Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-01-26

| Under the First Call for Troops
by President Lincoln the literary club of
| which Mr.. Hayes was n member organized
a company, and he was elected captain,
| and on the 7th of June following the
| governor of Ohio commissioned him major
of the Twenty-thrd regiment Ohio in
iantry.
1T is both amusing and instructive to 20
over the roll of this regiment and note
how many future great men were con-
cealed in it under such modest titles as
Colonies w. s. Rosecrans aud James NJ
Comlay, Lieutenant Colonel Stanley
Matthews Lieutenant William Mckinley,
.Jr., and others. Here, too, we find evil
dence that, though Major Hayes hadibeen
retcent in conversation, he had acquired
quite a reputation as a speaker, for it was
largely on account of his ability as an ora
tor in rousing popular patriotism that he
received his commission.
At this late day, too, one can afford to
smile at the wild confusion of the times
recruits pouring into Columbus ten times
! as fast as tents could be provided, the raw
adjutant general dying about like a sud
denly beheaded hen" and everybody blam-
Ing Governor Dennison. who frankly con
fesscd that he did not know - field officer
from grand marshal" and handed over
all his military power to the suddenly Gre
nted major general, George Is. Mcclellan.
Suffice it that Major Hayes regiment got
into West Virginia in July and did splen-
hid service there.
He was judge advocate for short
tim c, was commissioned lieutenant colonel
Oct. ~, 1861, and greatly distinguished
himself at the battle of South Mountain,
Oct. IA, 1852, where he was severely
wounded. Soon afterward he became
colonel of the regiment arnl as such par
tcularly distinguished himself in many
| movemen is and battles. He led desper-
ate charge on ClOyd mountain, and ut the
first battle of Winchester won the ap-
plause of the whole army. But it was at
the serond battle of Winchester r, Sept. 10,
1864, that he
Won Immortal Honors
There he led an assault across n morass,
and his horse having mired he charged on
foot, and though but forty or fifty me-
followed so close as 10 keep up with him
this squad captured a battery which had
been deemed perfectly secure. Again at
Fishers Hill and Ced ar Creek he per
formed prodiGics of valor. His commits.
sion as brigadier general soon arrived, and
on March Il, 1855 he was made brevet
brigadier general for gallant and distin.
guished services" In the meantime h.
had been elected to congress from a Gin
cinnati district.
| twas on this occ Ision that he made his
famous retort. a friend having written
to him to come home in the fall of 1864 and
canvass the district, he answered with a
rather sharp reproof, ending with this sen
tence: An officer fit for duty who
at this crisis would abandon his
=,
congress ought to be scalped" He was
reelected in 1866, but his two terms in con-
gress were uneventful. He voted with his
party throughout, except on some minoi
resolutions on finance. In view of his sub
sequent prominence as n prompt resump
ZIONIST" it is rather singular that these
votes indicated an opposition to strong
measures leading toward resumption.
In 1861 he was nominated by the Repub-
lcans for
Governor of Ohio
and was elected. No election of that era
excited more establishment. The state
had long been overwhelmingly Republ
can, the majOrities ranging above &c, 00C
for some years, yet at the first election af-
ter the soldiers came home, with a phe-
nomenally large vote, the highly honored
general had less than 5000 majority over
Allen G. Thurman, and the legislature
was carried by the Democrats. That body
chose Judge Thurman for the United
! States senate.
Governor Hayes was reelected in 1SG9
this time by over 1000 majority. He had
now become the exponent of advanced
"hard money" views, and on the plat
form of prompt resumption he made his
third campaign for governor in 1875, re
ceving about 300 Majority, after cam
paign Of almost unprecedented vigor Oh
both sides. In the meantime he had run
for congress in 1872, and been defeated by
some 1900 majority, and had in 1913 re
tired from public life and settled at Ere
mont. O. Soon after he came into pos
session of the large estate Of his uncle
Slas Birchard, which further confirmed
him in his resolution to lead a private
life, and he only yielded in 1870 to the
, most earnest solicitations of the Republic
; cans.
OF his presidential campaign in 1876 lit
tie need be said His usual "luck of get
ting there by very narrow margins" fol
, lowed him.
In Financial Affairs
his administration was an unqualified
success. IT was his good fortune to be
come president just at the time when
+ panic and depression were giving way to
- "better times" Seven years of uneX.
ampled deficit in the crops of western Eu-
rope and equally uneXampled good crops
in the United States made the resumption
OF specie payments possible. The exports
of grain in one year OF his administration
= exceeded the ten year average before the
; war, and one years imports of gold were
greater than all the previous gold i'm
, ports since the administration of James
| X. Polk.
The exports Of wheat alone for the ten
I years Terminating with June, 1881, (only
T. four months after President Hayes re
-, tired, exceeded all preceding wheat ex
4 ports since the country was settled
: Providence had indeel come to the aid OF
the country, and President Hayes and hi.
able finance minister, John sherman, had
, the nerve to seize the opportunity.
Mrs. Hayes Death.
$ Mrs. Hayes died in Fremont in 1889. Or
the day of her funeral thousands of per
/ sons, many of them in the humber walk