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._

No able man can for a long time fill the office of chief magistrate of one of the three great States of the Union without having his name more or less mentioned by his friends in connection with the presidency. As early as October, 1871, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Cincinnati, at a large public meeting held in that city just prior to the fall election, introduced Governor Hayes as the next Republican candidate for President of the United States.

In 1872 a modest poet was inspired by the surrounding sentiment to sing:

"We bow not down to yonder rising sun,
As did the Parsee worshiper of old,
But bend in homage when its race is run,
And watch it sink in purple-fretted gold.
And thus to thee, oh Hayes! the tried, the true,
On battle-field and in the civic chair,
Our heart's deep gratitude, thy meed and due,
(As closes far too soon thy proud career),
Goes out with benedictions pure and high:
Oh may thy set be brief, and, like the sun,
Rise thou again--thy light to fill the sky,
A brighter course of glory still to run,
Till millions now unborn shall hail thy name
In ages yet to come, with grand acclaim!"

Early in 1875 he was overwhelmed with letters urging upon him the acceptance of the third nomination for governor. Many of these letters presented as an inducement in favor of acceptance that if he ran for governor and succeeded in beating Allen, the prize of the presidency would be within his reach. To one of these letters from a leading editor he replied on April 10:

"The personal advantages you suggest rather tend to repel me. The
melancholy thing in our public life is the insane desire to get
higher.... But now I can't take that direction, and I will be ever
so much obliged if you will help drop me out of it as smoothly as
may be."

To a member of the State legislature he wrote:

"Content with the past, I am not in a state of mind about the
future. It is for us to act well in the present. George E. Pugh
used to say there is no political hereafter."

In the canvass of 1875, so much were the hearts of the people set upon having their great State leader the National leader, that the masses were invited in announcements for political meetings to come out and hear "the next President of the United States."

As illustrating the firmness of Governor Hayes in adhering to convictions, we give below a letter addressed to Hon. James A. Garfield. It must be remembered that at the time this letter was written the paper money madness prevailed through Ohio and in Congress to an alarming extent.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF OHIO, }
COLUMBUS, _March 4, 1876._ }

_My Dear General:_

I have your note of 2d. I am kept busy with callers,
correspondence, and the routine details of the office, and have not
therefore tried to keep abreast of the currents of opinion on any
of the issues. My notion is that the true contest is to be between
inflation and a sound currency. The Democrats are again drifting
all to the wrong side. We need not divide on details, on methods,
or time when.

The previous question will again be irredeemable paper as a
permanent policy, or a policy which seeks a return to coin. My
opinion is decidedly against yielding a hair's breadth.

We can't be on the inflation side of the question. We must keep our
face, our front, firmly in the other direction. "No steps
backward," must be something more than unmeaning platform words.
"The drift of sentiment among our friends in Ohio," which you
inquire about, will depend on the conduct of our leading men. It is
for them to see that the right sentiment is steadily upheld. We are
in a condition such that firmness and adherence to principle are of
peculiar value just now. I would "consent" to no backward steps. To
yield or compromise is weakness, and will destroy us. If a better
resumption measure can be substituted for the present one, that may
do. But keep cool. We can better afford to be beaten in Congress
than to back out.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.

Here is high courage and lofty political morality. The letter proclaims the grand truth that the only inquiry worthy of a statesman is, not what the tendency of public opinion is, but what ought it to be?

To a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention he wrote, under date of April 6:

"Having done absolutely nothing to make myself the candidate of
Ohio, I feel very little responsibility for future results. When
the State Convention was called it seemed probable that if I
encouraged my friends to organize for the purpose, every district
would elect my decided supporters. But to make such an effort in my
own behalf, to use Payne's phrase on repudiation, 'I abhorred.'"

The Republican State Convention, which met March 29, had passed, by a unanimous vote, and with boundless enthusiasm, the following resolution:

"The Republican party of Ohio, having full confidence in the
honesty, ability, and patriotism of Rutherford B. Hayes, cordially
presents him to the National Republican Convention, for the
nomination for president of the United States, and our State
delegates to that Convention are instructed and the district
delegates are requested to use their earnest efforts to secure his
nomination."

