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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.

[Top]

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:

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.

CHAPTER II.

[Top]

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 the Bar.

The town of Delaware, the county seat of the county of Delaware, is located near the center of Ohio, twenty-five miles northwest of Columbus. It is a prosperous place of seven thousand people, the most of whom live in comfortable-looking, newly-built homes, and has been hitherto chiefly known for its University and its Springs. The Ohio Wesleyan University is the most flourishing literary institution of the great Methodist denomination in the West. The White Sulphur Spring is a fountain of healing and happiness to the whole region around, and is regarded with added interest since Kossuth came to drink of its waters, and, in reply to a welcoming address, eloquently said, that "out of the Delaware Springs of American sympathy he would fill a cup of health for his bleeding Hungary."

Three squares from these Springs, near the center of the town, and in a two-story brick house on William street, Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born. This has long been Delaware's pride, and will be its fame. The income of his widowed mother, who was bereft of her husband four mouths before her son's birth, was derived from the rent of a good farm lying two miles north of Delaware, on the east side of the Whetstone. This income, used with frugality, enabled her to commence the education of her children. They were sent first to the ordinary schools of the town. The first teacher who enlisted the affections of her since distinguished pupil was Mrs. Joan Murray, a most worthy woman, whose funeral Governor Hayes quite recently attended. He began the study of the Latin and Greek languages with Judge Sherman Finch, a good classical scholar and a good lawyer, of Delaware, who had been at one time a tutor in Yale College. Judge Finch heard the recitations of his pupil in his office at intervals of leisure from the duties of his profession. The pupil taught his sister each day what his instructor taught him.

Through the agency of his uncle, Sardis Birchard, his guardian, who at this time took charge of his education, Rutherford was sent to an academy at Norwalk, Ohio. Here he remained one year under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Chapman, a Methodist clergyman of scholarly attainments. In the fall of 1837, to complete his preparation for college, he was sent to quite a noted school at Middletown, Connecticut, kept by Isaac Webb. Mr. Webb, being a graduate of Yale, made a specialty of preparing students for admission to Yale College. His scholars came from every part of the United States. In one year, his Ohio pupil's preparatory course was completed. The character established by him at this school is made known in the concluding portion of a commendatory letter addressed by Isaac Webb, his instructor, to Mrs. Sophia Hayes, which reads:

"The conduct of your son has hitherto done 'honor to his mother,' and has secured our sincere respect and esteem. I hope and trust that he will continue to be a great source of happiness to you."

The first prize for proficiency in Latin, Greek, and Arithmetic was awarded at this academy to "R. B. Hayes."

In the fall of 1838, at the age of sixteen, young Hayes entered Kenyon College, Ohio, after passing satisfactorily the usual examination for admission. This institution is situated forty miles north of Columbus, in the village of Gambier, which is celebrated for the secluded beauty of its lawns and groves. The College was founded by Bishop Chase, with funds collected by him in England, the principal donors being Lord Gambier and Lord Kenyon. The institution was long under the fostering care of Bishop McIlvaine of blessed memory.

Young Hayes excelled as a debater in the literary societies and in all the college studies; but his tastes especially ran to logic, mental and moral philosophy, and mathematics. In the words of a college mate, now a very distinguished lawyer, he was remarkable in college for "great common sense in his personal conduct; never uttered a profane word; behaved always like a considerate, mature man." In the language of another able member of the legal profession, who followed after him at Kenyon: "Hayes had left a memory which was a fascination, a glowing memory; he was popular, magnanimous, manly; was a noble, chivalrous fellow, of great promise."

On the general points of character, conduct, and scholarship, it is conclusive to say that, when graduation-day came, Rutherford B. Hayes was found to have been awarded the valedictory, which was the highest honor the faculty could bestow upon a member of his class. Although the youngest in years, he was found the oldest in knowledge. In three journals published in August, 1842, the month and year of his graduation, we find exceptionally warm commendations of his valedictory oration. The Mt. Vernon Democratic Banner said: "All who heard this oration pronounced it the best, in every point of view, ever delivered on the hill at Gambier."

In the class with Governor Hayes were Lorin Andrews, afterward President of the College, who fell in the war for the Union, and the Hon. Guy M. Bryan, late member of Congress, and present speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, who, although engaged in the rebellion, has paid a manly tribute to his College classmate since the presidential nomination.

In other college classes at the same time were Stanley Matthews, now one of the ablest lawyers in the United States; Hon. Joseph McCorkle and Hon. R. E. Trowbridge, afterward members of Congress from California and Michigan respectively; and Christopher P. Wolcott, who subsequently filled with high distinction the office of attorney-general of Ohio, and was also assistant secretary of war.

Kenyon College and its graduates bestowed additional honors upon the valedictorian of the class of 1842. In 1845, he was invited back by the faculty to take the second degree, and deliver what is known as the Master's oration. He was invited also by the alumni to deliver the annual address before them, both in 1851 and in 1853. All these honors he modestly declined.

Soon after graduating, Mr. Hayes began the study of the law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, of Columbus. Mr. Sparrow was a lawyer of high standing, whose integrity was proverbial. Although a Democrat in politics, he was regarded by his political adversaries as the purest of pure men. This worthy instructor certifies to the "great diligence" and "good moral character" of his student on the latter's departure to attend a course of law lectures at Harvard. A taste for the legal profession had been very early developed by young Hayes. The proceedings of courts had possessed to him in boyhood peculiar interest.

Judge Ebenezer Lane, long a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, an intimate associate of Sardis Birchard, the patron uncle, had early turned the thoughts of the guardian of the nephew in the direction of the law.

Rutherford B. Hayes entered the law school of Harvard University, August 22, 1843, and finished the course of lectures, January 8, 1845. The law institution was at this time under the charge of Mr. Justice Story, whose eminence as a jurist is only surpassed by that of his bosom friend, the great Chief Justice, John Marshall. He enjoyed the friendship and counsel of Story, and also that of Prof. Simon Greenleaf, who bears testimony to his diligence, exemplary conduct, and demeanor. He kept a minute record, still preserved, of all the trials and proceedings of the moot courts, presided over by Professors Greenleaf and Story, and pages of authorities are cited where "R. B. Hayes" appears as counsel for the fictitious plaintiff or defendant. It might have been safely assumed that a young man of his quick perceptions while in the atmosphere of Boston would make the most of his opportunities and advantages. He attended the lectures of Prof. Longfellow on the literature of foreign languages. He profited by the lecture-room talks of the great scientist, Agassiz, upon the grand theme of nature. Watching his opportunities, he heard Webster deliver his model arguments before juries, and his great political speeches in Faneuil Hall. He visited John Quincy Adams at his home in Quincy, with a party of his fellow-students, who, when he learned that some of his visitors were from Ohio, read to them a part of an address Mr. Adams was about to deliver on the laying of the corner-stone of the Observatory on Mt. Adams, near Cincinnati.

He renewed and prosecuted with ardor the study of the French and German languages, both of which he now translates with ease, and speaks the former with reasonable fluency.

Leaving with regret the classic shades of Cambridge, and parting from fellow-students such as George Hoadly, Manning F. Force, and the since famous orator, J. B. L. Curry, of Alabama, he returned to Ohio an educated young man. He was fitted for the battle of life which he has since so courageously fought, so far as America can afford facilities for procuring a complete, symmetrical education. Impatient to begin the struggle in his profession, he proceeded to Marietta, where the ambulatory Supreme Court of Ohio was then sitting, and having passed before an examining committee, composed of Messrs. Hart, Gardiner, Buel, and Robinson, was duly admitted to practice in the courts of the State as attorney and counsellor at law. The certificate of admission, which is dated March 10, 1845, has so good a name attached to it as that of Thomas W. Ewart, clerk. The Plymouth of the West had therefore the honor of welcoming to the bar the rising son of the West.

CHAPTER III.

[Top]

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.

The young lawyer, R. B. Hayes, full of hopefulness and ambition, commenced the practice of the law at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, Sandusky county, Ohio. This growing town of Northern Ohio was selected because it was the home of the uncle whose extensive business connections would naturally throw more or less law business into the nephew's hands.

His first case was one against a sheriff's sureties, the sheriff having become insolvent. There were five or six bondsmen, who employed as many different lawyers, who of course made a fierce fight to protect the pockets of their clients. The pleadings were difficult under the old practice, and the slightest technical defect in them would adroitly be taken advantage of by the defendants' attorneys. But so accurately had the pleadings been drawn, and so well had the case been worked up by the young lawyer, that no flaw could be found, and his suit was at all points successful.

After this success he had a good run of office business, and was employed both in the defense and prosecution of criminals. In April, 1846, he entered into a law-partnership with Ralph P. Buckland, an older practitioner in good practice. Mr. Buckland subsequently became a conspicuous member of the Ohio Senate, and a gallant officer of the rank of brigadier-general in the war. He became a member also of the Thirty-ninth Congress.

One of the most important cases tried by Hayes while a member of this firm was an action to prevent or enjoin the building of a railway bridge across the Bay of Sandusky, on the ground of its obstructing navigation. The cause was tried before Judge McLean, in the United States District Court at Cincinnati. Thomas Ewing, who was one of the opposing counsel in the case, continued to compliment Hayes during life for this maiden effort in a United States Court.

In November, 1848, in consequence of bleeding at the lungs and other alarming admonitions of failing health, Mr. Hayes left Fremont to pass a winter with his friend, Guy M. Bryan, in Texas. A half year of boating, fishing, hunting, and scouring the prairies brought about a physical revolution. He came back as sound as a dollar—that is, a coin dollar—and has so remained ever since.

In December, 1849, he put in execution a design for some time contemplated, and on Christmas eve arrived in Cincinnati. He had consulted professional friends in Cincinnati about seeking the stimulus of a wider field for permanent occupation, and was doubtless influenced somewhat by the advice received. One who had been with him at Harvard wrote: "I have not flattered the face of man or woman for years, but I think honestly that the R. B. Hayes whom I knew four years ago would be sure to succeed at this bar, if he can afford to live and wait." Another professional brother, on terms of intimacy, wrote: "With your energies, talents, education, and address, you are green—verdant as grass—to stay in a country village." On the 8th of January, 1850, the new candidate for public and professional favor took possession of an office on the south side of Third street, between Main and Sycamore, opposite the Henrie House. His office companion was John W. Herron, with whose appearance and manners the new comer seems to have been well pleased. The first year in Cincinnati brought little professional business, but no day was passed in idleness. His studies were systematic, and his reading comprehensive in both law and literature. Shakespeare, Burke, Webster, and Emerson were his inseparable companions. He sought to widen the circle of his acquaintances, and add daily to the number of his friends. Having been a member of the order of Odd-Fellows and Sons of Temperance in Fremont, he united again with those organizations in Cincinnati. The addresses he was invited to deliver at Odd-Fellow's lodges and at many more public places were very numerous. In this way he made reputation as a public speaker, if not money. He was not only becoming known, but becoming favorably known.

The widely renowned literary club of Cincinnati, which he joined in 1850, and of which he remained an active member for eleven years, awakened his social sympathies and ardent interest. To the reading of essays, and to the discussions on political, social, and moral questions, he always listened, and in the latter often took part. In debate, he was strong, eager, clear, and logical. He had an aptitude at seeing principles and getting at the kernel of questions. Among those who during these years participated in the social or literary entertainments of the club-room were Chief Justice Chase, Thomas Corwin, Thomas Ewing, father and son, General Pope, General Edward F. Noyes, Stanley Matthews, M. D. Conway, Manning F. Force, W. K. Rogers, John W. Herron, D. Thew Wright, Isaac Collins, Charles P. James, R. D. Mussey, and many others of ability and distinction. In January, 1852, the opportunity for "getting a start" in his professional career came. While making a sensible, energetic little speech in behalf of a criminal indicted for grand larceny, named Cunningham, he attracted the attention and won the commendation of Judge R. B. Warden, then president judge of the criminal court, who thereupon appointed the modest young attorney counsel for Nancy Farrer, whose case became the great criminal case of the term, if not of the times.

Nancy Farrer had poisoned all the members of two families. She had a bad countenance, a sinister, revolting look. It is not strange that she should have been considered by the court and jury that tried her, and by the entire public, a qualified candidate for the gallows. Hayes, in defending his client, had to contend against the passions, the indignation of the public, and the predispositions and prejudices of judge and jury. The judge who tried the case was not the one who appointed the comparatively unknown attorney as counsel. Hayes saw instinctively the immense importance of the case, and knew intuitively that a crisis had come in his career. He set laboriously to work to establish an impregnable line of defense.

