Rutherford B . Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes ( October 4 , 1822 – January 17 , 1893 ) was the 19th President of the United States ( 1877 – 1881 ) . As president , he oversaw the end of Reconstruction , began the efforts that led to civil service reform , and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction . Hayes , an attorney in Ohio , became city solicitor of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1861 . When the Civil War began , he left a fledgling political career to join the Union Army as an officer . Hayes was wounded five times , most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain ; he earned a reputation for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of major general . After the war , he served in the U . S . Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican . Hayes left Congress to run for Governor of Ohio and was elected to two consecutive terms , from 1868 to 1872 , and then to a third term , from 1876 to 1877 . In 1876 , Hayes was elected president in one of the most contentious and confused elections in national history . He lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J . Tilden but he won an intensely disputed electoral college vote after a Congressional commission awarded him twenty contested electoral votes . The result was the Compromise of 1877 , in which the Democrats acquiesced to Hayes ' s election and Hayes ended all federal army intervention in Southern politics . That caused the collapse of Republican state governments and led to a solidly Democratic South . Hayes believed in meritocratic government , equal treatment without regard to race , and improvement through education . He ordered federal troops to quell the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 . He implemented modest civil service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s . He vetoed the Bland - Allison Act that would have put silver money into circulation and raised prices , insisting that maintenance of the gold standard was essential to economic recovery . His policy toward Western Indians anticipated the assimilationist program of the Dawes Act of 1887 . Hayes kept his pledge not to run for re - election , retired to his home in Ohio and became an advocate of social and educational reform . His biographer Ari Hoogenboom says his greatest achievement was to restore popular faith in the presidency and to reverse the deterioration of executive power that had set in after Lincoln ' s death . Family and early life . Childhood and family history . Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware , Ohio , on October 4 , 1822 , the son of Rutherford Hayes Jr . and Sophia Birchard . Hayes ' s father , a Vermont storekeeper , took the family to Ohio in 1817 but died ten weeks before his son ' s birth . Sophia took charge of the family , bringing up Hayes and his sister , Fanny , the only two of her four children to survive to adulthood . She never remarried ; Sophia ' s younger brother , Sardis Birchard , lived with the family for a time , was always close to Hayes , became a father figure to him and contributed to his early education . Through both his father and mother , Hayes was of New England colonial ancestry . His earliest American ancestor emigrated to Connecticut from Scotland in 1625 . Hayes ' s great - grandfather , Ezekiel Hayes , was a militia captain in Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War , but Ezekiel ' s son ( Hayes ' s grandfather , also named Rutherford ) left his New Haven home during the war for the relative peace of Vermont . His mother ' s ancestors arrived in Vermont at a similar time , and most of his close relatives outside Ohio continued to live there . John Noyes , an uncle by marriage , had been his father ' s business partner in Vermont and was later elected to Congress . His first cousin , Mary Jane Noyes Mead , was the mother of sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead and architect William Rutherford Mead . John Humphrey Noyes , the founder of the Oneida Community , was also a first cousin . Education and early law career . Hayes attended the common schools in Delaware , Ohio , and enrolled in 1836 at the Methodist Norwalk Seminary in Norwalk , Ohio . He did well at Norwalk , and the following year transferred to a preparatory school in Middletown , Connecticut , where he studied Latin and Ancient Greek . Returning to Ohio , Hayes entered Kenyon College in Gambier in 1838 . He enjoyed his time at Kenyon , and was successful scholastically ; while there , he joined several student societies and became interested in Whig politics . He graduated with highest honors in 1842 and addressed the class as its valedictorian . After briefly reading law in Columbus , Ohio , Hayes moved east once more to attend Harvard Law School in 1843 . Graduating with an LL . B , he was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1845 and opened his own law office in Lower Sandusky ( now Fremont ) . Business was slow at first , but he gradually attracted a few clients and also represented his uncle Sardis in real estate litigation . In 1847 , Hayes became ill with what his doctor thought to be tuberculosis . Thinking a change in climate would help , he considered enlisting in the Mexican – American War , but on his doctor ' s advice he instead visited family in New England . Returning from there , Hayes and his uncle Sardis made another long journey to Texas , where Hayes visited with Guy M . Bryan , a Kenyon classmate and distant relative . Business remained meager on his return to Lower Sandusky , and Hayes decided to move to Cincinnati . Cincinnati law practice and marriage . Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1850 , and opened a law office with John W . Herron , a lawyer from Chillicothe . Later , Herron joined a more established firm and Hayes formed a new partnership with William K . Rogers and Richard M . Corwine . He found business better in Cincinnati , and enjoyed the social attractions of the larger city , joining the Cincinnati Literary Society and the Odd Fellows Club . He also attended the Episcopal Church in Cincinnati but did not become a member . Hayes courted his future wife , Lucy Webb , during his time there . His mother had encouraged him to get to know Lucy years earlier , but Hayes had believed she was too young and focused his attention on other women . Four years later , Hayes began to spend more time with Lucy . They became engaged in 1851 and married on December 30 , 1852 , at the house of Lucy ' s mother . Over the next five years , Lucy gave birth to three sons : Birchard Austin ( 1853 ) , Webb Cook ( 1856 ) , and Rutherford Platt ( 1858 ) . Lucy , a Methodist , teetotaler , and abolitionist , influenced her husband ' s views on those issues , although he never formally joined her church . Hayes had begun his law practice dealing primarily with commercial issues but won greater prominence in Cincinnati as a criminal defense attorney , defending several people accused of murder . In one case , he used a form of the insanity defense that saved the accused from the gallows ; she was instead confined to a mental institution . Hayes also defended slaves who had escaped and were accused under the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 . As Cincinnati was just across the Ohio River from Kentucky , a slave state , many such cases were tried in its courts . A staunch abolitionist , Hayes found his work on behalf of fugitive slaves personally gratifying as well as politically useful , as it raised his profile in the newly formed Republican Party . His political reputation rose with his professional plaudits . Hayes declined the Republican nomination for a judgeship in 1856 . Two years later , some Republicans proposed Hayes to fill a vacancy on the bench and he considered accepting the appointment until the office of city solicitor also became vacant . The city council elected Hayes to fill the vacancy , and he won a full two - year term from the voters in April 1859 with a larger majority than other Republicans on the ticket . Civil War . West Virginia and South Mountain . As the Southern states began to secede after Lincoln ' s election to the Presidency in 1860 , Hayes was lukewarm on the idea of a civil war to restore the Union . Considering that the two sides might be irreconcilable , he suggested that the Union " [ l ] et them go . " Although Ohio had voted for Lincoln in 1860 , the Cincinnati voters turned against the Republican party after secession , and the Democrats and Know - Nothing s combined to sweep the city elections in April 1861 , ejecting Hayes from the city solicitor ' s office . Returning to private practice , Hayes formed a very brief law partnership with Leopold Markbreit , lasting a mere three days before the war began . After the Confederates had fired on Fort Sumter , Hayes resolved his doubts and joined a volunteer company composed of his Literary Society friends . That June , Governor William Dennison appointed several of the officers of the volunteer company to positions in the 23rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry . Hayes was promoted to major , and his friend and college classmate Stanley Matthews was appointed lieutenant colonel ; also joining the regiment as a private was another future president , William McKinley . After a month of training , Hayes and the 23rd Ohio set out for western Virginia in July 1861 as a part of the Kanawha Division . They passed the next few months out of contact with the enemy until September , when the regiment encountered Confederates at Carnifex Ferry in present - day West Virginia and drove them back . In November , Hayes was promoted to lieutenant colonel ( Matthews having been promoted to colonel of another regiment ) and led his troops deeper into western Virginia , where they entered winter quarters . The division resumed its advance the following spring , and Hayes led several raids against the rebel forces , on one of which he sustained a minor injury to his knee . That September , Hayes ' s regiment was called east to reinforce General John Pope ' s Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run . Although Hayes and his troops did not arrive in time for the battle , they joined the Army of the Potomac as it hurried north to cut off Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia , which was advancing into Maryland . Marching north , the 23rd was the lead regiment encountering the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14 . Hayes led a charge against an entrenched position and was shot through his left arm , fracturing the bone . He had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding , and continued to lead his men in the battle . While resting , he ordered his men to meet a flanking attack , but instead his entire command moved backward , leaving Hayes lying in between the lines . Fearing he might not survive , Hayes left messages for his wife and friends with a wounded Confederate soldier who was lying near him . Eventually , his men brought Hayes back behind their lines , and he was taken to hospital . The regiment continued on to Antietam , but Hayes was out of action for the rest of the campaign . In October , he was promoted to colonel and assigned to command of the first brigade of the Kanawha Division as a brevet brigadier general . Army of the Shenandoah . The division spent the following winter and spring near Charleston , Virginia ( present - day West Virginia ) , out of contact with the enemy . Hayes saw little action until July 1863 , when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan ' s cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island . Returning to Charleston for the rest of the summer , Hayes spent the fall encouraging the men of the 23rd Ohio to re - enlist , and many did so . In 1864 , the Army command structure in West Virginia was reorganized , and Hayes ' s division was assigned to George Crook ' s Army of West Virginia . Advancing into southwestern Virginia , they destroyed Confederate salt and lead mines there . On May 9 , they engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd ' s Mountain , where Hayes and his men charged the enemy entrenchments and drove the rebels from the field . Following the rout , the Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies and again successfully skirmished with the enemy . Hayes and his brigade moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864 . Crook ' s corps was attached to Major General David Hunter ' s Army of the Shenandoah and soon back in contact with Confederate forces , capturing Lexington , Virginia on June 11 . They continued south toward Lynchburg , tearing up