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Founders and Political Leaders - Part 5
Grimes, James Wilson, 1816-1872, statesman, lawyer. U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Governor of Iowa, 1854-1858. Supported by Whigs and Free Soil Democrats. Elected as Republican Senator in 1859. Re-elected 1865. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 767; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 630; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 617; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GRIMES, James Wilson, statesman, born in Deering, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 20 October, 1816; died in Burlington, Iowa, 7 February, 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1836, and in the same year went west and began to practise law in Burlington, Iowa, then in what was known as the " Black Hawk Purchase," in the territory of Michigan. From 4 July, 1836, till 12 June, 1838, it was part of Wisconsin territory, and in 1837-'8 Mr. Grimes was assistant librarian of the territorial library. After the formation of Iowa Territory he was a delegate to its assembly in 1838 and 1843, and in 1852, after its admission to the Union, was a member of the legislature. He was governor of the state in 1854-'8, having been elected by Whigs and Free-Soil Democrats, and while holding the office did much to foster Free-Soil sentiment in his state. On 28 August, 1856, he wrote an official letter to President Pierce protesting against the treatment of Iowa settlers in Kansas. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican in 1859, and re-elected in 1865. His first speech, delivered on 30 January, 1860, was a reply to Senator Robert Toombs, who had accused Iowa of passing laws in violation of the rights of sister states, and after this he spoke frequently, and was known as a hard-working member of the Senate. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Convention. He was a member of the committee on naval affairs from 24 January, 1861, till the end of his service, and was its chairman from December, 1864. He strongly advocated the building of iron-clads, and the abandonment of stone fortifications for harbor defence. Mr. Grimes was noted for his independence of character, which frequently brought him into conflict with his party associates in the Senate. Thus, although he favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, he considered President Lincoln's enlargement of the regular army in 1861 a dangerous precedent, and later he opposed a high protective tariff. In the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, Mr. Grimes was one of the few Republican Senators who voted "not guilty," and this act brought upon him a storm of condemnation which lasted but a short time, owing to the evident fact that his vote had been strictly in accordance with what he considered his duty. Mr. Grimes had a stroke of paralysis in 1869, and in April of that year went abroad, resigning his seat in the Senate on 6 December. He returned in September, 1871, apparently improved, but died soon afterward of heart disease. Mr. Grimes founded a professorship at Iowa College, at Grinnell, and gave money for scholarships there and at Dartmouth, receiving the degree of LL. D. from both colleges. He also established a free public library in Burlington, Iowa. Sec " Life of James W. Grimes," by William Salter (New York, 1876). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 767.
Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell, 1821-1891, New Haven, Vermont, abolitionist, Republican Party co-founder, theologian, lawyer. Founded First Congregational Church, Washington, DC, in 1851. Founded town of Grinnell, Iowa. Iowa State Senator, 1856-1860. Congressman 1863-1867. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Advocated for use of colored troops in the Union Army. As Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Mabee, 1970, p. 356; Payne, 1938; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 323-324; Schuchmann, 2003; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 634; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GRINNELL, Josiah Bushnell, Congressman, born in New Haven, Vermont, 22 December, 1821; died in Marshalltown, Ta., 31 March, 1891. He was graduated at Auburn theological seminary, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, and preached seven years in Union Village, New York, Washington, D. C., and New York City. He founded the Congregational Church at Grinnell, Iowa, in 1854, and preached there gratuitously for several years, but afterward retired from the ministry and became an extensive wool-grower. He was a member of the state senate in 1856-'60, special agent of the post-office department in 1861-'3, and in 1863-'7 was a representative in Congress, having been elected as a Republican. He was a special agent of the Treasury Department in 1868, and in 1884 was appointed commissioner of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industries. When in the Iowa Senate Mr. Grinnell took an active part in the formation of the state free-school system, and was also the correspondent and confidant of John Brown, entertaining him and his company. “In my library,” says Mr. Grinnell in a recent letter, “secretly, in the gleam of bayonets, and near a miniature arsenal for the protection of a score of ex-slaves, he wrote a part of his Virginia proclamation.” Mr. Grinnell was active in aiding the escape of fugitive slaves, and at one time a reward was offered for his head. He was connected with the building of six railroads, and laid out five towns, including that of Grinnell, Iowa, which was named for him. He gave the proceeds of the sale of building-lots in that town to Grinnell University, now merged in Iowa College, and was for some time its president. He published “Home of the Badgers” (Milwaukee, Wis., 1845); “Cattle Industries of the United States” (New York, 1884); and numerous valuable pamphlets and addresses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2.
Griswold, John Augustus, 1818-1872, manufacturer. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York. Mayor of Troy, NY, 1850. Raised regiment for Union Army. Supervised building of U.S.S. Monitor, the first ironclad Union Navy ship. Elected U.S. Congressman 1862, served 1863-1869. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 3; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; Congressional Globe.
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GRISWOLD, John Augustus, manufacturer, born in Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York, 11 November, 1818; died in Troy, New York, 31 October, 1872. He went to Troy in 1839, and was for a time an inmate of the family of his uncle, General Wool. He became interested in the Rensselaer Iron Company, in which he was afterward the principal partner. He was mayor of Troy in 1850, and was an active supporter of the National government during the civil war, aiding in raising three regiments of infantry, as well as the “Black-Horse Cavalry,” and the 21st New York, or “Griswold Light Cavalry.” In 1861, in connection with C. S. Bushnell and John F. Winslow, he contracted to build Ericsson's “Monitor,” and it was mainly due to him that the vessel was completed in the hundred days allowed by the government for her construction. The “Monitor” was built at great pecuniary risk, as her price, $275,000, was not to be paid till it had been practically shown that she could withstand the enemy's fire at the shortest ranges. Mr. Griswold was elected to Congress in 1862 as a war Democrat, but subsequently joined the Republicans, and was re-elected by them, serving altogether from 1863 till 1869. He was an efficient member of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and effectively defended the policy of the government in the construction of monitors when it was attacked in the house. He also aided in building the monitor “Dictator.” In 1868 he was the Republican candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated, though his party claimed that he received a majority of the votes actually cast. Mr. Griswold did much to advance the prosperity of Troy, and contributed liberally to its charities. He was a trustee of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1860-'72. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 3.
Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell, 1821-1891, New Haven, Vermont, abolitionist, Republican Party co-founder, theologian, lawyer. Founded First Congregational Church, Washington, DC, in 1851. Founded town of Grinnell, Iowa. Iowa State Senator, 1856-1860. Congressman 1863-1867. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Advocated for use of colored troops in the Union Army. As Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Mabee, 1970, p. 356; Payne, 1938; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 323-324; Schuchmann, 2003; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 634; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GRINNELL, Josiah Bushnell, congressman, born in New Haven, Vermont, 22 December, 1821. He was graduated at Oneida Institute in 1843 and at Auburn Theological Seminary in 1847, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, and preached seven years in Union Village, New York, Washington, D. C., and New York City. He founded the Congregational Church at Grinnell, Iowa, in 1854, and preached there gratuitously for several years, but afterward retired from the ministry and became an extensive wool-grower. He was a member of the state senate in 1856-’60, special agent of the Post-Office Department in 1861-’3, and in 1863-’7 was a representative in congress, having been elected as a Republican. He was a special agent of the treasury department in 1868, and in 1884 was appointed commissioner of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industries. When in the Iowa Senate Mr. Grinnell took an active part in the formation of the state free-school system, and was also the correspondent and confidant of John Brown, entertaining him and his company. “In my library,” says Mr. Grinnell in a recent letter, “secretly, in the gleam of bayonets, and near a miniature arsenal for the protection of a score of ex-slaves, he wrote a part of his Virginia proclamation.” Mr. Grinnell was active in aiding the escape of fugitive slaves, and at one time a reward was offered for his head. He has been connected with the building of six railroads, and has laid out five towns, including that of Grinnell, Iowa, which was named for him. He gave the proceeds of the sale of building-lots in that town to Grinnell University, now merged in Iowa College, and was for some time its president. He has published “Home of the Badgers” (Milwaukee, Wis., 1845); “Cattle Industries of the United States” (New York, 1884); and numerous pamphlets and addresses. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 1-2.
