The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-01-20
THE ATTACKS ON Ix-pREsIDENT HAYES.


THE ATTACKS ON EX-PREsIDENT HAYES.
The New York Sun, which for many
years past has pursued the late express
ident Hayes with diabolical malignity,
concludes an obituary notice by saying:
After his retirement from the Office to
which another had been elected Mr..
Hayes returned to his home in Fremont,
where he continued until his death in
the peaceful pursuit of raising chickens"
Editorially it says that General Hayes
failed in the greatest crisis of his life,
meaning that he should have declined
the presidency after the electoral COM
Mission had decided in his favor. and
that for this failure he will OCCUPY a
place unique in history, pilloried there
for all ages as the first and last fraudu-
lent President of the United States"
Other Democratic papers have uttered
similar slurs.
There would be no profit in reopening
the great electoral controversy of 1876,
but the truth of history requires it to be
said that no person directly or remotely
connected with it passed through the
terrible ordeal with more dignity or
came out of it with more honor than did
Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes. The crisis was
one of the greatest peril. The passions
of men were excited to- an extraordinary
degree. and for many weeks it seemed
as if a spark would cause an explosion
that might plunge the country into civil
war. During all this time General
Hayes neither did nor said anything to
add to the excitement. He quietly
awaited the decision of the controversy
by such methods as Congress, in its wis
dom. might adopt. At no time did he
give the slightest indication of seeking
the presidential Office, much less of de-
sirIng his friends to seize it for him.
Circumstances had made him the candi-
date of the Republican party, and, as
things fell out, it became necessary to
resort to an unusual method to decide
the result of the election. For this Gen.
Hayes wasin no way responsible. When
the electoral commission decided in his
favor the whole country breathed freer.
believing that a most dangerous crisis
had been safely bridged over. For him
to have refused to take the Office wheIf
it had been solemnly decided that he
was entitled to it would have been a
most unpatriOtic act. 1t would have
precipitated new crisis more danger
Gus than the one just passed. An act Of
such craven cowardice would have made
him Infamous in history. He took the
office of Presidents with title that was
beyond dispute, and gave the country
one of the cleanest administrations 1T
ever had.
The oft-repeared sheer that General
Hayes, on quitting the presidency, ere
tired to the peaceful pursuit of raising
chickens" is dishonoring only to those
who make it. The same might have
been said of Washington, who spent the
closing years of his life amid the quiet
shades of Mount Vernon, in the peace
full pursuits of Virginia planter. Prob
ably there were chickens at Mount
Vernon, too. We venture the assertion
that no ex-President ever carried him.
self in a more dignified way or more
strictly in accordance with the best ira
ditions of the office than General Hayes
did. His post-official career was one of
/, beautiful simplicity, rich in all the ele-
ments of ideal American citizenship.
| Occupying himself with his home life,
his private affairs, his correspondence
and with many philanthropic move
7 ments, he awaited with serene COM
posture the end of his career. And it is
| to his infinite honor that he never con-
descended to reply to. to notice or in
any way refer to the cruel assaults and
| the more cruel sneers and gibes that
we're continually made upon him. They
fell harmless at his feet. His silence
was the triumph of firm consciousness
of duty we'll performed. the victory of a
noble nature. His detractors simply al
vertise themselves as despicable.