railroad track as they advanced . Hunter believed the troops at Lynchburg were too powerful , however , and Hayes and his brigade returned to West Virginia . Hayes thought that Hunter lacked aggression , writing in a letter home that " General Crook would have taken Lynchburg . " Before the army could make another attempt , Confederate General Jubal Early ' s raid into Maryland forced their recall to the north . Early ' s army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24 , where Hayes was slightly wounded by a bullet to the shoulder . Hayes also had a horse shot out from under him , and the army was defeated . Retreating into Maryland , the army was reorganized again , with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter . By August , Early was retreating up the valley , with Sheridan in pursuit . Hayes ' s troops fended off a Confederate assault at Berryville and advanced to Opequon Creek , where they broke the enemy lines and pursued them farther south . They followed up the victory with another at Fisher ' s Hill on September 22 , and one more at Cedar Creek on October 19 . At Cedar Creek , Hayes sprained his ankle after being thrown from a horse and was struck in the head by a spent round , which did not cause serious damage . Hayes ' s conduct drew the attention of his superiors , with Ulysses S . Grant later writing of Hayes that " [ h ] is conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring . " Cedar Creek marked the end of the campaign . Hayes was promoted to brigadier general in October 1864 and brevetted major general . Around this time , Hayes learned of the birth of another son , George Crook Hayes . The army went into winter quarters once more , and in spring 1865 the war quickly came to a close with Lee ' s surrender to Grant at Appomattox . Hayes visited Washington , D . C . that May and observed the Grand Review of the Armies , after which he and the 23rd Ohio returned to their home state to be mustered out of the service . Post - war politics . Congressman . While serving in the Army of the Shenandoah in 1864 , Hayes received the Republican nomination to the House of Representatives from Ohio ' s 2nd congressional district . Asked by friends in Cincinnati to leave the army to campaign , Hayes refused , saying that an " officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped . " Instead , Hayes wrote several letters to the voters explaining his political positions and was elected by a 2 , 400 - vote majority over the incumbent Democrat , Alexander Long . When the 39th Congress assembled in December 1865 , Hayes was sworn in as a part of a large Republican majority . Hayes identified with the moderate wing of the party , but was willing to vote with the radicals for the sake of party unity . The major legislative effort of the Congress was the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , for which Hayes voted and which passed both houses of Congress in June 1866 . Hayes ' s beliefs were in line with his fellow Republicans on Reconstruction issues : that the South should be restored to the Union , but not without adequate protections for freedmen and other black southerners . President Andrew Johnson , to the contrary , wanted to readmit the seceded states quickly without first ensuring that they adopted laws protecting the newly freed slaves ' civil rights and granted pardons to many of the leading former Confederates . Hayes , along with congressional Republicans , disagreed . They worked to reject Johnson ' s vision of Reconstruction and to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 . Re - elected in 1866 , Hayes returned to the lame - duck session to vote for the Tenure of Office Act , which ensured that Johnson could not remove administration officials without the Senate ' s consent . He also unsuccessfully pressed for a civil service reform bill that attracted the votes of many reform - minded Republicans . Hayes continued to vote with the majority in the 40th Congress on the Reconstruction Acts , but resigned in July 1867 to campaign for governor of Ohio . Governor of Ohio . A popular Congressman and former soldier , Hayes was considered by Ohio Republicans to be an excellent standard - bearer for the 1867 election campaign . Hayes ' s political views were more moderate than the Republican party ' s platform , although he agreed with the proposed amendment to the Ohio state constitution that would guarantee suffrage to black Ohioans . Hayes ' s opponent , Allen G . Thurman , made the proposed amendment the centerpiece of the campaign , and both men campaigned vigorously , making speeches across the state , mostly focusing on the suffrage question . The election was mostly a disappointment to Republicans , as the amendment failed to pass and Democrats gained a majority in the $ 3 . Hayes thought at first that he , too , had lost , but the final tally showed that he had won the election by 2 , 983 votes of 484 , 603 votes cast . As a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature , Hayes had a limited role in governing , especially since Ohio ' s governor had no veto power . Despite these constraints , Hayes oversaw the establishment of a school for deaf - mutes and a reform school for girls . He also endorsed the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and urged his conviction , which failed by one vote in the United States Senate . Nominated for a second term in 1869 , Hayes campaigned once more for equal rights for black Ohioans and sought to associate his Democratic opponent , George H . Pendleton with disunion and racism . Hayes was re - elected with an increased majority , and the Republicans took the legislature , ensuring Ohio ' s ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which guaranteed black suffrage . With a Republican legislature , Hayes ' s second term was more enjoyable , and he was gratified to see suffrage expanded and a state Agricultural and Mechanical College ( later to become Ohio State University ) established . He also proposed a reduction in state taxes and reform of the state prison system . Choosing not to seek re - election , Hayes looked forward to retiring from politics in 1872 . Private life and return to politics . As Hayes prepared to leave office , several delegations of reform - minded Republicans urged him to run against the incumbent Republican , John Sherman , for