imbecile [Asylums]; [the] Reformatory and other
State institutions; a traveller, familiar with all parts of the
United States; down the St. Lawrence several times before her
husband was known in public life; on the Mississippi from the
twin cities to New Orleans; on the lakes and the connecting
rivers from Duluth at the west end of Lake Superior to the
mouth of the St. Lawrence; on the Atlantic ocean from Port-
land to Fortress Monroe; on the Pacific from the Straits of
Fuca and Puget Sound to San Francisco; in every great city
of the country; familiar with all sorts and descriptions of men
and women, farmers, mechanics, artists, scholars, authors, clergy-
men, miners, ranchmen, sailors, fishermen, cowboys, soldiers,
camp followers, hospital people, the very poor and the very rich;
acquainted with all that comes to those who pass through the
most exciting contests in political life,--the contest of 1876,
the nomination, the long and doubtful canvass, the disputed
result; the life in the White House during four years; the life
of a retired ex-President in the old home at Spiegel Grove;
mingling freely always with the religious, the benevolent, the
fashionable, and the giddy; fond of all rational sports, games,
pleasures, and excitements; a matchless fisherwoman; delighted
with all fine animals and knowing them; in love with flowers,
gardening, and farming, and always and everywhere at home;
easily made happy, and with the faculty never excelled of mak-
ing all around her happy--always doing it; equally welcome
and prized in the house of affliction and suffering and in the
scenes of gay life; knowing more people, and known to more
people than, perhaps, any other woman of her time [or] that ever
lived;--is it strange that one so beloved by such multitudes
should have been mourned when she died? What tributes came
from the press, the pulpit, by letter, by resolutions of all sorts
of public bodies, from private persons, men, women and chil-
dren, from all the States and Territories of our own country
and from abroad! A woman with unsurpassed opportunities to
confer happiness, with wonderful powers to confer happiness,
632 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
and with a will and desire to make happy, never found in greater
measure in any human being.
Private.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, January 6, 1891.
DEAR MADAM:--Your favor of the first instant is before me.
I am confident that the governor of New York [David B. Hill]
will give due attention to the facts you spread before him in be-
half of the application for pardon you refer to. It is a mistake
to call on strangers in distant States to express opinions on
ex-parte statements. The tendency is to injure your case. It
looks as if you were relying on personal influence, clamor, in-
stead of the merits of your case. I must, therefore, decline, re-
spectfully, to comply with your request.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MRS. ADA SPRINGER.
January 7. Wednesday.--About midnight I heard Scott at
the telephone. He was receiving from the telegraph office a
message announcing the death of Charles Devens in Boston. I
could not learn if any particulars were given. The phone was
working badly. General Devens was a member of my Cabinet.
He has been for some years a judge of the Supreme Court of
Massachusets. He was a model gentleman. He was a bachelor.
He was an orator, a soldier of credit, carried a Rebel bullet in
his body, was much honored for character, ability, and life.
Lucy admired him; we were all fond of him. I would like to
attend the funeral. Many engagements are in the way. But I
would try to arrange them, if it were not for the inclement
Eastern winter which we hear of, and for the chance of losing
time and health on snow-bound trains. I sent the following
dispatch in the morning:--
"I mourn the death of my trusted and true friend General
Charles Devens. He was eminent in his profession. He was
a patriotic soldier and a wise counsellor. He will always be
remembered by those who knew him as a noble gentleman. I
regret exceedingly that I cannot attend the funeral."
DEATH OF GENERAL DEVENS 633
January 8. Thursday. -- I began with Lucy Keeler the work
of selecting tributes to Lucy for the sketch of her for Howe's
"Historical Collections." No easy job in the abundance of
material. It is probable that these tributes were to be found
in many thousands of the newspapers and periodicals of the
United States. Few and rare were the newspapers in which
they did not appear. It has been said that "perhaps no woman
that ever lived was so widely known and so widely mourned
when she died as Mrs. Hayes."
