The History Book Club discussion

Beneficiary of the most fiercely disputed election in American history, Rutherford B. Hayes brought to the Executive Mansion dignity, honesty, and moderate reform.

To the delight of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Lucy Webb Hayes carried out her husband's orders to banish wines and liquors from the White House.

Born in Ohio in 1822, Hayes was educated at Kenyon College and Harvard Law School. After five years of law practice in Lower Sandusky, he moved to Cincinnati, where he flourished as a young Whig lawyer.

He fought in the Civil War, was wounded in action, and rose to the rank of brevet major general. While he was still in the Army, Cincinnati Republicans ran him for the House of Representatives. He accepted the nomination, but would not campaign, explaining, "an officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer... ought to be scalped."

Elected by a heavy majority, Hayes entered Congress in December 1865, troubled by the "Rebel influences ... ruling the White House." Between 1867 and 1876 he served three terms as Governor of Ohio.

Safe liberalism, party loyalty, and a good war record made Hayes an acceptable Republican candidate in 1876. He opposed Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York.

Although a galaxy of famous Republican speakers, and even Mark Twain, stumped for Hayes, he expected the Democrats to win. When the first returns seemed to confirm this, Hayes went to bed, believing he had lost. But in New York, Republican National Chairman Zachariah Chandler, aware of a loophole, wired leaders to stand firm: "Hayes has 185 votes and is elected." The popular vote apparently was 4,300,000 for Tilden to 4,036,000 for Hayes. Hayes's election depended upon contested electoral votes in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. If all the disputed electoral votes went to Hayes, he would win; a single one would elect Tilden.

Months of uncertainty followed. In January 1877 Congress established an Electoral Commission to decide the dispute. The commission, made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, determined all the contests in favor of Hayes by eight to seven. The final electoral vote: 185 to 184.

Northern Republicans had been promising southern Democrats at least one Cabinet post, Federal patronage, subsidies for internal improvements, and withdrawal of troops from Louisiana and South Carolina.

Hayes insisted that his appointments must be made on merit, not political considerations. For his Cabinet he chose men of high caliber, but outraged many Republicans because one member was an ex-Confederate and another had bolted the party as a Liberal Republican in 1872.

Hayes pledged protection of the rights of Negroes in the South, but at the same time advocated the restoration of "wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government." This meant the withdrawal of troops. Hayes hoped such conciliatory policies would lead to the building of a "new Republican party" in the South, to which white businessmen and conservatives would rally.

Many of the leaders of the new South did indeed favor Republican economic policies and approved of Hayes's financial conservatism, but they faced annihilation at the polls if they were to join the party of Reconstruction. Hayes and his Republican successors were persistent in their efforts but could not win over the "solid South."

Hayes had announced in advance that he would serve only one term, and retired to Spiegel Grove, his home in Fremont, Ohio, in 1881. He died in 1893.

Source: The White House Biography

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...

Here are three books on my radar:

by Ari Hoogenboom
Library Journal review:
Enlarging his earlier book on Hayes's presidency (The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, Univ. Pr. of Kansas, 1988), historian Hoogenboom casts Hayes as a reformer, an advocate for equal rights, and a masterful politician. From his conversion to an antislavery stance through his law career in Ohio to his military service during the Civil War, Hayes grew in his commitment to human rights. As president of the United States (1877-81), he used the veto and appointive powers in new ways and the bully pulpit to protect freedmen and workers. In his retirement, he lobbied for prison reform, veterans' benefits, and education for the poor. Although the Hayes presented is more prescient and principled than his record of achievement would show, all readers will appreciate Hoogenboom's larger view of the man and his time. Burdensome detail sometimes overwhelms and obscures the argument, but this revision merits attention.

Two others:
by Hans L. Trefousse

by Ari Hoogenboom

Here are a couple more:

by Roy Morris Jr.
Publishers Weekly:
For those who think the election of George W. Bush over Al Gore in 2000 represented the nadir of American electoral politics, Morris (The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War) provides some muchneeded historical perspective. In 1876, New York Democrat Samuel Tilden almost certainly won the popular vote over Ohio Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. But contested returns in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, as well as a legal issue in Oregon, eventually led to a 15-member congressional commission awarding Hayes all 20 contested electoral votes, giving him an improbable one-vote victory in the Electoral College. Well researched and written in clear prose, Morris's account details the stunning sequence of political dirty tricks-including overturning Tilden's nearly 8,000-vote lead in Louisiana-as well as the personalities that conspired to steal the election from Tilden. Although he maintains the decency of both candidates, Morris revives the political legacy of Tilden, portrayed here as a courageous and principled politician who stood up to the corruption of New York's Tammany Hall. Tilden chose to concede the election rather than drag the nation down a dangerous path. "It was an act of supreme patriotism," Morris concludes, "for a man who had won, if not the presidency, at least the election." In sharp contrast to the contested election of 2000, dominated by hanging chads and confusing ballots, Morris's account of the 1876 election reminds us that character can triumph over politics.