He found on examination of the proofs that the supposed murderess was totally irresponsible, because of hereditary idiocy and insanity. Her father had died of drunkenness in a Cincinnati hospital, and her mother went about under the insane hallucination that she was a prophetess. Nancy's conduct and conversations while employed in the wholesale poisoning business showed that she had no moral comprehension of what she was about. But the plea of insanity had been so often and so vehemently pressed in defense of prisoners who were sane that it seemed to be of no avail in defense of one who was not. The cry of insanity, like that of "wolf," had been so repeatedly raised when there was no insanity, that it was not heeded when there was. Notwithstanding an argument which for legal learning and forensic eloquence attracted the attention of the press and bar, and established the counsel's reputation, the poor, insane idiot was convicted of murder in the first degree. Hayes at once obtained a writ of error, which the district court reserved for decision in the Supreme Court of the State. The case was argued and determined in that court at the December term, 1858, and reported in 2 Ohio St. Reports. R. B. Hayes appeared for plaintiff in error, and George E. Pugh, attorney-general for the State. The earnest and determined advocate of Nancy Farrer carried his points, obtained a new trial, and greatly enhanced his professional reputation. The then official reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio, who heard this argument, says: "It was a truly admirable effort, and the peroration was indescribably pathetic. But on this occasion, as on all others, Mr. Hayes was singularly modest." Although a new trial was granted, through the concurring opinions of Justices Corwin, Thurman, and Ranney, Nancy Farrer was never again tried. She was sent to a lunatic asylum.

Hayes next gained reputation through his connection with the notorious James Summons murder case. He was employed by the older counsel in the case to take notes of the testimony and record the rulings of the court. The trial occupying many days and many differences arising between counsel with respect to the rulings of the court, it was found that the accuracy of the notes of the junior attorney was in every instance confirmed by the court itself. When the time came for the final arguments to begin, the leading counsel asked each a day for each side. Judge Thurman, then presiding, on consultation with Judge Piatt, announced that the court could only give the leading counsel two hours each, but that they would allow Mr. Hayes one hour additional. Notwithstanding the court was assured that Mr. Hayes was not strictly employed in the case, Judges Thurman, Matthews, and Piatt insisted upon hearing him, and he was accordingly heard. His unpremeditated argument was clear, convincing, impassioned, and impressive. It was one of the best speeches of his life. The case went up to the Supreme Court with the junior as the leading counsel.

We now reach an event in the course of this narrative, which, controlling as is the influence it has upon all lives, has been immeasurably potent in its influence upon the life and fortunes of Governor Hayes.

On the 30th of December, 1852, he was married to Miss Lucy W. Webb, by Prof. L. D. McCabe, of the Ohio Wesleyan University. The marriage took place at No. 141 Sixth street, Cincinnati, the bride's home, in the presence of about forty friends. Lucy Ware Webb was the daughter of Dr. James Webb and Maria Cook Webb. Dr. Webb was a popular gentleman and successful practicing physician in Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1833, he died of cholera in Lexington, Kentucky, where he had gone to complete arrangements for sending to Liberia slaves set free by himself and his father. The grandfather of Mrs. Dr. Webb was Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, who in 1777 was serving in a regiment commanded by Colonel Andrew Ward, in the army of the Revolution. Both Governor and Mrs. Hayes are, therefore, descendants of soldiers of the Revolution, most worthily uniting in their lineage jointly the dawn of the second century with the dawn of the first. The six years following 1852 were years of full practice and exacting labors, in which disappointments were few and successes many. These were years in which solid foundations were laid for as solid a reputation as it was possible for the men among whom he moved to build up.

In January, 1854, he formed a law-partnership with R. M. Corwine and W. K. Rogers, under the firm name of Corwine, Hayes & Rogers. This proved a partnership of friendship as well as business, being in every way satisfactory and agreeable. Mr. Rogers is now the close companion of his old partner in these later and more eventful years. Mr. Corwine died a resident of Washington City, a year or two since.

In April, 1859, he was, without solicitation, chosen city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Hart, and on the 9th of that month entered upon the discharge of his official duties. His chief competitor for this office was Caleb B. Smith, since a member of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. The vote in the city council on the first ballot was: Mr. Smith, 13; Mr. Disney, 12; Mr. Hayes, 3. On the seventh ballot, Mr. Hayes had 17; Mr. Ware, 12; and Mr. Disney, 3. On the thirteenth ballot, Mr. Hayes was declared elected, having received 18 votes to Mr. Ware's 14. His election was due to the vote of Mr. Toohey, a Democratic councilman of the Thirteenth Ward. The election of Hayes to his first office was most favorably received.

The Cincinnati Commercial, of December 9, 1858, said: "R. B. Hayes, Esq., one of the most honest and capable young lawyers of the city, was elected city solicitor last night by the city council to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Hart. It would have been very difficult to have made any other selection of a solicitor equally excellent and as generally satisfactory."

The Cincinnati Enquirer, of the same date, said: "Mr. Hayes, the city solicitor elect, is a lawyer of good acquirements and reputation, and is well qualified for the position."

Charles Reemelin, in a letter to the New York Evening Post, wrote: "I know of no young man in our city of higher promise than Mr. Hayes, and we hope for him a bright future."

The estimate of the people seemed to correspond with that of the press, for in the following spring he was elected to the office to which he had been appointed by a majority of two thousand five hundred and thirty-six on the popular vote. His Democratic opponent was W. T. Forrest.

He filled the office of corporation counsel for three years, during which time, as legal adviser of the municipal government of a great city, he passed judgment upon questions involving large interests, and discharged with high fidelity the duties of an important trust. As city solicitor, the opinion which perhaps aroused the most general attention and interest, was one delivered in February, 1859, denying the right of the city council to contract debts for waterworks purposes, without additional authority from the General Assembly. He was opposed to the increase of taxation and creation of new debts, on principle. In April, 1861, in common with the entire Republican ticket, he was defeated for re-election as city solicitor. His vote, however, was larger than that of any candidate on his ticket. He had suffered a similar defeat in the fall of 1856, when a candidate for Common Pleas Judge, his party being in a decided minority in Hamilton county. Had the election of 1861 occurred two weeks later, when the great uprising came with the fall of Sumter, the Republican war ticket, not the Democratic compromise ticket, would have carried the day.

CHAPTER IV.

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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.

That a loyal citizen of the antecedents, ardent patriotism, and impulsive nature of Rutherford B. Hayes would enter the army in the war for the Union, was to be looked for as a thing of course. He had been in the habit of obeying every call of duty, and could not therefore disobey when duty called loudest. He regarded the war waged for the supremacy of the constitution and the laws as a just and necessary war, and preferred to go into it if he knew he "was to die or be killed in the course of it." He had been a most earnest advocate of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, and had been an anti-slavery man of established convictions long before the candidacy of Fremont for the Presidency. He did not think the Union should be destroyed to make slavery perpetual. He desired to mitigate and finally eradicate that evil. He had prayed for the election of General Harrison for the sake of the country; he had cast his first vote for Henry Clay, his second for General Taylor, and his third for General Scott. But the old Whig party having ceased to be a living organization, he gave his whole heart to the Republican party and its cause, and by political speeches, and in other ways, helped forward the movement in favor of equality of rights and laws. The insult to the flag at Fort Sumter aroused to the intensest pitch the patriotic indignation of a united North. At a great mass-meeting held in Cincinnati, R. B. Hayes was selected to give expression to the loyal voice, by being made chairman of the public committee on resolutions. It is not needful to add that these resolutions had all the fire and intensity of the popular feeling. The knowledge that it was his purpose to enter the Union army having reached Governor Dennison, that officer appointed Hayes major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June 7, 1861. With this appointment was coupled the appointments of W. S. Rosecrans as colonel, and Stanley Matthews as lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment. Colonel Rosecrans, with the other field-officers, had just set to work organizing the new regiment, when Rosecrans was appointed brigadier-general, and ordered to take command of the Ohio troops moving in the direction of Western Virginia. Upon the promotion of Rosecrans, Colonel E. P. Scammon, an officer of military education, was placed in command of the Twenty-third.

After a brief period of discipline at Camp Chase the regiment was ordered, on the 25th of July, to Clarksburgh, West Virginia, and on the 29th went into camp at Weston. We shall not follow it in this or in subsequent campaigns, in its marching, scouting, skirmishing, or counter-marching. It is enough to say, that in this first campaign it assisted in clearing the whole mountainous region of Western Virginia of a formidable enemy.

Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans, on the 19th of September, 1861, judge advocate of the department of Ohio, the duties of which service he discharged about two months. He received his first promotion, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, October 24, 1861. Passing over less important events, we come to the first serious battle in which he was engaged.

THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Was fought on Sunday, September 14, 1862, a beautiful, bright September day. The enemy were in possession of the crest of the mountain, where the old National road crossed it. The army of McClellan, with Burnside in advance, were pressing up that mountain by the National road as its center. General Cox's division of Burnside's corps was in advance. The brigade to which Lieutenant-colonel Hayes was attached was in advance of the division. His regiment was in advance of the brigade. He was ordered to pass up a mountain path on the left of the National road and feel for the enemy, advancing until he struck him; to push him up the mountain if he could; in short, to open the engagement. Lieutenant-colonel Hayes pushed into the woods, came upon the enemy's pickets, received their fire, and drove them in. He soon saw a strong force of the enemy coming toward the line of his advance from a neighboring hill, and went to meet them. Hayes charged into that force with a regimental yell, and, after a fierce fight, drove them out of the woods in which he found them, into an open field near the summit. He then drove them across the field, losing many men and capturing and killing many of the enemy.

Hayes, having just given the command for a third charge, felt a stunning blow, and found that a large musket ball had struck his left arm above the elbow, carrying away and badly fracturing the entire bone. Fearing an artery might be severed, he asked a soldier to bandage his arm above the elbow, and a few minutes after, through exhaustion, he fell. Recovering from a state of unconsciousness while down, in a few moments, and observing that his men had fallen back to the woods for shelter, he sprang to his feet, and, with unusual vehemence, ordered them to come forward, which they did. He continued fighting some time at the head of his men; but falling a second time, from exhausted strength, he kept on giving orders, while down, to fight it out.

Major Comly, the second in command, then came to him to learn the orders under which the regiment was fighting, and deeming it best to assume command, owing to the critical condition of Lieutenant-colonel Hayes, gave orders that the wounded hero should be carried from the field. In an almost illegible narrative, written with the left hand just after the battle, we find this modest record, by the intrepid sufferer in this event: "While I was down I had considerable talk with a wounded Confederate lying near me. I gave him messages for my wife and friends in case I should not get up. We were right jolly and friendly. It was by no means an unpleasant experience."

The enemy in this action continued to pour a most destructive fire of musketry, grape, and canister into the Union ranks. Lieutenant-colonel Hayes again made his appearance on the field with his wound half dressed, and fought until carried off. Soon after, the rest of the brigade coming up, a brilliant bayonet charge up the hill dislodged the enemy and drove him into the woods beyond. The Twenty-third regiment in this engagement lost within eight men of half the entire force engaged.

South Mountain is inscribed on all the standards of this gallant regiment, and surrounds with a sad halo of glory the names of the living and the graves of the dead.

At the time this battle was fought, Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was not under pay, having been mustered out of the Twenty-third regiment to take command of the Seventy-ninth. His wound preventing him from becoming colonel of the Seventy-ninth, he was, on the 24th of October, 1862, appointed colonel of his own regiment, vice Scammon, promoted. It was while at home recovering from his wounds that his wealthy uncle, Sardis Birchard, urged Colonel Hayes, to whom he was devotedly attached, to leave the army, on the ground that he had done his share, promising to himself and family abundant support; but he would not listen to the suggestion, and before his wounds were healed went back.

AFTER JOHN MORGAN.

In July, 1863, while Colonel Hayes, under superior officers and in connection with other forces, was engaged in skirmishing, scouting, and harassing the enemy in Southwestern Virginia, an episode occurred which illustrates his force and decision of character and energy in action. Happening to ride to Fayetteville, a distance of fifteen miles from camp, to learn the news, he was startled by the telegraph operator with the intelligence that John Morgan was in Ohio, and was at that moment making for Gallipolis to recross the Ohio river. Here was a cry of help from home. His own State invaded, and his own friends and kindred in danger! His decision was instantaneous to go to the rescue. He sent over the wires to his adjutant, then at Charleston, the message: "Are there any steamboats at Charleston?" And being informed there were two, he instantly ordered them to be sent to Luke creek, the highest navigable point on the Kanawha. Colonel Hayes then galloped back to camp, and, after bringing all his powers of persuasion to bear, succeeded in getting permission to take two regiments and a section of artillery, and go in pursuit of Morgan. In thirty minutes after the orders were read to the soldiers, the column was on its march. The road was mountainous, the darkness dense, the route almost impassable, but the Kanawha river was reached at the break of day. The steamers were both in sight, and on these the eager men and the artillery were embarked. By daylight the next morning this timely succor was at Gallipolis. That town was saved from a rebel raid, and the hot pursuit of John Morgan commenced. Warned by spies, he had turned his retreat in the direction of Pomeroy. Hayes re-embarked his force, and steamed up after him. Again disembarking his men, Hayes came in collision with the raider, who retreated after getting a taste of the quality of his adversary. But Morgan being beset on all sides was forced to surrender, and was made a prisoner with many of his men. Their next raiding was done from the inside to the outside of the walls of the Ohio penitentiary.