Griswold, John Augustus, 1818-1872, manufacturer. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York. Mayor of Troy, NY, 1850. Raised regiment for Union Army. Supervised building of U.S.S. Monitor, the first ironclad Union Navy ship. Elected U.S. Congressman 1862, served 1863-1869. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 3; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 4; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GRISWOLD, John Augustus, manufacturer, born in Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York, 11 November, 1818; died in Troy, New York. 31 October, 1872. He went to Troy in 1839, and was for a time an inmate of the family of his uncle, General Wool. He became interested in the Rensselaer Iron Company, in which he was afterward the principal partner. He was mayor of Troy in 1850, and was an active supporter of the National government during the Civil War, aiding in raising three regiments of infantry, as well as the "Black-Horse Cavalry," and the 21st New York, or "Griswold Light Cavalry." In 1861, in connection with C. S. Bushnell and John F. Winslow, he contracted to build Ericsson's "Monitor," and it was mainly due to him that the vessel was completed in the hundred days allowed by the government for her construction. The "Monitor" was built at great pecuniary risk, as her price, $275,000, was not to be paid till it had been practically shown that she could withstand the enemy's fire at the shortest ranges. Mr. Griswold was elected to congress in 1862 as a war Democrat, but subsequently joined the Republicans, and was re-elected by them, serving altogether from 1863 till 1869. He was an efficient member of the committee on naval affairs, and effectively defended the policy of the government in the construction of monitors when it was attacked in the house. He also aided in building the monitor " Dictator." In 1868 he was the Republican candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated, though his party claimed that he received a majority of the votes actually cast. Mr. Griswold did much to advance the prosperity of Troy, and contributed liberally to its charities. He was a trustee of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1800. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 3.
Grose, William
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GROSE, William, soldier, born in Dayton, Ohio, 16 December, 1812. Both of his grandfathers served in the Revolution, and his father was a soldier in the war of 1812. The son received a common-school education. He was a presidential elector on the Pierce ticket, and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for congress in 1852, but joined the Republican Party on its formation and was elected to the legislature in 1856. He was chosen a judge of the court of common pleas in 1860, but resigned in August, 1861, and recruited the 36th Indiana Infantry, of which he became colonel. At Shiloh his regiment was the only part of Buell's army that joined in the first day's fight, and after the engagement he commanded a brigade. He was with the Army of the Cumberland in all its important battles, served through the Atlanta Campaign, and, at the request of Generals Sherman and Thomas, was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, receiving notice of his appointment while under fire in front of Atlanta. He was at Franklin and Nashville, and after the close of hostilities was president of a court-martial in Nashville till January, 1866. He was collector of internal revenue in 1866-'74, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for congress in 1878, and one of a commission to build three state hospitals for the insane, in 1884-'6. In 1887 he was again a member of the Indiana Legislature. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 5.
Grow, Galusha Aaron
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
GROW, Galusha Aaron, statesman, born in Ashford (now Eastford), Windham County, Connecticut, 31 August, 1824. When ten years old he moved to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he attended a district-school and pursued a preparatory course in Franklin academy, Harford. He was graduated at Amherst in 1844, studied law in Montrose, and was admitted to the bar of Susquehanna County, 19 April, 1847. He soon afterward settled in Towanda, and became a partner of David Wilmot. He practised law until the spring of 1850, when feeble health compelled him to seek out-door pursuits, and he engaged in farming, surveying, and gathering hemlock bark for tanneries. In the fall of 1850 he received and declined a unanimous nomination to the legislature, tendered by the Democratic Party. A few weeks later, David Wilmot, Free-Soil, and James Lowrey, Pro-slavery, candidates of the Democratic Party for congress, withdrew from the contest on an agreement that the two branches of the party should unite upon Mr. Grow as a candidate. The conventions reassembled, placed Mr. Grow in nomination, and, after an exciting campaign of one week, he was elected over John C. Adams, Whig. He took his seat in congress in December, 1851, being its youngest member, and continued to represent the “Wilmot District” for twelve successive years, although he had severed his connection with the Democratic Party on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His period of service was distinguished by the legislation on the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas troubles, and the Homestead and Pacific Railroad Bills, as well as the election of Speaker Banks and the presidential campaigns of Fremont and Lincoln. He rendered important services on the committees on Indian affairs, agriculture, and territories, being a member of the latter six years and its chairman four. His first speech was delivered upon the homestead bill, a measure which he continued to urge at every congress for ten years, when he had at last the satisfaction of signing the law as speaker. At the convening of the first or extra session of the 37th congress, 4 July, 1861, he was elected speaker, and held the position until 4 March, 1863, when, on retiring, he received a unanimous vote of thanks, the first vote of the kind given to any speaker in many years. He was a delegate to the National Republican Conventions of 1864 and 1868, and chairman of the Pennsylvania State committee during the latter campaign. In 1857 he was a victim of the National hotel poisoning. He spent the summer of 1870 in California, Oregon, and British Columbia, and in 1871 he settled in Houston, Texas, as president of the International and Great Northern Railroad of Texas, remaining there until 1875, when he returned to Pennsylvania and took an active part in the state election of that year and the presidential campaign of 1876. In the autumn of 1876 he declined the mission to Russia. Appleton’s 1892 pp. 6-7.
Hackleman, Pleasant Adam
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HACKLEMAN, Pleasant Adam, soldier, born in Franklin County, Indiana, 15 November, 1814; died near Corinth, Mississippi, 4 October, 1862. His father, Major John Hackleman, fought in the war of 1812. After engaging for a number of years in farming, the son studied law, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1837. He began practice in Rushville, rose rapidly to distinction in his profession, and in August, 1837, was elected judge of the probate court, of Rush County, which office he held till 1841, when he was elected to the state house of representatives. After serving for several years as clerk of Rush County, he was, in 1847 and 1858, a candidate for congress, but was defeated. In 1860 he was a member of the Republican National Convention at Chicago, and in 1861 of the peace conference at Washington. He entered the national service in May, 1861, as colonel of the 16th Indiana Regiment, and, after the first battle of Bull Run, served under General Banks in Virginia. He was made a brigadier-general, 28 April, 1862, and in June was ordered to report to General Grant in the southwest. He took an active part in the battle of Iuka and in that of Corinth, where he was killed on the second day of the fight. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 23.
Hahn, Michael
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAHN, Michael, politician, born in Bavaria, 24 November, 1830; died in Washington, D. C, 15 March, 1886. While he was an infant his parents moved to New York, and a few years later to New Orleans. He was graduated at the high-school of that city, and in the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1854. When twenty-two years of age he was elected school-director, served for several years, and at one time was president of the board. He was antagonistic to the Slidell wing of the Democratic Party, opposed Mr. Buchanan for president in 1856, was a strong Douglas advocate, and a vehement anti-slavery agitator. In 1860-'l he was a member of the committee that canvassed the state against secession, and he personally exerted all his influence to prevent disunion. Mr. Hahn's opponents charged that in 1861, with all public, state, and parish officers, he took the oath of allegiance to the Confederate government; but the official records show that he renewed his oath of office as notary, but omitted the oath of allegiance, and no public notice was taken of the omission. On the arrival of Admiral Farragut's fleet in New Orleans, 25 April, 1862, Mr. Hahn took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and represented the 2d Congressional District of Louisiana in congress as a Republican, from 17 February to 3 March, 1863. At the end of his term he returned to New Orleans, advocated the reopening of the Federal courts, and bought and edited the "New Orleans True Delta," in which he advocated emancipation. In March, 1864, he was inaugurated governor of Louisiana. He possessed the full confidence of Mr. Lincoln, who wrote him a letter advising that the elective franchise be extended to the Negro race, and granting him the additional powers of military governor. In 1865 he was chosen U.S. Senator, but did not press his claim to his scat. In July, 1866, while present at the Mechanics' Institute in New Orleans during the riot of that month, he was severely wounded. Mr. Hahn became the editor of the "New Orleans Republican" in 1867, and four years later moved to his sugar-plantation in St. Charles Parish, where he built the village of Hahnville. He was a member of the legislature from 1872 till 1876, and in 1879 was elected district judge, which office he resigned in 1885, on his election to congress, where he was the only Republican member from his state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 27.