United States Senate . Hayes declined the offers , preferring to preserve party unity and retire to private life . Hayes especially looked forward to spending time with his children , two of whom ( daughter Fanny and son Scott ) had been born in the past five years . Initially , Hayes tried to promote railway extensions to his hometown , Fremont , and spent the rest of his time managing some real estate he had acquired in Duluth , Minnesota . Not entirely removed from politics , Hayes held out some hope of a cabinet appointment , but was disappointed to receive only an appointment as assistant U . S . treasurer at Cincinnati , which he turned down . He also allowed himself to be nominated for his old House seat in 1872 but was not disappointed when he lost the election to Henry B . Banning , a fellow Kenyon College alumnus . In 1873 , Lucy gave birth to another son , Manning Force Hayes . That same year , the Panic of 1873 hurt business prospects across the nation , including Hayes ' s . Sardis Birchard died that year and the Hayes family moved into Spiegel Grove , the grand house Birchard had built with them in mind . Hayes hoped to remain out of politics in order to pay off the debts he had incurred during the Panic , but when the Republican state convention nominated him for governor in 1875 , he accepted . The campaign against Democratic nominee William Allen focused primarily on Protestant fears of the possibility of state aid to Catholic schools . Hayes was against such funding and , while he was not known to be personally anti - Catholic , he allowed anti - Catholic fervor to contribute to the enthusiasm for his candidacy . The campaign was a success , and Hayes was returned to the governorship by a 5 , 544 - vote majority . Election of 1876 . Republican nomination and campaign against Tilden . Hayes ' s success in Ohio immediately elevated him to the top ranks of Republican politicians under consideration for the presidency in 1876 . The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention was united behind him , and Senator John Sherman did all in his power to bring Hayes the nomination . In June 1876 , the convention assembled with James G . Blaine of Maine as the favorite . Blaine started with a significant lead in the delegate count but could not muster a majority . As he failed to gain votes , the delegates looked elsewhere for a nominee and settled on Hayes on the seventh ballot . The convention then selected Representative William A . Wheeler of New York for Vice President , a man about whom Hayes had recently asked " I am ashamed to say : who is Wheeler ? " The Democratic nominee was Samuel J . Tilden , the Governor of New York . Tilden was considered a formidable adversary who , like Hayes , had a reputation for honesty . Also like Hayes , Tilden was a hard - money man and supported civil service reform . The campaign , in accordance with the custom of the time , was conducted by surrogates , with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective home towns . The poor economic conditions made the party in power unpopular and made Hayes suspect that he might lose the election . Both candidates focused their attention on the swing states of New York and Indiana , as well as the three southern states — Louisiana , South Carolina , and Florida — where Reconstruction governments still ruled . The Republicans emphasized the danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after southern Democrats provoked the Civil War and , to a lesser extent , the danger a Democratic administration would pose to the recently won civil rights of southern blacks . Democrats , for their part , trumpeted Tilden ' s record of reform and contrasted it with the corruption of the incumbent Grant administration . As the returns were tallied on election day , it was clear that the race was close : Democrats had carried most of the South , as well as New York , Indiana , Connecticut , and New Jersey . The popular vote also favored Tilden , but Republicans realized that if they held the three unredeemed southern states together with some of the western states , they would emerge with an electoral college majority . Disputed electoral votes . On November 11 , three days after election day , Tilden appeared to have won 184 electoral votes : one short of a majority . Hayes appeared to have 166 votes , with the 19 votes of Florida , Louisiana , and South Carolina still in doubt . Republicans and Democrats each claimed victory in the three latter states , but the results in those states were rendered uncertain because of fraud by both parties . To further complicate matters , one of the three electors from Oregon ( a state Hayes had won ) was disqualified , reducing Hayes ' s total to 165 , and raising the disputed votes to 20 . If either candidate could be awarded the 20 disputed votes , he would be elected president . There was considerable debate about which person or house of Congress was authorized to decide between the competing slates of electors , with the Republican Senate and the Democratic House each claiming priority . By January 1877 , with the question still unresolved , Congress and President Grant agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission , which would be authorized to determine the fate of the disputed electoral votes . The Commission was to be made up of five representatives , five senators , and five Supreme Court justices . To ensure partisan balance , there would be seven Democrats and seven Republicans , with Justice David Davis , an independent respected by both parties , as the fifteenth member . The balance was upset when Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate , hoping to sway his vote . Davis disappointed Democrats by refusing to serve on the Commission because of his election to the Senate . As all of the remaining Justices were Republicans , Justice Joseph P . Bradley , believed to be the most independent - minded of them , was selected to take Davis ' s place on the Commission . The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes . Democrats were outraged by the result and attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the Commission ' s findings . As the March 4 inauguration day neared , Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders met at Wormley ' s Hotel in Washington to negotiate a compromise . Republicans