BATTLE OF CLOYD MOUNTAIN.

In the spring of 1864, General Crook moved with an army of about six thousand men to cut the main lines of communication between Richmond and the great Southwest. In this expedition Colonel Hayes commanded a brigade. General Crook, who is called "Gray Fox" by the warriors of Sitting Bull, is one of the shrewdest generals in the world in the way of tricking an enemy. On this expedition he marched up the Kanawha, and sent his music and one regiment toward the White Sulphur Springs, while his army went the other way. He charged his music to make noise enough for an army of ten thousand. The enemy, who were fortified on the road by which Crook's army was actually to pass, left Fort Breckenridge, and marched off fifty or sixty miles in the direction that Crook's band of music had gone. His army then hurried on, and marched right into the fort without firing a shot. To have taken it without stratagem would have cost much delay and many lives. In the meantime, the enemy hurried back, and, collecting an army under General Jenkins, fortified a position on the crest of Cloyd mountain. The base of the mountain was skirted with a stream of water two or three feet deep, and the approach to it was through a meadow five or six hundred yards wide. The enemy, who were strongly entrenched, opened upon Crook's force so soon as it reached the road that was within range of their artillery. It was evident the fortifications could not be carried without very determined fighting. A small force, after making a stout struggle, dropped back repulsed. Crook ordered Colonel Hayes' brigade to cross Cloyd's meadow, charge up the hill, and take the batteries. Hayes formed in the edge of the woods, and marched out with as perfect a line as ever was formed on parade. He moved on, and was soon under fire. The enemy opened heavily, bringing down men along the whole line. A slow double-quick was ordered, the alignments being kept good until the edge of the woods was reached.

The fortifications could not be seen. There was only in sight a woody hill, and below it a stream to cross. Hayes, the brigade following, dashed through the creek to the foot of the last hill, which was so steep that the cannon could not be depressed sufficiently to damage them. After halting for a minute to take breath, the brigade charged, with a terrific yell, up the hill. The instant they passed the curve of the hill, as fearful a fire met them as men are ever called to face. The whole line seemed falling, officers and men going down by scores. But not a man stopped; all who were not hit went on. Hayes shouted to his men to push on to the enemy's works. They were carried by assault, many of the enemy being bayoneted beneath ingenious barricades that they deemed impregnable. The enemy were killed or driven out, and their cannon captured. For ten minutes it was a desperate, give-and-take, rough-and-tumble fight. The artillerymen attempted to reload when the assaulting party was not ten paces distant. The enemy retreated to a second ridge of the mountain, and made a determined effort to form a line, but the pursuit was too hot for the effort to be successful. Reinforcements arriving, they endeavored to make a third stand, but were easily driven off in full retreat. Thus ended the battle on the mountain, where the enemy's fort on its summit was carried by storm.

BATTLE OF WINCHESTER.

What is known as the first battle of Winchester, fought July 24, 1864, illustrates the pluck and endurance of Hayes under disaster. Here, as in the last battle, he commanded a brigade in a division of General Crook's army, of West Virginia. Two brigades, under Colonel Mulligan and Colonel Hayes, were ordered to go out and meet what was supposed to be a reconnaissance in force of the enemy. Hayes was ordered to join his right on Mulligan's left, and charge with him. They were to attack whatever there was in front. They could see only two skirmish lines in front. Hayes soon saw appearances of the enemy off on the left. Mulligan was informed there were signs of an enemy forward on the right. Indications were correct. The enemy were coming down upon them in overpowering force on both flanks and in front. Mulligan said his orders were to go forward, and he was going forward. Hayes thought it was as well to go forward as to go any other way, as there could be but one result. Soon after charging, the enemy opened a deadly fire with artillery on the left flank, and infantry close in front. In five minutes Colonel Mulligan fell, pierced with five balls. The enemy had double the force in front, and overlapped the right flank a quarter of a mile. This was a better place to be out of than in. The lines melted away under the destructive fire. The deafening roar of artillery and musketry prevented all commands from being heard. The Hayes brigade fell slowly back to a hill inaccessible to cavalry. There it formed, and held back the yelling pursuers. At this point Lieutenant-Colonel Comly was wounded. The cavalry, whose failure to furnish information of the presence of the enemy had brought on the disaster, had disappeared from the scene. Colonel Hayes' brigade, which was exposed to the cavalry of the enemy, marched in a half square, fighting steadily in front and on both flanks. Once the brigade was concealed in a belt of woods until the enemy's cavalry came within pistol-shot, when the whole line suddenly rose and poured its fire into their ranks. After that, the pursuit ceased. From morning until midnight, Colonel Hayes, having lost his horse, was fighting and encouraging his men on foot, saving his command from annihilation, and displaying personal bravery of the highest order.

BATTLE OF BERRYVILLE.

This was one of the fiercest fights of the war. It was between a South Carolina and Mississippi division, under General Kershaw, and six regiments of the Kanawha division.

The occasion of this battle was this: Sheridan sent a body of cavalry to get in the rear of Early's army and cut off his supplies. To do this there were two roads up the pike—one through Winchester and one ten miles east of Winchester. Ten miles east of this place, through Berryville, was the enemy's headquarters, and Sheridan's object was to throw a force past them which would turn and strike them in the rear. In order to protect that body so that it could get back again—not be cut off on its line of retreat—Crook was ordered to take possession of the pike where the road from Winchester crosses it. The enemy, understanding the plan, moved to take possession of the same crossing. They first attacked with a small force, and were driven back. Being reinforced, they drove back in turn the regiments in advance of the Union force. Colonel Hayes had a line a quarter of a mile long sheltered behind a terrace wall, the ground in front being level with the top of the wall. He sat on his horse watching the tumultuous advance of the enemy. The Union advance lines, being driven back in precipitate retreat, ran right over Hayes' brigade. The enemy followed close on their heels. Hayes let them get within two rods, when the whole brigade rose, and with a yell delivered a deadly volley at the enemy's legs. They then jumped upon the terrace and charged bayonet, driving the pursuing enemy back like a flock of sheep. He pushed them to their second or reserve lines, where they rallied at dark, and stubbornly maintained their ground.

Colonel Hayes' brigade went at double quick pace into action, their leader at the head of the column. The Twenty-third and Thirty-sixth Ohio, and the Fifth and Thirteenth Virginia, constituted at this time his brigade. From dark until almost ten o'clock the cannonading was continuous and the fighting terrible. Hayes, although never more exposed to danger, enjoyed the grand illumination and the thrilling excitement. Both divisions withdrew at the same hour, and the engagement was not the next day renewed. In this short action Colonel Hayes, by his courage and gallantry, added to his popularity as an officer among both officers and men.

CHAPTER V.

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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.

BATTLE OF OPEQUAN.

Sheridan's battle of Winchester, or Opequan, was fought on the 19th of September, 1864. The battle had a bad beginning, but a glorious ending. There were five hours of staring disaster, and five of inspiring victory. Sheridan, in assuming the offensive, in September, was compelled to fight Early in the latter's chosen and particularly advantageous position, at the mouth of a narrow ravine near Winchester.

Concerning the earlier, or disastrous part of the engagement, it is sufficient for our present purpose to say that Sheridan moved all except one corps of his entire army down this gorge, deployed in the valley beyond, fought a bloody fight, and was driven back in confusion along his line of advance. At noon the enemy were rejoicing over the victory, and their friends in Winchester were jubilant. The reserves of Sheridan were sent for. General Crook, in person, brought the reserve corps into action at one o'clock. He made for the enemy's left flank, and pushed direct for a battery on their extreme left. The brigade of Colonel Hayes was in front, supported by Colonel White's old brigade. The order was to walk fast, keep silent until within one hundred yards of the guns, and then with a yell charge at full speed. These brigades had passed over a ridge and were just ready to begin the rush, when they came upon a deep morass, forty yards wide, with high banks. The enemy's fire now broke out with fury. Of course the line stopped. To stop was death, to go on was probably the same; but the order was "Forward." Colonel Hayes was the first to plunge in; but his horse, after frantic struggling, mired down hopelessly in the middle of the boggy stream. He sprang off and succeeded in reaching the enemy's side. The next man over was Lieutenant Stearne, adjutant of the Thirty-sixth Ohio.

Shot and shell were falling in the water as they crossed, and were still falling. When Hayes regained the opposite bank he motioned rapidly, with his cap in hand, for his men to come over. Some held back, but many plunged into the bog, and struggled across to their leader. Some sank to their chins while holding their arms and ammunition over their heads. Before fifty men had gotten over, Hayes shouted: "Men, right up the bank," and there were the rebel batteries without any support. So the artillerymen were bayoneted in the act of loading their guns. They never dreamed that any Union force could cross the barrier before them. The batteries were captured, the enemy's position successfully flanked, and his whole force driven back five hundred yards to a second line of defense. Here, strongly posted, he delivered a fearfully destructive fire. The advancing line was brought to a standstill by the storm of grape and balls. Officers in advance were falling faster than others, but all were suffering. Things began to look dark. At the most critical moment, a large body of Sheridan's splendid cavalry, with swords drawn, wound slowly around the right, then at a trot, and finally, with shouts, at a gallop, charged right into the rebel lines. Hayes, now in command of the division, his division commander having fallen, pushed on, and the enemy in utter confusion fled. Crook's command carried the forts which covered the heights, and Hayes led the advance of that command. His division entered Winchester in pursuit of Early far in advance of all other troops. The spirit of Early's brave army was broken. Its loss in this battle was nearly seven thousand men.

The day following the battle of Opequan, Stanton telegraphed Sheridan: "Please accept for yourself and your gallant army the thanks of the President and the department for your great battle and brilliant victory of yesterday." An official report of Colonel Comly, commanding the Twenty-third Ohio, thus refers to Colonel Hayes, division commander: "He is everywhere exposing himself recklessly, as usual. He was the first one over the slough; he has been in advance of the line half the time since; his adjutant-general has been severely wounded; men are dropping all around him; but he rides through it all as if he had a charmed life."

FISHER'S HILL.

The assault on South Mountain, or Fisher's Hill, occurred on the 22d of September, three days after the battle of Opequan. Sheridan was in hot pursuit of Early, and had followed him up the Shenandoah valley, overtaking him in position at Fisher's Hill. This is a ridge stretching across the valley where it is only about three miles wide. There is a creek running in front of the ridge. Early had fortified the ridge, and was in strong position. Sheridan was disposed to attack him in front, trusting to the demoralization from the recent defeat for an easy victory.

Crook insisted upon trying to turn their left flank. It was finally determined that it could be done. He was ordered to take Hayes' division, which led the advancing column. Crook and Hayes rode side by side at the head of the men. Pretty soon Crook and every officer, except Hayes, dismounted. The latter had a horse that could go wherever a man could. The command went up mountains, pushed their way through woods, and slid down ravines and gorges. When the enemy's left was supposed to be passed, they turned by the flank and bore down on his rear. Hayes galloped down a ravine, flanked by mountains, until he came right upon the enemy's guns. He rode back, ordered his division to charge with a yell, and the enemy, seized with a panic, fled. The charge was one of great impetuosity, each man trying to reach the entrenchments first. Every gun was captured. The brilliancy of this victory consisted in flanking the enemy from the side of a mountain, where Early said only a crow could go. But Colonel Hayes climbed there on horseback, at the head of his command.

CEDAR CREEK.

On the 19th of October, 1864, was fought the battle of Cedar creek, so memorable in the annals of war. It wiped out Early and his army. It gave the rebel general Gordon a seat in the United States Senate. It made Sheridan lieutenant-general. It made Colonel Hayes a brigadier-general and Governor of Ohio.