In the evening I attended the G. A. R. meeting and saw the new
officers installed. Called upon for a talk, I gave them an ac-
count of the death and services of General Devens. I go this
afternoon to the Soldiers' Home at Sandusky.
January 9. Friday. -- Attended a campfire in the great din-
ing-room of the Soldiers and Sailors' Home where a large as-
semblage of the veterans and citizens of Sandusky were gath-
ered. There was a good glee club.
I spoke third and made the longest speech of the evening--
perhaps fifty minutes. It was well received. I was content with
this my first speech this new year.
January 11. Sunday.--I have this morning written many
letters and am now square with correspondents. I decline all
invitations on my table today: To Ohio banquet in New York
next month; to Loyal Legion ditto, ditto; to Detroit Congrega-
tional Club.
Now I take up the sketch, etc., for Lucy--the darling!--
for Mr. Howe's "Collections." A gossippy book, but enough of
the solid to make its biography and history valuable.
[Columbus], January 14.--A good meeting of the board of
trustees [of the State University]. Got a full resolution for
forty thousand dollars for industrial training.
January 15. Thursday.--The [natural] gas going--gone.
The event and the sorrow of the time.--To Auntie Austin's,
Cleveland.
January 17. Saturday.--With Mrs. Herron to Fremont.
634 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
January 18. Sunday.--Steady winter weather. With Mrs.
Herron all day, reading, etc. No church.
Private.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, January 19, 1891.
MY DEAR SENATOR:--This reply to your letter is for your
own eyes alone. Governor Foster has been totally misinformed.
His opinions on the situation here are sheer nonsense. This is
an enthusiastic soldier town. To appoint McCulloch [post-
master] would offend the whole soldier sentiment and would
make a muss. They are both fair men personally, but for
months it has been generally understood that Mr. Louden-
schlager would be appointed. The appointment of Mr. Louden-
schlager would be satisfactory. He took no particular pains
to pile up papers. Within a week or two industrious efforts
have been made by other candidates. Petitions have been got
up. People signed freely to get rid of importunity. Letters
are given carelessly. But all will be well the moment that
Loudenschlager is appointed.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
HONORABLE JOHN SHERMAN.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT. OHIO, January 22, 1891.
MY DEAR GENERAL:--It is and has been one of my vanities
to keep engagements. I have practiced it. But now, for reasons
I need not detail, I may not do it. You can't count on me ab-
solutely. For this, as one principal reason, I did not venture
to commit myself to come to the memorial service as the orator
of the occasion. Again, I cannot, and ought not to undertake
the principal--the formal address. If on thinking it over you
find it worth while, I can speak ten or twelve minutes. Let
Senator Hoar, or some companion of the [Loyal] Legion, deliver
THE address, and let it be so understood. If this suits, you may
be sure I will come if I can any day from February 24 to March
20 which you may select. Now, don't let this interfere with your
FAULTS OF FIXED PRIESTHOOD 635
plans. You must drop me out if my suggestion in the least
embarrasses.*
January 23. Friday.--Mrs. Herron returned this morning
to her Cincinnati home after a visit we enjoyed so much. I
accompanied her to Toledo. Birchard, Mary, and the fine boy
met us at the station. After a few minutes the train started
with my most prized friend among all the living. I went to the
Triangle, dined, [and] remained until it was time for the eve-
ning train.
January 24. Saturday. -- The church and the clergy do good;
how much we do not know, probably cannot appreciate. Emer-
son says the sermon and the Sabbath are great gains for which
we are indebted to the church. There are many others. The
harm of a fixed professional priesthood is due to that principle
which leads all men to exaggerate--to magnify their office.
This leads them to increase the list of acts which they teach are
sinful. This, when it increases their own power. In like man-
ner they neglect to urge as essential virtues elements of character
and conduct which tend to weaken their influence, or which do
not enlarge it.