promised concessions in exchange for Democratic acquiescence in the Committee ' s decision . The primary concession Hayes promised would be the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an acceptance of the election of Democratic governments in the remaining " unredeemed " states of the South . The Democrats agreed , and on March 2 , the filibuster was ended . Hayes was elected , but Reconstruction was finished . Presidency 1877 – 1881 . Inauguration . Because March 4 , 1877 fell on a Sunday , Hayes took the oath of office privately on Saturday , March 3 , in the Red Room of the White House , the first president to do so in the Executive Mansion . He took the oath publicly on the following Monday on the East Portico of the United States Capitol . In his inaugural address , Hayes attempted to soothe the passions of the past few months , saying that " he serves his party best who serves his country best " . He pledged to support " wise , honest , and peaceful local self - government " in the South , as well as reform of the civil service and a full return to the gold standard . Despite his message of conciliation , many Democrats never considered Hayes ' s election legitimate and referred to him as " Rutherfraud " or " His Fraudulency " for the next four years . Civil rights and the end of Reconstruction . Hayes had been a firm supporter of Republican Reconstruction policies throughout his political career , but the first major act of his presidency was an end to Reconstruction and the return of the South to home rule . Even without the conditions of the Wormley ' s Hotel agreement , Hayes would have been hard - pressed to continue the policies of his predecessors . The House of Representatives in the 45th Congress was controlled by a Democratic majority that refused to appropriate enough funds for the army to continue to garrison the South . Even among Republicans , devotion to continued military Reconstruction was fading . Only two states were still under Reconstruction ' s sway when Hayes assumed the Presidency and , without troops to enforce the voting rights laws , these too soon fell . Hayes ' s later attempts to protect the rights of southern blacks were ineffective , as were his attempts to rebuild Republican strength in the South . He did , however , defeat Congress ' s efforts to curtail federal power to monitor federal elections . Democrats in Congress passed an army appropriation bill in 1879 with a rider that repealed the Force Acts . Those Acts , passed during Reconstruction , made it a crime to prevent someone from voting because of his race . Hayes was determined to preserve the law protecting black voters , and he vetoed the appropriation . The Democrats did not have enough votes to override the veto , but they passed a new bill with the same rider . Hayes vetoed this as well , and the process was repeated three times more . Finally , Hayes signed an appropriation without the offensive rider , but Congress refused to pass another bill to fund federal marshals , who were vital to the enforcement of the Force Acts . The election laws remained in effect , but the funds to enforce them were curtailed for the time being . Hayes next attempted to reconcile the social mores of the South with the recently passed civil rights laws by distributing patronage among southern Democrats . " My task was to wipe out the color line , to abolish sectionalism , to end the war and bring peace , " he wrote in his diary . " To do this , I was ready to resort to unusual measures and to risk my own standing and reputation within my party and the country . " All of his efforts were in vain ; Hayes failed to convince the South to accept the idea of racial equality and failed to convince Congress to appropriate funds to enforce the civil rights laws . Civil service reform . Hayes took office determined to reform the system of civil service appointments , which had been based on the spoils system since Andrew Jackson was president . Instead of giving federal jobs to political supporters , Hayes wished to award them by merit according to an examination that all applicants would take . Immediately , Hayes ' s call for reform brought him into conflict with the Stalwart , or pro - spoils , branch of the Republican party . Senators of both parties were accustomed to being consulted about political appointments and turned against Hayes . Foremost among his enemies was New York Senator Roscoe Conkling , who fought Hayes ' s reform efforts at every turn . To show his commitment to reform , Hayes appointed one of the best - known advocates of reform , Carl Schurz , to be Secretary of the Interior and asked Schurz and William M . Evarts , his Secretary of State , to lead a special cabinet committee charged with drawing up new rules for federal appointments . John Sherman , the Treasury Secretary , ordered John Jay to investigate the New York Custom House , which was stacked with Conkling ' s spoilsmen . Jay ' s report suggested that the New York Custom House was so overstaffed with political appointees that 20 % of the employees were expendable . Although he could not convince Congress to outlaw the spoils system , Hayes issued an executive order that forbade federal office holders from being required to make campaign contributions or otherwise taking part in party politics . Chester A . Arthur , the Collector of the Port of New York , and his subordinates Alonzo B . Cornell and George H . Sharpe , all Conkling supporters , refused to obey the president ' s order . In September 1877 , Hayes demanded the three men ' s resignations , which they refused to give . He submitted appointments of Theodore Roosevelt , Sr . , L . Bradford Prince , and Edwin Merritt — all supporters of Evarts , Conkling ' s New York rival — to the Senate for confirmation as their replacements . The Senate ' s Commerce Committee , which Conkling chaired , voted unanimously to reject the nominees , and the full Senate rejected Roosevelt and Prince by a vote of 31 – 25 , confirming Merritt only because Sharpe ' s term had expired . Hayes was forced to wait until July 1878 when , during a Congressional recess , he sacked Arthur and Cornell and replaced them by recess appointment s of Merritt and Silas W . Burt , respectively . Conkling opposed the appointees ' confirmation when the Senate reconvened in February 1879 , but Merritt was approved by a