Sheridan, supposing Early's army too much broken by recent defeats to be dangerous, had gone on a visit to Washington, leaving his force in command of General Wright. It was posted near Middletown, in the rear of Cedar creek, and on both sides of the Winchester pike. Ten miles to the westward, beyond the creek, were the enemy's camps. Two things induced Early to risk one more battle—the absence of Sheridan, and his own reinforcement with twelve thousand men. Early left camp on the night of the 18th, and, passing round with his entire army between Massanutten mountain and the north fork of the Shenandoah, forded the Shenandoah at midnight, and noiselessly formed in line of battle in the rear and on the flank of the Union army. The plan of attack was a bold one, and seemed the inspiration of genius. The ford that gave the enemy a crossing, which should have been well guarded by cavalry, was stupidly left exposed. At daylight, while Thoburn's division were sleeping in their camps, Early's onslaught was made. Generals Gordon, Pegram, Kershaw, and Wharton charged with the rebel yell upon the left rear of Crook's entire command. The assault, under the circumstances, was inevitably successful, and the whole Union force was hurled back on the Nineteenth corps and the Kanawha division, commanded by Colonel Hayes. The enemy overlapped both flanks, and pushed forward with irresistible impetuosity. Crook's command had already lost seven pieces of artillery, and was in rapid retreat. The men meeting the enemy's charge, knowing that they were outflanked and the enemy had gotten in their rear, fought desperately, but not hopefully. The whole line was pushed slowly back. Colonel Hayes, on seeing his right breaking up, rode over and with vehemence gave orders to stand firm. But the line melted away, leaving him alone and exposed. A whole volley came aimed at him, filling the air and killing his horse with twenty balls. The horse going at great speed when it fell, threw its rider with great violence to the ground, dislocating an ankle and badly bruising him from the head down. He rose, and though fired at by the pursuing enemy at forty paces, escaped further wounds or capture. Colonel Hayes procured the horse of his orderly, and with great exertion gradually brought his men to a stand. Here they were alternately preparing their breakfasts, and when orders were given, instantaneously forming lines.

At ten o'clock the Union army received a reinforcement more powerful than was the enemy's of twelve thousand men. Sheridan had come, and with him confidence had come. He almost instantaneously inspired a beaten army with his own electric energy and unconquerable hope. "Boys, we must go back to our camps," he said; and they went. The army was recreated into a compact, advancing, aggressive organization. "The whole line will advance," said Sheridan, and it advanced.

The enemy was charged a first and a second time, with infantry in the center and cavalry on the left and right. Custer's cavalry kept swooping down on the rebel flank, gathering them in as a sickle gathers grain. The gallant Colonel Hayes, too modest to seek promotion, though long discharging the duties of a major-general, as commander of a veteran division, fought in the center, forcing back the rebel line to Cedar creek. Here it broke in confusion, abandoning seventy pieces of artillery, arms, camps, and transportation. The pursuit ceased not until there was no longer an enemy to pursue. Early this time "stayed whipped." In the Shenandoah valley he ceased to take much interest in subsequent events.

It was on the field of this most complete victory of the war that Sheridan clasped the hand of Hayes and said: "Colonel, from this day forward you will be a brigadier-general." Ten days after the battle the commission came. The gallant Crook presented him with the insignia of his new rank, and he wore them. On March 13, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of brevet major-general "for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia."

General Hayes was wounded four times in battle. From one wound he has never entirely recovered. He was struck by a shell, just below the knee, while on horseback. He did not get off his horse at the time, but remained at the front throughout the battle. The wound now troubles him when ascending stairs. According to the excellent authority of Adjutant-General Hastings, Hayes was under fire sixty days in 1864. He must therefore have been exposed to death on one hundred days during the war.

A soldier who would thus risk life and limb to preserve the Union is perhaps entitled to have something to say concerning the government of it. He who is willing to die for the republic, will see that the republic suffers no harm.

The qualities of General Hayes as a soldier will be reviewed when we come to speak of his characteristics as a civil magistrate and as a man.

CHAPTER VI.

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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.

On the 6th of August, 1864, while General Hayes was absent from Ohio in the field, he was nominated by the Republican Convention of the Second Congressional District of Cincinnati for Congress. This was the result of the spontaneous action of his friends, and was brought about through their agency alone. The nomination was neither sought nor desired. The following extract from a letter written in camp, and bearing date July 30, 1864, makes known the then existing state of the case:

"As to the canvass that occurs, I care nothing at all about it; neither for the nomination nor for the election. It was merely easier to let the thing take its own course than to get up a letter declining to run, and then to explain it to everybody who might choose to bore me about it."

The first information of the nomination for Congress was conveyed to General Hayes through the letter of a friend written the day after the convention met, which information was received on Monday, August 22d, while preparing for battle, and on the same day he did a "good thing" in the way of taking prisoners while charging on the rebel lines. Two days after, with the enemy in front, he wrote this "private" letter on the subject of going home to canvass:

Camp of Sheridan's Army,

near Charlestown, Va., August 24, 1864.

Friend S.:—Your favor of the 7th came to hand on Monday. It was the first I had heard of the doings of the Second District Convention. My thanks for your attention and assistance in the premises. I cared very little about being a candidate, but having consented to the use of my name I preferred to succeed. Your suggestion about getting a furlough to take the stump was certainly made without reflection. An officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped. You may feel perfectly sure I shall do no such thing. We are, and for two weeks past have been, in the immediate presence of a large rebel army. We have skirmishing and small affairs constantly. I am not posted in the policy deemed wise at headquarters, and can't guess as to the prospects of a general engagement. The condition and spirit of this army are good and improving. I suspect the enemy are sliding around us toward the Potomac. If they cross we shall pretty certainly have a meeting.

An incident of this canvass caused at the time it occurred intense feeling and indignation. The Democrats were having a large mass meeting in Cincinnati, with an immense procession. Among the banners or transparencies carried in the procession was one large, coarsely-executed affair, representing General Hayes dodging bullets while running from the enemy. As Hayes was at that very moment at the front fighting the enemy, this assault in the rear was not deemed by Union-loving men to fall within the rules of legitimate political warfare. Some soldiers of the "Old Kanawha" division happening to be at home recovering from wounds, had their indignation aroused to such an uncontrollable pitch that they insisted upon ignominiously trampling down the libelous transparency and its bearer. They had seen General Hayes bare his breast a hundred times to the bullet-storm of battle, and thought they were better judges of what constituted courage than men who stayed at home occupying their time in passing resolutions that the war was a "failure." These old veteran comrades of Hayes were moving in compact line to charge on the procession, when a number of good citizens, in the interest of order and to prevent a riot, had the obnoxious banner removed. It is but just to say that Democrats of the better sort totally disapproved of this public indecency and excuseless outrage.

During the canvass for Congress, and while in the thickest of the bloody fight at Opequan, the soldiers under General Hayes kept crying out: "We will gain a victory to-day, Colonel, and elect you to Congress;" "One more charge, and you go to Congress!" These brave defenders of the Republic well knew the effect of a Union victory upon a pending election. When the soldiers' vote was taken on Tuesday, the 11th of October, not a man in the Twenty-third or Thirty-sixth Ohio regiment voted the Democratic ticket, and but fifty-three voted the Peace ticket in the entire division commanded by General Hayes. The result of his first contest for Congress, or rather candidacy, for there was no contest on his part, was his triumphant election by a majority of two thousand four hundred and fifty-five votes. His competitor was Joseph C. Butler, a banker, capitalist, and most respectable gentleman. Eight days after the election, the battle of Cedar Creek was fought, so that the news of two victories came to the faithful soldier at the same time. Conducting a congressional campaign on the front, rear, and flanks of the enemy, worked well. To Hayes the cause of the Union was such a sacred cause that he could not cease fighting the enemies of that Union so long as there remained an armed enemy to fight.

The war being ended, he took his seat on the first day of the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, which assembled December 4, 1865. Among the able or notable men in that Congress were Shellabarger, Bingham, Schenck, Spaulding, and Garfield, from Ohio, and Thad. Stevens, Conkling, Kerr, E. B. Washburne, A. H. Rice, Raymond, Niblack, John A. Griswold, Farnsworth, Orth, Cullom, Dawes, Blaine, Voorhees, and Randall, from other States. The first session was mainly occupied with the question of reconstruction. The central questions during the subsequent sessions were those growing out of the impeachment of President Johnson. General Hayes voted consistently with his party on these two classes of questions. He was the only new member, except one, who was given the chairmanship of a committee, being placed at the head of the joint committee of the House on Library. The other members were Wm. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, and Calvin T. Hurlburd, of New York. As chairman of the committee on the Library of the United States, to employ the language of its accomplished librarian, he had "a clear discernment and quick apprehension of all things that needed to be done;" he "threw his influence in favor of the most liberal and permanent improvement."

During his term of service on the committee, the Library was expanded by the addition of two wings, increasing threefold its space. The "Force Historical Library" was added, to the acquisition of which General Hayes devoted months of zealous labor. It is now one of the most valuable parts of the great Library. He procured in the House the passage of the Senate bill to transfer the Library of the Smithsonian Institution to the Library of Congress. He introduced a joint resolution to extend the privileges of the Library to a larger class of public officers. He reported back and recommended the passage of a copyright bill for securing to the Library copies of all books, pamphlets, maps, etc., published in the United States.

In dealing with the subject of art while on this committee, Hayes showed artistic taste and judgment. He voted to reject works without merit, such as busts and portraits, and favored giving government commissions to real artists of conceded genius and established standing.

One of the first votes of General Hayes in Congress was cast in favor of this resolution:

"That the public debt created during the late rebellion was contracted upon the faith and honor of the nation; that it is sacred and inviolate, and must and ought to be paid, principal and interest; and that any attempt to repudiate or in any manner impair or scale the said debt should be universally discountenanced by the people, and promptly rejected by Congress if proposed."

Early in the session a resolution was introduced "that the committee on appropriations be instructed to bring in a bill increasing the compensation of members of Congress." Mr. Hayes voted for Mr. E. B. Washburne's motion to lay the resolution on the table. This is the whole of his record on the back pay and front pay questions. General Hayes during the session voted for a resolution commending President Johnson for declining to accept presents, and condemning the practice as demoralizing in its tendencies and destructive of public confidence. This vote needs no explanation to enable it to be understood.

He also submitted the following resolution, which was read, considered, and agreed to:

"That the committee on military affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for punishing by imprisonment or otherwise any person who, as agent or attorney, shall collect from the government money due to officers, soldiers, or sailors, or to their widows or orphans, for services in the army or navy, or for pensions or bounties, and who shall fraudulently convert the same to his own use; and to report by bill or otherwise."

This was timely action aimed to remedy what has since become a gross abuse and most serious evil. Its purpose was to check robbery and secure to soldiers and sailors their own.

In 1865, General Hayes submitted to leading Republicans in Congress, and subsequently to the Republican caucus, these resolutions, which became the basis of the action of the party:

"Resolved, That it is the sense of the caucus that the best if not the only mode of obtaining from the States lately in rebellion guarantees which will be irreversible is by amendments of the national constitution.

"Resolved, That such amendments to the national constitution as may be deemed necessary ought to be submitted to the house for its action at as early a day as possible, in order to propose them to the several states during the present sessions of their legislatures.

"Resolved, That an amendment, basing representation on voters instead of population, ought to be promptly acted upon, and the judiciary committee is requested to prepare resolutions for that purpose, and submit them to the house as soon as practicable."

When the ratification of the amendments taking their origin from these resolutions became a matter of supreme concern, Mr. Orth and Mr. Cullom, now the Republican candidates for Governor in Indiana and Illinois, in conjunction with Mr. Hayes, drafted the following letter, which was signed by Republican members of Congress and forwarded to Governor Brownlow, of Tennessee:

"The undersigned members of Congress respectfully suggest, that, as Governor of the State of Tennessee, you call a special session of the legislature of your state, for the purpose of ratifying the constitutional amendment submitted by the present Congress to the several states for ratification, believing that upon such ratification this Congress will, during its present session, recognize the present state government of Tennessee and admit the state to representation in both houses of Congress."

The session of the legislature was called, the fourteenth amendment ratified, and the Tennessee members admitted to seats in Congress in July, 1866. This ratification was the one required to render the amendment valid.

In the fall of 1865, General Hayes delivered very earnest political speeches in about twenty counties in Ohio, in advocacy of the election of his military comrade, General Jacob D. Cox, as governor of the state. We find many of these speeches partially reported, and from one delivered in the West end, in Cincinnati, September 28, we take this extract:

"The Democratic plan of reorganization is this: The rebels, having laid down their arms and abandoned their attempt to break up the Union, are now entitled, as a matter of right, to be restored to all the rights, political and civil, which they enjoyed before the rebellion, precisely as if they had remained loyal. They are to vote, to hold office, to bear arms, immediately and unconditionally. There is to be no confiscation and no punishment, either for leaders or followers—no amendment or change of the constitution by way of guaranty against future rebellion—no indemnity for the past, and no security for the future. The Union party objects to this plan, because it wants, before rebels shall again be restored to power, an amendment to the constitution which shall remove all vestiges of slavery, and an amendment which shall equalize representation between the States having a large negro population and the States whose negro population is small."