We shall not stop to trace the growth of the Hayes sentiment in other States. When the Sixth Republican National Convention assembled in Cincinnati, on June 14, 1876, the situation was this: Hayes was the first choice of every one for the second place on the ticket, and every one's second choice for the first. He and his friends had in no way antagonized other candidates, and had been guilty of no uncharitableness of judgment toward them. In the convention, he was modestly presented as the one candidate who could harmonize all interests, and unite all party elements. His friends argued that he combined merit and availability to a higher degree than any one whose name was before the convention.

The spirit of the convention was good, and there seemed a willing response to this portion of the opening prayer:

"By Thy grace, give to them a spirit of concord, that harmony may
prevail in their counsels; a spirit of wisdom that may discern and
use the right means to promote the end for which they are convened;
a spirit of patriotism, that the prosperity of the Nation may
overshadow all personal or sectional desires; a spirit of courage,
that they may be faithful to the deepest convictions of duty."

Ex-Governor Morgan, of New York, Chairman of the National Executive Committee, in his opening address, pertinently said:

"Resumption accomplished, then, in all human probability, will
follow ten or fifteen years of prosperity, equal to that of any
former period, perhaps greater than the country has yet seen. If
you will, in addition, put a plank in your platform, declaring for
such an amendment of the constitution as will extend the
presidential office to six years, and make the incumbent ineligible
for re-election, you will deserve the gratitude of the American
people."

The Hon. Theodore M. Pomeroy, Temporary Chairman, forcibly declared:

"No, gentlemen, the late war was not a mere prize-fight for
National supremacy. It was the outgrowth of the conflict of
irreconcilable moral, social, and political forces. Democracy had
its lot with the moral, social, and political forces of the cause
which was lost; the Republican party with those which triumphed and
survived. The preservation of the results of that victory devolves
upon us here and now. Democracy has no traditions of the past, no
impulses of the present, no aspirations for the future, fitting it
for this task. The reaction of 1874 has already spent itself in a
vain effort to realize the situation. It has simply demonstrated
that no change in the machinery of the government can be had
outside of the Republican party, without drawing with it a
practical nullification of the great work of reconstruction,
financial chaos, and administrative revolution. The present House
of Representatives has succeeded in nothing except the development
of its own incapacity."

The additional speeches delivered on the first day (which was devoted to organization) were by Senator Logan, General Joseph R. Hawley, Ex-Governor Noyes, Rev. Henry Highland Garnett, Ex-Governor Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, and Fred. Douglass.

Mr. Douglass was vociferously applauded, when he said:

"The thing, however, in which I feel the deepest interest, and the
thing in which I believe this country feels the deepest interest,
is that the principles involved in the contest which carried your
sons and brothers to the battle-field, which draped our Northern
churches with the weeds of mourning, and filled our towns and our
cities with mere stumps of men--armless, legless, maimed, and
mutilated--the thing for which you poured out your blood and piled
a debt for after-coming generations higher than a mountain of gold,
to weigh down the necks of your children and your children's
children--I say those principles, those principles involved in that
tremendous contest, are to be dearer to the American people in the
great political struggle now upon them than any other principles we
have."

The most significant event of the first day's proceedings was the reading from the platform, by George William Curtis, of the outspoken address of the Republican Reform Club of the city of New York.

The Hon. Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, was chosen permanent chairman. The important events of the second day's proceedings were the adoption of the platform and the putting presidential candidates in nomination. The candidate the convention subsequently selected was placed in nomination by Ex-Governor Noyes, of Ohio, through the following eminently appropriate speech:

GENTLEMEN:--On behalf of the forty-four delegates from Ohio,
representing the entire Republican party of Ohio, I have the honor
to present to this convention the name of a gentleman well known
and favorably known throughout the country; one held in high
respect, and much beloved, by the people of Ohio; a man who, during
the dark and stormy days of the rebellion, when those who are
invincible in peace and invisible in battle were uttering brave
words to cheer their neighbors on, himself, in the fore-front of
battle, followed his leaders and his flag until the authority of
our government was established from the lakes to the Gulf, and from
the river round to the sea. A man who has had the rare good fortune
since the war was over to be twice elected to Congress from the
district where he resided, and subsequently the rarer fortune of
beating successively for the highest office in the gift of the
people of Ohio, Allen G. Thurman, George H. Pendleton, and William
Allen. He is a gentleman who has somehow fallen into the habit of
defeating Democratic aspirants for the Presidency, and we in Ohio
all have a notion that from long experience he will be able to do
it again. In presenting the name of Governor Hayes, permit me to
say we wage no war upon the distinguished gentlemen whose names
have been mentioned here to-day. They have rendered great service
to their country, which entitles them to our respect and to our
gratitude. I have no word to utter against them. I only wish to say
that General Hayes is the peer of these gentlemen in integrity, in
character, in ability. They appear as equals in all the great
qualities which fit men for the highest positions which the
American people can give them. Governor Hayes is honest; he is
brave; he is unpretending; he is wise, sagacious, a scholar, and a
gentleman. Enjoying an independent fortune, the simplicity of his
private life, his modesty of bearing, is a standing rebuke to the
extravagance--the reckless extravagance--which leads to corruption
in public and in private places.

Remember now, delegates to the convention, that a responsible duty
rests upon you. You can be governed by no wild impulse. You can run
no fearful risks in this campaign. You must, if you would succeed,
nominate a candidate here who will not only carry the old, strong
Republican States, but who will carry Indiana, Ohio, and New York,
as well as other doubtful States. We care not who the man shall be,
other than our own candidate. Whoever you nominate, men of the
convention, shall receive our heartiest and most earnest efforts
for their success. But we beg to submit that in Governor Hayes you
have those qualities which are calculated best to compromise all
difficulties, and to soften all antagonisms. He has no personal
enemies: His private life is so pure that no man has ever dared to
assail it. His public acts throughout all these years have been
above suspicion even. I ask you, then, if, in the lack of these
antagonisms, and with all of these good qualities, living in a
State which holds its election in October, the result of which will
be decisive, it may be, of the presidential campaign--it is not
worth while to see to it that a candidate is nominated against whom
nothing can be said, and who is sure to succeed in the campaign?

In conclusion, permit me to say that, if the wisdom of this
convention shall decide at last that Governor Hayes' nomination is
safest, and is best, that decision will meet with such responsive
enthusiasm here in Ohio as will insure Republican success at home,
and which will be so far-reaching and wide-spreading as to make
success almost certain from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The nomination was seconded by Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, Colonel J. W. Davis, of West Virginia, Hon. A. St. Gem, and Hon. J. P. Jones, of Missouri.

The third and last day of the sitting of the Convention was employed in balloting and in making the nominations.

At twenty minutes to 11 the balloting for president began:

FIRST BALLOT.

Bl: Blaine Mo: Morton Co: Conkling Br: Bristow Hy: Hayes Hr: Hartranft Wh: Wheeler Je: Jewell

-----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- STATES. | Bl | Mo | Co | Br | Hy | Hr | Wh | Je -----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Alabama | 10 | | | 7 | 2 | | | 1 Arkansas | | 12 | | | | | | California | 9 | | 1 | 2 | | | | Connecticut | | | | 2 | | | | 10 Delaware | 6 | | | | | | | Florida | 1 | 4 | 8 | | | | | Georgia | 5 | 6 | 8 | 3 | | | | Illinois | 38 | | | 3 | 1 | | | Indiana | | 30 | | | | | | Iowa | 22 | | | | | | | Kansas | 10 | | | | | | | Kentucky | | | | 24 | | | | Louisiana | 2 | 14 | | | | | | Maine | 14 | | | | | | | Maryland | 16 | | | | | | | Massachusetts | 6 | | | 17 | | | 3 | Michigan | 8 | | 1 | 9 | 4 | | | Minnesota | 10 | | | | | | | Mississippi | | 12 | | 3 | | | | Missouri | 14 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 | | | Nebraska | 6 | | | | | | | Nevada | | | 2 | 3 | 1 | | | New Hampshire | 7 | | | 3 | | | | New Jersey | 13 | | | | 5 | | | New York | | | 69 | 1 | | | | North Carolina | 9 | 2 | 7 | 1 | | | | Ohio | | | | | 44 | | | Oregon | 6 | | | | | | | Pennsylvania | | | | | | 58 | | Rhode Island | 2 | | | 6 | | | | South Carolina | | 13 | | 1 | | | | Texas | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6 | | | | Tennessee | 4 | 10 | | 10 | | | | Vermont | 1 | | | 8 | 1 | | | Virginia | 16 | 3 | 3 | | | | | West Virginia | 8 | | | | 2 | | | Wisconsin | 20 | | | | | | | Arizona | 2 | | | | | | | Colorado | 6 | | | | | | | Dakota | 2 | | | | | | | Idaho | 2 | | | | | | | Montana | 2 | | | | | | | New Mexico | 2 | | | | | | | Utah | 2 | | | | | | | District of Columbia | | 2 | | | | | | Washington | 2 | | | | | | | Wyoming | 1 | | | 1 | | | | -----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Totals |285 |125 | 99 |113 | 61 | 58 | 3 | 11 -----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----