Touching temperance, there is in this country, at least, no half-
way house between total abstinence and the wrong side of the
question.
January 29. Thursday.--Finished a little talk for the West-
ern Reserve University inauguration at Cleveland February 4.
One idea in the line of my nihilism I get in, viz., that property
is a trust for the welfare of the public.
FREMONT, OHIO, January 30, 1891.
MY DEAR SIR:--I am informed that it has been reported in
the House of Representatives that (presumably by reason of
my connection with the Ohio Wesleyan and the Western Re-
serve Universities) I am opposed to the permanent provision
* Draft of letter, unsigned and unaddressed, undoubtedly to the chair-
man of the committee at Boston engaged in arranging for public services
in memory of General Charles Devens.
636 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
proposed by means of an annual tax for "the Ohio State Uni-
versity Fund." This is a total mistake. The higher education,
has been neglected in Ohio. Industrial education is greatly neg-
lected. I earnestly hope that every friend of either will support
the measure. Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
HONORABLE SAMUEL M. TAYLOR,
Columbus.
February 1. Sunday.--Walked as usual on the porch im-
mediately after rising; usually walk half, two-thirds, or a full
mile before breakfast. Do it at the rate of a mile in twenty
minutes--three miles an hour.
Mr. Albritton is having a very successful "season" of awaken-
ing in our church. He fills the church full. All of the back-
sliding or cold members seem to be interested, good numbers
are crowding to the altar, and many give their names to the
church.
SPIEGEL, FREMONT, OHIO, February 3, 1891.
DEAR MRS. HERRON:--I go this morning on the early train
to Cleveland to the inauguration of President Thwing of the
Western Reserve University. Various claims on my time have
prevented me from writing notes on your brother Clinton's
favorite essay--"Self-Reliance." This is not my first reading
of it. But I did not before fully appreciate its wisdom--in-
sight--intuition. The last half or one-third of it is in Emer-
son's best spirit. It is worth dwelling on. It does satisfy. In
it he repeats his idea of the answer to the questions -- Whence?
Whither?--as clearly as such transcendent thoughts can be ex-
pressed in finite terms by finite beings.
What a lift--something more than rest--your presence and
our sympathizing reading on high themes has given me! Thank
you. The bell rings and I go in haste.
With all thanks.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MRS. HARRIET C. HERRON,
Cincinnati.
WEALTH AND POVERTY 637
February 6. -- Returned from Cleveland on mail train reach-
ing home soon after 4 P. M., after a fine visit at Aunty Austin's.
The burning question of our time in all civilized countries is
the question of wealth and poverty, of capital and labor. Small
progress has yet been made towards its solution. Why? Be-
cause ignorance and not intelligence has taken hold of it. The
potent objection, the stronghold of the existing injustice is the
futility, not to say folly, of the remedies which ignorance is
able to contrive. Let men both intelligent and true to the in-
terests of the laborer take up the problem. All fair-minded
men admit that labor does not now get its fair share of the
wealth it creates. All see that wealth is not justly distributed.
Let education send into our society a body of laborers educated
and intelligent--able to deal with this grave question.
February 7. Saturday. -- Last Tuesday on early train to
Cleveland, so as to attend the funeral of Captain C. H. Morgan
of the Twenty-third O. V. I. Snow, wind, bitterly cold.
A short service and talk in the cold [cemetery] chapel. Cap-
tain Morgan's wife and mother and children from Buffalo pres-
ent. At the grave I spoke in two sentences the comrades' sor-
row, and their sympathy with the widow and orphans.
Wednesday at 11 A. M. [the] board of trustees of the col-
lege [met]. President Thwing all ready with docket and in a
prompt and businesslike way dispatched all that came before
us. He, the president, appeared to great advantage. A good
executive.
[At] 3 P. M. in the new Young Men's Christian Association's
hall, speaking by President Haydn, retiring, President Eliot,
of Harvard, Mr. McGiffert, and others, and myself for the
trustees. All passed off well.