In August, 1866, General Hayes received the endorsement of a re-nomination to Congress by acclamation. There was no opposing candidate. He entered at once into the canvass. He delivered a speech almost every afternoon or evening until the day of the election. He frequently spoke outside of his own district, to aid his friends. The questions at issue were the reconstruction measures of Congress and of President Johnson, and the merits of the new constitutional amendments. In a public speech delivered in the Seventeenth Ward, in Cincinnati, September 7, 1866, he discussed at great length the questions of the day. In conclusion he said:

"The Union party is prepared to make great sacrifices in the future, as in the past, for the sake of peace and for the sake of union, but submission to what is wrong can never be the foundation of a real peace or a lasting union. They can have no other sure foundation but the principles of eternal justice. The Union men therefore say to the South: 'We ask nothing but what is right; we will submit to nothing that is wrong.' With undoubting confidence we submit the issue to the candid judgment of the patriotic people of the country, under the guidance of that Providence which has hitherto blessed and preserved the Nation."

The canvass was an active and exciting one; but General Hayes was re-elected over a competitor of so high standing as Theodore Cook, by a majority of two thousand five hundred and fifty-six. It is noticeable that while there was a Republican loss of seven hundred in the first district, compared with the vote for Congressmen in 1864, in the second district there was a gain of one hundred over the vote of two years before.

General Hayes took his seat in the Fortieth Congress, which convened March 11, 1867. He was re-appointed chairman of the library committee, with John D. Baldwin, of Massachusetts, and J. V. L. Pruyn, of New York, as associate members. General Hayes' three years in Congress were almost continuously employed in exacting labors in looking after the pensions and pay of soldiers, and in making provision for their families. Cincinnati had sent a great many soldiers into the war, and all who had wants sent their petitions to the only representative of Hamilton county who had served in the army. The soldiers of his old division, scattered over the country, sent their applications to him as a sympathizing friend. He had as many as seven hundred cases of this kind on hand at one time. His time was therefore necessarily consumed in running to the departments and in answering soldiers' correspondence. This service of love was of course gratuitously and most cheerfully rendered; but it withdrew him more or less from his duties on the floor of Congress.

He was not consequently a speech-maker in Congress, but a business-doer. His innate good sense taught him that the public business was pushed forward, not by talking much, but by talking little. Like Schurz, who became the intellectual leader of the Senate, like Senator Edmunds and most strong men, he kept silent while new to the business of legislation. He was constantly consulted by the chief men in his party because he possessed that most essential quality in a public man—good judgment. He did no talking for himself, but an immense deal of working for others. Every soldier was his constituent, whether he lived in Maine or Nebraska. He placed self not first, but last.

He had no thought of fame or higher place, but silently served those that loved him, and to the maimed or needy tried to make the burdens and loads of life lighter. He doubtless thought that "he who lives a great truth is incomparably greater than he who but speaks it."

CHAPTER VII.

[Top]

ELECTED GOVERNOR OF OHIO.

Party of State Rights—Their Convention—Platform—Nomination of Thurman—Republican Convention and Platform—Nomination of Hayes—Platform—Opening Speech at Lebanon—Thurman at Waverly—National Interest aroused—Hayes Victorious—Inaugural—First Annual Message—Second Annual Message.

The questions at issue in the great political canvass of 1867, in Ohio, were closely allied to the one whether the National Government had a constitutional right to maintain its existence. It was many years after the war of the Rebellion before the Democratic party could be induced to admit that the war had settled anything. The question of State or National supremacy or sovereignty, settled a hundred times by argument and twice by arms, was still persistently argued by them as an open question. The State Supremacy or State Rights party fought the constitution at the time of its adoption, on the ground that it established a supreme central government, and were defeated. They opposed putting down the Whisky Rebellion, in Pennsylvania, under the leadership of Jefferson and Randolph, and were outvoted in the Cabinet by Washington, Hamilton, and Knox. They forced their disintegration doctrines into the Supreme Court, and were there vanquished by the resistless logic of Chief Justice Marshall. The same old doctrine assumed the form of nullification under the teachings of Calhoun in South Carolina, and was stamped out by Jackson. It appeared again in the great debate between Hayne and Webster, and was annihilated, so far as argument can put an end to any heresy. But it reappeared in 1861, with Davis, Stephens, Lee, and Breckenridge as its most powerful advocates and exponents.

The identical questions discussed in Washington's Cabinet, when there was a Whisky Insurrection to be put down, were discussed by Lincoln and Davis, by Meade and Lee, at Gettysburg, and by Grant and Pemberton, at Vicksburg. Is a State or is the Republic supreme, has been the central question dividing parties for a hundred years. The Democracy are still talking about "sovereign and independent states," as if there were more than one sovereign State on the continent—the Republic itself.

The Democratic State Convention, which met at Columbus, January 8, 1867, forgetting that "war legislates," continued harping on the old State Rights theme. The temporary chairman of the convention, Dr. J. M. Christian, varied the monotony a little when he elegantly said: "We have come here not only to celebrate an honored day, but to nominate men of noble hearts, determined to release the State from the thralldom of niggerism, and place it under the control of the Democratic party."

Mr. George H. Pendleton, the permanent chairman, delivered a rhetorical State rights speech, in which he said: "The Democratic party has always maintained the rights of the States as essential to the maintenance of the Union."

The platform or resolutions of the convention, reported by Mr. C. L. Vallandigham, contained a great deal of the same sort of thing, supplemented with this resolution: "That the Radical majority in the so-called Congress have proved themselves to be in favor of negro suffrage by forcing it upon the people of the District of Columbia, against their almost unanimous wish, solemnly expressed at the polls; by forcing it upon the people of all the territories, and by their various devices to coerce the people of the South to adopt it; that we are opposed to negro suffrage, believing it would be productive of evil to both whites and blacks, and tend to produce a disastrous conflict of races."

The convention nominated, by acclamation, Hon. Allen G. Thurman for Governor. Judge Thurman had served one term in Congress and five years upon the Supreme Bench of the State, and was a gentleman of high personal character, and a lawyer of extended reputation and commanding abilities.

The Republican State Convention assembled at Columbus, June 19, 1867, to nominate candidates for governor, lieutenant-governor, and other State officers. The three candidates most talked of for governor were Hon. Samuel Galloway, Adjutant-General B. R. Cowen, and General Hayes, then representing the Second District in Congress. Mr. Galloway had served in Congress, had long been one of the most active members of the Republican party, and was popular because of his abilities as a stump speaker. General Cowen had devoted much time to the organization of the State in his own interest as a candidate, and was possessed of considerable managing ability. Public opinion, however, in Northern, Southern, and Western Ohio had concentrated upon General R. B. Hayes before the convention met. The times seemed to demand a military man for leader, and, in the language of the Cincinnati Commercial, there were "no better military records than his, if they are to be rated by brave, faithful, steadfast service." General J. D. Cox was not a candidate for re-nomination. General Hayes was the idol of the soldiers. As early as 1865, his old division, while he himself was absent on a distant field of duty, held a meeting between skirmishes with the enemy, and passed resolutions nominating him for Governor of Ohio for the canvass of that year. The soldiers went so far as to send circulars to the different counties of the State, embodying their resolutions. When General Hayes first heard of these proceedings he gave immediate and peremptory instructions to have them stopped. He forbade the use of his name in such connection, on pain of his permanent displeasure.

The Convention of June, 1867, was almost imprudently courageous in the enunciation of sound, but then unpopular, principles. It placed the Republican party "on the broad platform of impartial manhood suffrage as embodied in the proposed amendment to the State Constitution," and appealed to the "intelligence, justice, and patriotism of the people of Ohio to approve it at the ballot-box." The platform emphasized the point—always well taken—that the United States is a Nation.

On this platform General Hayes was nominated for Governor on the first ballot, receiving two hundred and eighty-six votes to two hundred and eight cast for Mr. Galloway. The nomination was accepted for him by a friend in his absence. The honor which came to him unsought was borne with the modesty of a soldier.

On the evening of the nominations, Mr. Fred. Hassaurek delivered in Columbus a very able speech in favor of manhood equality, in the course of which he said: "The men who now lead and officer the Democratic party are the most dangerous enemies of the country, of its peace, prosperity, and welfare. Let both sections of the country unite to give a final, crushing blow to the influence of Democratic leaders. Let the serpent be fully expelled from Paradise, and our country will soon be a Garden of Eden again."

General Hayes, having resigned his seat in Congress, opened the campaign of '67 in a comprehensive speech, delivered at [Lebanon], August 5, aggressive in tone and full of bristling points. It was equivalent to a charge along the whole of the enemies' line—a species of tactics which he had learned the advantage of in the valley of the Shenandoah. We refer the reader to this clear, resolute, vigorous speech, reprinted in full in the [Appendix], for the grounds upon which the Republican leader demanded a popular verdict against his political adversaries. The speech showed that he deserved the eulogies of the press which followed his nomination, among which were those of Colonel Donn Piatt—a judge of ability, to say the least—who had written: "The people will find his utterances full of sound thought, and his deportment modest, dignified, and unpretending.... Possessed of a high order of talent, enriched by stores of information, General Hayes is one of the few men capable of accomplishing much without any egotistical assertion of self." General James M. Comly had said: "More than four years' service in the same command gave the writer ample opportunity to know that no braver or more dashing and enterprising commander gave his services to the Republic than General Hayes. He was the idol of his command. No man of his soldiery ever doubted when he led. In principle he is as radical as we could desire. His vote has been given in Congress on every square issue for the right. He is no wabbler or time-server. He no more dodges votes than he did bullets."

Judge Thurman—now Senator A. G. Thurman—opened the campaign on the Democratic side in an elaborate speech, delivered at Waverly, August 5th, and reported in the Cincinnati Commercial of August 6th. He vigorously defended the course and action of the Peace Democracy in Ohio, and assailed Mr. Lincoln and his administration with an extravagance of language that weakened the force of many of his arguments during the campaign. He intemperately asserted that there was "scarcely a provision of the Constitution" that had not been "shamelessly and needlessly trampled under foot" by "these enemies of our Government," including as "enemies" the Congress and Cabinet that supported and maintained the war for the Union. These and other unfortunate allusions, such as that to the "poison of Abolitionism," enabled General Hayes to effectively retort at Sidney, and at other points. So much of the [Sidney] speech as refers to Judge Thurman's Waverly speech is reproduced in our [Appendix.]

The contest waxed warm between these able antagonists, and the number of speeches that each delivered was only limited by his powers of physical endurance. Meetings were held night and day, from the beginning until the close of the canvass. Much more than the governorship was involved. A United States Senator, for six years, was to be chosen by the incoming Legislature. But, above all, the vital principle of manhood suffrage, and the righteousness or unrighteousness of the war to preserve the Union, were issues to be decided.

As the contest grew in magnitude it aroused a national interest. Morton, Julian, Orth, and Governor Baker came from Indiana to aid Hayes in the struggle; Shelby M. Cullom, and John A. Logan from Illinois; Schurz from Missouri; Governor Harriman from New Hampshire; Chandler from Michigan; and Gleni W. Schofield from Pennsylvania. The home talent—and no State ever had more—was in the field in force. There were men of conceded abilities, such as Aaron F. Perry, Shellabarger, Hassaurek, W. H. West, Judge Storer, and John A. Bingham, and men of reputation like Governors Cox and Dennison, Galloway, John C. Lee, and Senators Wade and Sherman, who manifested the most earnest interest in the canvass.

Judge Thurman was not so ably seconded, although Vallandigham, Pendleton, Ranney, H. J. Jewett, Durbin Ward, George W. McCook, Frank H. Hurd, and other well-known leaders contributed aid to the extent of their ability.

In this canvass General Hayes gave proofs of that boldness and moral audacity for which he is remarkable. In every community in which he went he was besought by committee-men, soldiers, and others, to say nothing about the suffrage amendment. Negro suffrage, at that time, was exceedingly unpopular. He rejected, with some feeling, these timid counsels. He maintained, everywhere, the inherent justice of equality at the polls and before the law, and insisted that the man who was willing to give up his life for the Union should have a voice in its government. By this bold course he made votes for the amendment, but lost votes for himself. The result of the campaign had this peculiar feature, that while General Hayes and the Republican State ticket were elected, the main issue of the contest was defeated by fifty thousand majority. The prejudices of a hundred years could not be removed in a hundred days. Had Judge Thurman and his aids concentrated the fire of their batteries upon the suffrage redoubt—the weak point in their adversaries' lines—they would probably have gained a sweeping victory. As it was, Thurman carried the Legislature, and secured a seat in the United States Senate. General Hayes was elected by the small majority of two thousand nine hundred and eighty-three votes, running somewhat ahead of his ticket.

