USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 29
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At Fisher's Hill Hayes led a division in the turning movement assigned to Crook's com- mand. Clambering up the steep sides of North Mountain. which was covered with an almost impenetrable entanglement of trees and underbrush, the division gained, unperceived, a position in rear of the enemy's line, and then charged with so much fury that the rebels hardly attempted to resist, but fled in utter ront and dismay. Hayes was at the head of his column throughout this brilliant charge.
A month later, at Cedar Creek, he was again engaged. ITis command was a reserve, and therefore did not share in the disaster of the main line at daybreak ; but when the broken regiments at the front were swept hurriedly to the rear, Hayes's division flew to arms, and changing front, advanced in the direction from which the enemy was coming. Successful resistance, however, was impossi- ble. Hayes had not fifteen hundred effec- tive men, and two divisions of the rebels were pouring through the woods to close around him in flank and rear. There was no alternative but retreat or capture. He with- drew, nevertheless, with steadiness, and main- tained his organization unbroken throughout
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the battle, leading his men from hill-top to hill- top in face of the enemy. While riding at full speed, his horse was shot under him ; he was flung violently out of the saddle and his foot and ankle badly wrenched by the fall. Stunned and bruised, he lay for a moment, exposed to a storm of bullets, but soon re- covering sprang to his feet, and limped to his command.
"For gallant and meritorious service in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek," Col. Hayes was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and brevetted Major-General for "gallant and distinguished service during the campaign of 1864, in West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek." He had commanded a brigade for more than two years, and at the time of these promo- tions was in command of the Kanawha divis- ion. In the course of his service in the army he was four times wounded, and had four horses shot under him.
The second volume of Gen. Grant's
Memoirs, written when he was in great suf- ยท fering and near his end, is in some respects more interesting even than the first volume. In it he gives very freely and in a most enter- taining way, his opinion of his military friends and associates. For example, on page 340 he says of Gen. Hayes : .
"On more than one occasion in these en- gagements, Gen. R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His 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. This might well have been expected of one who could write at the time he has said to have done so : 'Any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioncer for a seat in Congress, ought to be scalped.' Hav- ing entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war, Gen. Hayes at- tained by meritorious service the rank of brevet major-general before its close."
In August, 1864, while Gen. Hayes was in the field, he was nominated by a Republican district convention in Cincinnati as a candidate for Congress. He was elected by a majority of 2,400.
Gen. Hayes took his seat in Congress Deeember 4, 1865, and was appointed chairman of the library committee. In 1866 he was re-elected to Congress.
In the House of Representatives he was prominent in the counsels of his party. In 1867 he was the Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio, and elected over Judge Thurman. In 1869 he was re-elected Governor of Ohio over George H. Pendleton.
In 1872, despite his frequently expressed desire to retire from publie life, Gen. Hayes was again nominated for Congress by the Republicans of Cincinnati, but was defeated.
In 1873 he returned to Fremont, and the next year inherited the considerable estate of his uncle, Sardis Birchard. In 1875, notwithstanding his well known desire not to re-enter publie life, he was again nominated for Governor of Ohio, and although he at first declined the honor, he was subsequently induced to accept the nomination, and after a hard fought canvas was elected over William Allen by a majority of 5,500. This contest, by reason of the financial issue involved, became a national one, and was watched with interest thoughout the country, and as a result he was nominated for the Presidency on the 7th ballot of the National Republican convention, which met at Cincinnati, June 14, 1876.
In accepting this nomination Mr. Hayes pledged himself, from patriotic motives, to the one-term principle, and in these words :
" Believing that the restoration of the civil service to the system established by Washington and followed by the carly Presidents can be best accomplished by an Executive who is under no temptation to use the patronage of his office to promote his own re-election, I desire to perform what I regard as a duty in now stating my inflexible purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for election to a second term.
"In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important respects, a change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to the Constitution pre- seribing a term of six years for the Presidential office, and forbidding a re-elec- tion."
In the complications that arose as a result of the Presidential election of 1876, his attitude was patriotrie and judicious, and is outlined in a letter addressed to John Sherman from Columbus, O., dated November 27, 1876. He says :
" You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole business. A fair election
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would have given us about forty electoral votes-at least that many. But we are not to allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by another. There must be nothing crooked on our part, Let, Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, in- timidation and frand, rather than undertake to prevent it by means that will not bear the severest serntiny."
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The canvassing boards of Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina declared Republican electors chosen, and certificates of these results were sent by the Governors of those States to Washington. Gov. Hayes had a majority of one in the electoral college. But the Democrats charged fraud, and certificates declaring the Democratic electors elected were sent to Washington. The House (Demo- cratic) and the Senate (Republican) then concurred in an Act providing for a commission composed of five representatives, five senators and five judges of the Supreme Court, to have final jurisdiction. The commission refused to go behind the certificates of the Governors, and by a vote of eight to seven declared in favor of the Republican electors, and President Hayes was inaugurated March 5, 1877.
