Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 - 1893)
Rutherford B. Hayes was born on October 4, 1822 in Delaware, Ohio. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at Kenyon College in 1842. Three years later he graduated from Harvard Law School and started his own law practice [1]. In 1849 he relocated his office to Cincinnati, where he found great success. Hayes was drawn to the Republican Party from the beginning due to his opposition to slavery. In 1852 he married Lucy Ware Webb, with whom he had eight children. When the Civil War began, Hayes enlisted and was appointed to the rank of major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He soon rose to the rank of major general. In 1864, as he remained in the field, he was elected to Congress without ever campaigning. Hayes assumed his seat when the war concluded and was then elected Governor of Ohio in 1867 [2]. Soon after winning his third term as governor, Hayes received the Republican nomination for president. In March, 1877, Hayes became the 19th President of the United States after an electoral commission ended four months of controversy and awarded twenty disputed electoral votes to Hayes. Hayes made good on the promise he made when nominated to not serve a second term [3]. In 1881, he retired to his home in Fremont, Ohio, where he remained until his death on January 17, 1893 [4]. |
Samuel J. Tilden (1814 1884)
Samuel J. Tilden was born in 1814 in New Lebanon, New York. He studied law at what became New York University and was admitted to the bar in 1841. Tilden established himself as a successful corporate lawyer specializing in railroad reorganization [5]. Early in his political career in New York, Tilden was involved in the “barnburner” movement, an anti-slavery faction of the Democratic party [6]. Tilden did not want Congress to interfere with slavery but he wanted to prohibit its spread wherever it did not exist. Thus he opposed the annexation of Texas and endorsed the Wilmot Proviso. As the South’s influence over the Democratic party increased, Tilden often walked back these anti-slavery sentiments [7]. When the Civil War broke out, he remained loyal to the Union and argued the war was unnecessary. As one historian explained, Tilden was “adept at following the lines of least resistance”[8]. Tilden’s loyalty to the country was always questioned by Republicans who never forgave him for not serving in the war. Colonel Robert Ingersoll, a Republican and Union army veteran, said, “During the war Rutherford B. Hayes received many wounds in the flesh, but not one scratch upon his honor. Samuel J. Tilden received many wounds in his honor, but not one scratch on his flesh” [9]. Tilden rose to prominence by breaking up the corrupt “Tweed Ring,” run by William “Boss” Tweed, which dominated Tammany Hall in New York. In 1866, Tilden became chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee. In that capacity, Tilden developed a personal and seemingly friendly relationship with Tweed while he gathered the evidence that brought the notorious “Tweed Ring” down in 1871 [10]. Tilden was elected Governor of New York in 1874, where he continued to root out corruption and build his reputation as a reformer. In 1876, Tilden won the Democratic nomination as a reform candidate who promised to eradicate the corruption of the Grant administration. Tilden initially appeared to win the general election, but lost to Hayes when an electoral commission was established and awarded twenty disputed electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden died in 1884 in Yonkers, New York [11]. |
[1] Walker Lewis, “The Hayes-Tilden Election Contest,” American Bar Association Journal, 47:1 (Janaury 1961), p. 36. [JSTOR]
[2] Biography, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Accessed Nov. 20, 2020, https://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/biography/#:~:text=Home%20%2F%20Rutherford%20B.%20Hayes%20%2F%20Biography.%20Rutherford,two%20months%20after%20the%20death%20of%20his%20father.
[3] Rutherford B. Hayes to the Committee of the Republican National Convention, July 8, 1876, Hayes accepts the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, https://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/1876-acceptance-speech/.
[4] Biography, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
[5] Samuel Tilden Biography, National Park Service, Nov. 12, 2019, https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/samuel-tilden-biography.htm#:~:text=Samuel%20Tilden%20Biography.%20Governor%20Samuel%20J.%20Tilden%20of,most%20unusual%20presidential%20election%20in%20United%20States%20history.
[6] Mark D. Hirsch, “Samuel J. Tilden: The Story of a Lost Opportunity,” The American Historical Review, 56:4 (Jul. 1951), p. 788. [JSTOR]
[7] Ibid, 789.
[8] Ibid, 790.
[9] “Bear This In Mind,” The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, (Wheeling, West Virginia), Nov. 7, 1876.
[10] Mark D. Hirsch, “Samuel J. Tilden: The Story of a Lost Opportunity,” 790.
[11] Samuel Tilden Biography, National Park Service.
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[12] Stephen Raher. “When is a Postmaster Like the Man in the Moon? The Tumultuous Presidential Election of 1876,” Oregon U.S. District Court Historical Society, November 1, 2017, https://usdchs.org/2017/11/01/when-is-a-postmaster-like-the-man-in-the-moon-the-tumultuous-presidential-election-of-1876/.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Jake Wynn, “All the President’s Medicine: Rutherford B. Hayes at the Battle of South Mountain,” National Museum of Civil War Medicine, May 3, 2017, https://www.civilwarmed.org/hayes/.
[15] Ibid.
[16] “Reconstruction and the New South, 1865-1900,” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Reconstruction-and-the-New-South-1865-1900.
[17] Alan Gephardt, “The Remarkable Roscoe Part II,” The Blog of James A. Garfield National Historical Site, July 8, 2013, https://garfieldnps.wordpress.com/tag/1876-election/.