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[Illustration: RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.]
THE LIFE
PUBLIC SERVICES AND SELECT SPEECHES
OF
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
BY
J. Q. HOWARD
CINCINNATI
ROBERT CLARKE & CO
1876
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
ROBERT CLARKE & CO.
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
Stereotyped by OGDEN, CAMPBELL & CO., Cincinnati.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY.
Line of Descent--Family Tradition--Indian Fighters--Grandfather
Rutherford--Chloe Smith Hayes--Father and
Mother--Characteristics--Tribute to a Sister--General Character
of Ancestors 9
CHAPTER II.
BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION.
Birthplace--University--Springs--Kossuth's Allusion--Early
Instructors--Sent East--College Life--Began the Study of Law--At
Harvard Law School--Story, Greenleaf, Webster, Agassiz, and
Longfellow--Admission to Bar 15
CHAPTER III.
AT THE BAR.
Commences Practice--First Case--Partnership with Ralph P.
Buckland--Settles in Cincinnati--Becoming Known--Literary
Club--Nancy Farrer Case--Summons Case--Marriage--Law
Partners--City Solicitor 22
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE FIELD.
Appointed Major--Judge Advocate--Lieutenant-Colonel--South
Mountain--Wounded--Fighting while Down--After Morgan--Battle of
Cloyd Mountain--Charge up the Mountain--Enemy's Works Carried by
Storm--First Battle of Winchester--Berryville 31
CHAPTER V.
FROM MAJOR TO MAJOR-GENERAL.
Opequan--Morass--First Over--Intrepidity--Official
Reports--Assault on Fisher's Hill--Battle of Cedar
Creek--Commands a Division--Promoted on Field--His Wounds--A
Hundred Days under Fire 43
CHAPTER VI.
IN CONGRESS.
Nomination--Refuses to Leave Army--Election
Incident--Election--Course in Congress--Services on Library
Committee--Votes on Various Questions--Submits Plan of
Constitutional Amendments--Re-nominated by
Acclamation--Re-elected by Increased Majority--Overwhelmed with
Soldiers' Letters--Character as Congressman 51
CHAPTER VII.
ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO.
Party of States Rights--Their Convention--Platform--Nomination of
Thurman--Republican Convention and Platform--Nomination of
General Hayes--Opening Speech at Lebanon--Thurman at
Waverly--National Interest Aroused--Hayes
Victorious--Inaugural--First Annual Message--Second Annual
Message 62
CHAPTER VIII.
SECOND ELECTION AS GOVERNOR.
Re-nomination--Democratic Platform--Nomination of
Rosecrans--Declines--Pendleton Nominated--Hayes at
Wilmington--Election--Second Inaugural--Civil Service
Reform--Short Addresses--Letters--Annual Message--Democratic
Estimate of It--Davidson Fountain Address--Message of 1872--Work
Accomplished 90
CHAPTER IX.
THIRD TIME ELECTED GOVERNOR.
The Senatorship Declined--Army Banquet Speech--Third Time
Nominated for Congress--Glendale Speech--Declines a Federal
Office--Making a Home--Nomination for
Governor--Platform--Serenade Speech--Democratic Convention and
Platform--Marion Speech of
Hayes--Woodford--Grosvenor--Schurz--Inflation Drivel--Interest
in the Contest--Honest Money Triumphant--Third Inaugural 124
CHAPTER X.
NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY.
Early Suggestions--Letters on Subject--Garfield Letter--Action of
State Convention--Cincinnati Convention--Course of his Friends--
First and Second Day's Events--Speech of Noyes--Balloting--
Nominated on Seventh Ballot--Officially Notified--Habits--Personal
Appearance--Family--Letter of Acceptance--Character as a Soldier,
Magistrate, and Man--Domestic Surroundings 143
APPENDIX.
I. Speech at Lebanon, Ohio, August 5, 1867 167
II. Speech at Sidney, Ohio, September 4, 1867 202
III. Speech on his Re-nomination, June 23, 1869 222
IV. Speech at Zanesville, Ohio, August 24, 1871 231
V. Speech at Marion, Ohio, July 31, 1875 241
VI. Speech at Fremont, June 25, 1876. 256
LIFE
OF
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY.