vote of 31 – 25 , as was Burt by 31 – 19 , giving Hayes his most significant civil service reform victory . For the remainder of his term , Hayes pressed Congress to enact permanent reform legislation and fund the United States Civil Service Commission , even using his last annual message to Congress in 1880 to appeal for reform . While reform legislation did not pass during Hayes ' s presidency , his advocacy provided " a significant precedent as well as the political impetus for the Pendleton Act of 1883 , " which was signed into law by President Chester Arthur . Hayes allowed some exceptions to the ban on assessments , permitting George Congdon Gorham , secretary of the Republican Congressional Committee , to solicit campaign contributions from federal office - holders during the Congressional elections of 1878 . Hayes also dealt with corruption in the postal service . In 1880 , Schurz and Senator John A . Logan asked Hayes to shut down the " star route " rings , a system of corrupt contract profiteering in the Postal Service , and to fire Second Assistant Postmaster - General Thomas J . Brady , the alleged ring leader . Hayes stopped granting new star route contracts , but let existing contracts continue to be enforced . Hayes ' Postmaster General , Horace Maynard , said that the public only cared their mail was delivered with " certainty , celerity , and security , " not about the methods by which postal routes were contracted . Democrats accused Hayes of delaying proper investigation so as not to injure Republican chances in the 1880 elections but did not press the issue in their campaign literature , as members of both parties were implicated in the corruption . As historian Hans L . Trefousse would later write , Hayes " hardly knew the chief suspect [ Brady ] and certainly had no connection with the [ star route ] corruption . " Although Hayes and the Congress both looked into the contracts and found no compelling evidence of wrongdoing , Brady and others were indicted for conspiracy in 1882 . After two trials , the defendants were found not guilty in 1883 . Great Railroad Strike . In his first year in office , Hayes was faced with the United States ' largest labor disturbance to date , the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 . In order to make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873 , the major railroads cut their employees ' wages several times in 1877 . In July of that year , workers from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job in Martinsburg , West Virginia to protest their reduction in pay . The strike quickly spread to workers of the New York Central , Erie , and Pennsylvania railroads , with the strikers soon numbering in the thousands . Fearing a riot , Governor Henry M . Mathews asked Hayes to send federal troops to Martinsburg , and Hayes did so , but when the troops arrived there was no riot , only a peaceful protest . In Baltimore , however , a riot did erupt on July 20 and Hayes ordered the troops at Fort McHenry to assist the governor in its suppression ; by the time they arrived , the riot had dispersed . Pittsburgh next exploded into riots , but Hayes was reluctant to send in troops without the governor first requesting them . Other discontented citizens joined the railroad workers in rioting . After a few days , he resolved to send in troops to protect federal property wherever it appeared to be threatened and gave Major General Winfield Scott Hancock overall command of the situation , marking the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company . The riot spread further , to Chicago and St . Louis , where strikers shut down railroad facilities . By July 29 , the riots had ended and federal troops returned to their barracks . Although no federal troops had killed any of the strikers , or been killed themselves , clashes between state militia troops and strikers resulted in deaths on both sides . The railroads were victorious in the short term , as the workers returned to their jobs and some wage cuts remained in effect , but the public blamed the railroads for the strikes and violence , and they were compelled to improve working conditions and attempted no further cuts . Business leaders praised Hayes , but his own opinion was more equivocal ; as he recorded in his diary : " The strikes have been put down by " force ; " but now for the " real " remedy . Can ' t something [ be ] done by education of strikers , by judicious control of capitalists , by wise general policy to end or diminish the evil ? The railroad strikers , as a rule , are good men , sober , intelligent , and industrious . " Currency debate . Hayes confronted two issues regarding the currency , the first of which was the coinage of silver , and its relation to gold . In 1873 , the Coinage Act of 1873 stopped the coinage of silver for all coins worth a dollar or more , effectively tying the dollar to the value of gold . As a result , the money supply contracted and the effects of the Panic of 1873 grew worse , making it more expensive for debtors to pay debts they had contracted when currency was less valuable . Farmers and laborers , especially , clamored for the return of coinage in both metals , believing the increased money supply would restore wages and property values . Democratic Representative Richard P . Bland of Missouri proposed a bill that would require the United States to coin as much silver as miners could sell the government , thus increasing the money supply and aiding debtors . William B . Allison , a Republican from Iowa offered an amendment in the Senate limiting the coinage to two to four million dollars per month , and the resulting Bland – Allison Act passed both houses of Congress in 1878 . Hayes feared that the Act would cause inflation that would be ruinous to business , effectively impairing contracts that were based on the gold dollar , as the silver dollar proposed in the bill would have an intrinsic value of 90 to 92 percent of the existing gold dollar . Further , Hayes believed that inflating the currency was an act of dishonesty , saying " [ e ] xpediency and justice both demand an honest currency . " He vetoed the bill , but Congress overrode his veto , the only time it did so during his presidency . The second issue concerned United States Notes ( commonly called greenbacks ) , a form of fiat currency first issued during the