HALE, John Parker, 1806-1873, New Hampshire, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator. Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. President of the Free Soil Party, 1852. Elected to Congress in 1842, he opposed the 21st Rule suppressing anti-slavery petition to Congress. Refused to support the annexation of Texas in 1845. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, he was the first distinctively anti-slavery senator. Adamantly opposed slavery for his 16 years in office. U.S. Senator, 1847-1853, 1855-1865. In 1851, served as Counsel in the trial of rescued slave Shadrach. In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party. As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 35, 51-54, 74, 100-102, 121, 126, 152, 164, 170, 205, 220; Filler, 1960, pp. 187, 189, 213, 247; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 20, 28, 29, 33-37, 43-46, 51, 60, 63-65, 68, 72, 254n; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 298; Sorin, 1971, pp. 130, 132; Wilson, 1872, pp. 624-628; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 105; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 862; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HALE, John Parker, senator, born in Rochester, New Hampshire, 31 March, 1806; died in Dover, New Hampshire, 19 November, 1873. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover, where he was admitted to the bar, 20 August, 1830. In March, 1832, he was elected to the state house of representatives as a Democrat. On 22 March, 1834, he was appointed U. S. District attorney by President Jackson, was reappointed by President Van Buren, 5 April, 1838, and was moved, 17 June, 1841, by President Tyler on party grounds. On 8 March, 1842, he was elected to congress, and took his seat, 4 December, 1843. He opposed the 21st rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the presidential canvass of 1844, and was nominated for re-election on a general ticket with three associates. The New Hampshire legislature, 28 December, 1844, passed resolutions instructing their representatives to vote for the annexation of Texas, and President Polk, in his message of that year, advocated annexation. On 7 January, 1845, Mr. Hale wrote his noted Texas letter, refusing to support annexation. The state convention of his party was reassembled at Concord, 12 February, 1845, and under the lead of Franklin Pierce struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. Hale was supported as an independent candidate. On 11 March, 1845, three Democratic members were elected, but there was no choice of a fourth. Subsequent trials, with the same result, took place 23 September and 29 November, 1845, and 10 March, 1846. During the repeated contests, Mr. Hale thoroughly canvassed the state. At his North Church meeting in Concord, 5 June, 1845. Mr. Pierce was called out to reply, and the debate is memorable in the political history of New Hampshire. At the election of 10 March, 1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats also defeated a choice for governor, and elected a majority of the state legislature. On 3 June, 1846, Mr. Hale was elected speaker; on 5 June, the Whig candidate, Anthony Colby, was elected governor; and on 9 June. Mr. Hale was elected U. S. Senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1847. In a letter from John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Massachusetts, 3d mo., 18th, 1846, he says of Mr. Hale: “He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is washing down from your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed south, as if Niagara stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood, as it dashes against the walls of the capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti-slavery senator.” On 20 October, 1847, he was nominated for president by a National liberty Convention at Buffalo, with Leicester King, of Ohio, for vice-president, but declined, and supported Mr. Van Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo Convention of 9 August, 1848. On 6 December, 1847, he took his seat in the Senate with thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, and remained the only distinctively anti-slavery senator until joined by Salmon P. Chase, 3 December, 1849, and by Charles Sumner, 1 December, 1851. Mr. Hale began the agitation of the slavery question almost immediately upon his entrance into the Senate, and continued it in frequent speeches during his sixteen years of service in that body. He was an orator of handsome person, clear voice, and winning manners, and his speeches were replete with humor and pathos. His success was due to his powers of natural oratory, which, being exerted against American chattel-slavery, seldom failed to arouse sympathetic sentiments in his audiences. Mr. Hale opposed flogging and the spirit-ration in the navy, and secured the abolition of the former by law of 28 September, 1850, and of the latter by law of 14 July, 1862. He served as counsel in 1851 in the important trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach from the custody of the U. S. marshal in Boston. In 1852 he was nominated at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by the Free-Soil Party for president, with George W. Julian as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. His first senatorial term ended, and he was succeeded by Charles G. Atherton, a Democrat, on 4 March, 1853, on which day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The following winter Mr. Hale began practising law in New York City. But the repeal of the Missouri Compromise measures again overthrew the Democrats of New Hampshire; they failed duly to elect U. S. Senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On 13 June, 1855, James Bell, a Whig, was elected U. S. Senator for six years from 3 March, 1855, and Mr. Hale was chosen for the four years of the unexpired term of Mr. Atherton, deceased. On 9 June, 1858, he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which ended on 4 March, 1865. On 10 March, 1865, he was commissioned minister to Spain, and went immediately to Madrid. Mr. Hale was recalled in due course, 5 April, 1869, took leave, 29 July, 1869, and returned home in the summer of 1870. Mr. Hale, without sufficient cause, attributed his recall to a quarrel between himself and Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation, in the course of which a charge had been made that Mr. Hale's privilege, as minister, of importing free of duty merchandize for his official or personal use, had been exceeded and some goods put upon the market and sold. Mr. Hale's answer was, that he had been misled by a commission-merchant, instigated by Mr. Perry. The latter was moved 28 June, 1869. Mr. Hale had been one of the victims of the “National hotel disease,” and his physical and mental faculties were much impaired for several years before his death. Immediately upon his arrival home he was prostrated by paralysis, and shortly afterward received a fracture of one of the small bones of the leg when thrown down by a runaway horse. In the summer of 1873 his condition was further aggravated by a fall that dislocated his hip. Appleton’s 1892 p. 29.
Hall, Hiland
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HALL, Hiland, jurist, born in Bennington, Vermont, 20 July, 1795; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 18 December, 1885. He was educated in the common schools, was admitted to the bar in 1819, and elected to the Vermont Legislature in 1827. He was State attorney in 1828-'31, and served in congress from 1833 till 1843, having been elected as a Whig. He was then appointed bank-commissioner, became judge of the state supreme court in 1846, and in 1850 2d comptroller of the treasury, and land-commissioner to California to settle disputed titles between citizens of the United States and Mexicans. Judge Hall was an earnest advocate for anti-slavery, and a delegate to the first National Republican Convention in 1856. In 1858 he succeeded Ryland Fletcher as governor of Vermont, and was re-elected in 1859. He was a delegate to the Peace Congress that was held in Washington, D. C, in February, 1861. Governor Hall was president of the Vermont Historical Society for twelve years, and for twenty-five years was vice-president of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. He is the author of a " History of Vermont" (Albany, 1868). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 41.
Hall, Robert Bernard, 1812-1868, Episcopal clergyman, member of the Massachusetts State Senate, U.S. Congressman, 1855-1859, one of twelve founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1832 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1832 (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 43; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HALL, Robert Bernard, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 28 January, 1812; died in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 15 April, 1868. He entered the Boston Public Latin-school in 1822, and studied theology at New Haven in 1833-'4. He was ordained to the ministry of the Orthodox Congregational Church, but afterward became an Episcopalian. In 1855 he was a member of the Massachusetts Senate and was elected to congress in 1855 on the Know-Nothing ticket, and again in 1857 on the Republican ticket. He was a delegate to the Union Convention in Philadelphia in 1866. Mr. Hall was one of the twelve founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in January, 1832, and was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in December, 1833. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Iowa Central College in 1858. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 43.
Hamilton, Morgan Calvin, 1809-1893, Alabama, abolitionist, soldier. U.S. Senator from Texas, 1870-1877. Member of the Radical wing of the Republican Party. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III. P. 64.
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAMILTON, Morgan Calvin, senator, born near Huntsville, Alabama, 25 Feb., 1809. He received a common-school education, and moved to the republic of Texas in 1837, where he was a clerk in the War Department in 1839-'45, and during the greater part of the last three years was acting Secretary of War. He was appointed comptroller of the state treasury in September, 1867, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1868, and on the reconstruction of the state was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican, and was re-elected, serving from 1870 till 1877. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III. P. 64.