_Line of Descent--Family Tradition--Indian Fighters--Grandfather
Rutherford--Chloe Smith Hayes--Father and Mother--Characteristics--
Tributes to a Sister--General Character of Ancestors._
George Hayes, of Scotland, came to America by the way of England, and
settled at Windsor, in the Colony of Connecticut, in 1682. He married,
in 1683, Abigail Dibble, who was born on Long Island in 1666. From these
ancestors the direct line of descent to the Republican candidate for
President of the United States is the following:
George Hayes, Abigail Dibble.
Daniel Hayes, Sarah Lee.
Ezekiel Hayes, Rebecca Russell.
Rutherford Hayes, Chloe Smith.
Rutherford Hayes, Sophia Birchard.
The earlier family traditions connect the name and descent of George
Hayes with the fighting plowman mentioned in Scottish history, who at
Loncarty, in Perthshire, turned back the invaders of his country, in a
narrow pass, with the sole aid of his own valorous sons.
"Pull your plow and harrow to pieces, and fight," said the sturdy
Scotchman to his sons. They fought, father and sons together, and won. A
like command seems to have come down the centuries to an American-born
son--"Tear your briefs and petitions to pieces, and fight." He also
fought, and, though sorely wounded, won. Shall the crown of valor be
withheld by a free people that was once bestowed by a Scottish king?
Daniel Hayes, the third of the ten children of George Hayes, was born at
Windsor, in 1686. At the age of twenty-three, while fighting in defense
of Simsbury--now Granby--to which town his father's family had removed,
he was captured and carried off by the French and Indians. He was held
as a prisoner in Canada for five years, and being a young man of great
physical strength and vigor, the Indians adopted him as one of their
race. His freedom was finally purchased through the intervention of a
Frenchman, the colonial assembly of Connecticut, sitting at New Haven,
having made an appropriation of public funds in aid of that specific
purpose. An account of the captivity of this early defender of New
England homes is found in Phelps' "History of Simsbury, Granby, and
Canton." The wife of Daniel Hayes was the daughter of John Lee, who was
noted for his bravery in fighting Indians.
Captain Ezekiel Hayes, who gained his title in the military service of
the Colonies, married the great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Russell,
the famous preacher of Wethersfield and Hadley, who concealed the
regicides at Hadley for many years.
Rutherford Hayes, the grandfather of the subject of our biography, was
born at New Haven, Connecticut, July 29, 1756. He married, in 1779, at
West Brattleboro, Vermont--whither he had removed the year before--Chloe
Smith, whose ancestry fill a large space in the "History of Hadley,"
several of whom lost their lives while fighting in defense their own and
neighboring towns. From this fortunate and happy union, which continued
unbroken for fifty-eight years, have sprung a race of accomplished women
and honor-deserving men. One daughter married the Hon. John Noyes, of
New Hampshire, who served in Congress 1817-19, and died in 1841, at
Putney, Vermont. A daughter of this marriage is the mother of Larkin G.
Meade, the sculptor; whose sister is the wife of William D. Howells, the
novelist, and present editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_. Another daughter
of Rutherford and Chloe Smith Hayes married the Hon. Samuel Elliott, of
Vermont, who attained distinction in Congress and as an author.
In a diary still existing, kept by Chloe Smith Hayes when she was eighty
years of age, are found evidences of this good woman's intellectual
cleverness and vigor, and abounding proofs of her fruit-bearing piety
and affectionate tenderness for her offspring and kindred. At this
advanced age she seems a philosophical observer of natural phenomena and
political events--minutely describing eclipses, floods, and storms--and,
while moralizing over the inauguration and death of President Harrison,
giving expression to the shadowy hope that wise and good men would take
the helm of government, and, rebuked by the presence of death, be taught
the lesson of mortality. Rutherford, the grandfather, bore the
commission, dated 1782, of Governor George Clinton as an officer in the
military service of the State of New York.
