As the 19th President of the United States (1877-1881), Rutherford B. Hayes oversaw the end of Reconstruction. He initiated the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War. Specifically, he withdrew troops from the Reconstruction states in order to restore local control and good will. This was a decision that many perceived as a betrayal of African Americans in Southern states.
Rutherford B. Hayes is known for winning one of the closest presidential elections in history. It was a heavily contested election that was not settled for months after the actual election! In the end, an Electoral Commission made up of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats voted along party lines in favor of Hayes and he won by a final electoral vote of 185 to 184 for Tilden.
Many say he won by fraud and cheated in order to win the presidency! This earned him the nickname “His Fraudulency.”
Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes
1. “I am not liked As a President by The politicians in office, in The press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide The judgment The sober second thought of The people.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
2. “Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for The support of free schools by The State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
3. “We are in a period when old questions are settled and The new are not yet brought forward. Extreme party action, if continued in such a time, would ruin The party. Moderation is its only chance. The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
4. “Free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands, and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
5. “The man who does that which avails in reforms or other good works always has clubs thrown at him. The nobodies are passed over in Silence, or with good natured unmeaning compliments after they leave high places.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
6. “Abolish plutocracy if you would abolish poverty. As millionaires increase, pauperism grows. The more millionaires, The more paupers.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
7. “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 ofsuperstition and folly have grown up around its forms and ceremonies. But The truth in it is one of The deep sentiments in human nature.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
8. “Nobody ever left The presidency with less regret, less disappointment, fewer heart burnings, or any general content with The result of his term (in his own heart, I mean) than I do. Full of difficulty and trouble at first, I now find myself on smooth waters and under bright skies.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
9. “Personally I Do not resort to force – not even The force of law – to advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and above all The influence of example – of fashion.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
10. “Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is The debtor that is ruined by hard times.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
11. “He [William Merritt Chase] is, I suspect, getting a very truthful likeness. I would like it better if [it] was not so gray, so cramped about The eyes, and not quite so corpulent. But is this not quarreling with nature?”– Rutherford B. Hayes
12. “My father and mother in 1817 were forty-nine days on The road with their emigrant wagons [from Vermont] to Ohio. More than two days for each hour that I spent in The same journey.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
13. “Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration; but The soldier’s occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
15. “The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
16. “The truth is, this being errand boy to one hundred and fifty thousand people tires me so by night I am ready for bed instead of soirees.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
17. “My only objection to The arrangements there is The two-in-a-bed system. It is bad…. But let your words and conduct be perfectlypure–such As your mother might know without bringing a blush to your cheek…. If not already mentioned, Do not tell your mother of The doubling in bed.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
18. “Do not let your bachelor ways crystallize so that you can’t soften them when you come to have a wife and a family of your own.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
19. “I am less disposed to think of a West Point education As requisite for this business than I was at first. Good sense and energy are The qualities required.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
20. “In avoiding The appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
21. “These semi-traitors [Union generals who were not hostile to slavery] must be watched. Let us be careful who become army leaders in The reorganized army at The end of this Rebellion. The man who thinks that The perpetuity of slavery is essential to The existence of The Union, is unfit to be trusted. The deadliest enemy The Union has is slavery – in fact, its only enemy.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
22. “What Congress and The popular sentiment approve is rarely defeated by reason of constitutional objections. I trust The measure will turn out well. It is a great relief to me. Defeat in this way, after a full and public hearing before this [Electoral] Commission, is not mortifying in any degree, and success will be in all respects more satisfactory.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
23. “Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is The debtor that is ruined by hard times.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
24. “I regard The inflation acts As wrong in all ways. Personally I am one of The noble army of debtors, and can stand it if others can. But it is a wretched business.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
25. “My hobby more and more is likely to be common school education, or universal education.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
26. “I have The greatest aversion to being a candidate on a ticket with a man whose record As an upright public man is to be in question–to be defended from The beginning to The end.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
27. “The study of tools As well As of books should have a place in The public schools. Tools, machinery, and The implements of The farmshould be made familiar to every boy, and suitable industrial education should be furnished for every girl.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
28. “I Do not think a revival of business will be greatly postponed by [Samuel J.] Tilden’s election. Business prosperity does not, inmy judgment, depend on government so much As men commonly think.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
29. “I am loaded down to The guards with educational, benevolent, and other miscellaneous public work, I must not attempt to Do more. I cannot without neglecting imperative duties.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
30. “The filth and noise of The crowded streets soon destroy The elasticity of health which belongs to The country boy.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
31. “The progress of society is mainly The improvement in The condition of The workingmen of The world.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
32. “I have a talent for silence and brevity. I can keep silent when it seems best to Do so, and when I speak I can, and Do usually, quit when I am done. This talent, or these two talents, I have cultivated. Silence and concise, brief speaking have got me some laurels, and, I suspect, lost me some. No odds. Do what is natural to you, and you are sure to get all The recognition you are entitled to.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
33. “You know I am given to antiquarian and genealogical pursuits. An old family letter is a delight to my eyes. I can prowl in old trunks of letters by The day with undiminished zest.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
34. “General [John] Pope is impulsive and hasty, but energetic, and, what is of most importance, patriotic and sound–perfectly sound.I look for good results.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
35. “How strange a scene is this in which we are such shifting figures, pictures, shadows. The mystery of our existence–I have no faith in any attempted explanation of it. It is all a dark, unfathomed profound.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
36. “Both parties are injured by what is going on at Washington. Both are, therefore, more and more disposed to look for candidates outside of that atmosphere.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
37. “Evening attend two “fandangos.” Girls not very pretty but exceedingly graceful. [You] pay a dime for a figure and refreshments foryour doxy, who instead of eating prudently stores her cakes, etc., in a basket to be taken home for The family.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
38. “One of The tests of The civilization of people is The treatment of its criminals.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
39. “This is a government of The people, by The people, and for The people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
40. “If any of my men kill prisoners, I’ll kill them.”– Rutherford B. Hayes
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Video: Get to Know Rutherford B. Hayes in Only 60 Seconds!
Here’s everything you need to know about Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth President of the United States, in just 60 seconds.
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Summary
When Hayes ran for President he said he would only run for one term. He kept his word and refused renomination by the Republican Party in 1880. In retirement he devoted himself to humanitarian causes, specifically prison reform and educational opportunities for Southern black youth.
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