Rutherford B. Hayes

**Rutherford Birchard Hayes** (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881. Before becoming president, he had been the governor of Ohio for two non-consecutive terms: from 1868 to 1872 and again from 1876 to 1877.

## Early life and career

Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1822. He went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and then to Harvard Law School. After he graduated from law school, he became a lawyer. In 1852, he married Lucy Webb, a woman who was also against slavery. In 1854, he left the Whig Party and joined the Republican Party, which had been started that year to ban slavery in U.S. territories.

In the 1860s, Hays served during the American Civil War for the Union Army and became a major general. After the war ended, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Republican Party. In 1867, he became the governor of Ohio.

## Election of 1876

Ulysses S. Grant had been president since 1869 and refused to run a third time in 1876. Grant was a member of the Republican Party and, while he was president, became known for allowing corruption to go on around him although he was not corrupt himself. The Republicans did not want people to think that everybody in the party was corrupt and so decided to make Hayes their candidate. They thought that he was a good candidate because he had made many changes in Ohio while he was its governor that people liked, and he was thought to have been a Civil War hero.

Hayes ran against Samuel J. Tilden, whom the Democratic Party nominated. The election was close, and many people who did not think that Hayes fairly won the election called him "His Fraudulency." Tilden actually got more votes than Hayes, but Hayes got 185 votes in the Electoral College, and since Tilden got only 184, Hayes won the election.

## Presidency

While he was president, Hayes ended the Reconstruction period that followed the American Civil War. He ordered military forces that had been in the South to leave, the main promise of the Democratic Party, to have the Democrats stop trying to prevent him from being president. He also sent federal troops to end a railroad strike. Hayes refused to seek a second term as president.

## Later life

After he was president, Hayes retired to Fremont, Ohio, where he died of a heart attack  at the age of 70. Meanwhile, he spent time talking about his beliefs that all children should have the chance to go to school, those who had been in the military should get fair payments for their service, and those in prisons should be better treated.

## Other websites

- Hayes' White House biography

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Rutherford B. Hayes
- **image**: President Rutherford Hayes 1870 - 1880 Restored.jpg
- **caption**: Portrait,
- **order**: 19th
- **office**: President of the United States
- **vicepresident**: William A. Wheeler
- **term start**: March 4, 1877
- **term end**: March 4, 1881
- **predecessor**: Ulysses S. Grant
- **successor**: James A. Garfield
- **order1**: 29th and 32nd
- **office1**: Governor of Ohio
- **term start1**: January 10, 1876
- **term end1**: March 2, 1877
- **lieutenant1**: Thomas L. Young
- **predecessor1**: William Allen (governor), William Allen
- **successor1**: Thomas L. Young
- **term start2**: January 12, 1868
- **term end2**: January 8, 1872
- **lieutenant2**: John Calvin Lee
- **predecessor2**: Jacob Dolson Cox
- **successor2**: Edward Follansbee Noyes
- **state3**: Ohio
- **term start3**: March 4, 1865
- **term end3**: July 20, 1867
- **predecessor3**: Alexander Long
- **successor3**: Samuel Fenton Cary
- **birth name**: Rutherford Birchard Hayes
- **birth place**: Delaware, Ohio, U.S.
- **death place**: Fremont, Ohio, U.S.
- **resting place**: Spiegel Grove
- **children**: 8, including Webb Hayes, Webb and Rutherford P. Hayes, Rutherford
- **relatives**: John Humphrey Noyes (first cousin) and Carl Edwards (great-great-great grandson)
- **signature**: Rutherford Birchard Hayes Signature.svg
- **signature alt**: Cursive signature in ink
- **branch**: * Union army
** United States Volunteers
- **serviceyears**: 1861–1865
- **unit label**: Regiments
- **unit**: 23rd Ohio Infantry
- **commands**: Kanawha Division