by Ari Hoogenboom

Stephen F. Hayes

Product information:
Originally published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1954, Harry Barnard's definitive biography of Rutherford B. Hayes has been out of print since then. The American Political Biography Press edition brings that important work back to print.
All that Hayes had done before, and all that he was to do after the disputed election of 1876 - - he had been a fighting brigadier general in the Civil War; he had been an Ohio congressman; he had been Ohio's governor three times; and he was to become the nation's nineteenth president - - has been largely lost to history. Hayes, if known at all, is known for the disputed election with Samuel J. Tilden.
Neither Hayes nor Tilden was a clear winner in the election of 1876. Both men were pushed to the side-lines as the political armies whose interests were represented by one man or the other, clashed in a fight to the end. At times Civil War seemed possible. Although the struggle took on all the habiliments of an involved but civilized legal question, it was clear to all that his was a contest of naked power; a contest that ended with Hayes' elevation to the presidency.
Having been the standard bearer of his party during the struggle for the White House, Hayes stood larger than life at the beginning of his term. And, yet, as his administration unfolded, it quickly became, and remained, an anti climax to the contest for the right to form that administration. Even during the one big event of his time in the White House - - the Compromise of 1877 that ended reconstruction - - Hayes seems to have stood passively to the side as events swirled largely around him; seeming to happen without his influence or interference rather than as a result of his efforts and energy.
Hayes' private life as that of the successful Gilded Age business man and lawyer. His integrity was, unlike so many men of the age, unfailingly scrupulous. He was raised in a home dominated by women and formed what appears to have been an unusual attachment to his sister, an attachment that for a long time, threatened the fulfillment and happiness of his marriage. Rutherford B. Hayes was indeed a man of his times, not a man of history.
In Barnard's words, his book was an attempt to "...try to bring RBH back - to restore him, so to speak, not on a pedestal in some marmoreal pose, bout as he was, a man. This is intended, not so much as a biography of a president but rather the biography of a man who happened to become President."
(Source: http://www.apbpress.com/rutherfordhay...)

I've read this one and it was very good. I like the American Political Biography Press's suggestions. Most all of them have been well worth the read.

Great, Barbara, I agree with you about he APB Press; they have great stuff and I'm so happy they bring out of print books back!

By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876

Michael F. Holt

Synopsis

With electoral votes disputed in three states, a Democrat winning the popular vote, and the Supreme Court stepping in to overrule Florida court decisions, the presidential election of 1876 was an eerie precursor to that of 2000. Rutherford Hayes's defeat of Samuel Tilden has been dubbed the "fraud of the century"; now one of America's preeminent political historians digs deeper to unravel its real significance.

This election saw the highest voter turnout of any in U.S. history--a whopping 82 percent--and also the narrowest margin of victory, as a single electoral vote decided the outcome. Michael Holt offers a fresh interpretation of this disputed election, not merely to rehash claims of fraud but to explain why it was so close. Examining the post-Civil War political environment, he particularly focuses on its most curious feature: that Republicans were the only party in history to retain the presidency in the middle of a severe depression after decisively losing the preceding off-year congressional elections.

Holt begins with the election of 1872 to demonstrate how competition for Liberal Republicans shaped the campaign strategies of both parties. He stresses the critical but little-noted importance of Colorado statehood in August--which changed the size of the electoral-vote majority needed to win--and provides a new answer to the vexing question of why a Democratic-controlled Congress had admitted Colorado in time to participate in the presidential election, when without its votes Tilden would have won. And he argues that the high voter turnout was attributable both to Republicans exploiting fears of ex-Confederates recapturing control of the government and to long-apathetic southern Democrats reacting to war memories and Reconstruction realities.

By One Vote shows how this election triggered a Republican revival and established the GOP as the Democrats' major competitor. Holt's compelling analysis of the dispute over electoral votes also explains why charges of Republican fraud are questionable--and how Democrats were just as guilty of corruption.

A masterly retelling of this controversial episode, Holt's study captures the mood of the country and testifies to the power that hatreds and fears aroused by the Civil War still exercised over the American people.

This book is part of the American Presidential Elections series.

Thank you Barbara and Bryan for the great adds.

Lucy Hayes: C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image:

http://firstladies.c-span.org/FirstLa...

Rutherford B. Hayes: And His America

by Harry Barnard (no photo)

Synopsis:

Originally published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1954, Harry Barnard's definitive biography of Rutherford B. Hayes has been out of print since then. The American Political Biography Press edition brings that important work back to print.