He was inaugurated as Governor of Ohio, in the rotunda of the Capitol, January 13, 1868. On that occasion, in the presence of the Legislature and judicial departments of the State Government, and a large concourse of citizens, he delivered the following inaugural address:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, and Fellow-Citizens:

The duty devolved on the governor by the constitution of communicating by message to the General Assembly the condition of the State, and of recommending such measures as he deems expedient, has been performed at the present session by my predecessor, Governor Cox, in a manner so thorough and comprehensive that I do not feel called upon to enter upon a discussion of questions touching the administration of the State government.

I can think of no better reward for the faithful performance of the duties of the office which I am about to assume than that which, I believe, my immediate predecessor is entitled to enjoy,—the knowledge that in the opinion of his fellow-citizens of all parties he has, by his culture, his ability, and his integrity, honored the office of Governor of Ohio, and that he now leaves it with a conscience satisfied with the discharge of duty.

I congratulate the members of the General Assembly that many of the questions which have hitherto largely engaged the attention of the law-making power, and divided the people of the State, have, in the progress of events, either been settled, or, in the general judgment of the people, been transferred for investigation and decision to the National government. The State debt, taxation, the currency, and internal improvements, for many years furnished the prominent topics of discussion and controversy in Ohio. In the year 1845 the State debt reached its highest point. It amounted to $20,018,515.67, and in the same year the total taxable property of the State was $136,142,666. With a disordered currency, with business prostrated, with labor often insufficiently rewarded, the burden of this debt was severely felt, and questions in regard to it naturally entered into the partisan struggles of the time. Now the State debt is $11,031,941.56; the taxable property of the State amounts to $1,138,754,779; and there is no substantial difference of opinion among the people as to the proper mode of dealing with this subject.

State taxation was formerly the occasion of violent party contests. Now men of all parties concur in the opinion that, as a general rule, every citizen ought to be taxed in proportion to the actual value of his property, without regard to the form in which he prefers to invest it; and differences as to the measures by which the principle is practically applied rarely enter into political struggles in Ohio.

Party conflicts and debates as to State laws in relation to banking and the currency constitute a large part of the political history of the State. But the events of the last few years have convinced those who are in favor of a paper currency that in the present condition of the country it can best be furnished by the National Government, either by means of National banks or in the form of legal tender treasury notes. State legislatures are therefore relieved from the consideration of this difficult and perplexing subject.

Internal improvements made by State authority, so essential to growth and prosperity in the early history of the State, no longer require much consideration by the General Assembly. Works of a magnitude too great to be undertaken by individual enterprise will hereafter be, for the most part, accomplished by the government of the Nation.

The part which patriotism required Ohio to take in the war to suppress rebellion demanded important and frequent acts of legislation. Fortunately the transactions of the State growing out of the war have been, or probably can be, closed under existing laws, with very little, if any, additional legislation.

If not mistaken as to the result of this brief reference to a few of the principal subjects of the legislation of the past, the present General Assembly has probably a better opportunity than any of its predecessors to avoid the evil of too much legislation. Excessive legislation has become a great evil, and I submit to the judgment of the General Assembly the wisdom of avoiding it.

One important question of principle as old as our State government still remains unsettled. All are familiar with the conflicts to which the policy of making distinctions between citizens in civil and political rights has given rise in Ohio. The first effort of those who opposed this policy was to secure to all citizens equality of civil rights. The result of the struggle that ensued is thus given by an eminent and honored citizen of our State: "The laws which created disabilities on the part of negroes in respect of civil rights were repealed in the year 1849, after an obstinate contest, quite memorable in the history of the State. Their repeal was looked upon with great disfavor by a large portion of the people as a dangerous innovation upon a just and well-settled policy, and a vote in that direction consigned many members of the legislature to the repose of private life. But I am not aware that any evil results justified these apprehensions, or that any effort was ever made to impose the disabilities. On the contrary, the new policy, if I may call it so, has been found so consistent with justice to the negroes and the interests of the whites that no one—certainly no party—in Ohio, would be willing to abandon it."

An effort to secure to all citizens equal political rights was made in the State constitutional convention of 1851. Only thirteen out of one hundred and eight members in that body voted in its favor; and it is probable that less than one-tenth of the voters of the State would then have voted to strike the word "white" out of the constitution.

The last General Assembly submitted to the people a proposition to amend the State constitution so as to abolish distinctions in political rights based upon color. The proposition contained several clauses not pertinent to its main purpose, under which, if adopted, it was believed by many that the number of white citizens who would be disfranchised would be much greater than the number of colored citizens who would be allowed the right of suffrage. Notwithstanding the proposition was thus hampered, it received 216,987 votes, or nearly forty-five per cent of all the votes cast in the State. This result shows great progress in public sentiment since the adoption of the constitution of 1851, and inspires the friends of equal political rights with a confident hope that in 1871, when the opportunity is given to the people, by the provisions of the constitution, to call a constitutional convention, the organic law of the State will be so amended as to secure in Ohio to all the governed an equal voice in the government.

But whatever reasonable doubts may be entertained as to the probable action of the people of Ohio on the question of an extension of the right of suffrage when a new State constitution shall be formed, I submit with confidence that nothing has occurred which warrants the opinion that the ratification by the last General Assembly of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States was not in accordance with the deliberate and settled convictions of the people. That amendment was, after the amplest discussion upon an issue distinctly presented, sanctioned by a large majority of the people. If any fact exists which justifies the belief that they now wish that the resolution should be repealed, by which the assent of Ohio was given to that important amendment, it has not been brought to the attention of the public. Omitting all reference to other valuable provisions, it may be safely said that the section which secures among all the States of the Union equal representation in the House of Representatives and in the electoral colleges in proportion to the voting population, is deemed of vital importance by the people of Ohio. Without now raising the grave question as to the right of a State to withdraw its assent, which has been constitutionally given to a proposed amendment of the Federal constitution, I respectfully suggest that the attempt which is now making to withdraw the assent of Ohio to the fourteenth amendment to the Federal constitution be postponed until the people shall again have an opportunity to give expression to their will. In my judgment, Ohio will never consent that the whites of the South, a large majority of whom were lately in rebellion, shall exercise in the government of the Nation as much political power, man for man, as the same number of white citizens of Ohio, and be allowed in addition thereto thirty members of Congress and of the electoral colleges, for colored people deprived of every political privilege.

In conclusion, I am happy to be able to adopt as my own the sentiments so fitly expressed by the speaker of the House of Representatives of the present General Assembly. I sincerely hope that the legislation of the General Assembly and the administration of the State government in all its branches may be characterized by economy, wisdom, and prudence; that statesmanship, patriotism, and philanthropy may be manifest in every act, and that all may be done under the guidance of that Providence which has hitherto so signally preserved and blessed our State and Nation.

Certain principles are laid down in this address. One is that every citizen ought to be taxed in proportion to the actual value of his property. Another is that too much legislation is an evil to be avoided. A third is that equality of civil rights justly belongs to all citizens, notwithstanding the vote at the recent election to the contrary; and a fourth, that representation according to voting population is a sound principle, and the people of Ohio must stand by the Fourteenth Amendment to the National Constitution. The Democratic legislature were endeavoring to withdraw Ohio's previous ratification. This admirable address needs no further comment.

Governor Hayes took an active part in the State canvass of 1868, being assisted by Hon. James G. Blaine, who spoke with marked effect in Columbus, October 9th.

At the session of the legislature in November, 1868, the governor delivered his first annual message.

Fellow-citizens of the General Assembly:

Upon your assembling to enter again upon the duty of legislating for the welfare of the people of Ohio, the Governor is required by the constitution to communicate to you the condition of the State, and to recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient. The reports of the executive officers of the State, and of the heads of the State institutions, are required by law to be made to the Governor on or before the 20th day of November of each year. Since that date, sufficient time has not elapsed for the publication of the reports, and I shall therefore not be able, at the opening of your present session, to lay before you a detailed exposition of the affairs of the various departments of the State government. It will be my purpose in this communication to invite your attention to a few brief suggestions in relation to some measures which are deemed important, and which may be considered and acted upon, if you think it advisable, in advance of the publication of the official reports.

The financial affairs of the State government are in a satisfactory condition. The balance in the treasury on the 15th of November, 1867, was $677,990.79; the receipts during the last fiscal year were $4,347,484.82; making the total amount of funds in the treasury, during the year, $5,025,475.61.

The disbursements during the year have been $4,455,354.86; which sum has been paid out of the treasury from the several funds, as follows, viz:

Small temporary appropriations are required as promptly as practicable for each of the following objects, the existing appropriations having been exhausted, viz: Expenses of the Presidential election; expenses of the General Assembly, trustees of benevolent institutions, care of state-house, gas for state-house, expenses of legislative committees, binding for the State, and the new idiotic asylum.

In pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867, a board of commissioners, consisting of Aaron F. Perry, of Hamilton county, Charles E. Glidden, of Mahoning county, and James H. Godman, auditor of State, was appointed by my predecessor, Governor Cox, whose duty it was "to revise all the laws of this State relating to the assessment and taxation of property, the collection, safe-keeping, and disbursement of the revenues, and all the laws constituting the financial system of the State," and to report their proceedings to the next session of the General Assembly. The report of the commission was laid before you at your last session. It disclosed many imperfections and inconsistencies in the existing legislation touching the finances and the urgent necessity for an elaborate revision of that legislation. Their report was accompanied by eight separate bills, consolidating the present laws, removing contradictions, and supplying defects, but introducing no radical change in the general principles of our financial system. These bills have already been somewhat considered by both branches of the General Assembly, but no definite action upon them has yet been had. I respectfully recommend an early consideration of the bills, and their adoption, with such amendments as, in your judgment, the public interests may require.

The destruction of the central lunatic asylum by fire, during the night of the 18th inst., causing the death, by suffocation, of six of the patients, and incalculable distress and suffering to the remainder, will require investigation and prompt action on your part. In rebuilding the asylum, the erection of a fire-proof building will occur to you as alike the suggestion of prudence and humanity.

This calamity also suggests the propriety of examining the condition of the other institutions of the State, with a view to providing them with every proper means of security against a similar disaster.

The interests of common school education, in my opinion, will be promoted by the early adoption of county superintendency, as provided in a bill on that subject now pending in one branch of the General Assembly. I therefore earnestly recommend the consideration and passage of the bill.

The commissioner of common schools is required, in the discharge of his duties, to pay out each year, for traveling expenses, about $700. The propriety of refunding to him, out of the State treasury, his traveling expenses, will probably not be called in question.

During the last summer, a cattle disease, commonly known as the Spanish or Texas cattle fever, occasioned much alarm in the grazing counties of the State, and in a few localities caused serious loss. On the recommendation of the State board of agriculture, in the absence of effective legislation, it was deemed proper to appoint commissioners to take such measures as the law authorized to prevent the spread of the disease. A proclamation was issued to prevent, as far as practicable, the introduction, movement, or transportation of diseased cattle within the limits of the State. The railroad companies and the owners of stock promptly complied with the requirements referred to, and the injury sustained by the cattle interest was happily not extensive. It is believed that, upon investigation, it will be found necessary to confer, by law, upon a board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, or upon the executive committee of the State board of agriculture, power to "stamp out" the disease wherever it appears, by destroying all infected cattle, and to prohibit or regulate the transportation or movement of stock within the State during the prevalence of the disease. To the end that proper investigation may be had, I respectfully recommend that authority be given to appoint five commissioners to attend a meeting of commissioners of other States, to be held for the consideration of this subject, at Springfield, Illinois, on the 1st of December next—said commissioners to report the results of their investigation in time for action by the present General Assembly.

I submit to your consideration the importance of providing for a thorough and comprehensive geological survey of the State. Many years ago a partial survey was prosecuted under many difficulties and embarrassments, which was fruitful of valuable results. It is, beyond doubt, that such a work as it is now practicable to carry out will, by making known the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural resources of the State, lead to their development to an extent which will, within a few years, amply reimburse the State for its cost.

The annual report of pardons granted and the commutations of the sentences of convicts required by law; a statement in detail of the expenditure of the governor's contingent fund; the semi-annual report of the commissioners of the sinking fund, for May; copies of proclamations issued during the last year; and an acknowledgment of the presentation to the State of several of the portraits of former governors of Ohio, are transmitted herewith.