Civil War . The government accepted these notes as valid for payment of taxes and tariffs , but unlike ordinary dollars , they were not redeemable in gold . The Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875 required the treasury to redeem any outstanding greenbacks in gold , thus retiring them from circulation and restoring a single , gold - backed currency . Sherman agreed with Hayes ' s favorable opinion of the Act , and stockpiled gold in preparation for the exchange of greenbacks for gold . Once the public was confident that they could redeem greenbacks for specie ( gold ) , however , few did so ; when the Act took effect in 1879 , only $ 130 , 000 out of the $ 346 , 000 , 000 outstanding dollars in greenbacks were actually redeemed . Together with the Bland – Allison Act , the successful specie resumption effected a workable compromise between inflationists and hard money men and , as the world economy began to improve , agitation for more greenbacks and silver coinage quieted down for the rest of Hayes ' s term in office . Foreign policy . Most of Hayes ' s foreign policy concerns involved Latin America . In 1878 , following the Paraguayan War , he arbitrated a territorial dispute between Argentina and Paraguay . Hayes awarded the disputed land in the Gran Chaco region to Paraguay , and the Paraguayans honored him by renaming a city ( Villa Hayes ) and a department ( Presidente Hayes ) in his honor . Hayes was also perturbed over the plans of Ferdinand de Lesseps , the builder of the Suez Canal , to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama , which was then owned by Colombia . Concerned about a repetition of French adventurism in Mexico , Hayes interpreted the Monroe Doctrine firmly . In a message to Congress , Hayes explained his opinion on the canal : " The policy of this country is a canal under American control . . . The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power or any combination of European powers . " The Mexican border also drew Hayes ' s attention . Throughout the 1870s , " lawless bands " often crossed the border on raids into Texas . Three months after taking office , Hayes granted the Army the power to pursue bandit s , even if it required crossing into Mexican territory . Porfirio Díaz , the Mexican president , protested the order and sent troops to the border . The situation calmed as Díaz and Hayes agreed to jointly pursue bandits and Hayes agreed not to allow Mexican revolutionaries to raise armies in the United States . The violence along the border decreased , and in 1880 Hayes revoked the order allowing pursuit into Mexico . Outside of the Western hemisphere , Hayes ' s biggest foreign policy concern dealt with China . In 1868 , the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China , allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese immigrants into the country . As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873 , Chinese immigrants were blamed for depressing workmen ' s wages . During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 , anti - Chinese riots broke out in San Francisco , and a third party , the Workingman ' s Party , was formed with an emphasis on stopping Chinese immigration . In response , Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879 , abrogating the 1868 treaty . Hayes vetoed the bill , believing that the United States should not abrogate treaties without negotiation . The veto drew praise among eastern liberals , but Hayes was bitterly denounced in the West . In the subsequent furor , Democrats in the House of Representatives attempted to impeach him , but narrowly failed when Republicans prevented a quorum by refusing to vote . After the veto , Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W . Seward suggested that both countries work together to reduce immigration , and he and James Burrill Angell negotiated with the Chinese to do so . Congress passed a new law to that effect , the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 , after Hayes left office . Indian policy . Interior Secretary Carl Schurz carried out Hayes ' s American Indian policy , beginning with preventing the War Department from taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Hayes and Schurz carried out a policy that included assimilation into white culture , educational training , and dividing Indian land into individual allotments . Hayes believed that his policies would lead to self - sufficiency and peace between Indians and whites . The allotment system was favored by liberal reformers at the time , including Schurz , but instead proved detrimental to American Indians as most of their land was later resold at low prices to white speculators . Hayes and Schurz reformed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reduce fraud and gave Indians responsibility for policing their understaffed reservations . Hayes dealt with several conflicts with Indian tribes . The Nez Perce , led by Chief Joseph , began an uprising in June 1877 when Major General Oliver O . Howard ordered them to move on to a reservation . Howard ' s men defeated the Nez Perce in battle , and the tribe began a 1700 - mile retreat into Canada . In October , after a decisive battle at Bear Paw , Montana , Chief Joseph surrendered and General William T . Sherman ordered the tribe transported to Kansas , where they were forced to remain until 1885 . The Nez Perce war was not the last conflict in the West , as the Bannocks rose up in Spring 1878 and raided nearby settlements before being defeated by Howard ' s army in July of that year . War with the Ute tribe broke out in 1879 when the Utes killed Indian agent Nathan Meeker , who had been attempting to convert them to Christianity . The subsequent White River War ended when Schurz negotiated peace with the Utes and prevented the white Coloradans from taking revenge for Meeker ' s death . Hayes also became involved in resolving the removal of the Ponca tribe from Nebraska to Indian Territory ( present - day Oklahoma ) because of a misunderstanding during the Grant Administration . The tribe ' s problems came to Hayes ' s attention after their chief , Standing Bear , filed a lawsuit to contest Schurz ' s demand that they stay in Indian Territory . Overruling Schurz , Hayes set up a commission in 1880 that ruled Ponca were free to return to Nebraska or stay on their reservation