Hamlin, Hannibal, 1809-1891. Vice President of the United States, 1861-1865, under President Abraham Lincoln. Congressman from Maine, 1843-1847. U.S. Senator from Maine, 1848-1857, 1857-1861, and 1869-1881. Governor of Maine, January-February 1857. In February 1857, he resigned as Governor of Maine to return to the U.S. Senate. In 1861, he was elected U.S. Vice President. Was an adamant opponent of the extension of slavery into the new territories. Supported the Wilmot Proviso and spoke against the Compromise laws of 1850. Strongly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Early founding member of the Republican Party. Supported Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and creation of Black Regiments for the Union Army. (Harry Draper Hunt (1969). Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln's first Vice-President. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2142-3. OCLC 24587. Charles Eugene Hamlin (1899). The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin. Syracuse University Press. OCLC 1559174; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 65-66; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 196)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAMLIN, Hannibal, statesman, born in Paris, Oxford County, Maine, 27 August, 1809. He was prepared for a collegiate education, but was compelled by the death of his father to take charge of the home farm until he was of age. He learned printing, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and practised in Hampden, Penobscot County, until 1848. He was a member of the legislature from 1836 till 1840, and again in 1847, and was speaker of the lower branch in 1837-9 and 1840. In 1840 he received the Democratic nomination for member of Congress, and, during the exciting Harrison campaign, held joint discussions with his competitor, being the first to introduce that practice into Maine. In 1842 he was elected as a Democrat to Congress, and reelected in 1844. He was chosen to the U. S. Senate for four years in 1848, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of John Fairfield, and was re-elected in 1851, but resigned in 1857 to be inaugurated governor, having been elected to that office as a Republican. Less than a month afterward, on 20 February, he resigned the governorship, as he had again been chosen U. S. Senator for the full term of six years. He served until January, 1861, when he resigned, having been elected vice-president on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. He presided over the Senate from 4 March, 1861, till 3 March, 1865. In the latter year he was appointed collector of the Port of Boston, but resigned in 1866. From 1861 till 1865 he had also acted as regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and was reappointed in 1870, continuing to act for the following twelve years, during which time he became dean of the board. He was again elected and re-elected to the U. S. Senate, serving from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1881. In June of that year he was named minister to Spain, but gave up the office the year following and returned to this country. He received the degree of LL. D. from Colby University, then Waterville College, of which institution he was trustee for over twenty years. Senator Hamlin, although a Democrat, was an original anti-slavery man, and so strong were his convictions that they finally led to his separation from that party. Among the significant incidents of his long career of nearly fifty years may be mentioned the fact that, in the temporary and involuntary absence of David Wilmot from the House of Representatives, during the session of the 29th Congress, at the critical moment when the measure, since known as " the Wilmot Proviso," had to be presented or the opportunity irrevocably lost, Mr. Hamlin, while his anti-slavery friends were in the greatest confusion and perplexity, seeing that only a second's delay would be fatal, offered the bill and secured its passage by a vote of 115 to 106. In common, however, with Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Hamlin strove simply to prevent the extension of slavery into new territory, and did not seek to secure its abolition. In a speech in the U. S. Senate, 12 June, 1856, in which he gave his reasons for changing his party allegiance, he thus referred to the Democratic Convention then recently held at Cincinnati: "The convention has actually incorporated into the platform of the Democratic party that doctrine which, only a few years ago, met with nothing but ridicule and contempt here and elsewhere, namely, that the flag of the Federal Union, under the Constitution of the United States, carries slavery wherever it floats. If this baleful principle be true, then that national ode, which inspires us always as on a battle-field, should be re-written by Drake, and should read: 'Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With slavery's soil beneath our feet, And slavery's banner streaming o'er us.'" When he had been elected vice-president on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln, he accepted an invitation to meet the latter at Chicago, and, calling on the president-elect, found him in a room alone. Mr. Lincoln arose, and, coming toward his guest, said abruptly: "Have we ever been introduced to each other, Mr. Hamlin" "No, sir, I think not," was the reply. "That also is my impression," continued Mr. Lincoln; "but I remember distinctly while I was in Congress to have heard you make a speech in the Senate. I was very much struck with that speech, senator—particularly struck with it— and for the reason that it was filled, chock up, with the very best kind of anti-slavery doctrine." "Well, now," replied Hamlin, laughing, " that is very singular, for my one and first recollection of yourself is of having heard you make a speech in the house— a speech that was so full of good humor and sharp points that I, together with others of your auditors, was convulsed with laughter." The acquaintance, thus cordially begun, ripened into a close friendship, and it is affirmed that during all the years of trial, war, and bloodshed that followed, Abraham Lincoln continued to repose the utmost confidence in his friend and official associate. Hannibal's son, Charles, lawyer, born in Hampden, Maine, 13 September, 1837, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1857, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. He became major of the 18th Maine Regiment in August, 1862, was appointed assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, 26 April, 1863, and served in the field with the Army of the Potomac from Chancellorsville through the Gettysburg Campaign to that of the Wilderness, after which he was put on duty as inspector of artillery, and also served at Harper's Ferry in 1864. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865. General Hamlin was city solicitor of Bangor in 1867, has been register in bankruptcy since that year, and was a member of the legislature in 1883 and 1885, serving in the latter year as speaker. He has published " The Insolvent Laws of Maine " (Portland, Maine, 1878).—Another son. Cyrus, soldier, born in Hampden, Maine, 26 April, 1839; died in New Orleans, Louisiana, 28 August, 1867, was educated at Hampden Academy and Waterville College (now Colby University), but was not graduated, he entered the army as captain and aide-de-camp in 1862, and served on the staff of General Fremont, whose favorable notice he attracted by his conduct at Cross Keys. He afterward became colonel of the 80th Regiment of Colored troops, serving in the Department of the Gulf, and on 8 December, 1864, was made brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded the Military District of Port Hudson in 1864-'5, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted major-general of volunteers. General Hamlin was among the first to advocate raising colored troops and the first that was appointed from Maine to command a colored regiment. After the war he practised law in New Orleans, where he took an active part in the movements of the reconstruction period. His death was caused by disease contracted in the army.— Hannibal's nephew, Augustus Choate, physician, born in Columbia, Maine, 28 August, 1828, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1851, and studied medicine in Paris and at Harvard, where he received his degree in 1854. He was surgeon in the army in 1861—'5, became medical director of the 11th Corps, and was medical inspector during the campaign at Fort Wagner, at Nashville, and elsewhere. In 1865 he moved to Bangor, Maine, and engaged in general practice. He has contributed articles on "Alimentation," '' Transfusion," " Transmission of Diseases," " Tetanus," and other subjects to the medical journals, and is the author of "History of Andersonville " (Boston, 1806); " The Tourmaline " (1873); and "Leisure Hours Among the Gems " (1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 65-66.
Harding, Benjamin F.
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HARDING, Benjamin F., senator, born in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 4 January, 1823. He was educated at the public schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He began practice in Illinois in 1848, and in 1849 moved to Oregon, where he was clerk of the territorial legislature in 1850-'l, and a member of that body and its speaker in 1852. He was U. S. District attorney for Oregon in 1853, and secretary of the territory in 1854-'9. After its admission to the Union he was a member of the state house of representatives in 1859-'62, being speaker during the last two years. He was then elected a U. S. Senator as a Republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Edward D. Baker, who was killed at Ball's Bluff, and served from 1 Dee., 1862, till 3 March, 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 79.
Harris, Ira, 1802-1875, jurist. Republican U.S. Senator from New York. Served as U.S. Senator from 1861-1867. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 310; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HARRIS, Ira, jurist, born in Charleston, Montgomery County, New York, 31 May, 1802; died in Albany, New York, 2 December, 1875. He was brought up on a farm, was graduated at Union College in 1824, studied law in Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. During the succeeding seventeen years he attained a high rank in his profession. He was a member of the assembly in 1844 and 1845, having been chosen as a Whig, and in 1846 was state senator and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. In 1848 he became judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, and held that office for twelve years. In February, 1861, Judge Harris was elected U. S. Senator from New York, as a Republican, serving from 4 July, 1861, to 3 March, 1867. In the Senate Mr. Harris served on the committee on Foreign Relations and Judiciary, and the select Joint Committee on the Southern States. Although he supported the administration in the main, he did not fear to express his opposition to all measures, however popular at the time, that did not appear to him either wise or just. Judge Harris was for more than twenty years professor of equity, jurisprudence, and practice in the Albany Law School, and during his senatorial term delivered a course of lectures at the law-school of Columbian University, Washington, D. C. He was for many years president of the board of trustees of Union College, was one of the founders of Rochester University, of which he was the chancellor, and was president of the American Baptist Missionary Union and other religious bodies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91.