All that Hayes had done before, and all that he was to do after the disputed election of 1876 - - he had been a fighting brigadier general in the Civil War; he had been an Ohio congressman; he had been Ohio's governor three times; and he was to become the nation's nineteenth president - - has been largely lost to history. Hayes, if known at all, is known for the disputed election with Samuel J. Tilden.

Neither Hayes nor Tilden was a clear winner in the election of 1876. Both men were pushed to the side-lines as the political armies whose interests were represented by one man or the other, clashed in a fight to the end. At times Civil War seemed possible. Although the struggle took on all the habiliments of an involved but civilized legal question, it was clear to all that his was a contest of naked power; a contest that ended with Hayes' elevation to the presidency.

Having been the standard bearer of his party during the struggle for the White House, Hayes stood larger than life at the beginning of his term. And, yet, as his administration unfolded, it quickly became, and remained, an anti climax to the contest for the right to form that administration. Even during the one big event of his time in the White House - - the Compromise of 1877 that ended reconstruction - - Hayes seems to have stood passively to the side as events swirled largely around him; seeming to happen without his influence or interference rather than as a result of his efforts and energy.

Hayes' private life as that of the successful Gilded Age business man and lawyer. His integrity was, unlike so many men of the age, unfailingly scrupulous. He was raised in a home dominated by women and formed what appears to have been an unusual attachment to his sister, an attachment that for a long time, threatened the fulfillment and happiness of his marriage. Rutherford B. Hayes was indeed a man of his times, not a man of history.

In Barnard's words, his book was an attempt to "...try to bring RBH back - to restore him, so to speak, not on a pedestal in some marmoreal pose, bout as he was, a man. This is intended, not so much as a biography of a president but rather the biography of a man who happened to become President."

Thank you for the above add.

Teach the Freeman: The Correspondence of Rutherford B. Hayes and the Slater Fund for Negro Education, 1881-1887

(no image) Teach the Freeman: The Correspondence of Rutherford B. Hayes and the Slater Fund for Negro Education 1881 - 1893 by Rutherford B. Hayes (no photo)

Synopsis:

After leaving the White House, the 19th President's interests became less political and more toward social change. Upon learning of the recently established Slater fund, endowed by wealthy industrialist John Fox Slater to improve educational opportunities for 'freeman", Hayes took up its cause.

The Slater Fund's primary focus was "the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States, and their posterity, by conferring upon them the blessings of Christian Education."

Thank you Bryan

The Politics Of Inertia: The Election Of 1876 And The End Of Reconstruction

by Keith Ian Polakoff (no photo)

Synopsis:

Because the election of 1876 represented an important turning point in American history and was marked by a dramatic electoral crisis, a substantial body of historical literature exists on the subject. Historians have generally focused on the electoral controversy or treated the election in the larger context of Reconstruction. In this book, Keith Ian Polakoff presents the first comprehensive study of the actual campaign. The Politics of Inertia carefully details the events leading to the respective nominations of Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden and the presidential campaign on both the national and state levels, as well as the ensuing electoral stalemate and controversy.

Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876

by William H. Rehnquist

Synopsis:

In the annals of presidential elections, the hotly contested 1876 race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden was in many ways as remarkable in its time as Bush versus Gore was in ours.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist offers readers a colorful and peerlessly researched chronicle of the post—Civil War years, when the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant was marked by misjudgment and scandal, and Hayes, Republican governor of Ohio, vied with Tilden, a wealthy Democratic lawyer and successful corruption buster, to succeed Grant as America’s chief executive. The upshot was a very close popular vote (in favor of Tilden) that an irremediably deadlocked Congress was unable to resolve. In the pitched battle that ensued along party lines, the ultimate decision of who would be President rested with a commission that included five Supreme Court justices, as well as five congressional members from each party.

With a firm understanding of the energies that motivated the era’s movers and shakers, and no shortage of insight into the processes by which epochal decisions are made, Chief Justice Rehnquist draws the reader intimately into a nineteenth-century event that offers valuable history lessons for us in the twenty-first.

Thank you Jerome

Hayes of the Twenty-Third: The Civil War Volunteer Officer

by T. Harry Williams

Synopsis:

Rutherford B. Hayes became president of the United States after the disputed election of 1876. But for Hayes the "golden years" were not the four he spent in the White House but the four he served as a unit commander in the Civil War. "It was as though he had encountered in the war a largeness of the human spirit, courage, generosity, sacrifice, that disappeared in the peace. . . . No matter how high he went, he would always be Colonel Hayes of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Regiment from 1861 to 1865. This is the exciting story of his part in the western Virginia campaign, chasing the Confederate John Morgan up and down the Ohio, and fighting under Phil Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley.