#19
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
1877-1881
Family
• Father:Rutherford Hayes
• Mother:Sophia Birchard Hayes
• Sibling: Sister Fannyh A. Platt.
• Wife:Lucy Ware Webb
• Children:Four sons and one
daughter.
• Father was a merchant and a
farmer.
Background
• Rutherford was born October 4th,1822
in Delaware, Ohio.
• He was called Rudd for a nickname as a
child.
• Young Rutherford and his sister Fanny
Arabella were raised by their mother
and her younger bachelor brother
Sardis Birchard who was a successful
businessman.
Education
• Hayes attended school in Delaware
Norwalk,Ohio, and Middletown
Connecticut.
• His teachers described him as a well
informed and polite.
• He was given a unusual amount of
schooling then on living in Ohio.
• He attended a Methodist Seminary at
Norwalk, then Isaac Webb’s private
school at Middletown, Connecticut.
(later absorbed in to Wesylan
University) and Kenyan College.
Education part 2
• He graduated from Kenyon college
at Gambier, Ohio in 1842 as class
valedictorian. He then went to
Columbus to study law and after a
year he entered Harvard Law
school. He finished in 1185, having
become and interesting mixture of
New England “gentlemen” and
Ohio “Buckeye”.
Marriage
• Hayes married Lucy Webb in 1852.
She was the 1st president’s wife
with a college degree. She
graduated from Wesleyan Female
college in Cincinnati at 18. She
was a lady of strong passions and
was extremely influential with
helping Hayes of his temperance
and abolitionism.
Lucy Webb
• She was the first wife
president to graduate
• She was also the first
president to be called
of a
from college.
wife of a
“first lady”.
The Hayes’s House
Early Career and Politics
• Rutherford B. Hayes was a young
lawyer in Cincinnati.
• Hayes become a Major General in the
Civil War, but was wounded and had to
return to Ohio.
• He was elected governor 3 times, and
eventually served as a member of the
US House of Representatives.
Personality
• Hayes was known as a straight laced
man, and thought to be quite religious.
• Hayes was much like Thomas Jefferson,
in that they both liked to improve their
houses. In fact Jefferson was the only
President that was more involved than
Hayes in construction of his own home.
His home was a direct reflection of his
own personality and character.
Election
• In the Election of 1876 Hayes (OH,
Republican) went Against Samuel
J. Tilden (Democrat, NY). Though
losing the popular vote he beat
Tilden by 1 Electoral vote. The
Compromise of 1877 convinced
the Democrats that they should
accept The Commission's 8-7 vote,
which made Hayes the New
President.
State Overall votes
Presidency
• In one of the most controversial and closest presidential
elections Hayes managed to become the 19th President.
• He was the Only president whose election was decided by a
congressional commission.
• Hayes sought out to institute some modest Civil Service
reform.
• He removed Federal Troops from the South, some said as
part of the “bargain” that got him elected.
• He used Federal Troops to put down the Great Railroad
Strike.
• He returned the nation to a strict gold standard.
• He was the 1st president to have a typewriter and telephone
in office.
• The 1st president to travel to the West Coast during his
presidency.
Legacy
• Though other presidents served in the
Civil War, Hayes was the only one to
have been wounded.
• He is known as a decent man, but one
who came to power under dubious
circumstances.
• His attempts at Civil Service reform are
generally respected, but his removal of
troops from the South, is largely
blamed for the Jim Crow segregation.