Harrison, Benjamin
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HARRISON, Benjamin, son of John Scott, senator, born in North Bend, Ohio, 20 August, 1833, was graduated at Miami University, Ohio, in 1852, studied law in Cincinnati, and in 1854 moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he has since resided. He was elected reporter of the state supreme court in 1860, and in 1862 entered the army as a 2d lieutenant of Indiana volunteers. After a short service he organized a company of the 70th Indiana Regiment, was commissioned colonel on the completion of the regiment, and served through the war, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers on 23 January. 1865. He then returned to Indianapolis, and resumed his office of supreme court reporter, to which he had been re-elected during his absence in 1864. In 1876 he was the republican candidate for governor of Indiana, but was defeated by a small plurality. He was a member of the Mississippi River commission in 1879, and in 1880 he was elected U. S. Senator, taking his seat on 4 March, 1881. (See Supplement.) Appleton’s 1892 p.99.
Hawley, Joseph Roswell, 1826-1905, statesman, clergyman, lawyer, editor, opponent of slavery, Union officer. Member of the Free Soil Party. Co-founder of the Republican Party. Chairman of Connecticut Free Soil State Committee. He opposed pro-slavery Know-Nothing Party and aided in anti-slavery organizing. Helped organize and found the Republican Party in 1856. In 1857, became editor of the Republican newspaper, Evening Press in Hartford. Enlisted in the Union Army, rising to the rank of Brigadier General, commanding both a division and a brigade. (Appletons, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 421; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 351)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, statesman, born in Stewartsville, North Carolina, 31 October, 1826. He is of English-Scotch ancestry. His father, Reverend Francis Hawley (descended from Samuel, who settled in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639), was born in Farmington, Connecticut He went south early and engaged in business, but afterward entered the Baptist ministry. He married Mary McLeod, a native of North Carolina, of Scotch parentage, and the family went to Connecticut in 1837, where the father was an active anti-slavery man. The son prepared for college at the Hartford grammar-school and the seminary in Cazenovia, New York, whither the family moved about 1842. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1847, with a high reputation as a speaker and debater. He taught in the winters, studied law at Cazenovia and Hartford, and began practice in 1850. He immediately became chairman of the Free-Soil state committee, wrote for the Free-Soil press, and spoke in every canvass. He stoutly opposed the Know-Nothings, and devoted his energies to the union of all opponents of slavery. The first meeting for the organization of the Republican Party in Connecticut was held in his office, at his call, 4 February, 1856. Among those present were Gideon Welles and John M. Niles. Mr. Hawley gave three months to speaking in the Fremont canvass of 1856. In February, 1857, he abandoned law practice, and became editor of the Hartford "Evening Press," the new distinctively Republican paper. His partner was William Faxon, afterward assistant Secretary of the Navy. He responded to the first call for troops in 1861 by drawing up a form of enlistment, and, assisted by Drake, afterward colonel of the 10th Regiment, raising rifle company A, 1st Connecticut Volunteers, which was organized and accepted in twenty-four hours, Hawley having personally engaged rifles at Sharp's Factory. He became the captain, and is said to have been the first volunteer in the state. He received special praise for good conduct at Bull Run from General Erastus D. Keyes, brigade commander. He directly united with Colonel Alfred H. Terry in raising the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, a three years' regiment, of which he was lieutenant-colonel. It went south in the Port Royal Expedition, and on the capture of the forts was the first sent ashore as a garrison. It was engaged four months in the siege of Fort Pulaski, and upon the surrender was selected as the garrison. Hawley succeeded Terry, and commanded the regiment in the battles of James Island and Pocotaligo, and in Brannan's expedition to Florida. He went with his regiment to Florida, in January, 1863, and commanded the post of Fernandina, whence in April he undertook an unsuccessful expedition against Charleston. He also commanded a brigade on Morris Island in the siege of Charleston and the capture of Fort Wagner. In February, 1864, he had a brigade under General Truman Seymour in the battle of Olustee, Florida, where the whole National force lost 38 per cent. His regiment was one of the few that were armed with the Spencer breech loading rifle. This weapon, which he procured in the autumn of 1863, proved very effective in the hands of his men. He went to Virginia in April, 1864, having a brigade in Terry's division, 10th Corps, Army of the James, and was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and various affairs near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. He commanded a division in the fight on the Newmarket road, and engaged in the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, he was made a brigadier-general, having been repeatedly recommended by his immediate superiors. In November, 1864, he commanded a picked brigade sent to New York City to keep the peace during the week of the presidential election. He succeeded to Terry's division when Terry was sent to Port Fisher in January, 1865, afterward rejoining him as chief of staff, 10th Corps, and on the capture of Wilmington was detached by General Schofield to establish a base of supplies there for Sherman's army, and command southeastern North Carolina. In June he rejoined Terry as chief of staff for the Department of Virginia. In October he went home, was brevetted major-general, and was mustered out, 15 January, 1866. In April, 1866, he was elected governor of Connecticut, but he was defeated in 1867, and then, having united the "Press" and the "Courant," he resumed editorial life, and more vigorously than ever entered the political contests following the war. He was always in demand as a speaker throughout the country. He was president of the National Republican Convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876. He earnestly opposed paper money theories. In November, 1872, he was elected to fill a vacancy in Congress caused by the death of Julius L. Strong. He was re-elected to the 43d Congress, defeated for the 44th and 45th, and re-elected to the 46th (1879-'81). He was elected senator in January, 1881, by the unanimous vote of his party, and re-elected in like manner in January, 1887, for the term ending 4 March, 1893. In the house he served on the committees on Claims, Banking and Currency, Military Affairs, and appropriations; in the senate, on the committees on Coast Defences, Railroads, Printing, and Military Affairs. He is chairman of the committee on Civil Service, and vigorously promoted the enactment of civil-service-reform legislation. He was also chairman of a Select Committee on Ordnance and War-Ships, and submitted a long and valuable report, the result of careful investigation into steel production and heavy gun-making in England and the United States. In the National Convention of 1884 the Connecticut Delegation unanimously voted for him for president in every ballot. He was president of the U. S. Centennial Commission from its organization in 1872 until the close of its labors in 1877, gave two years exclusively to the work, was ex-officio member of its committees, and appointed all save the executive. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton in 1875, and from Yale in 1886. Of the former institution he is a trustee. Ecclesiastically he is a Congregationalist. General Hawley is an ardent Republican, one of the most acceptable extemporary orators in the republic, a believer in universal suffrage, the American people and the "American way," is a "hard-money" man, would adjust the tariff so as to benefit native industries, urges the reconstruction of our naval and coast defences, demands a free ballot and a fair count everywhere, opposes the tendency to federal centralization, and is a strict constructionist of the constitution in favor of the rights and dignity of the individual states. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124.
Hawley, William Merrill, 1802-1869, lawyer, jurist, State Senator. Member, Free-Soil Radical Delegation in August 1848. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 124
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAWLEY, William Merrill, lawyer, born in Delaware County, New York, 23 August, 1802; died in Hornellsville, New York, 9 February, 1869. His father, one of the earliest settlers in western New York, was a farmer, and unable to give his children a classical education. William went to the common school, and at the age of twenty-one moved to Almond, Alleghany County, where be cleared a piece of land for tillage. In the spring of 1824 be was elected constable, and began the study of law to assist him in this office. He was admitted to the bar in 1826, moved to Hornellsville the next year, and practised his profession until his appointment in 1846 as first judge of Steuben County. He served in the state senate, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 22 May, 1848, which met in Baltimore, and was identified with the “Free-Soil radical delegation,” which culminated in the National Convention of 9 Aug., 1848, held in Buffalo, New York, in which Martin Van Buren was nominated for the presidency. Judge Hawley was one of the committee appointed to introduce the resolutions the essential elements of which were afterward adopted by the Republican Party. After his retirement from the state senate he did not again enter public life, but, devoting himself to his profession, acquired a large fortune, and practised until a short time before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 124.
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 1822-1893, Delaware, Ohio,, 19th President of the United States, 1877-1881. Governor of Ohio, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, abolitionist, lawyer, soldier. Defended fugitive slaves in pre-Civil War court cases. His wife, Lucy, Webb, was also an abolitionist. Early member of the Republican Party. Served with distinction as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. (Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 134-143)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, nineteenth president of the United States, born in Delaware, Ohio, 4 October, 1822. His father had died in July, 1822, leaving his mother in modest but easy circumstances. The boy received his first education in the common schools, and began early the study of Latin and Greek with Judge Sherman Finch, of Delaware. Then he was sent to an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and in 1837 to Isaac Webb's school, at Middletown, Connecticut, to prepare for college. In the autumn of 1838 he entered Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. He excelled in logic, mental and moral philosophy, and mathematics, and also made his mark as a debater in the literary societies. On his graduation in August, 1842, he was awarded the valedictory oration, with which he won much praise. Soon afterward he began to study law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, at Columbus, Ohio, and then attended a course of law lectures at Harvard University, entering the law-school on 22 August, 1843, and finishing his studies there in January, 1845. As a law student he had the advantage of friendly intercourse with Judge Story and Prof. Greenleaf, and he also attended the lectures of Longfellow on literature and of Agassiz on natural science, prosecuting at the same time the study of French and German. On 10 May, 1845, after due examination, he was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio as an attorney and counsellor at law. He established himself first at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where, in April, 1846, he formed a law partnership with Ralph P. Buckland (q. v.), then a member of Congress. In November, 1848, having suffered from bleeding in the throat, Mr. Hayes went to spend the winter in the milder climate of Texas, where his health was completely restored. Encouraged by the good opinion and advice of professional friends to seek a larger field of activity, he established himself, in the winter of 1849-’50, in Cincinnati. His practice at first being light, he earnestly and systematically continued his studies in law and literature, also enlarging the circle of his acquaintance by becoming a member of various societies, among others the literary club of Cincinnati, in the social and literary entertainments of which at that time such men as Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin, Stanley Matthews, Moncure D. Conway, Manning F. Force, and others of note, were active participants. He won the respect of the profession, and attracted the attention of the public as attorney in several criminal cases which gained some celebrity, and gradually increased his practice.
On 30 December, 1852, he married Miss Lucy W. Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, a physician of high standing in Chillicothe, Ohio. In January, 1854, he formed a law partnership with H. W. Corwine and William K. Rogers. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of common pleas judge, but declined. In 1858 he was elected city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill a vacancy caused by death, and in the following year he was elected to the same office at a popular election by a majority of over 2,500 votes. Although he performed his duties to the general satisfaction of the public, he was, in April, 1861, defeated for re-election as solicitor, together with the whole ticket. Mr. Hayes, ever since he was a voter, had acted with the Whig Party, voting for Henry Clay in 1844, for General Taylor in 1848, and for General Scott in 1852. Having from his youth always cherished anti-slavery feelings, he joined the Republican Party as soon as it was organized, and earnestly advocated the election of Frémont in 1856, and of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. At a great mass-meeting, held in Cincinnati immediately after the arrival of the news that the flag of the United States had been fired upon at Fort Sumter, he was made chairman of a committee on resolutions to give voice to the feelings of the loyal people. His literary club formed a military company, of which he was elected captain, and this club subsequently furnished to the National Army more than forty officers, of whom several became generals. On 7 June, 1861, the governor of Ohio appointed Mr. Hayes a major of the 23d Regiment of Ohio volunteer Infantry, and in July the regiment was ordered into West Virginia. On 19 September, 1861, Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans judge advocate of the Department of Ohio, the duties of which office he performed for about two months. On 24 October, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On 14 September, 1862, in the battle of South Mountain, he distinguished himself by gallant conduct in leading a charge and in holding his position at the head of his men, after being severely wounded in his left arm, until he was carried from the field. His regiment lost nearly half its effective force in the action. On 24 October, 1862, he was appointed colonel of the same regiment. He spent some time at his home while under medical treatment, and returned to the field as soon as his wound was healed. In July, 1863, while taking part in the operations of the National Army in southwestern Virginia, Colonel Hayes caused an expedition of two regiments and a section of artillery, under his own command, to be despatched to Ohio for the purpose of checking the raid of the Confederate General John Morgan, and he aided materially in preventing the raiders from recrossing the Ohio River and in compelling Morgan to surrender. In the spring of 1864 Colonel Hayes commanded a brigade in General Crook's expedition to cut the principal lines of communication between Richmond and the southwest. He again distinguished himself by conspicuous bravery at the head of his brigade in storming a fortified position on the crest of Cloyd mountain. In the first battle of Winchester, 24 July, 1864, commanding a brigade in General Crook's division, Colonel Hayes was ordered, together with Colonel James Mulligan, to charge what proved to be a greatly superior force. Colonel Mulligan fell, and Colonel Hayes, flanked and pressed in front by overwhelming numbers, conducted the retreat of his brigade with great intrepidity and skill, checking the pursuit as soon as he had gained a tenable position. He took a creditable part in the engagement at Berryville and at the second battle of Winchester, 19 September, 1864, where he performed a feat of extraordinary bravery. Leading an assault upon a battery on an eminence, he found in his way a morass over fifty yards wide. Being at the head of his brigade, he plunged in first, and, his horse becoming mired at once, he dismounted and waded across alone under the enemy's fire. Waving his cap, he signaled to his men to come over, and, when about forty had joined him, he rushed upon the battery and took it after a hand-to-hand fight with the gunners, the enemy having deemed the battery so secure that no infantry supports had been placed near it. At Fisher's Hill, in pursuing General Early, on 22 September, 1864, Colonel Hayes, then in command of a division, executed a brilliant flank movement over mountains and through woods difficult of access, took many pieces of artillery, and routed the enemy. At the battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October, 1864, the conduct of Colonel Hayes attracted so much attention that his commander, General Crook, on the battle-field took him by the hand, saying: “Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier-general.” The commission arrived a few days afterward, and on 13 March, 1865, he received 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” Of his military services General Grant, in the second volume of his memoirs, says: “On more than one occasion in these engagements General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as president of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Having entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war, General Hayes attained, by his meritorious service, the rank of brevet major-general before its close.” While General Hayes was in the field, in August, 1864, he was nominated by a Republican District Convention at Cincinnati, in the second District of Ohio, as a candidate for Congress. When a friend suggested to him that he should take leave of absence from the army in the field for the purpose of canvassing the district, he answered: “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.” He was elected by a majority of 2,400. The Ohio soldiers in the field nominated him also for the governorship of his state. The accompanying illustration is a view of his home in Fremont.
After the war General Hayes returned to civil life, and took his seat in Congress on 4 December, 1865. He was appointed chairman of the committee on the library. On questions connected with the reconstruction of the states lately in rebellion he voted with his party. He earnestly supported a resolution declaring the sacredness of the public debt and denouncing repudiation in any form; also a resolution commending President Johnson for declining to accept presents, and condemning the practice as demoralizing in its tendencies. He opposed a resolution favoring an increase of the pay of members. He also introduced in the Republican caucus a set of resolutions declaring that the only mode of obtaining from the states lately in rebellion irreversible guarantees was by constitutional amendment, and that an amendment basing representation upon voters, instead of population, ought to be acted upon without delay. These resolutions marked the line of action of the Republicans. In August, 1866, General Hayes was renominated for Congress by acclamation, and, after an active canvass, was re-elected by the same majority as before. He supported the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. In the House of Representatives he won the reputation, not of an orator, but of a working legislator and a man of calm, sound judgment. In June, 1867, the Republican Convention of Ohio nominated him for the governorship. The Democrats had nominated Judge Allen G. Thurman. The question of Negro suffrage was boldly pushed to the foreground by General Hayes in an animated canvass, which ended in his election, and that of his associates on the Republican ticket. But the Negro-suffrage amendment to the state constitution was defeated at the same time by 50,000 majority, and the Democrats carried the legislature, which elected Judge Thurman to the United States Senate. In his inaugural address, Governor Hayes laid especial stress upon the desirability of taxation in proportion to the actual value of property, the evils of too much legislation, the obligation to establish equal rights without regard to color, and the necessity of ratifying the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States. In his message to the legislature, delivered in November, 1868, he recommended amendments to the election laws, providing for the representation of minorities in the boards of the judges and clerks of election, and for the registration of all the lawful voters prior to an election. He also recommended a comprehensive geological survey of the state, which was promptly begun. In his second annual message he warmly urged such changes in the penal laws, as well as in prison discipline, as would tend to promote the moral reformation of the culprit together with the punishment due to his crime.