The second ballot resulted as follows: Blaine, 296; Morton, 120; Bristow, 114; Conkling, 93; Hayes, 64; Hartranft, 63: Wheeler, 3; Washburne, 1.

Third ballot: Blaine, 293; Bristow, 121; Morton, 113; Conkling, 90; Hartranft, 08; Hayes, 67; Wheeler, 2; Washburne, 1.

Fourth ballot: Blaine, 292; Bristow, 126; Morton, 108; Conkling, 84; Hartranft, 71; Hayes, 68; Washburne, 3; Wheeler, 2.

Fifth ballot: Whole number of votes cast, 755. Necessary to a choice, 378. Not voting, 1. Blaine, 286; Morton, 95; Bristow, 114; Conkling, 82; Hayes, 104; Hartranft, 69; Wheeler (Mass.), 2; Washburne, (Ga. 1, 111. 1, Minn. 1), 3.

On this ballot Hayes passed from the fifth to the third place, through the aid of 22 votes cast for him by Michigan, and 12 by North Carolina. This was the first distinct foreshadowing of the result.

On the sixth ballot Hayes was second, the vote standing: Blaine, 308; Hayes, 113; Bristow, 111; Morton, 85; Conkling, 81; Hartranft, 50; Washburne, 5; Wheeler, 2.

The decisive ballot stood:

SEVENTH BALLOT.

STATES. Hayes Blaine Bristow

Alabama 17 3 Arkansas 1 11 California 3 16 Connecticut 3 2 7 Delaware 6 Florida 8 Georgia 7 14 1 Illinois 3 35 5 Indiana 25 5 Iowa 22 Kansas 10 Kentucky 24 Louisiana 2 14 Maine 14 Maryland 16 Massachusetts 21 5 Michigan 22 Minnesota 1 9 Mississippi 16 Missouri 10 20 Nebraska 6 Nevada 6 New Hampshire 3 7 New Jersey 6 12 New York 61 9 North Carolina 20 Ohio 44 Oregon 6 Pennsylvania 28 30 Rhode Island 6 2 South Carolina 7 7 Texas 15 1 Tennessee 18 6 Vermont 10 Virginia 8 14 West Virginia 4 6 Wisconsin 4 16 Arizona 2 Colorado 6 Dakota 2 Idaho 2 Montana 2 New Mexico 2 Utah 2 District of Columbia 2 Washington 2 Wyoming 2

Totals 381 351 21

The nomination of Governor Hayes was received with indescribable enthusiasm, with long-continued cheering, and every other demonstration of joy and delight.

Outside of Ohio the State that contributed most to this far-reaching result was Michigan. From the fact that Mr. Bristow telegraphed to the Kentucky delegation several hours before the crisis was reached to cast their votes for Hayes, that State should share, after Michigan, the honor of achieving the grand result. Indiana, North Carolina, and New York followed close upon Kentucky, if it is possible to compare the value of the aid each State brought.

On motion of the Hon. Wm. P. Frye, of Maine, Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the unanimous choice of the Republican National Convention for President of the United States.

This great convention concluded its labors by nominating the able and incorruptible Wm. A. Wheeler, of New York, for vice-president by acclamation.