Evening, 7:30, at the banquet at the Stillman. I spoke in a
jocular vein; Dr. Haydn, with wit; President Thwing, soberly,
impressively, and admirably.
February 10. Tuesday.--W. K. Rogers came as I was taking
my walk on the porch before breakfast. He is [here]
to have Mrs. Rogers buy with me Mrs. Webb's one-third of the
Duluth block for twelve thousand dollars. It is no speculation
638 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
but seems best in order to give us full control of it. We talked
over old times, Mr. Evarts' vanity, etc., and his kindness, good
nature, and agreeable ways. Also of Windom.
February 11. Wednesday. -- In the evening a rumor of Gen-
eral Sherman's death. He has had erysipelas for some days.
All beneath my roof are full of admiration and affection for you,
dear General. He is the most interesting and original character
now living in the world.
February 12. Thursday.--The news from General Sherman
is this morning: "The physicians have given up all hope. It is
only a question of hours." Alas!--He was loved and admired
by Lucy. He was my friend. Long before any other prominent
man, he said: "Our next President should be one of the volun-
teers, a man of character, a soldier of approved record, a man
like Governor Hayes of Ohio." He was with us on our famous
trip to California and Puget Sound in 1880. What kind words
he wrote about Lucy!
Spoke at 4 P. M. to a large audience of students, professors,
and a few citizens at Oberlin. Passed off well.
Cleveland, February 14. Saturday.--General Sherman died
at 1:50 P. M. Sent dispatch to Senator John Sherman -- con-
dolence. In the evening gave the Leader and [the] Plain Dealer
one-third of a column interview on General Sherman.
February 15. Sunday.--At 2 P. M. at the Stillman. Pre-
sided and spoke on General Sherman to the Companions of the
Loyal Legion. Read the letter on the death of his [son] Willie,
1863, at Memphis.
February 16. Monday.--About noon with Dr. ---, Gen-
eral Barnett, and Henry Sherman left for New York to attend
the funeral. Found the doctor a thoroughly read gentleman in
war matters and in many other directions, and a most agreeable
travelling companion. Sherman, nephew of the General, is in-
telligent and agreeable. The general [Barnett] is, as always,
genial, sensible, and good.
February 19. Thursday.--Funeral. Met intimately the
President; so full of appointment of Secretary of Treasury that
DEATH OF GENERAL SHERMAN 639
no room for anything else. Agreed with him as to the appoint-
ment of Foster; met Foster at his door. [Also] Ellis H.
Roberts, of Utica.
Met at Sherman's Cleveland, Depew, Choate, Hawley, Man-
derson, et al. Choate had charge of me; Depew, of Cleveland.
A spontaneous outpouring of people of all sorts and deep feeling
manifested.
Left on the train with mourners about 7 P. M. "Nearer my
God to Thee," "God be With us Till we Meet Again."
[Greeted] by silent masses of men and women--the faces of
all solemn, and full of sympathy, some weeping--at Lancaster,
Harrisburg, and [other cities].
St. Louis, February 21. Saturday.--Father Tom Sherman
[here]. Governor Stannard invited General Schofield and his
son-in-law to dinner with me at his fine homelike home.
February 23. Monday.--Left St. Louis with funeral party
Saturday evening. Reached Columbus at 1 P. M. yesterday.
Home today via Cleveland.
March 3.--To Columbus. Met with the university board.
In the evening addressed finance committee of Senate in favor
of one-twentieth mill act for the Ohio State University.
March 6. Friday.--Home with Laura.
March 9. Monday. -- "To know all would be to pardon all,"
is a French proverb. I would add, "God knows all." Spent
the day getting up my talk on Devens. It is rather unsatis-
factory. Laura aided me in the search for facts, and com-
ment in the Boston press and by Boston men.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, March 10, 1891.
