The Portland daily press., 1893-01-19

fame. General Hayes's mother was of
even still older American extraction, her
remote ancestor, John Birchard, having
reached America as early as 1885,.
Rutherford was born in Delaware, o.,
October IA, 1922. After preliminary
course in the common schools of Dcla-
war;, young Hayes was sent, in 1913, to
Kenyon Episcopal College in the neigh
boring county of Knox, from which he
graduated two years afterward and en-
tered the law Office of Thomas Sparrow
at Columbus. He remained here a short
time, then took a law course at Harvard
| College, was admitted to the bar at Ma
rietta, and next went to his uncle's resi-
dence in Fremont, which he had come to
| regard as ais home, and where he had
A always spent his vacations.
Here he formed law partnership with
| r. P. Buckland, who was 10 years his
senior, and who had been settled in the
profession at Fremont for some time,
having been his uncle's legal adviser.
He rem tined no more than six months
in Fremont. at the end of that time, ac-
companying his uncle, whose health had
broken down, on tour to Texas. where
they remained during the rest Of year.
On their return to the North, Hayes
| settled in Cincinnati in 1S49 and In 1852
| IudIIlCu Nl1So huCy WdtC " CUU.
| In 1855 he was offered the nomination
for Judge of the common pleas court
| of Hamilton County. This he declined,
| but two years afterward accepted the
| position of solicitor of the Cincinnati
courts, to which Office he was reelected
! regularly until 1861, when, upon the
! breaking out of tho war, he accepted the
| commission of major in the Twenty-third
| Ohio.
During his service in the army, having
had no military education. he did not
develop any peculiarly striking talents as
as tactician. He brought to the service
all the sound common sense, clear intel
ligence and good Judgment which had
| distinguished him in peace, handled his
men excellently in the affairs he had
charge Of, and proved himself as brave
and as cool in the hour of supreme peril
as the oldest campaigner among the reg
ulars.
He was successfully promoted ITO lieu
tenant-colonel, colonel and brigadier-gen-
eral for gallantry in faction, and at the
close OF the war was breveted major-gen-
eral for bravery in the field"
In 1864, his friends at Cincinnati, in ad-
miration of his brilliant deeds on the
field, nominated him for Congress on the
Republican ticket and invited him home
to take part in the canvass. II have
other business just now." was his lacon-
ic answer. "Anv man who would leave
the army at this time to electioneer for
Congress ought to be scalped."
This only increased the ardor and ad-
miration of his friends, and while he
was fighting in the field they elected
him to Congress by amajority of 2455
over Butler. his Democratic opponent
Before the time came for him to take his
seat the war was over.
He served Cincinnati so satisfactorily
the first year that in 1866 he was re-
elected over Theodore Cook by majori-
ty of 2556. In 1885, meeting at Win
chester suggested his name for governor,
and in 1867, during his second term in
Congress, he was nominated spontane-
ously for that Office by the Republican
state convention, and elected over Allen
Ct. Thurman, the Democratic, candidate.
He was re-nominated and reelected in
1869, over G. II. Pendleton who was
substituted on the Democratic ticket for
General Rosecrans.
In 1872 he was again nominated for
Congress by the Republicans of Cincin-
natl, against his repeated protest, and in
the subsequent election WAS defeated by
majority larger than those by which he
had formerly been elected from that city.
Hamilton county gave the Democrats
over 5000 majority. Hayes, however,
ran considerably ahead of his ticket.
In the spring of 1875 the Republicans,
having had two years of VIM. Allen, be-
gan to turn their eyes toward the quiet
home at Fremont for Moses to lead
them out of the land of Democratic
bondage. IL
The canvass was long and hard fought
on both sides, but the soft-money heresy
of the Democrats and the excitement of
religious feeling by the agitation of the
school question elected Hayes by ma
jority of 5000, and carried the whole
state ticket and legislature along with
him.
Mr.. Hayes's repeated successes in
Ohio induced the Republican National
Convention in 1875 to nominate him for
the Presidency as a compromise
candidate between Mr.. Blaine on one
hand and Mr.. Conkling on the other.
When the election had taken place it
seemed certain that of the 369 electoral
votes 1874 would be cast for Mr.. Tilden,
the Democratic candidate being one less
than the majority; 172 were equally
sure for Mr. Hayes; but there were 13
electors, in respect to whose election
there were grave questions in dispute.
In the emergency a bill was passed
creating special electoral commission
of Is for counting the votes. It was to
consist of five Senators, five Represents
tives and five judges of the Supreme
Court.
The commission, by a majority of one,
in a strict party vote of eight to seven,
decided that the disputed votes should
all be counted for Mr.. Hayes, giving him
a majority of one vote, and he was de-
clared duly elected. seaS
Mr. Hayes's administration was a con-
servative one, and was noted more for its
exceptional purity than for any especial
policy. By the withdrawal of all the
national troops from the Southern States |
he restored to them, in its full entirety,
the right of local self government, and
thus removed, probably permanently,
the Southern Question from general |
politics. He endeavored to prevent the
reconciliation of silver, but his veto
was overridden by the constitutional
two-thirds majority in both Houses of |
Congress.
He was succeeded March 4, 1881, in the |