On the 17th of June, the day following the nomination, the committee appointed by the convention to notify Governor Hayes of the fact presented themselves in the executive office at Columbus.

Mr. McPherson, the chairman, approaching him, said:

"GOVERNOR HAYES: We have been deputed by the National convention of
the Republican party, holden at Cincinnati on the 14th of the
present month, to inform you officially that you have been
unanimously nominated by that convention for the office of
President of the United States. The manner in which that action was
taken, and the response to it from every portion of the country,
attest the strength of the popular confidence in you and the belief
that your administration will be wise, courageous, and just. We
say, sir, your administration, for we believe that the people will
confirm the action of the convention, and thus save the country
from the control of the men and the operations of the principles
and policy of the Democratic party. We have also been directed to
ask your attention to the summary of the Republican doctrine
contained in the platform adopted by the convention. In discharging
this agreeable duty we find cause of congratulation in the
harmonious action of the convention, and in the hearty response
given by the people we see the promise of assured success. Ohio, we
know, trusts and honors you. Henceforth you belong to the whole
country. Under circumstances so auspicious, we trust you will
indicate your acceptance of the nomination."

The governor, who had had no intimation as to what the length or character of the address would be, was left in doubt with respect to the response expected from him by the committee. He, however, without embarrassment, but in an intentionally subdued tone of voice, gave this appropriately brief reply:

"SIR: I have only to say in response to your information that I
accept the nomination. Perhaps at the present time it would be
improper for me to say more than this, although even now I should
be glad to give some expression to the profound sense of gratitude
I feel for the confidence reposed in me by yourselves and those for
whom you act. At a future time I shall take occasion to present my
acceptance in writing, with my views upon the platform."

Since his nomination for the presidency, Governor Hayes has changed in no perceptible respect the habits, recreations, or labors of his daily life. He rises early and accomplishes much work before breakfast. He labors in the executive office in the capitol from nine until five, discharging his varied duties as governor, answering or dictating the answers to be given his official, political, and private correspondence, and remaining at all times accessible to visitors of every age, sex, color, and condition, who seek to see him. His evenings are passed with his family, or at the social parties of his many friends. He makes his customary trips to his home and farms near Fremont, and, while profitably managing large property interests, finds time to devote to pioneer history, to domestic architecture, to gardening, to general literature, to languages, and other liberal studies and pursuits. He is sobered, but not overpowered or oppressed by the new responsibilities cast upon him. He suffers himself to be--as he ever has been--natural. Moderate, discreet, and wise in all things as he has been in the past and is in the present, he is conspicuously one who grows wiser each day that he lives.

Governor Hayes has reached the age of fifty-four, is five feet nine inches in height, and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. Perfect health and habits leave him just in the ripe maturity of physical manhood and mind. His shoulders and breast are broad, his frame solid and compact, his limbs muscular and strong. He has a fresh, ruddy complexion, is full of activity and elasticity, and is very fond of the amusements of young people. He has an exceptionally high and full forehead, a prominent nose, and bluish-gray eyes. A heavy sandy mustache and beard, which are silvered a little, conceal his mouth and chin. His light-brown hair is thin and slightly sprinkled with gray.

The Governor is the father of eight children, five of whom are now living. Those still living were born as follows: Birchard Austin, November 4, 1853; Webb Cook, March 20, 1856; Rutherford Platt, June 24, 1858; Fanny Hayes, September 2, 1867; Scott Russell, February 8, 1871.

The youngest of these children was born in Columbus, the others in Cincinnati. The oldest son graduated at Cornell University, in the class of 1874, and is now at the Harvard Law School. The second son passed three years at Cornell, and is now at home. The third son is at Cornell.

Three weeks from the day that Governor Hayes was nominated for the Presidency, his private secretary, Captain A. E. Lee, put upon the telegraphic wires, at Columbus, the following accurate copy of:

THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

COLUMBUS, OHIO, _July 8, 1876._

Hon. Edward McPherson, Hon. Wm. A. Howard, Hon. Joseph H. Rainey,
and others, Committee of the Republican National Convention.