MY DEAR THOMAS: -- I received from you or some other
friend a "Washington letter to Philadelphia Press" on the
President's expenses. It is carefully written and seems to be
trustworthy. So far as I am concerned it is in a good spirit,
but is totally misinformed as to the result.
640 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
The truth is, that having been adopted by my Uncle Birchard
when quite young, as he had been adopted by my father when
left an orphan as I was, I never was under the necessity to
study economy. He required me at school to keep an account
of my expenses, and occasionally examined it. But he never,
that I recall, found fault with me on the score of extravagance.
I never received in any office more than I expended. Rarely
as much. Possibly in the city solicitor's office of Cincinnati I
received as much as I spent, and about as much in the Presi-
dency. As governor and as Member of Congress, and in the
army, I always spent more than I received. My habits were
not expensive, and my family never lacked carefulness, but we
had enough to warrant it and we lived freely, travelled always
a good deal, and did not pinch ourselves in any respect.
As to the Presidency, this was the situation: We were op-
posed to the use of wines and liquors in our household. We
continued at Washington the habits of our Ohio home. A
bright and persistent correspondent, who failed to get the office
he wanted, attacked us savagely on all occasions. He started
many ill-natured stories showing that we were too economical,
and repeatedly charged that the total abstinence rule at the
White House was due to a desire to save expenses. We did
nothing that even seemed to warrant this attack. We spent in
hospitality, charities, and generous living the whole amount. My
belief is, that no others ever spent as much in the White House
as we did. Many old congressmen (Mr. Stevens, Fernando
Wood, and, I think, S. S. Cox) said repeatedly that they had
known and heard of no one who entertained as much. Mrs.
Hayes took pains always to have young ladies as guests from
all parts of the country, South as well as North. Special enter-
tainments were frequent. And the regular routine of affairs
was made exceptionally brilliant and expensive. Many new
dinners and entertainments were added to the "of course" af-
fairs. Mrs. Hayes was busy with her whole-hearted energy in
looking up the needy.
When we left Washington a story was started that I had
saved about twenty thousand dollars during my term. This
was shown by the reduction of my indebtedness to that amount.
EXPENSES AT WHITE HOUSE 641
This had an appearance of truth, and was perhaps derived
from one of the family. But on looking up affairs at home it
turned out that a large part of this reduction of my debts was
from collections on real estate sales made before I left home.
I left Washington with less than one thousand dollars.
If you find who the correspondent is, and that he is a fair-
minded man, as I think he is, you may, if it seems sensible
to do so, talk this matter up with him. But do not publish this
letter, which is for your information. The thing is not im-
portant now. I am not blamed by any person on the score of
economy so far as I know.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
HONORABLE THOMAS DONALDSON,
Philadelphia.
March 22. Sunday. -- Last evening at 7 P. M. returned with
Rutherford from the Boston trip. Cousin Charlotte Birchard
DeWitt came with us. Found all well at home.
Our Boston visit, trip, the Devens memorial, and all were
most gratifying in all respects. . . . [We] reached Boston
Wednesday afternoon. [Were] met by General Carse, Colonel
Rand, Colonel Livermore, Colonel Pope, General Fairchild.
Taken to the Vendome. Cordial welcome by these friends and
all very agreeable. Evening dined at the Algonquin Club by
Colonel Rand. Present, Colonel Rand, General Carse, General
Martin, Mr. W. D. Howells, Colonel Pope, General Fairchild,
R. P. Hayes.
[On the] 19th, Thursday, Webb, Mr. Cutler, General Schurz
and son Carl came. Dined, or lunched rather, with Howells,
Elinor, John, Mildred, and John G. Mitchell, Jr. Mr. Beard,
Senator Hoar, and many others called. Drove with General
Carse and Colonel Rand. In the evening the Music Hall was
crowded with distinguished people: governors, judges, lawyers,
et al. Decorations and proceedings fitting. Rev. Dr. [Phillips]
Brooks prays at a rushing pace--a real "spurt"--but the
language and matter are both choice. My piece was well
enough--better than I anticipated.