The most important subject of legislation which, in my judgment, requires the attention of the General Assembly at its present session, relates to the prevention of frauds upon the elective franchise. Intelligent men of all parties are persuaded that at the recent important State and National elections great abuses of the right of suffrage were practiced. I am not prepared to admit that the reports commonly circulated and believed in regard to such abuses, would, so far as the elections in Ohio are concerned, be fully sustained by a thorough investigation of the facts. But it is not doubted that even at the elections in our own State frauds were perpetrated to such an extent that all good citizens earnestly desire that effective measures may be adopted by you to prevent their repetition. No elaborate attempt to portray the consequences of this evil is required. If it is allowed to increase, the confidence of the people in the purity of elections will be lost, and the exercise of the right of suffrage will be neglected. To corrupt the ballot box is to destroy our free institutions. Let all good citizens, therefore, unite in enacting and enforcing laws which will secure honest elections.

I submit to your judgment the propriety of such amendments to the election laws as will provide, first, for the representation of minorities in the boards of the judges and clerks of the elections; and second, for the registration of all the lawful voters in each township, ward, and election precinct, prior to the election.

That the boards of elections ought to be so constituted that minorities as well as majorities will have a fair representation in them, is so plainly just that in some parts of the State, even in times of the highest political excitement, such representation has been obtained, in the absence of law, by arrangement between the committees of the rival political parties. It is not probable that any mode of selecting judges and clerks of elections can be adopted which will, in every case, accomplish this object. But in all cases where the strength of the minority is half, or nearly half as great as that of the majority, the desired representation of the minority may be insured with sufficient certainty by several different plans. For example, it may be provided that at the election of the three judges who are to decide all questions at the polls, each elector may be allowed to vote for two candidates only, and that the three candidates having the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, and in like manner that, at the election of the two clerks of elections, each elector may vote for one candidate only, and that the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.

I do not lay much stress on the particular plan here suggested, but your attention is invited to the importance of a fair representation of the minority in all boards of elections, not doubting that your wisdom will be able to devise a suitable measure to accomplish it.

All parts of the State of Ohio are now so closely connected with each other, and with other States, by lines of railway, that great and constantly increasing facilities are afforded for the perpetration of the class of frauds on the elective franchise, commonly known as "colonizing." In the cities, men called "repeaters," it is said, are paid wages according to the number of unlawful votes they succeed in casting at the same election.

The increase of population adds to the difficulty of detecting and preventing fraudulent voting, in whatever mode it may be practiced. It is manifestly impossible, amid the hurry and excitement of an election, that the legal right to vote, of every person who may offer his ballot, should be fully and fairly investigated and decided. The experience of many of the older States has proved that this can best be done at some period prior to the election, so as to give to every legal voter, in an election precinct, an opportunity to challenge the claim of any person whose right is deemed questionable. Laws to accomplish this have been in force in several other States for many years, and have been carried out successfully and with the general approval of the people. Believing that an act providing for the registration of all legal voters is the most effective remedy yet devised for the prevention of frauds on the sacred right of suffrage, and that a registry law can be so framed that it will deprive no citizen, either native born or naturalized, of his just rights, I respectfully recommend to your earnest consideration the propriety of enacting such a law.

The comprehensive geological survey of the State recommended in this message was promptly brought about through the able co-operation of the Hon. Alfred E. Lee, representing Delaware county in the House of Representatives, who drew up and reported a bill on February 9, 1869, making provision for the important object in view. Through the intelligent activity of Governor Hayes and Representative Lee, the bill became a law, April 2, 1869. The thorough scientific survey of the State, since completed under the supervision of Professors Newbury, Andrews, and Orton, has been of immeasurable value in the way of developing the mineral resources of Ohio.

Governor Hayes in this message demands laws to secure honest elections, because "to corrupt the ballot-box is to destroy our free institutions." He recommends laws securing the representation of minorities on election boards, and advocates stringent registry laws.

In the second annual message, delivered at the close of his first term, which we give below, he recommends increased powers to the State board of charities; better provision for the chronic insane; the establishment of a State agricultural college; the founding of a home for soldiers' orphans, and restoring the right of suffrage to soldiers in the national asylum, to college students, and others who had been disfranchised under Democratic legislation. He urged also the ratification by Ohio of the Fifteenth Amendment. We shall speak of the gratifying result of these recommendations in our next chapter.

Fellow-Citizens of the General Assembly:

In obedience to the constitution, I proceed to lay before you the condition of the affairs of the State government, and to recommend such measures as seem to me expedient.

The balance in the State treasury on the 15th of November, 1868 was $570,120.75; the receipts during the last fiscal year were $4,781,614.49; making the total amount of available funds in the treasury during the year ending November 15, 1869, $5,351,735.24.

The disbursements during the year have been $4,913,675.10, which sum has been paid out of the treasury from the several funds as follows, viz:

Leaving a balance in the treasury, November 15, 1869, of $438,060.14.

The estimates of the auditor of State of receipts and expenditures for the current year are as follows:

The amount of the public funded debt of the State, November 15, 1868, was $10,532,675.43. During the last year the fund commissioners have redeemed of the various loans $516,093.57, and have invested in loans not yet due $160,643.59, leaving the total debt yet to be provided for $9,855,938.27.

The whole amount of taxes, including delinquencies, collectible under State laws during the year 1869 was $21,006,332.44. The auditor of State reports the total amount of taxes, including delinquencies, collectible during the current year at $22,810,675.84, an increase of the taxes of 1870 over 1869 of $1,804,353.40.

In 1869 there was collected for the sinking fund, to be applied to the payment of the principal and interest of the State debt, the sum of $1,370,101.12. In the present year there will be collected for the same purpose the sum of $808,826.61, or $561,275.51 less than was collected last year.

A large proportion of the taxes collected from the people are for county, city, and other local purposes, and do not pass through the State treasury, but are disbursed within the counties where they are collected. During the current year the taxes, exclusive of delinquencies, to be collected for all State purposes except for the common school fund, amount to $2,542,025.27, while $18,187,400.92 are to be collected for local purposes.

The foregoing statements from the report of the auditor of State show that the taxation of this year for State purposes other than for payments on the principal and interest of the State debt exceeds the taxation of last year for the same purposes by the sum of $609,601.50, and that taxation for local purposes this year exceeds that of last year for the same purposes by the sum of $1,695,725.38. The local taxes this year are about 44 per cent. greater than they were three years ago, and are 10 per cent. greater than they were last year.

The increase of taxation for State purposes is in part due to the amount collected for the asylum building fund, which exceeds the amount required last year for building purposes by almost $300,000. Making due allowance for this, the important fact remains that both State and local taxes have largely increased.

A remedy for this evil can only be had through the General Assembly. The most important measures to prevent this rapid increase of taxation, which have heretofore been recommended, are a revision of the financial system of the State in accordance with bills prepared by a board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, in pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867; short sessions of the General Assembly; adequate fixed salaries for all State, county, and municipal officers, without perquisites; and definite and effectual limitations upon the power of county commissioners, city councils, and other local authorities to levy taxes and contract debts.

The constitution makes it the duty of the legislature to restrict the powers of taxation, borrowing money, and the like, so as to prevent their abuse. I respectfully suggest that the present laws conferring these powers on local authorities require extensive modification, in order to comply with this constitutional provision. Two modes of limiting these powers have the sanction of experience. All large expenditures should meet the approval of those who are to bear their burden. Let all extraordinary expenditures therefore be submitted to a vote of the people, and no tax be levied unless approved by a majority of all the voters of the locality to be affected by the tax, at a special election, the number of voters to be ascertained by reference to the votes cast at the State election next preceding such special election. Another mode is to limit the rate of taxation which may be levied and the amount of debt which may be incurred. It has been said that with such restrictions upon the powers of local authorities the legislature will be importuned and its time wasted in hearing applications for special legislation. The ready answer to all such applications by local authorities will be to refer them to their own citizens for a decision of the question. The facility with which affirmative votes can be obtained under the pressure of temporary excitement upon propositions authorizing indebtedness may require further restrictions upon the power to borrow money. It is therefore suggested, for your consideration, to limit the amount of debt for a single purpose, and the total amount for all purposes which any local authority may contract to a certain percentage of the taxable property of such locality.

The evils here considered are not new. Fourteen years ago Governor Medill, in his annual message, used the following language, which is as applicable to county and municipal affairs now as it was when it was written: "The irresponsible and extravagant system of administration which prevails in some of our counties and cities furnishes the principal cause for the exactions which are so generally complained of. There public contracts are given to favorites, which occasion the most lavish expenditures. There also we find officers with incomes which shock all correct ideas of public compensation. These things have their effect upon the general tone of public morals. County reform is a duty enjoined by every consideration of public virtue."

The whole of this important subject is commended to your candid consideration.

The management of the affairs of the penitentiary, during the past year, has been good; discipline has been maintained; under kind and judicious treatment the prisoners have been industrious and orderly, and the pecuniary results are satisfactory. The number of prisoners, on the 31st of October, 1869, was 974, and the number of convicts admitted during the year ending on that day was 347. This is a decrease compared with the preceding year, of 27 in the number of convicts admitted, and of 67 in the number confined in the penitentiary.

A large proportion of the convicts, when admitted, are quite young. The age of about one-third does not exceed twenty-one years. More than two-thirds of the inmates of the prison are now under thirty years of age. It will occur to any one who considers these facts that, under our system of prison discipline, too little effort has heretofore been made to reform these young men. A high authority has said, "No human being is so debased and wicked that he can not be reclaimed." It is believed that, under a wise system, the young, at least, can be reformed and prepared for useful and worthy citizenship. The present system has two capital defects—the mingling in intimate association of the young with the hardened criminals, and the failure to educate the convicts in habits of thrift and self-control. The defects are in the system. The convict, when he leaves the penitentiary, is exposed to greater temptations than ever before, and the result of his prison life is that he has less power to resist evil influences, and, too often, less disposition to resist them. I do not enlarge upon the objections to the present system; it is not claimed to be reformatory. In a recent report, the directors said: "The great mass of convicts still leave the penitentiary apparently as hardened and as dangerous to the State as they were when they were sentenced." The vital question is, how to remove this reproach on our penal legislation. In considering it, I commend to you the remarks of the board of State charities on the Irish convict system. The distinguishing merit of that system is, that "it enlists the co-operation of the prisoner in his own amendment, without withholding from him the punishment due to his crime." If the adoption of that system, with such modifications as our condition requires, is deemed an experiment which it is inexpedient for the State to try until its advantages are better understood, I submit that the least that ought now to be attempted is to provide for a classification of convicts, so as to separate beginners in crime from hardened offenders. Whether this can best be done by alterations and an extension of the present penitentiary or by the erection of a new one, is for your wisdom to determine.

In several other States voluntary associations have been formed to provide for, encourage, and furnish employment to discharged convicts, and their efforts have been of incalculable benefit to this unfortunate class. If a similar association should be formed by the benevolent citizens of Ohio, they will reasonably expect to receive proper assistance from the General Assembly, and in that expectation I trust they will not be disappointed.

The total number of persons of school age in the State, in 1869, was officially reported at 1,028,675—an increase of 11,108 over the previous year. The total number enrolled in the public schools in 1869 was 740,382—an increase of 8,610 over the year 1868. The average daily attendance in the public schools in 1869 was 434,865—an increase over 1868 of 24,144.

The total taxes for schools, school buildings, and all other purposes, the present fiscal year, is $6,578,196.83—an increase over the taxation of the previous fiscal year of $616,795.68. Of this increase of taxation, the sum of $17,833.86 is in the State taxation for school purposes, and the sum of $598,991.82 is the increase of local school taxation.

The State commissioner of common schools, in his report, will recommend the adoption of county superintendency, the substitution of township boards of education to provide for the present system of township and sub-district boards, a codification of school laws and other important measures, to which your attention is respectfully called.

Prior to the organization of the board of state charities in 1867, there was no provision for a systematic examination of the benevolent and correctional institutions under the control of the State and local authorities. The members of the board serve without pecuniary compensation. It is simple justice to them to say that they have faithfully performed the thankless task of investigating and reporting the defects in the system and in the administration of our charitable and penal laws, and have furnished in their reports information and suggestions of great value. If it is true that an abuse exposed is half corrected, it would be difficult to overestimate their work. They have, their reports show, discovered abuses and cruelties practiced, under color of law, in the midst of communities noted for intelligence and virtue, which would disgrace any age. Let the board be granted increased powers and facilities for the discharge of their duties, and it will afford security—perhaps the best attainable—to the people of the State, that the munificent provision which the laws make for the poor and unfortunate, will not be wasted or misapplied by the officials who are charged with its distribution.