in Indian Territory . The Ponca were awarded compensation for their land rights , which had been previously granted to the Sioux . In a message to Congress in February 1881 , Hayes insisted he would " give to these injured people that measure of redress which is required alike by justice and by humanity . " Hayes ' s White House . Hayes and his wife , Lucy , were known for their policy of keeping an alcohol - free White House , giving rise to her nickname " Lemonade Lucy . " The first reception at the Hayes White House included wine . However , Hayes was dismayed at drunken behavior at receptions hosted by ambassadors around Washington , leading him to follow his wife ' s temperance leanings . Alcohol was not served again in the Hayes White House . Critics charged Hayes with parsimony , but Hayes spent more money ( which came out of his personal budget ) after the ban , ordering that any savings from eliminating alcohol be used on more lavish entertainment . His temperance policy also paid political dividends , strengthening his support among Protestant ministers . Although Secretary Evarts quipped that at the White House dinners , " water flowed like wine , " the policy was a success in convincing prohibitionists to vote Republican . Judicial appointments . Hayes appointed two Associate Justices to the Supreme Court . The first vacancy occurred when David Davis resigned to enter the Senate during the election controversy of 1876 . On taking office , Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the seat . A former candidate for governor of Kentucky , Harlan had been Benjamin Bristow ' s campaign manager at the 1876 Republican convention , and Hayes had earlier considered him for Attorney General . Hayes submitted the nomination in October 1877 , but it aroused some dissent in the Senate because of Harlan ' s limited experience in public office . Harlan was nonetheless confirmed and served on the court for thirty - four years , in which he voted ( usually in the minority ) for an aggressive enforcement of the civil rights laws . In 1880 , a second seat became vacant upon the resignation of Justice William Strong . Hayes nominated William Burnham Woods , a carpetbagger Republican circuit court judge from Alabama . Woods served six years on the Court , ultimately proving a disappointment to Hayes as he interpreted the Constitution in a manner more similar to that of Southern Democrats than to Hayes ' s own preferences . Hayes attempted , unsuccessfully , to fill a third vacancy in 1881 . Justice Noah Haynes Swayne resigned with the expectation that Hayes would fill his seat by appointing Stanley Matthews , who was a friend of both men . Many Senators objected to the appointment , believing that Mathews was too close to corporate and railroad interests , especially those of Jay Gould . , and the Senate adjourned without voting on the nomination . The following year , when James A . Garfield entered the White House , he re - submitted Mathews ' s nomination to the Senate , which this time confirmed Mathews by one vote , 24 to 23 . Mathews served for eight years until his death in 1889 . His opinion in " Yick Wo v . Hopkins " in 1886 advanced his and Hayes ' views on the protection of ethnic minorities ' rights . Later life and death . Hayes declined to seek re - election in 1880 , keeping his pledge that he would not run for a second term . He was gratified with the election of James A . Garfield to succeed him , and consulted with him on appointments for the next administration . After Garfield ' s inauguration , Hayes and his family returned to Spiegel Grove . Although he remained a loyal Republican , Hayes was not too disappointed in Grover Cleveland ' s election to the Presidency in 1884 , approving of the New York Democrat ' s views on civil service reform . He was also pleased at the progress of the political career of William McKinley , his army comrade and political protégé . Hayes became an advocate for educational charities , advocating federal education subsidies for all children . He believed that education was the best way to heal the rifts in American society and allow individuals to improve themselves . Hayes was appointed to the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University , the school he helped found during his time as governor of Ohio , in 1887 . He emphasized the need for vocational , as well as academic , education : " I preach the gospel of work , " he wrote , " I believe in skilled labor as a part of education . " He urged Congress , unsuccessfully , to pass a bill written by Senator Henry W . Blair that would have allowed federal aid for education for the first time . Hayes gave a speech in 1889 encouraging black students to apply for scholarships from the Slater Fund , one of the charities with which he was affiliated . One such student , W . E . B . Du Bois , received a scholarship in 1892 . Hayes also advocated better prison conditions . In retirement , Hayes was troubled by the disparity between the rich and the poor , saying in an 1886 speech that " free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of people are unable to earn homes , education , and a support in old age . " The following year , Hayes recorded his thoughts on that subject in his diary : Hayes was greatly saddened by his wife ' s death in 1889 . He wrote that " the soul had left [ Spiegel Grove ] " when she died . After Lucy ' s death , Hayes ' s daughter , Fanny , became his traveling companion and he enjoyed visits from his grandchildren . In 1890 , he chaired the Lake Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question , a gathering of reformers that met in upstate New York to discuss racial issues . Hayes died of complications of a heart attack at his home on January 17 , 1893 . His last words were " I know that I ' m going where Lucy is . " President - elect Grover Cleveland and Ohio Governor William McKinley led the funeral procession that followed Hayes ' s body until he was interred in Oakwood Cemetery . Following the donation of his home to the state of Ohio for the Spiegel Grove State Park , he was re - interred there in 1915 . The following year the Hayes Commemorative Library and Museum , the first presidential library in the United States , was opened on the site , funded by contributions from the state of Ohio and Hayes ' family . Sources . Books Articles