41
642 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
After, visited the Thursday Evening Club. Abbott Lawrence,
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Mr. Atkinson, etc., etc. Also the
Algonquin. A dinner with Carse, Rand, Schurz, Nicholson, etc.,
etc. Chancellorsville well fought over; like our Shiloh.
March 20 [Friday], with Carse visited the post-office--a
capital institution. General Carse ought to be Postmaster-Gen-
eral. I predicted it to him--two years hence.
March 23. Monday. -- [On the] 20th [of] March at Boston,
with General Carse and Colonel Rand, called on Governor Rus-
sell. A young, cheery, hopeful, gentlemanly man--said to be
of sound and level head--with a future. How strange. The
ancient commonwealth, the home of conservative opinion and
conduct, with its boy governor! But I liked him -- predicted
good things. I have hopes for him. God bless him! How
my heart goes out to promising clean young fellows!
Tried hot lemonade with a little whiskey to throw off a cold.
It probably does help.
Mrs. Albritton, Bristol, Thraves, Dewitt aid Fanny with her
lace curtains for dining-room.
March 24. Tuesday.--I hear of the death of General J. C.
Lee, of Toledo. He was one of the acquaintances with whom
I had much interesting intercourse, without great intimacy. We
ran together twice, I for governor and he for lieutenant-gover-
nor. He was a strong and able speaker -- too diffuse, too
"long-winded," but often eloquent, forcible, and effective. He
is about sixty-three years of age--yes, sixty-three in January.
We have been interested together in the Historical and Monu-
mental Association of the Maumee Valley. He was the life
and soul of the body. As secretary he did its whole work. Will
it survive him? -- Doubtful.
March 25. -- A letter from Newton M. Anderson, of the
Cleveland University School, invites me to speak on the 13th
[of] April, at the opening -- Monday evening. The school is
unique. Taking boys at ten, keeping them eight years, it tries
to develop and train the whole man -- body, mind, moral nature;
habits, manners, temper;--to make healthy, brave, graceful,
industrious as well as learned and intellectual men--skilled in
MODEL EDUCATION FOR BOYS 643
manly games and exercises, skilled in manual labor, fit for the
places they are to fill in life.
Our American society is changing, studying, thinking. The
man of the future is not [to] be an owner of privileges above
his fellows by inheritance of rank, or property, or special priv-
ileges. He may not be. The man of the future is to stand where
his gifts, his powers, his merits place him. Let him be so
trained that he can and will prefer to stand alone.
March 27. Friday. -- [Weather] too bad to attend funeral of
General Lee. Wrote a few thoughts for the University School
opening at Cleveland. Theme, a well-rounded education, or
education that fits the young for life and its duties.
SPIEGEL, March 28, 1891.
MY DEAR FRIEND:--Your letter of the 23d is before me. I
am still hoping for Mrs. Smith's recovery. How lasting some
wounds are! I can't put aside some dates. Twenty-one months
ago today we bore away my precious wife to her long home.
My eyes grow dim as the date is read at the top of this page.
But she was -- she is precious.
God bless you!
Ever sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
P. S.--My love to Mrs. Smith and do get rid of too much
business -- not of ALL. -- H.
HONORABLE WILLIAM HENRY SMITH.
March 31. Tuesday. -- To Columbus about 11 A. M. Met
Captain Cope at his office, also Mr. Wing. It was arranged
that I should meet them at 7:30 P. M. to go before the House
committee on the division of the fund for agricultural and me-
chanical colleges recently adopted. Wilberforce, an institution
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for colored students,
claims half the fund. [At] 7:30 P. M. met President Mitchell,
644 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
a three-fourths white man, Maxwell, ditto, before the committee.
Captain Cope made a good speech. I spoke about as usual.
COLUMBUS, April 1, 1891.
