19. Rutherford B. HAYES was a Republican who served just one term from 1877 – 1881.
Before being president, Hayes was a lawyer and abolitionist who defended runaway slaves in court proceedings. During the Civil War he was a general and was wounded 5 times! After the war he was a U.S. Representative and governor of Ohio. Some consider his greatest achievement was to restore popular faith in the presidency and to reverse the deterioration of executive power that had set in.
Compromise of 1877 was reached after one of the most confused and disputed elections in US history. The Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote and was just one electoral vote short of the majority needed! But, the 19 Electoral votes of FL, LA, and SC were still in doubt because both parties made charges of fraud in those states. Plus, one of the three electors from OR (a state Hayes had won) was disqualified, raising the number of disputed votes to 20. There was considerable debate between the Republican Senate and the Democratic House about which person or house of Congress was authorized to decide between the competing slates of electors. In January 1877 Congress and President Grant agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission. The Commission met in February and the 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 in Washington to negotiate a compromise. Republicans promised the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an acceptance of the election of Democratic governments in several states of the South in exchange for Democratic acceptance of the Committee’s decision. The Democrats agreed, and on March 2, the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but Reconstruction was finished, and freedmen were left at the mercy of white Democrats who did not intend to preserve their rights.
Used federal troops to end the 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, so workers walked off the job to protest. The strike quickly spread to workers of other railroads in other cities, with the strikers soon numbering in the thousands. Fearing a riot, the governor of WV asked Hayes to send in federal troops. Hayes sent in troops to protect federal property; this marked the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company. 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 workers returned to their jobs and some wage cuts remained in effect, but the public blamed the railroads and they were compelled to improve working conditions and make no further cuts.
Began reform of the Civil Service. Hayes was determined to reform civil service 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, and he supported equal treatment without regard to race. Hayes’ call for reform brought him into conflict with the Stalwart, or pro-spoils, branch of the Republican party. He implemented modest civil service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform later on.
Ended Reconstruction by pulling army troops out of the South. This was part of the Compromise of 1877.
After being president, Hayes returned to OH where he worked for reforms in education and in prisons. (All from Wikipedia)