The administration of President Hayes, although unsatisfactory to machine politicians, was a wise and conservative one, meeting with the approval of the people at large. By the withdrawal of Federal troops and restoration of self- government to the Southern States, it prepared the way for a revival of patriotism and the remarkable material development that has since ensued. The administra- tion began during a period of business depression, but the able management of the finances of the government and the resumption of specie payments restored com- mercial activity. This administration laid the foundations for a permanent and thorough civil service reform, notwithstanding strong and influential opposition, including that of a majority of the members of Congress.
Throughout, his administration was intelligently and consistently condneted with but one motive in view, the greatest good to the country, regardless of party affiliations. That he was eminently successful in this, and was as wise, patriotic, progressive and beneficial in its effects as any the country has enjoyed, is the judg- ment of every intelligent person who gives it an unbiased study.
" The tree is judged by its fruit." When Mr. Blaine made his Presidential tour in Ohio in 1884, in several of his speeches he spoke of the Hayes' adminis- tration as unique in this : It was one of the few and rare cases in our history in which the President entered upon his office with the country depressed and dis- contented and left it prosperous and happy. In which he found his party broken, divided and on the verge of defeat, and left it strong, united and vigorous. This, he said, was the peculiar felicity of Gen. Hayes' publie carcer.
On the expiration of his term, ex-President Hayes retired to his home in Fremont, O. He has been the recipient of the degree of LL.D. from Kenyon, 1868 ; Harvard, 1877; Yale, 1880, and Johns Hopkins University, 1881.
Is commander of the Order of Loyal Legion, was also commander of the Ohio Commandery, was first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia. He is president of the John F. Slater Education Fund, and one of the trustees of the Peabody Fund (both for education in the Sonth). He is also president of the National Prison Reform Association, and a trustee of a large number of charit- able and educational institutions.
His " Life, Public Services, and Select Speeches," by James Q. Howard, were ' published in Cincinnati in 1876.
It is well known that Gen. Hayes does not favor life senatorships for ex-Presi- dents. In the sketch of his life in " Biographical Cyclopedia of Ohio," vol. ii., page 309, we find the following .
" On retiring from public life and return- hearty welcome to my home is, I assure you, very gratifying. During the last five or six years I have been absent in the public service. ing to his home President Hayes was wel- comed at Fremont in the heartiest way. In his speech in the assemblage he said : "This * * * My family and I have none but the
AH
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friendliest words and sentiments for the cities of our late official residence-Columbus and Washington ; but with local attachments, perhaps unusually strong, it is quite safe to say that never for one moment have any of us wavered in our desire and purpose to return and make our permanent residence in the pleasant old place in Spiegel Grove in this good old town of Fremont. The question is often heard, 'what is to become of the man -what is he to do-who, having been Chief Magistrate of the Republic retires at the end of his official term to private life ?'
It seems to me the reply is near at hand and sufficient : Let him, like any other good American citizen, be willing and prompt to bear his part in every useful work that will promote the welfare and the happiness of his family, his town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will have work enough to do, and that sort of work that yields more individual contentment and grati- fication than belong to the more conspicuous employments of the life from which he has retired.'
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Years have elapsed sinee these wise words were uttered and Mr. Hayes became a private citizen. But his life has been a beautiful and a very busy one because, filled with useful work for the "welfare and happiness of his family, his town, his State and his country."
Since leaving the Presideney, Mr. Hayes has been actively engaged in educa- tional, reformatory and benevolent work : President of the John F. Slater Edu- cation Fund ; Member of the Peabody Education Fund ; President of the National Prison Association ; President of the Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question ; President of the Maumee Valley Historical and Monumental Society ; Com- mander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States ; President of the Society of the Army of West Virginia ; President of the Society of the Twenty-third Regiment O. V. V. I. ; Member of the Board of Trustees of Western Reserve Universty, Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio State Uni- versity.
SAYINGS FROM SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF EX-PRESIDENT HAYES.
" We have a fair fighting chance to win."
"I would rather go to the war, if I knew I was to lose my life, than to live through and after it without taking part in it."
"To perpetuate the Union and to abolish slavery were the work of the war. To educate the uneducated is the appropriate work of peace. . . . The soldier of the Union has done his work, and has done it well. The work of the schoolmaster is now in order."
"We must get rid of fixed sentences against hardened criminals. They should remain in prison until they are cured."
"Whenever prisons are managed under the spoils system it injures the political party that does it, and the prison in which it is done."
"There is no agreement between prisons and politics."
" It must be regarded as a stain on any man who does not do all he can for the welfare of the men whose labor has made his wealth."