MY DEAR SIR:--Whatever the event of the present affair
and it ought not to be in favor of your claim--I feel satisfied
that Ohio can and ought to aid you to equip and support an in-
dustrial department at Wilberforce. I will gladly cooperate
with you in this. It will yield more than your equitable share
of the Morrill Act. Please think of this seriously.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
PRESIDENT MITCHELL.
FREMONT, April --, 1891.
MY DEAR COLONEL: -- It is very gratifying to be assured that
the Companions of Massachusetts are satisfied with the part in
the ceremonies in memory of General Devens that fell to me.
The affair as planned and carried out by your commandery was
so admirable that failure by others would have been a specially
regrettable circumstance. May I not venture to congratulate
you on your personal share in the success of the occasion? Your
skilful guiding hand was surely everywhere, but so adroitly
hidden that the affair seemed to have grown to perfection by its
own sweet will. With all brotherly regard to General Carse and
all Companions.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
COLONEL A. A. RAND,
Boston.
April 4. Saturday.--President Scott, of Ohio State Uni-
versity, the lecturer S. P. Leland, of Chicago, and Rev. Mr.
Albritton dined with us. President Scott prefers to leave the
presidency of the university; but if he is to remain wants it
settled soon. We are now at the forks of the road. We are
PROGRESS OF STATE UNIVERSITY 645
likely to have a good endowment under the one-twentieth mill
act and ought to mature a system of instruction and a general
policy for the future. We agree entirely about this. I advise
a meeting of the board as soon as the Legislature has acted on
all measures -- on appropriations, etc., etc. At this meeting we
ought to settle the question of the presidency for some years
to come. If it is deemed best to insist on President Scott, we
should relieve him from other duties. Dr. Orton is my choice.
But there seems no prospect of getting him to accept.
April 5. Sunday.--Talked over the presidency for the Ohio
State University with President Scott. We agree that Gladden,
Orton, and Tuttle are the preferred names. Can we get them?
Or any of them?
April 7. Tuesday. -- Our G. A. R. memorial meeting at To-
ledo--twenty-fifth anniversary--last evening was very suc-
cessful. I spoke my "piece" with unction. The reporter says
"delivered splendidly."
April 10. Friday. -- Dr. Curry is earnest and active as to the
work of the Slater Board. He speaks of a meeting in New
York, May 18. I will be disposed to support him throughout.
He is able, wise, zealous.
My next speech is for the G. A. R. State Encampment. I
must patch carefully together the best things I have said on the
war--the ideas of the war, the comradeship, the results, espe-
cially peace.
April 11. Saturday.--Read "Cymbeline"--the Hayes ("Haie")
incident in the lane when the Britons turned on the Romans and
restored their fortunes.
April 13. Monday. -- To Cleveland to speak in the evening
at the opening of the University School. The affair was in every
way gratifying. The parents of Newton M. Anderson, the
principal of the school, were present, and of course very happy
to witness the triumph and honors he has won.
The audience was intelligent and enthusiastic. My part in
it was well received.
646 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
April 15. Wednesday.--Reached Fremont at 4:30 P. M.
[In Cleveland] called on General Leggett. He confirms my
recollection of the General Johnston affair in connection with
General Johnston's proposed invitation into my Cabinet, viz.,
that General Leggett found at Richmond that General Johnston's
character and conduct were patriotic and upright, but that some
associations and connections were such that it might be em-
barrassing to him and to me to offer him the place.
The general [Leggett] has suffered seriously from a cold
taken the day of General Sherman's funeral in New York. I
found myself cold and got out of the carriage and walked per-
haps a half mile or more. I asked the Secretary of War to join
me after I had gone a few squares and he (Mr. Proctor) did
so gladly.
April 16. Thursday. -- Emerson says: "Through the years
and the centuries, through evil agents, through toys and atoms,
a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams."