GENTLEMEN: In reply to your official communication of June 17, by
which I am informed of my nomination for the office of President of
the United States by the Republican National Convention at
Cincinnati, I accept the nomination with gratitude, hoping that,
under Providence, I shall be able, if elected, to execute the
duties of the high office as a trust for the benefit of all the
people.

I do not deem it necessary to enter upon any extended examination
of the declaration of principles made by the convention. The
resolutions are in accord with my views, and I heartily concur in
the principles they announce. In several of the resolutions,
however, questions are considered which are of such importance that
I deem it proper to briefly express my convictions in regard to
them.

The fifth resolution adopted by the convention is of paramount
interest. More than forty years ago, a system of making
appointments to office grew up, based upon the maxim "To the
victors belong the spoils." The old rule, the true rule, that
honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only real
qualifications for office, and that there is no other claim, gave
place to the idea that party services were to be chiefly
considered. All parties, in practice, have adopted this system. It
has been essentially modified since its first introduction. It has
not, however, been improved.

At first the president, either directly or through the heads of
departments, made all the appointments. But gradually the
appointing power, in many cases, passed into the control of members
of Congress. The offices, in these cases, have become not merely
rewards for party services, but rewards for services to party
leaders. This system destroys the independence of the separate
departments of the government; it tends directly to extravagance
and official incapacity; it is a temptation to dishonesty; it
hinders and impairs that careful supervision and strict
accountability by which alone faithful and efficient public service
can be secured; it obstructs the prompt removal and sure punishment
of the unworthy. In every way it degrades the civil service and the
character of the government. It is felt, I am confident, by a large
majority of the members of Congress, to be an intolerable burden,
and an unwarrantable hindrance to the proper discharge of their
legitimate duties. It ought to be abolished. The reform should be
thorough, radical, and complete.

We should return to the principles and practice of the founders of
the government, supplying by legislation, when needed, that which
was formerly established custom. They neither expected nor desired
from the public officer any partisan service. They meant that
public officers should owe their whole service to the government
and to the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in
his tenure as long as his personal character remained untarnished,
and the performance of his duties satisfactory. If elected, I shall
conduct the administration of the government upon these principles;
and all constitutional powers vested in the executive will be
employed to establish this reform.

The declaration of principles by the Cincinnati Convention makes no
announcement in favor of a single presidential term. I do not
assume to add to that declaration; but, believing that the
restoration of the civil service to the system established by
Washington and followed by the early presidents can be best
accomplished by an executive who is under no temptation to use the
patronage of his office to promote his own re-election, I desire to
perform what I regard as a duty, in stating now my inflexible
purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for election to a second
term.

On the currency question, I have frequently expressed my views in
public, and I stand by my record on this subject. I regard all the
laws of the United States relating to the payment of the public
indebtedness, the legal tender notes included, as constituting a
pledge and moral obligation of the Government, which must in good
faith be kept. It is my conviction that the feeling of uncertainty
inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency, with its
fluctuations of values, is one of the great obstacles to a revival
of confidence and business, and to a return of prosperity. That
uncertainty can be ended in but one way--the resumption of specie
payments; but the longer the instability connected with our present
money system is permitted to continue, the greater will be the
injury inflicted upon our economical interests, and all classes of
society.

If elected, I shall approve every appropriate measure to accomplish
the desired end, and shall oppose any step backward.

The resolution with respect to the public school system is one
which should receive the hearty support of the American people.
Agitation upon this subject is to be apprehended, until, by
constitutional amendment, the schools are placed beyond all danger
of sectarian control or interference. The Republican party is
pledged to secure such an amendment.

The resolution of the convention on the subject of the permanent
pacification of the country, and the complete protection of all its
citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights,
is timely and of great importance. The condition of the Southern
States attracts the attention and commands the sympathy of the
people of the whole Union. In their progressive recovery from the
effects of the war, their first necessity is an intelligent and
honest administration of government, which will protect all classes
of citizens in all their political and private rights. What the
South most needs is peace, and peace depends upon the supremacy of
law. There can be no enduring peace if the constitutional rights of
any portion of the people are habitually disregarded. A division of
political parties, resting merely upon distinctions of race, or
upon sectional lines, is always unfortunate, and may be
disastrous. The welfare of the South, alike with that of every
other part of the country, depends upon the attractions it can
offer to labor, to immigration, and to capital. But laborers will
not go, and capital will not be ventured, where the constitution
and the laws are set at defiance, and distraction, apprehension,
and alarm, take the place of peace-loving and law-abiding social
life. All parts of the constitution are sacred, and must be
sacredly observed--the parts that are new no less than the parts
that are old. The moral and material prosperity of the Southern
States can be most effectively advanced by a hearty and generous
recognition of the rights of all by all--a recognition without
reserve or exception.

