19. Rutherford B. Hayes

The Hayes presidency occurred at a critical time in American history.  This was during the reconstruction period following the civil war.  It was during his administration that military occupation ended and self rule were returned to the former rebellious states.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) was born and raised in Ohio.  His father died before Rutherford was born, so his uncle Sardis helped raise him and became a father figure.  After attending law school at Harvard, Hayes returned to Ohio to practice law.  He started practicing law in a town called Lower Sandusky (now Fremont).  Business was slow at the beginning, but he was able to represent his uncle Sardis on some real estate litigation.  In 1850 he decided to move to Cincinnati and opened a law practice with John Herron.  Due to the fact that Cincinnati was just across the river from Kentucky, many of his legal cases involved runaway slaves.  Hayes defended several such cases due to his strong abolitionist views (probably strengthened by his recent courting of Lucy Webb, who was firmly against slavery and drinking).  His work defending fugitive slaves also brought him to the attention of the newly formed Republican Party.  The city solicitor of Cincinnati was Hayes’ first elected office in 1859.

With the start of the Civil War, Hayes put his law practice on hold and joined the 23rd  Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a major.  Notable within his unit was a young private, William McKinley, who would also become president; Stanley Matthews, who went on to become a U.S. Senator and Supreme Court Justice; and future Congressman Joseph Kennedy.

Hayes was wounded five times during the Civil War leading his troops into battle.  He served with distinction and became a legend back in Ohio as stories of his heroism found trickled back home.  By the end of the war Hayes had been promoted to brigadier general.  In 1864 while still in the field, he was nominated and won a seat in the United States Congress without once campaigning. 

During his first term as a U.S. Congressman, Hayes identified with the more moderate wing of the Republican party, but was willing to vote with the radicals.  He agreed with the Republican view that the southern states should be restored to the Union, but not without laws protecting the recently freed slaves.  During his second term, he was the chairman of a committee on the Library of Congress.  He secured funding from the congress to expand the library’s science collection.

Hayes returned to Ohio after two terms in the House of Representatives to run for, and win, election to the governor’s seat.  During his first term he was fairly restricted on what he could accomplish because the legislature was controlled by the Democrats and the Governor of Ohio had no veto power.  In spite of these restrictions he was able to establish a reform school for girls and a school for deaf-mutes.  Education was becoming a cornerstone of Hayes beliefs and something he would pursue long after his presidency.  During his second term the Republicans took control of the legislature.  This control allowed Ohio to pass the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guaranteed the right to vote to all Americans regardless of race or color.

In 1872 Hayes left the governor’s seat and retired to private life.  In this time his uncle Sardis Birchard died, leaving him Hayes his home, Spiegel Mansion, and his substantial wealth.  His retirement didn’t last too long and he was elected to a third term as Governor of Ohio in 1875.

The presidential election of 1876, the year of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, is one of the most well-known elections in American Presidential history.  It is famous because it was tainted with allegations of fraud, voter intimidation and a stolen election (no this is not 2000).  Hayes was running against Samuel Tilden from New York.  Three days after the election Tilden was leading Hayes by an electoral vote of 184-165.  There were still 20 outstanding electoral votes in dispute in Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana and, yes, Florida.  Ultimately a congressional commission comprised of fifteen members (7 Republicans, 7 Democrats and 1 Independent) representing the House (5), Senate (5) and the Supreme Court (5) were charged with deciding the disputed votes.  Obviously it was decided in favor of Hayes, but only after a compromise that promised Hayes would withdraw federal troops from the southern states, accept the election of Democratic governments in the south, the appointment of a southern Democrat to Hayes’ cabinet and funding for the Texas and Pacific railroad.

There were several major issues that Hayes had to deal with during his single term.  Two of them were the removal of military rule in the remaining southern states and that his resolve to deal with the issue of patronage.  In dealing with patronage, he was striking at the heart of power for many people.  Since the time of Jackson, politicians and political bosses got to select people for certain roles.  In one particular case Hayes effectively fired the Collector of the Port of New York through an Executive Order.  The Collector of the Port of New York, as it would happen, was future president Chester A. Arthur.  This was a very lucrative position because he earned a percentage of the goods that passed through the port.  I’ll cover the patronage issue further in my entry on Arthur.

During his first year in office the largest labor dispute to date occurred in the form of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.  At issue were wages for the workers.  In order to make up for financial losses that the owners incurred during the Panic of 1873 they started cutting the employees’ salaries.  Workers started striking in West Virginia and spread throughout the East and Midwest.  Hayes sent in the military on multiple occasions at the request of governors to quell the outbreaks.  In each case, the rioting ended before the troops were engaged.  No rioters were killed by the military, but it was the first time that federal troops were sent in to break up a strike against a private company.

Hayes was dedicated to the principal of equal rights for all, regardless of color or race, and felt that the best way to bring up the disenfranchised through was through education.