In June, 1869, Governor Hayes was again nominated by the Republican state Convention for the governorship, there being no competitor for the nomination. The Democratic candidate was George H. Pendleton. The platform adopted by the Democratic state Convention advocated the repudiation of the interest on the U. S. bonds unless they be subjected to taxation, and the payment of the national debt in greenbacks. In the discussions preceding the election, Governor Hayes pronounced himself unequivocally in favor of honestly paying the national debt and an honest money system. He was elected by a majority of 7,500. In his second inaugural address, delivered on 10 January, 1870, he expressed himself earnestly against the use of public offices as party spoils, and suggested that the constitution of the state be so amended as to secure the introduction of a system making qualification, and not political services and influence, the chief test in determining appointments, and giving subordinates in the civil service the same permanence of place that is enjoyed by officers of the army and navy. He also advocated the appointment of judges, by the executive, for long terms, with adequate salaries, as best calculated to “afford to the citizen the amplest possible security that impartial justice will be administered by an independent judiciary.” In his correspondence with members of Congress, he urged a monthly reduction of the national debt as more important than a reduction of taxation, the abolition of the franking privilege, and the passage of a civil-service-reform law. In his message addressed to the legislature on 3 January, 1871, he recommended that the policy embodied in that provision of the state constitution which prohibited the state from creating any debt, save in a few exceptional cases, be extended to the creation of public debts by county, city, and other local authorities, and further that for the remuneration of public officers a system of fixed salaries, without fees and prerequisites, be adopted. Complaint having been made by the state commissioner of railroads and telegraphs that many “clear and palpable violations of law” had been committed by railroad companies, Governor Hayes asked, in his message of 1872, that a commission of five citizens be organized, with ample power to investigate the management of railroad companies, and to report the information acquired with a recommendation of such measures as they might deem expedient. He also, believing that “publicity is a great corrector of official abuses,” recommended that it be made the duty of the governor, on satisfactory information that the public good required an investigation of the affairs of any public office or the conduct of any public officer, whether state or local, to appoint one or more citizens, who should have ample powers to make such investigation. Governor Hayes's administration of the executive office of his state won general approval, without distinction of party. At the expiration of his term, when a senator of the United States was to be elected, and several Republican members of the legislature were disinclined to vote for John Sherman, who controlled a majority of the Republican votes, Governor Hayes was approached with the assurance that he could be elected senator by the anti-Sherman Republicans with the aid of the Democratic members of the legislature; but he positively declined.
In July, 1872, Governor Hayes was strongly urged by many Republicans in Cincinnati to accept a nomination for congress. Wishing to retire permanently from political life, he declined; but when he was nominated in spite of his protests, he finally yielded his consent. In his speeches during the canvass he put forward as the principal issues an honest financial policy and civil-service reform. Several sentences on civil-service reform that he pronounced in a speech at Glendale, on 4 September, 1872, were to appear again in his letter accepting the nomination for the presidency four years later. In 1872 the current of public sentiment in Cincinnati ran against the Republican Party, and Governor Hayes was defeated in the election by a majority of 1,500. President Grant offered him the office of assistant treasurer of the United States at Cincinnati, which he declined. In 1873 he established his home at Fremont, in the northern part of Ohio, with the firm intention of final retirement from public life. In 1874 he came into possession of a considerable estate as the heir of his uncle, Sardis Birchard. In 1875 the Republican state Convention again nominated him for the governorship. He not only had not desired that nomination, but whenever spoken or written to about it, uniformly replied that his retirement was absolute, and that neither his interests nor his tastes permitted him to accept. But the circumstances were such as to overcome his reluctance. In 1873 the Democratic candidate, William Allen (q. v.), was elected governor of Ohio. His administration was honest and economical, and he was personally popular, and his renomination by the Democratic Party in 1875 seemed to be a foregone conclusion. It was equally certain that the Democratic Convention would declare itself in favor of a circulation of irredeemable paper money, and against the resumption of specie payments. Under such circumstances the Republicans felt themselves compelled to put into the field against him the strongest available candidate they had, and a large majority of them turned at once to Governor Hayes. But he had declared himself in favor of Judge Taft, of Cincinnati, and urged the delegates from his county to vote for that gentleman, which they did. Notwithstanding this, the convention nominated Hayes on the first ballot by an overwhelming majority. When he, at Fremont, received the telegraphic announcement of his nomination, he at once wrote a letter declining the honor; but upon the further information that Judge Taft's son, withdrawing the name of his father, had moved in the convention to make the nomination unanimous, he accepted. Thus he became the leader of the advocates of a sound and stable currency in that memorable state canvass, the public discussions in which did so much to mold the sentiments of the people, especially in the western states, with regard to that important subject. The Democratic Convention adopted a platform declaring that the volume of the currency (meaning the irredeemable paper currency of the United States) should be made and kept equal to the wants of trade; that the national bank currency should be retired, and greenbacks issued in its stead; and that at least half of the customs duties should be made payable in the government paper money. The Republicans were by no means as united in favor of honest money as might have been desired, and Governor Hayes was appealed to by many of his party friends not to oppose an increase of the paper currency; but he resolutely declared his opinions in favor of honest money in a series of speeches, appealing to honor and sober judgment of the people with that warmth of patriotic feeling and that good sense in the statement of political issues which, uttered in language always temperate and kindly, gave him the ear of opponents as well as friends. The canvass, on account of the national questions involved in it, attracted attention in all parts of the country, and Governor Hayes was well supported by speakers from other states. Another subject had been thrust upon the people of Ohio by a legislative attempt to divide the school fund between Catholics and Protestants, and Hayes vigorously advocated the cause of secular education. After an ardent struggle, he carried the election by a majority of 5,500. He had thus not only won the distinction of being elected three times governor of his state, but, as the successful leader in a campaign for an honest money system, he was advanced to a very prominent position among the public men of the country, and his name appeared at once among those of possible candidates for the presidency.
While thus spoken of and written to, he earnestly insisted upon the maintenance by his party of an uncompromising position concerning the money question. To James A. Garfield he wrote in March, 1876: “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-breadth.” On 29 March, 1876, the Republican state Convention of Ohio passed a resolution to present Rutherford B. Hayes to the National Republican Convention for the nomination for president, and instructing the state delegation to support him. The National Republican Convention met at Cincinnati on 14 June, 1876. The principal candidates before it were James G. Blaine, Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin H. Bristow, Roscoe Conkling, Governor Hayes, and John F. Hartranft. The name of Hayes was presented to the convention by General Noyes in an exceedingly judicious and well-tempered speech, dwelling not only upon his high personal character, but upon the fact that he had no enemies and possessed peculiarly the qualities “calculated best to compromise all difficulties and to soften all antagonisms.” Hayes had sixty-one votes on the first ballot, 378 being necessary to a choice, and his support slowly but steadily grew until on the seventh ballot the opposition to Mr. Blaine, who had been the leading candidate, concentrated upon Hayes, and gave him the nomination, which, on motion of William P. Frye, of Maine, was made unanimous. In his letter of acceptance, dated 8 July, 1876, Mr. Hayes laid especial stress upon three points, civil-service reform, the currency, and the pacification of the south. As to the civil service, he denounced the use of public offices for the purpose of rewarding party services, and especially for services rendered to party leaders, as destroying the independence of the separate departments of the government, as leading directly to extravagance and official incapacity, and as a temptation to dishonesty. He declared that a reform, “thorough, radical, and complete,” should lead us back to the principles and practices of the founders of the government, who “neither expected nor desired from the public officer any partisan service,” who meant “that public officers should owe their whole service to the government and to the people,” and that “the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal character remained untarnished, and the performance of his duties satisfactory.” As to the currency, he regarded “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.” He therefore insisted upon as early as possible a resumption of specie payments, pledging himself to “approve every appropriate measure to accomplish the desired end,” and to “oppose any step backward.” As to the pacification of the south, he pointed out, as the first necessity, “an intelligent and honest administration of the government, which will protect all classes of citizens in all their political and private rights.” He deprecated “a division of political parties resting merely upon distinctions of race, or upon sectional lines,” as always unfortunate and apt to become disastrous. He expressed the hope that with “a hearty and generous recognition of the rights of all by all,” it would 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.” He also declared his “inflexible purpose,” if elected, not to be a candidate for election to a second term.