With such a recognition fully accorded, it will be practicable to
promote, by the influence of all legitimate agencies of the general
government, the efforts of the people of those States to obtain for
themselves the blessings of honest and capable local government.

If elected, I shall consider it not only my duty, but it will be my
ardent desire, to labor for the attainment of this end.

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that if I shall
be charged with the duty of organizing an Administration, it will
be one which will regard and cherish their truest interests--the
interests of the white and of the colored people both, and equally;
and which will put forth its best efforts in behalf of a civil
policy which will wipe out forever the distinction between North
and South in our common country.

With a civil service organized upon a system which will secure
purity, experience, efficiency, and economy; with a strict regard
for the public welfare, solely, in appointments; with the speedy,
thorough, and unsparing prosecution and punishment of all public
officers who betray official trusts; with a sound currency; with
education unsectarian and free to all; with simplicity and
frugality in public and private affairs, and with a fraternal
spirit of harmony pervading the people of all sections and classes,
we may reasonably hope that the second century of our existence as
a Nation will, by the blessing of God, be pre-eminent as an era of
good feeling, and a period of progress, prosperity, and happiness.

Very respectfully,
Your fellow-citizen,
R. B. HAYES.

The non-partisan verdict upon this letter is that it is faultless in style, sound in principle, courageous, broad and elevated in tone, liberal, wise, statesmanlike, and strong. It is, in short, the declaration of faith of an honest man who has a heart in his breast and a head on his shoulders, with purity in that heart and brains in that head.

The conclusions which follow our study of the public career of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, and the study of that interior life, the beauty of which the world will not know until he has passed from it, are briefly these.

In boyhood, in battle, in the civic chair, in the esteem of his State, in every duty and relation of life, he has been first, and now, it would seem, is first in the hearts of his countrymen. As a student, he was foremost; as a lawyer, he was in the front rank; as a soldier, he was the bravest; as a legislator, the most judicious; as a governor, second to none of Ohio's great magistrates.

The most striking characteristic of Hayes as a soldier was his personal intrepidity. Anthony Wayne, Francis Marion, and Ethan Allen were called brave men in the Revolution, and so they were; but we look in vain in their histories for as numerous proofs of unsurpassable daring as the hero of Cloyd Mountain, Cedar Creek, and South Mountain, has given us. Four horses shot under him; four wounds in action; fighting after he fell; a hundred days exposed to death under fire--these are the evidences of as lofty a courage as is yet known among men.

As a regimental, brigade, and division commander, his most striking quality as a leader was his impetuosity. General Crook used to say that Hayes fought infantry as other men fought cavalry. He was always wanting to move forward, to charge, to get at the enemy with cold steel. His favorite step was the double-quick; his choice of distance two paces; and his preferred mode of fighting, the hand-to-hand grapple. This meant business, was decisive, and was soon over.

Another characteristic was his constant care for the comfort of his soldiers. He was much in the hospitals, cheering up the wounded, writing letters for them, and sending last messages from the lips of the dying to wives, mothers, and friends. He shared his blanket, his last crust, his last penny, with the neediest of his men, and abstained from food when they had none.

His house is to-day, and has been since the war, a soldiers' home, where all who served with him are invited to come at all times and partake at his own table with his wife and children. Seldom is this generous hospitality imposed on by the members of his large military family. Once, only, a pseudo-soldier, whom the children called the "Veteran," having served two days and a half in the army, remained just double the term of his military service under the governor's roof. He doubtless found that the rations at this camp were good.

As a civil magistrate, Governor Hayes has developed executive and administrative abilities of the highest order. He has a practical, common-sense, direct way of doing things. He first finds what things ought to be done, and then how. When his own party has been in a minority, he has made friends with a few of the most reasonable men in the opposition, and through them, as instruments, has accomplished his purposes.