After his presidency, Hayes remained active in the issues that he felt were important.  He continuously worked to improve veterans’ organizations and served on boards associated with education.

Hayes Trivia

• As a young man, Hayes fought lyssophobia, or the fear of going insane
• First Lady Lucy Hayes got the nickname Lemonade Lucy for banning alcohol from the White House.
• Hayes is one of only two presidents (T. Roosevelt) whose son won the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Major Webb Hayes won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Spanish American War.
• Hayes is one of four presidents that did not win the popular vote: J. Q. Adams, Hayes, B. Harrison, G. W. Bush.
• During his second term as Governor of Ohio, Hayes oversaw the establishment of a state Agricultural and Mechanical College.  This later became Ohio State University.  I won’t hold this against him.
• Because March 4, 1877 fell on a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office privately on Saturday, March 3, in the Red Room of the White House. He took the oath publicly on the following Monday.
• Hayes was the first president to talk on a telephone in a call to Alexander Graham Bell.  His response to the experience was “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”  It’s a good thing he didn’t live to see Twitter!
• After his disputed election Hayes started receiving death threats.  He was encouraged to go to Washington DC in secret.  Hayes refused and rode into town in an open carriage.  He did allow six special government agents to accompany him.  It was the first time that the “secret service” protected the president.
• In spite of the compromise many Democrats referred to Hayes as Rutherfraud.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Lucy Ware Webb (1831-1889, m. 1852)
• Children: Sardis Birchard Austin (1853-1926), James Webb Cook (1856-1935), Rutherford Platt (1858-1927), Joseph Thompson (1861-1863), George Crook (1864-1866), Frances (Franny) (1867-1950), Scott Russell (1871-1923), Manning Force (1873-1874) 
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1876-1880
• Born: Oct 4th, 1822 (Delaware, Ohio) 
• Died: Jan 16th, 1893 (Fremont, Ohio)

18. Ulysses S. Grant

Just days before his death in 1885 Grant completed writing what many consider one of the finest political autobiographies.  His autobiography, skips through much of his really early life, but does discuss the circumstances around the fact that Grant’s father was able to obtain an appointment to West Point for him.  Grant’s father had to work a deal with a man that he had a falling out with years before, but the man was the influential Congressman Thomas Hamer. While Grant wasn’t sold on the idea of a military career he didn’t have many other options, as he detested the idea of working in his father’s leather shop.  At West Point, Grant graduated 21st in a class of 39.  He did, however, display his skills in horsemanship and mathematics.  Grant fought during the Mexican War and was twice brevetted for bravery.  In 1854 he resigned from the Army.  He worked a farm in St. Louis unsuccessfully and had a few other also unsuccessful businesses.  Ironically, he ended up being hired as an assistant at his father’s tannery in Galena, Illinois in 1860.

When Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers in April, 1861, Grant worked to raise a company of men.  The early days of the war saw him stationed in Illinois.  His first major victory was at Fort Donelson where he had to rally his troops after an initial defeat, but eventually forced the Confederate defenders to surrender.  Within a year (April 1862) Grant was commanding a force of nearly 50,000 men.  At the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate forces were determined to control the western region.  The Union forces were alerted to the impending attack, but did not create adequate fortifications.  In the initial assault, Grant’s forces were pushed back, but once again he was able to rally the forces and counterattack.  The Union victory at Shiloh was a costly one for both sides, with death tolls numbering over 23,000 between them.  It was the highest casualty number in any battle in the Civil War up to that time.  He continued to win battles with victories at Luka and Corinth in Mississippi.

The battle that really brought him to the attention of Abraham Lincoln took place at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Grant had attempted direct assaults on the city but was constantly repelled by the defenders.  Rather than retreat he decided to go around and lay siege to Vicksburg from the other side.  The siege lasted for 7 weeks, ending with the Confederates’ surrender.  The victory at Vicksburg gave the Union army control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy.

In March 1864 Lincoln put Grant in charge of the entire Union Army.  With the recent promotion, he decided to go after Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.  What followed was a series of bloody battles and Grant was criticized for the loss of life.  The battles included (in no particular order), The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, The Bloody Angle, Five Forks and Petersburg.  Grant knew that he had more resources than Lee; he just had to keep hitting him hard without time to regroup or refresh his supplies.  Eventually the tactic worked and Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865, essentially ending the Civil War.  Grant was put in charge of the military occupation of the southern states after the war and promoted to the newly created rank of General of the Army.

Grant won an electoral vote landslide in the 1868 presidential election.  It was the first time that he had won an election, and, at the age of 46, was the youngest man elected to the presidency at that time.

Grant’s two terms (the first full two-term president since Andrew Jackson) were marred by several scandals and two major financial crises.  There has been quite a bit of criticism of Grant’s choices for cabinet on top of that.  He seemed to be selecting people for his friendship with them rather than for their qualifications.

During the Civil War, the government had printed “green backs” for use as currency.  This paper money was not backed by anything other than the government’s word.  Over time, these needed to be replaced by the gold backed currency.  One problem was the volatility of the value of the green backs.  One day it would be almost equivalent to a dollar, and at other times it could be worth half of one.  While this was going on, two Wall Street speculators decided to try to corner the gold market.  This pushed up the value of gold and, along with it, the gold backed currency.  Their attempt caused a financial crisis called Black Friday on Sept 24, 1869, and the stock market was forced to close.  Generally Grant gets bad marks from historians by not moving faster to resolve the “green back” issue.

Black Friday was definitely a home grown crisis.  The Panic of 1873 was a worldwide problem that started in Vienna.  In the United States, there was a precursor to the “Tech Bubble” of the 1990’s going on.  In this case it was the railroad companies.  After the Civil War there was a massive investment in building railroads across the country.  The ensuing depression would last for 5 years.  Without a central banking system to use as a tool against these recessions, the American economy would continue to have this cycle of boom and bust with the federal government appearing ineffective.

The first scandal to barrage the Grant administration involved the Credit Mobilier of America Corporation.  In short, a group of shareholders of Union Pacific Railroad, including Senator Ames of Massachusetts, bought the Pennsylvania Fiscal Company and changed the name to the Credit Mobilier of America Corporation.  Credit Mobilier turned around and bought the last shares of Union Pacific Railroad and effectively combined the companies.  Union Pacific Railroad had received loans, subsidies and land grants from the government to build a railroad from the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean.  Union Pacific would turn around and award the actual construction to Credit Mobilier.  Essentially, Union Pacific started awarding large government contracts to itself.  The construction costs that were reported and paid were often twice as much as the actual costs.  When the scandal started to surface, Senator Ames attempted to delay the investigation by handing out shares of Credit Mobilier to several congressmen and senators.  While Grant is not directly implicated in this scandal, one of his personal secretaries was involved.

There were 11 scandals that directly implicated the Grant administration during his 2 terms.  Grant was not personally implicated in any of them, but he is criticized for either not paying closer attention to them, or not handling them more quickly.  The biggest scandal was The Whiskey Ring.  Politicians, most of them Republicans, were able to siphon off millions of dollars in tax revenue for personal gain.  When the scandal finally broke, it seemed that corruption within the federal government was becoming the norm.

Grant had been elected to two terms by large margins and was very popular up until the string of scandals hit the country.  He left office at the end of his second term with the lowest approval rating of his presidency.

Following the end of his presidency, he embarked on a world tour and was well received by kings and queens in many countries.  They returned to New York City at the end of an expensive two years.  Grant got bilked out of most of his remaining investments by Ferdinand Ward.  At this point he was forced into bankruptcy and had to sell off some of his Civil War mementos.  He started to write what would become a bestselling autobiography at the same time.  The proceeds from the book would allow his family to live comfortably.

Grant trivia:

• He smoked at least 20 cigars a day.  After an important Civil War victory his supporters sent him over 10,000 cigars!  He died unsurprisingly from throat cancer.
• Thomas Hamer mistakenly put Grant’s name down as Ulysses S. Grant. Grant actual birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, although he often went by Ulysses. Hamer assumed that Grant’s middle name was his mother’s maiden name of Simpson. Ulysses didn’t mind and started going by U.S. Grant and was often called Sam by his peers.
• He is one of 6 presidents that the name we know them by is not exactly their birth name; Cleveland, Wilson, Coolidge, Ford, Clinton.  Three used their middle name, two were adopted and one was an error (Grant’s).
• The house where Grant died is now on the grounds of a prison.
• It was Mark Twain that convinced Grant to write his memoirs.  Twain then went on to promote the book and helped grow it into a best seller.
• Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?  Well, technically nobody since it is above ground (you don’t get buried in a tomb).  However, Grant and his wife Julia are in the tomb.  The tomb, located in New York City’s Riverside Park, is the largest mausoleum in the United States.
• Yellowstone, the country’s first national park, was established during Grant’s presidency.
• Grant was the first of an Ohio dynasty of presidents (unless you count W. H. Harrison who lived briefly in Ohio).  Seven of the next eleven presidents would come from his home state; Grant, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, McKinley, Taft, Harding. There is, of course, a dispute about where W. H. Harrison’s official state. He was born in Virginia, and is thus claimed by them.
• Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1863.  The rank was previously only held by George Washington (although Winfield Scott was given a Brevet promotion to Lieutenant General)
• Grant tried for, and lost, a bid for an unprecedented 3rd term.  He lost the Republican nomination to James Garfield in 1880.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Julia Dent
• Children: Fredrick (1850-1912), Ulysses (1852-1929), Nellie (1855-1922), Jesse (1858-1934)
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1868-1876
• Born: April 27th, 1822 (Point Pleasant, Ohio) 
• Died: July 23, 1885 (Wilton, New York)