Asked if he would be a candidate by an importunate friend, he replied, "George E. Pngh said there is no political hereafter : content with the past, I am not in a state of mind about the future. It is for us to act well in the present."
"God loves Ohio or he would not have given her such a galaxy of heroes to defend the nation in its hour of trial."
"We must believe that Cain was wrong and that we are our brothers' keepers."
"Our flag should wave over States, not over conquered provinces."
"Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end liberal permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority."
" It is my earnest purpose to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil poliey which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the color line, and the distinction between North and South, that we may have not merely a united North or a united South but a united Country."
"We should be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best."
"The love of flowers and the love of animals go together.
"Touching temperance, there is in this country, at least, no half-way house between total abstinence and the wrong side of the question."
"In any community crimes increase as education, opportunity and property decrease. Whatever spreads ignorance and poverty spreads discontent and causes crime."
"I never sought promotion in the army. I preferred to be one of the good colonels rather than one of the poor generals."
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The following Sketch of MRS. HAYES, with the Tributes to her Memory, was pre- pared for this work by Miss LUCY ELIOT KEELER, of Fremont, with whom it has been a labor of love.
LUCY WARE WEBB HAYES was born August 28, 1831, in Chillicothe, Ohio, at that time the capital of the State. She was of good patriotic pioneer stock.
Her father was Dr. James Webb, a native of Kentucky, and son of Isaac Webb, a Revolutionary soldier of Virginia, who settled in Kentucky about 1790. On her mother's side she was of Puritan ancestry. Her mother, Maria Cook, was the daughter of Isaac Cook, a Revolutionary soldier of Connecticut, who emigrated to the old Northwest Territory about ten years before Ohio became a State. A native of Ohio herself, both of her parents were born in the West. All four of her great-grandfathers served in the Revolutionary war, in regiments of the Connecticut or Virginia lines of the Continental army. Awards of land, made to them in return for military service rendered as officers in these regiments, led to the ultimate transfer of the family residence to Kentucky and Ohio.
Her father, Dr. James Webb, when quite young, served in the war of 1812 as a member of the Kentucky mounted riflemen. When she, his only daughter, was but two years old, he died in Lexington, Ky., whither he had gone from his Ohio home to arrange for manumitting slaves of his inheritance, with the intention of sending them to Liberia. This visit took place during the terrible year of the cholera scourge, and being a physician, he lingered among his old-time friends with a loyalty unto death-giving them care and medical attendance until himself stricken fatally by the disease.
Her mother was a woman of unusual strength of character and of deep religious convictions. After the death of her husband she removed to Delaware, in order to be near the Wesleyan University, where her two sons, Joseph and James, were educated. Her fortune was sufficient to give her children a careful education. Lucy studied with her brothers and recited to the college professors. When her brothers began their studies in the medical college, she entered Wesleyan Female College at Cincinnati, the first chartered college for young women in America, in 1847, and graduated in 1850. While in attendance at this institution she joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she ever remained a faithful and de- voted member.
Before she had finished her school-life in Cincinnati, her mother removed to the city, and occupied a home on Sixth street, near Race, where the family resided while her two brothers were completing their medical studies. Here she was wedded to Rutherford B. Hayes, a young lawyer of the city, December 30, 1852. The marriage ceremony was performed by her old instructor, Rev. L. D. McCabe, D.D., of the Ohio Wesleyan University, who also attended the twenty-fifth anni- versary of the wedding while Mrs. Hayes was mistress of the Presidential man- sion in Washington.
When the war broke out her husband and both of her brothers immediately entered the army, and from that time until the close of the war her home was a refuge for wounded, sick and furloughed soldiers, going to or returning from the front. She spent two winters in camp with her husband in Virginia, and after the battle at South Mountain, where he was badly wounded, she hastened East and joined him at Middletown, Md., and later spent much time in the hospitals near the battlefields of South Mountain and Antietam.
It is no marvel that the soldiers of her husband's regiment revered her, and that she was made a member of the Army of West Virginia, the badge of which society she always prized very highly. The Twenty-third Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry presented her, on the occasion of her silver wedding, with a silver plate, on which is engraved the following lines :
To thee our " Mother," on thy silver troth, We bring this token of our love-thy "boys"
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1
Give greeting unto thee with brimming hearts. Take it, for it is made of beaten coin, Drawn from the hoarded treasures of thy speech: Kind words and gentle, when a gentle word
Was worth the surgery of an hundred schools,
To heal sick thought and make our bruises whole. Take it, our " Mother," 'tis but some small part
Of thy rare bounty we give back to thee,
And while love speaks in silver from our hearts,
We'll bribe old Father Time to spare his gift.
Below the inscription is a sketch of the log hut erected as Col. Hayes' head- quarters during the winter of 1862-63.