During the last year more than nine hundred persons, classed as incurably insane, have been lodged in the county infirmaries, and almost one hundred have been confined in the county jails. Besides these a large number of the same class of unfortunates have been taken care of by relatives or friends. The State should no longer postpone making suitable provision for these unfortunate people. The treatment they receive in the infirmaries and jails is always of necessity unsuited to their condition, and is often atrocious. To provide for them, I would not recommend an increase of the number of asylums for the insane. It is believed by those best acquainted with the subject, that both economy and the welfare of the patients require that the chronic insane should be provided for by additions to the asylums already built, or to those which are now building. It is probable that in this way such patients can be supported at less expense to the people of the State than in infirmaries and jails. However this may be, their present condition imperatively demands, and, I trust, will receive, the serious consideration of the General Assembly. Although commonly classed as incurable, it is quite certain that, by proper treatment, in suitable institutions, the condition of all of them will be vastly improved, and, it may well be hoped, that many of them can be entirely cured.

The expediency of establishing an asylum for the cure of inebriates has not been much considered in Ohio. The encouraging results which are reported by the officers in charge of the State inebriate asylum of New York, induce me to recommend that the General Assembly provide for a full investigation of the subject.

The agricultural and mechanical college fund, created by the sale of land-script issued to Ohio by the National government, amounted, on the first instant, to $404,911.37-1/2. The State accepted the grant out of which this fund has been created, February 10, 1864, and is bound by the terms of acceptance, as modified by Congress, to provide "not less than one college on or before July 2, 1872, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." The manner in which this fund shall be disposed of has been amply considered by preceding General Assemblies, and in the messages of my predecessors in the executive office. I respectfully urge that such action be had as will render this fund available for the important purposes for which it was granted. It is not probable that further delay will furnish additional information on any of the important questions involved in its disposition. Much time and attention has been given to the subject of the location of the college. No doubt it will be of great benefit to the county in which it shall be established, but the main object of desire with the people of the State can be substantially accomplished at any one of the places which have been prominently named as the site of the college. I therefore trust that the friends of education will not allow differences upon a question of comparatively small importance to the people at large longer to postpone the establishment of the institution, in compliance with the obligation of the State.

A large part of the work required to complete the "Soldiers' Record," in pursuance of an act passed March 17, 1864, has already been done, at an expense of about $8,000, and the propriety of making an appropriation sufficient to enable the adjutant-general to complete it is respectfully suggested for your consideration.

During the war for the Union, the people of this State acknowledged their obligation to support the families of their absent soldiers, and undertook to meet it, not as charity, but as a partial compensation justly due for services rendered. The Nation is saved, and the obligation to care for the orphans of the men who died to save it still remains to be fulfilled. It is officially estimated that three hundred soldiers' orphans, during the past year, have been inmates of the county infirmaries of the State. It is the uniform testimony of the directors of county infirmaries that those institutions are wholly unfit for children; that in a majority of cases they are sadly neglected; and that even in the best infirmaries the children are subject to the worst moral influences. Left by the death of their patriotic fathers in this deplorable condition, it is the duty of the State to assume their guardianship, and to provide support, education, and homes to all who need them. The people of Ohio regret that this duty has been so long neglected. I do not doubt that it will afford you great gratification to give to this subject early and favorable attention.

All agree that a republican government will fail, unless the purity of elections is preserved. Convinced that great abuses of the elective franchise can not be prevented under existing legislation, I have heretofore recommended the enactment of a registry law, and also of some appropriate measure to secure to the minority, as far as practicable, a representation upon all boards of elections. There is much opposition to the enactment of a registry law. Without yielding my own settled convictions in favor of such a law, I content myself, in this communication, with urging upon your attention a measure of reform in the manner of conducting elections, the importance and justice of which no one ventures to deny. The conduct of the officers whose duty at elections it is to receive and count the ballots, and to make returns of the result, ought to be above suspicion. This can rarely be the case where they all belong to the same political party. A fair representation of the minority will go far, not only to prevent fraud, but, what is almost of equal importance, remove the suspicion of fraud. I do not express any preference for any particular plan of securing minority representation in the boards of judges and clerks of elections. Various modes have been suggested, and it will not be difficult to adopt a means of attaining the desired result which will harmonize with our system of election law.

The re-enactment of the law securing to the disabled volunteer soldiers who are inmates of the National asylum, near Dayton, the right of suffrage in the county and township in which said asylum is located, which was repealed April 17, 1868, and the repeal of the legislation of the last General Assembly, imposing special restrictions upon the exercise of the right of suffrage by students and by citizens having a visible admixture of African blood, are measures so clearly demanded by impartial justice and public sentiment that no argument in their support is deemed necessary.

I transmit herewith the report required by law of the pardons granted during the year ending November 15, 1869, a report of the expenditures of the Governor's contingent fund, copies of proclamations issued during the year, and several communications accompanying gifts to the State of portraits of former Governors.

The most important measure which it will be your duty to consider at your present session is the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States. I do not feel called upon to discuss its merits. The great body of that part of the people of Ohio who sustain the laws for the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion believe that the fifteenth amendment is just and wise. Many other citizens who would not support the amendment if it was presented as the inauguration of a new policy, in view of the fact that impartial suffrage is already established in the States most largely interested in the question, now regard the amendment as the best mode of getting rid of a controversy which ought no longer to remain unsettled. Believing that the measure is right, and that the people of Ohio approve it, I earnestly recommend the ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States.

CHAPTER VIII.

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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.

The State Convention of the Republican party of Ohio, which met at Columbus, June 23, 1869, nominated Governor Hayes for a second term by acclamation.

So acceptable was his two years' administration of the chief executive office of the State, that no competitor entered the lists against him or contended with him for the nomination. On the question of his re-nomination the unanimity in his party was absolute. He appeared before the convention, in response to its invitation, and delivered the speech printed in the [Appendix] to this volume, which sounded the key-note of the campaign. We ask the reader to turn, at this point, to this speech, as it is impossible to epitomize it without filling as much space as is filled by the speech itself. The well-founded and well-supported charges he made against the Democratic Legislature of the State brought upon him the savage strictures of the Democratic partisan press, showing that he had penetrated the weak point in his adversaries' somewhat defenseless defenses.

The Republican platform condemned the reckless expenditures of the Legislature, its efforts to disfranchise soldiers, students, and all having African blood in their veins, and squarely declared for the ratification of the fifteenth amendment.

The Democratic Convention, which assembled July 7, 1869, denounced the fifteenth amendment, and had much to say about the reserved rights of the States. The platform contained these resolutions, which sound, at this day, like an inscription from the tombs of the Ptolemys:

"Resolved, That the exemption from tax of over $2,500,000,000 in government bonds and securities is unjust to the people and ought not to be tolerated; and that we are opposed to any appropriation for the payment of interest on the bonds until they are made subject to taxation.

"Resolved, That the claims of the bondholders, that the bonds which were bought with greenbacks, and the principal of which is by law payable in currency, should nevertheless be paid in gold, is unjust and extortionate; and, if persisted in, will inevitably force upon the people the question of repudiation."

Here we have the bald proposition to repudiate the interest on the public debt unless it is taxed contrary to law, as made known by repeated decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; and secondly, the direct threat to repudiate the principal of the National debt unless it is paid off in broken promises to pay. As the greenback is simply a debt or a due bill, this paying debts with debts was a patentable discovery in the science of finance. Taken in connection with the declaration of Vallandigham in the canvass before, that the whole bonded debt should be immediately "paid" in greenbacks, the resolution simply meant that the war debt should not be paid at all. This robbing the men whose money saved the Republic was not acceptable then to the farmers and laborers of Ohio, and will probably not now be more acceptable to the capitalists of New York. It is well, however, to recall the antecedents of a party that first tried to get into power through discreditable expedients, before resorting to a declaration of honest principles in finance.

The convention took a "new departure," and, putting aside Ranney and Pendleton, nominated General W. S. Rosecrans for governor, who was then absent from the country. This nomination was mainly brought about through the zealous efforts of Messrs. Vallandigham, Callen, and Baber.

The opinions General Rosecrans entertained of his new-found friends were not favorable. In a letter dated February 3, 1863, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, General Rosecrans, in speaking of the slave-holding insurgents, had used this language:

"Wherever they have the power they drive before them into their ranks the Southern people, and they would also drive us. Trust them not. Were they able they would invade and destroy us without mercy. Absolutely assured of these things, I am amazed that any one could think of 'peace on any terms.'

"He who entertains the sentiment is fit only to be a slave; he who utters it at this time is, moreover, a traitor to his country, who deserves the scorn and contempt of all honorable men."

Rosecrans declined the nomination, and George H. Pendleton, after just enough hesitation to impart a proper value to his consent, consented to fill the vacant place at the head of the ticket.

Governor Hayes, aided by Senator Morton, opened the active campaign in a speech delivered at Wilmington, August 12, devoted mainly to the discussion of National and State finances. In the course of this speech Governor Hayes said:

"When the rebellion broke out, what was its chance for success? It had just one—a divided North. A divided North was its only chance. A united North was bound to crush the rebellion within two years after the firing on Sumter. A divided North encouraged the aristocratic enemies of free government in every land to build Alabamas and Shenandoahs that scourged the seas and swept away our commerce from the ocean. A divided North encouraged the Emperor of France to proclaim to everybody that sooner or later he proposed to intervene. A divided North encouraged rebel leaders to believe that sooner or later our armies must disband and come home.

"Now, I say to you that Pendleton was the selected and chosen leader of the Peace Party of the Northwest—the leader of the party that made a divided North. They talk of the debt and the great burden of taxation. We talked sadly of the loss of valuable lives that went down in the storm of battle. I say to you that the fact of a divided North doubled the debt and doubled the loss of valuable lives."

The campaign was an important one to Mr. Pendleton. Had he been successful he would undoubtedly have been the Democratic candidate for the presidency. A leading journal of the State said: "The gubernatorial contest is but a side-show. We are already entering upon the next presidential canvass, and Ohio is the key to the position." Nevertheless, Republican success was too certain to make the contest so warm a one as that of two years before. The State had been organized by townships and school districts and polled. So accurate was this poll that predictions as to the result, sealed and filed a week prior to the election by each of the members of the Republican State Executive Committee, the writer being one, varied only from two hundred to three thousand votes of the final result. Hayes' majority in '69 was 7,506—a little above the average majority. The canvass was fought largely upon the issue of the greenback payment of the debt. The Pendleton plan of indirect repudiation failed, and the rag infant was decently interred, to await an inglorious resurrection.

Governor Hayes was re-inaugurated January 10, 1870, on which occasion he delivered the following address:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

In the annual message transmitted to the General Assembly a few days ago, a brief exposition of the condition of the State government was given, and such measures were recommended as the public good seemed to me to require. It will therefore not be expected that on this occasion I should again discuss subjects pertaining to the usual routine of legislation.

The most important questions concerning State affairs which in the ordinary course of events will engage the attention of the people of Ohio, during the term of office upon which I now enter, are those which relate to the action of a Constitutional Convention authorized to be called by a vote of the people at the October election in 1871. The present organic law provides for submitting to the electors of the State, once in twenty years, the question of holding "a convention to revise, alter, or amend the constitution." It is no disparagement of the work of the last Constitutional Convention to say that experience has already demonstrated the wisdom of this provision. It would be strange, indeed, if the last eighteen years had developed no defects in the constitution of 1851.

It is, perhaps, not improper at this time to call attention to some of the amendments of the existing fundamental law which the next Constitutional Convention will probably be required to consider.

The provision of the present constitution which prohibits the General Assembly from authorizing "any county, city, town, or township, by vote of its citizens or otherwise," from giving aid to any "company, corporation, or association," was designed to remedy an evil of the gravest magnitude. Unlimited power to authorize counties, cities, and towns to subscribe to the stock of railroad companies had burdened the people of the State with indebtedness and taxation to an extent which threatened bankruptcy. Experience has shown, however, that the clauses of the constitution on this subject are so sweeping that they are almost equivalent to a prohibition of the construction of railroads, except where those who control the existing railroad lines furnish the means. In many localities, the people are thus deprived of the only artificial instrumentality for intercourse with other parts of the State and country which is now regarded as valuable. By reason of it, important sources of wealth in large sections of the State remain undeveloped. It is believed that amendments can be framed, under which effective local aid can be furnished for the building of railroads, and which, at the same time, shall be so guarded and limited as to prevent a dangerous abuse of the power.