Rutherford Hayes, the father of Governor R. B. Hayes, was born at West
Brattleboro, Vermont, January 4, 1787. On the 19th day of September,
1813, he was married, at Wilmington, Vermont, to Sophia Birchard,
daughter of Roger Birchard and Drusilla Austin Birchard, of that place.
The Birchards had emigrated from England to Saybrook and Norwich,
Vermont, as early as 1635. They soon became men of note in Norwich and
Lebanon, and many of their descendants have continued to be men of mark
since that time. The family has had representatives in Congress from
Illinois and Wisconsin, and noted members of it in the pulpit in New
York and elsewhere.
Rutherford Hayes was engaged in business as a merchant at Dummerston,
Vermont, until 1817, in which year he removed to Delaware, Ohio, with
his family, consisting at the time of a wife and two children. In
January, 1820, a daughter--Fanny--was born, and in October of the
following year, a daughter, at the age of four, was lost. In July, 1822,
Rutherford Hayes, the father, died of malarial fever; at the age of
thirty-five; and on the 4th of the following October was born Rutherford
Birchard Hayes, the since distinguished son. Three years later, the
widowed mother was called to suffer a most distressing calamity in the
death, by drowning, of Lorenzo, aged ten, a hopeful and helpful son.
The father of Governor Hayes was a quick, bright, accurate, active
business man. He possessed both energy and executive ability. He had the
independence which intelligence gives, and his dry humor served him well
in exposing shams and exploding humbugs. He was rigidly honest, and was,
in the words of one of his neighbors, "as good a citizen as ever lived
in the town of Delaware." He could do a great deal of work, and do it
well. He was a witty, social, popular man, who made warm friends and few
enemies.
The mother of Governor Hayes united force of character with sweetness of
nature. Her self-reliant energy is shown by her making a trip, in the
summer of 1824, to Vermont and back--a distance of sixteen hundred
miles. The journey had to be performed by stage, and consumed two months
in going and returning. She made a second journey to New England when
Rutherford was nine years old. Her amiability of disposition made her
the favorite guest at the homes of her neighbors. The straightened
circumstances of a family deprived of its head required the aid of
industry and economy. She was known, in village parlance, as a "good
manager." Afflictions which would have made perfect a more faulty
character purified her own. She died in Columbus, Ohio, October 30,
1866, at the age of seventy-four. She had been a consistent member of
the Presbyterian Church for fifty years.
Mrs. William A. Platt, the sister of Governor Hayes, who died July 16,
1856, at the age of thirty-six, was a lady whose virtues and good deeds
are enduring memories in Columbus homes. The Hon. Aaron F. Perry, of
Cincinnati, in a public address, made this allusion to her worth: "Mrs.
Platt, in the prime of a happy womanhood, passed beautifully away; not
a white hair on her head, not a wrinkle on her brow, not a cloud upon
her hopes; but in the full maturity of life and love she has gone where
life and happiness are perfected." He whose character it is our duty to
make known reflects this tender light from two lives: "She loved me as
an only sister loves a brother whom she imagines almost perfect, and I
loved her as an only brother loves a sister who is perfect. Let me be
just and truthful, wise and pure and good for her sake. How often I
think of her! I read of the death of any one worthy of love, and she is
in my thoughts. I see--but all things high and holy remind me of her."
The conclusions which we draw from the examination of the records of the
ancestral descent of Rutherford B. Hayes are, that his progenitors have
in each generation displayed courage and capacity to fight limited only
by the strength of the enemy to hold out. It was a habit they had to
fight on the side in the right, and on the side that won. Three of his
immediate ancestors--Elias Birchard, Israel Smith, and Daniel
Austin--gave proofs of valor and patriotism in the War of Independence.
Another characteristic of the Hayes stock is the almost uniform tendency
toward longevity. It is a robust race, presenting an extraordinary
number of large families. The divine injunction to increase and multiply
has been obeyed with religious fidelity. Upon the whole, the stock is
good, and bids fair to become better. As men suffer discredit from
disreputable progenitors, they ought to enjoy credit from reputable
ancestors.