Mrs. Hayes' regard for the soldiers of the Union was as enduring as intense. How often has she said, " We must go to that funeral, hie was a soldier ; " and the widows and orphans of the soldier never appealed to her in vain. Describing the great procession in New York, in April, 1889, her eyes glowed as she said : "But the veterans ought not to have been at the rear-they carned it all." After the elose of the war Mr. Hayes was elected to the thirty-ninth and fortieth Congresses and held his seat until nominated for governor. Three terms he filled the latter office, and during all those years Mrs. Hayes enjoyed an experience and exerted an influence which with her natural abilities wonderfully fitted her for the position of lady of the White House.
She had the conscience and tlie courage of her convictious. While presiding over the White House she kept strictly to her temperance principles, and, with the co-operation of President Hayes, banished wine and other liquors entirely from their state dinners, as she had always done from her private table. Derided by the frivolous, and slightingly spoken of by small-minded politicians, she let them talk, but maintained her loyalty to herself and her God. Her example has since been an encouragement and an inspiration to all temperance workers. No woman of this century will have a more glorious name in the list of human benefactors and staunch adherents to principle, than she, when their history is hereafter written.
Speaking of her life at the White House, " The Evening Star " of Washington, says : " Few women would have attempted what she did successfully, to entertain entirely without the use of wines at the table. The persons connected with the official household of the President during the four years of the Hayes administra- tion were all devoted to Mrs. Hayes. Several of the present officials were at the White House at that time and their recollection of her is coupled with a warm personal regard. Senators-Democrats and Republicans-were often heard to give expression to most extravagant compliments of her grace as a hostess. Among her warmest friends and most ardent admirers were such extreme southern men as the late Alexander H. Stephens, Gen. John B. Gordon and Gen. Wade Hampton.
Mrs. Hayes was scarcely above the medium height though she gave the impres- sion of being tall. There was in her person that majesty, sprightliness and grace which correspond to the qualities of conscience, energy and love in her nature. Her features were regular, the mouth a little large, but possessing a very charming mobility of expression. Her abundant and beautiful black hair was worn after the fashion of her girlhood time. Her complexion was rose-brunette and her fine eyes, Very bright and gentle in expression, were that species of dark hazel which is often mistaken for black.
Her beauty was very lasting. Time dealt gently with her. The favorite por- trait of her was taken in 1877, after she was mother of eight children, two of whom had grown to manhood, and were voters. One of the best pictures of her was taken after she was a grandmother.
In matters of personal attire she had exquisite taste, and did not follow the
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then
MRS. HAYES IN THE SOLDIER'S HOSPITAL.
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WINTER QUARTERS.
Built by Col. R. B. Hayes in the Valley of the Kanawha, and occupied by himself and family in the winter of 1862 63.
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fashions blindly. She was modest and unobtrusive in her demeanor ; yet when circumstances placed her in prominent positions, she knew how to carry herself with dignity and grace. She was always equal to the situation; and when she became the first lady in the land she was still simple, hearty, true, and unspoiled. Her home life was a happy one. She looked after her husband's interests with wifely constancy, and cared for her children with motherly affection and tender- ness.
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Leaving the White House in 1881, the family went to Fremont, and settled down at Spiegel Grove, the beautiful place bequeathed to General Hayes by his uncle, Sardis Birchard. Mrs. Hayes' first attention was always given to her home and her family ; but in church work she was no laggard. She gave of her time and her means as she was able. In the Woman's Home Missionary Society she was specially interested, was its president almost from its organization, and spoke and acted in its public meetings with efficiency and success. She sympathized with the suffering and the oppressed everywhere. When her husband was governor of the State, she took an active interest in all of its organized charities, and was a leader among the originators of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home. She was also a member of the Woman's Relief Corps of the State of Ohio. To her husband and herself, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Fremont is largely in- debted for its beautiful church edifice.
Eight years of beautiful private life were granted to her, years which were filled to the brim with joy and occupation. On the 21st of June, 1889, as she sat by her bed-room window sewing, she was stricken with apoplexy, resulting in paralysis. For four days she lay unconscious; then came the announcement of her death. Upon the 28th, a vast multitude came to look on her dear face for the last time. She was borne out of the doors of her beautiful home by her four sons and by four of her nephews and cousins. The surviving soldiers of her husband's old regiment, the 23d O. V. V. I., marched as her guard of honor, followed by a great procession of the Comrades of the G. A. R., of friends and of neighbors, to the quiet, final resting-place in Oakwood Cemetery, near her home at Fremont.
Probably no woman 'ever lived who was more widely known and who knew more persons in all walks of life than Mrs. Hayes. Certainly no one was ever more widely mourned. Tributes to her worth came by the thousand to her family, in the press, in letters, and in other forms.
THANKSGIVING AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
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