Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-05-21
Fine Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
By JAMES MORGAN

MS country best With
those watchwords Hayes had sacrihc-
ed himself and his Administration to
.Teunite North and South. to cleanse
the Civil Service and to regenerate the
Republican party. So quietly. so cold
.ly. SO automatically did he go about
all those great objects that he re-
NAMED to the end Of his term one Of
the most misunderstood most under
estimated Presidents the Republican
leaders hating him as an apostate and
the Democrats despising him as a
fraud.
He selected one of the most dis
tinguished Cabinets in history. But
he did 1t without consulting party
leaders or considering the claims of
factions. n the offended Senate
threatened n muttered for nearly a
week before 1t confirmed the nomi-
nations. To the disgust of practical
politicians" he threw away" a high
class foreign mission on a mar like
James Russell Lowell, "a dashed lit
erary feller," as Senator Cameron said,
and he enraged Roscoe Conkling by
1inging the political machine of hat
imperfous Senator out of the Federal
offices in New York City. He would
also nave made a start toward the re-
moval of the Civil Service from poll
tics and spoils-mongering had not
both parties combined in that direc-
ton.
Hayes boldest challenge to the Re-
publican politicians was his abandon
ment of their 12-year struggle TO re-
construct the Southern States from
Washington. Ever since Congress had
seized from Lincoln's lifeless hand the
control OF reconstruction, the entire
proceeding had been a tragic failure,
creating any orgy of corruption and
violence In the South and ~demoraliz-
Inn I'll =.
1t was an attempt. so common in
this country. to solve by mere politi-
cal methods a problem that was not at
all political. The fatuous politicians
at Washington gave the ballot to the
negro in the expectation of setting up
Republican States in the South. but
they did not give a cent of money TO
educate him to Q the ballot and to
see that 1t was counted. They grave
~ invested him with equal civil rights
ut law, but they left him economically
unequal and a dependent on the
whites. When he asked for 40 acres
and a mule" they only laughed at
him. Yet it was the one thing he
needed first of all and sure
ly he had earned 1t by his $3.50 years
of unrequited toll"
Inevitably the educated and prop
ertied class wrested the Government
from the hands of an illiterate and
.penniless race in State after State.
When Hayes came in, there were only
two Republican State Governments
remaining In the South. and he
promptly withdrew the Federal bay
onets that were propping up those
feeble survivors in South Carolina and
Louisiana. Thereupon they collapsed
in an hour. and their imported Cover
nors. hurriedly ~repacking their carpet
bags, returned North by the next
train.
Hayes had merely completed the re-
construction of the Southern States ON
Lincoln's plan. Unfortunately it was
too late to make it the same healing
measure that the great emancipation
had designed II to be. For unlimited
negro suffrage a been thrust into
the Constitution, contrary to Lincoln's
advice. with the evil result that a solid
South continues toy plague the Ma
ton.
Hayes came to the Presidency in the
depths of an industrial prostration,
when wandering bands Of tramps
thronged the highways of the land,
and soon the first great railway strike
paralyzed transportation between the
Atlantic n the Mississippi. In re-
Spouse to the popular cry for more
money" both parties in Congress were
for repeating or modifying the re-
| pllOH ACT anu IOE lIHtat1lS TIRE
currency with greenbaeks on silver
coinage. The President firmly resisted
such a surrender. Had not his veto of
the Silver bill been overridden he
would have saved the country from
taking the first step on the road thai
led it to the brink of free silver in
1896.
All this independence cost Hayes the
support Of the political time servers
and the applause of the partisan press
These united In ~denouncing N ridi-
culing him as a renegade in politics
and as a sniveling hypocrite in private
life.
Both Mr.. and Mrs. Hayes were more
devotional in their religion than any
other enants of the White House. The
day was regularly opened with ell the
household kneeling at morning pray
ers, and often the evenings were given
over to the singing OF the familiar ole
hymns.
The White House went dry fol
the first time under the Hayes ane
the President was held up to contemp'
as a man too stingy to stand treat anC
too weak to resist a domineering wife
iConkling's lips curled into a sneer a
he portrayed the henpecked husband
taking a furtive drink behind the doc
or secretly q%uenching his thirst will
loaded" oranges.
1t was true that the White Hous'
chef. perhaps at h i~nstigation of o
of the bibulous Cabinet, relieved tn
arid situation at first by serving r.
oman punch in range at the Stat
banquets, a refreshing course whicl
Secretary Evarts hailed as the life
saving station in the long, formal din
ners. When MIR. and Mrs. Hayes dis
covered the trick, they ordered tn
cook to turn the joke on the guests b
. giving the ice a rummy favor bu
without putting in a drop of run
Whether the Presidential couple, smil
, ing behind their napkins. or those WIN
. continued to smack their lips over thi
: item in the menu were really fooled
history saith not.
q Robert G.. Ingersoll said hat Haye
I Invent in by one majority and came OF
Unanimously. Nevertheless. the Re
publican party was so discredited !
1876 that it was unable to get a
lundisputed majority even of one vol
lat the end of the Hayes Administra
ltion or was strong enough to carry I'll
icountry at dead low tide n he lie,
president with a clear title.