What Mr. Emerson calls a "beneficent and irresistible
tendency," the simple and sincere mind will continue still to
call by the old Saxon word which signifies the Supreme, Eternal
Being, God.
April 17. Friday. -- Planted a mountain holly about four
and a half feet high on our lot southwest of the monument --
one of a large number given me by Admiral Ammen twelve
years ago and planted in Spiegel Grove. Also a beautiful
Japanese evergreen, with a lovely golden hue -- one of a great
number of Japanese trees and shrubs sent me by our consul some
ten or twelve years ago. It is more than seven feet high.
SPIEGEL GROVE, April 17, 1891.
MY DEAR SIR:--In reply to your question as to the use of
wine at public and large private dinners, I am not confident that
there is any marked decline in the practice of placing it on the
table at such banquets. But if my observation is correct, the
number of those who decline to partake of it is increasing, and
THE GROWTH OF TEMPERANCE 647
the number of those who drink to intoxication, even in the
slightest degree, is less than it was a few years ago.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
EDWARD W. BOX,
Ladies' Home Journal.
April 19. Sunday. -- Have read Montaigne and Dr. Curry's
"Gladstone" the past week. Am to speak in Steubenville Tues-
day week. Will patch up a soldier speech.
In substance Montaigne says: The greatest piece of good
fortune for a man is "to be born at the right time."
April 20. Monday. -- Read about Macaulay; finished his es-
say on "Church and State" in which he uses up Gladstone. The
Grand Old Man, with his almost sixty years of conspicuous pub-
lic life, is nearer right now on the vital questions than ever
before. He is not a model of clearness and force in his style.
Macaulay finds him, more than fifty years ago, eloquent, stately,
grave, and religious, but lacking in definiteness, logic, and other
great qualities.
April 21. Tuesday. -- Reading "The Light of the World"
by Edwin Arnold, and finished preparation for G. A. R. speech.
April 22. Wednesday. -- Clark Waggoner, an honest and in-
telligent man, an earnest worker in honest politics, with no zeal-
ous watchfulness or tact in behalf of his own promotion or
pocket, needs a place. He is now nearly seventy-one. I do what
I can. The fates seem against him. He called today and
lunched with us.
April 23. Thursday. -- This morning finished the poem of
Christ's life on earth. Mary Magdalene the sinner becomes
angelic. The story seems more mythical, less real and authentic,
as told here.
April 24. Friday.--Received a dispatch from R. F. Grundy,
Baltimore, of the death of his father Richard Grundy. He was
formerly in charge of the lunatic asylum at Dayton, afterwards
648 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES
at Athens. A very able, wise, and skilful man in his profession,
and of large general ability and culture. I sent a dispatch of
condolence and appreciation. He was one of the friends made
in public life, when I was governor of Ohio, with whom my
relations were intimate.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, April 24, 1891.
MY DEAR SIR:--If I can do anything for our old friend
Charley Cist, I will gladly do it. You express precisely my
opinion and feelings about him, and I am obliged to you for
giving me an opportunity to unite with you in his behalf. I
will immediately write to Mr. McGuffey in explicit terms rec-
ommending the course you suggest.
Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
HONORABLE GEORGE HOADLY.
SPIEGEL GROVE, FREMONT, OHIO, April 24, 1891.
MY DEAR SIR:--I learn by letter from Governor Hoadly
that there is a movement to admit to the Old Men's Home of
Cincinnati my old friend, Charles E. Cist. I believe I am fully
informed of the unfortunate facts in his life. Nevertheless I
think of him as a good man. He fell under circumstances of
great temptation. Who of us has not? The home is an excel-
lent charity. If I were in charge of it I would prove the ex-
cellence and genuineness of its charity by extending its benefits
to Charley Cist.
In the most explicit and decided terms I recommend his ad-
mission to the home.
With all regard. Sincerely,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MR. ALEXANDER H. McGUFFEY,
Cincinnati.
THE END.
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