He is a discriminating judge of human nature, and is magnetic enough to make legislators follow his lead, as his soldiers followed him.

He has fixed rules of official conduct to which he adheres in all cases. For example, if he has a judge to appoint--and he has appointed many to fill vacancies--his simple inquiry is, Whom do the members of the legal profession want, who live in the judicial district to be provided for? When that fact is accurately ascertained, the appointment follows as a matter of course, even though the lawyer preferred may be his personal enemy. In the interests of learning, higher education, human benevolence, and equal rights, Hayes has accomplished more than any governor Ohio has yet had. We make this statement with the honorable records of old Jeremiah Morrow, Corwin, Chase, Tod, Brough, and Cox spread before us.

In a word, Governor Hayes is square-built, solid and sound, mentally, morally, and physically. His integrity is a proverb; his fidelity to his convictions is recognized by political enemies; his record is of unassailable soundness; and there is absolutely nothing vulnerable in his character. He has a Lincoln-like soundness of judgment, and is as inexorably just as old John Marshall. He is a man absolutely free from eccentricities and affectations; he neither walks nor talks on stilts. His manners have the warmth and grace that sincerity and simplicity give. In bearing, he is animated and thoughtful, manly and refined. His firmness, while it does not amount to obstinacy, marks the clear-cut individuality and decision of his character. He has the guiding faculty and the power of containing himself. He takes a just measure both of himself and of other men. If the country will do this, his future is as secure as his past. If president, he would do the right thing at the right time, in the right way. His election will give us, not a "solid South" or a solid North, but a solid Union!

Since experience has taught us how essential it is that the representative of the women of America in the executive mansion should worthily represent all that is best and most elevated in our social life, a word in regard to the companion of Governor Hayes may not be out of taste. If any public man in our history has been more fortunate and happy in his home surroundings and family relations, we are not aware who he may be. If the voice of the people should decree the transplanting of the ideal home of this family from the capital of Ohio to the capital of the Republic, the pure and elevating influences radiating from such a home would pervade and purify the social life of the National city, if not of the land. A severer simplicity would mark the inner and the outer life of the president's household. Extravagance in dress and living, wastefulness in vain displays and in ambitious entertainments, would find no encouragement from the mistress of the Nation's mansion. The lessons of truth and piety, of purity and virtue, of charity and benevolence, of sincerity and self-forgetfulness, would be taught by example. A whole people could here find in illustration the sacredness of the family and the holiness of home.

A union of rare accomplishments, social and domestic, with beauty of features, manners, and character, may yet be found in a successor of Mrs. Madison.

A doctor of divinity and a doctor of laws, the president of the Ohio Wesleyan University, bears this weighty testimony, in a public address, to the correctness of what we have hereinbefore recorded:

"It is in no spirit of partisanship, nor with the slightest
reference to merely political ends, but simply in illustration of
our subject that we add, already there are hopeful signs of
reformation in our National life. It is a sign of progress that the
suspicion of sullied purity is beginning to be fatal to a public
man. It is an omen of good when in a large and representative
convention, with the names of many distinguished men before it, one
is borne above them all on the tide of popular enthusiasm and with
ringing peals of applause is presented to the American people,
without effort of his own, as a candidate for the highest office in
the Nation, not only because of his eminent ability, but largely
because of the transparent purity of his character and his high,
manly, moral worth.

"It is doubtless a cause of honest pride to the citizens of this
town, irrespective of political creeds and preferences, that the
man thus highly distinguished is a native of your classic city. By
reason of its youth this university can not claim him as a son, but
it regards with maternal pride his not less worthy companion, who,
after graduation at one of the best female colleges in the State,
indicated her rare good sense by passing through much of the
college curriculum of our university here.

"If, by the decree of the people and the providence of God, this
worthy pair, honored graduates of Ohio's higher schools of
learning, shall be lifted to the highest position and power and
influence in the Nation, we have reason to believe that they will
illustrate the salutary influence of that cultured goodness of
which we have spoken, and that the National capital and the entire
National domain will enjoy a purer atmosphere."