The Democrats nominated for the presidency Samuel J. Tilden, who, having, as governor of New York, won the reputation of a reformer, attracted the support of many Republicans who were dissatisfied with their party. The result of the election became the subject of acrimonious dispute. Both parties claimed to have carried the states of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. Each charged fraud upon the other, the Republicans affirming that Republican voters, especially colored men, all over the south had been deprived of their rights by intimidation or actual force, and that ballot-boxes had been foully dealt with, and the Democrats insisting that their candidates in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina had received a majority of the votes actually cast, and that the Republican canvassing boards were preparing to falsify the result in making up the returns. The friends of both the candidates for the presidency sent prominent men into the states in dispute, for the purpose of watching the proceedings of the canvassing boards. The attitude maintained by Mr. Hayes personally was illustrated by a letter addressed to John Sherman at New Orleans, which was brought to light by a subsequent congressional investigation. It was dated at Columbus, Ohio, 27 November, 1876, and said: “I am greatly obliged for your letter of the 23d. You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole business. A fair election would have given us about forty electoral votes at the south — at least that many. But we are not to allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by another. There must be nothing crooked on our part. Let Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, intimidation, and fraud, rather than undertake to prevent it by means that will not bear the severest scrutiny.” The canvassing boards of the states in question declared the Republican electors chosen, which gave Mr. Hayes a majority of one vote in the electoral college, and the certificates of these results were sent to Washington by the governors of the states. But the Democrats persisted in charging fraud; and other sets of certificates, certifying the Democratic electors to have been elected, arrived at Washington. To avoid a deadlock, which might have happened if the canvass of the electoral votes had been left to the two houses of Congress (the Senate having a Republican and the House of Representatives a Democratic majority), an act, advocated by members of both parties, was passed to refer all contested cases to a commission composed of five senators, five representatives, and five judges of the supreme court; the decision of this commission to be final, unless set aside by a concurrent vote of the two houses of Congress. The commission, refusing to go behind the certificates of the governors, decided in each contested case by a vote of eight to seven in favor of the Republican electors, beginning with Florida on 7 February, and Rutherford B. Hayes was at last, on 2 March, declared duly elected president of the United States. Thus ended the long and painful suspense. The decision was generally acquiesced in, and the popular excitement subsided quickly.
President Hayes was inaugurated on 5 March, 1877. In his inaugural address he substantially restated the principles and views of policy set forth in his letter of acceptance, adding that, while the president of necessity owes his election to the suffrage and zealous labors of a party, he should be always mindful that “he serves his party best who serves his country best,” and declaring also, referring to the contested election, that the general acceptance of the settlement by the two great parties of a dispute, “in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the law, no less than as to the proper course to be pursued in solving the question in controversy,” was an “occasion for general rejoicing.” The cabinet that he appointed consisted of William M. Evarts, Secretary of State; John Sherman, secretary of the treasury; George W. McCrary, Secretary of War; Richard W. Thompson, Secretary of the Navy; David M. Key, postmaster-general; Charles Devens, Attorney-General; and Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior. The administration began under very unfavorable circumstances, as general business stagnation and severe distress had prevailed throughout the country since the crash of 1873. As soon as the cabinet was organized, the new president addressed himself to the composition of difficulties in several southern states. He had given evidence of his conciliatory disposition by taking into his cabinet a prominent citizen of the south who had been an officer in the Confederate Army and had actively opposed his election. In both South Carolina and Louisiana there were two sets of state officers and two legislatures, one Republican and the other Democratic, each claiming to have been elected by a majority of the popular vote. The presence of Federal troops at or near the respective state-houses had so far told in favor of the Republican claimants, while the Democratic claimants had the preponderance of support from the citizens of substance and influence. President Hayes was resolved that the upholding of local governments in the southern states by the armed forces of the United States must come to an end, and that, therefore, the Federal troops should be withdrawn from the position they then occupied; but he was at the same time anxious to have the change effected without any disturbance of the peace, and without imperilling the security or rights of any class of citizens. His plan was by conciliatory measures to put an end to the lawless commotions and distracting excitements that, ever since the close of the war, had kept a large part of the south in constant turmoil, and thus to open to that section a new career of peace and prosperity. He obtained from the southern leaders in Congress assurances that they would use their whole influence for the maintenance of good order and the protection of the rights and security of all, and for a union of the people in a natural understanding that, as to their former antagonisms, by-gones should be treated as by-gones. To the same end he invited the rival governors of South Carolina, Daniel H. Chamberlain and Wade Hampton, to meet him in conference at Washington; and he appointed a commission composed of eminent gentlemen, Democrats as well as Republicans — General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut; Charles B. Lawrence, of Illinois; John M. Harlan, of Kentucky; Ex-Governor John C. Brown, of Tennessee; and Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania — to go to Louisiana and there to ascertain what were “the real impediments to regular, loyal, and peaceful procedures under the laws and constitution of Louisiana,” and further, by conciliatory influences, to endeavor to remove “the obstacles to an acknowledgment of one government within the state,” or, if that were found impracticable, at least “to accomplish the recognition of a single legislature as the depositary of the representative will of the people of Louisiana.” The two rival governors — S. B. Packard, Republican, and Francis T. Nichols, Democrat — stoutly maintained their respective claims; but the two legislatures united into one, a majority of the members of both houses, whose election was conceded on both sides, meeting and organizing under the auspices of the Nichols government. President Hayes, having received the necessary assurances of peace and goodwill, issued instructions to withdraw the troops of the United States from the state-house of South Carolina on 10 April, 1877, and from the state-house of Louisiana on 20 April, 1877, whereupon in South Carolina the state government passed peaceably into the hands of Wade Hampton, and in Louisiana into those of Francis T. Nichols. The course thus pursued by President Hayes was, in the north as well as in the south, heartily approved by a large majority of the people, to whom the many scandals springing from the interference of the general government in the internal affairs of the southern states had become very obnoxious, and who desired the southern states to be permitted to work out their own salvation. But this policy was also calculated to loosen the hold that the Republican Party had upon the southern states, and was therefore severely criticised by many Republican politicians.
President Hayes began his administration with earnest efforts for the reform of the civil service. In some of the departments competitive examinations were resumed for the appointment of clerks. In filling other offices, political influence found much less regard than had been the custom before. The pretension of senators and representatives that the “patronage” in their respective states and districts belonged to them was not recognized, although in many cases their advice was taken. The president's appointments were generally approved by public opinion, but he was blamed for appointing persons connected with the Louisiana returning-board. On 26 May, 1877, he addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, expressing the wish “that the collection of the revenues should be free from partisan control, and organized on a strictly business basis, with the same guarantees for efficiency and fidelity in the selection of the chief and subordinate officers that would be required by a prudent merchant,” and that “party leaders should have no more influence in appointments than other equally respectable citizens.” On 22 June, 1877, he issued the following executive order: “No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. Their right to vote or to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties. No assessment for political purposes, on officers or subordinates, should be allowed. This rule is applicable to every department of the civil service. It should be understood by every officer of the general government that he is expected to conform his conduct to its requirements.” The policy thus indicated found much favor with the people generally, and not a few men in public life heartily approved of it. But the bulk of the professional politicians, who saw themselves threatened in their livelihood, and many members of Congress, who looked upon government patronage as a part of their perquisites, and the distribution of offices among their adherents as the means by which to hold the party together and to maintain themselves in public office, became seriously alarmed and began a systematic warfare upon the president and his cabinet.
The administration was from the beginning surrounded with a variety of difficulties. Congress had adjourned on 3 March, 1877, without making the necessary appropriations for the support of the army, so that from 30 June the army would remain without pay until new provision could be made. The president, therefore, on 5 May, 1877, called an extra session of Congress to meet on 15 October But in the meantime a part of the army was needed for active service of a peculiarly trying kind. In July strikes broke out among the men employed upon railroads, beginning on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and then rapidly spreading over a large part of the northern states. It is estimated that at one time more than 100,000 men were out. Grave disorders occurred, and the president found himself appealed to by the governors of West Virginia, of Maryland, and of Pennsylvania to aid them with the Federal power in suppressing domestic violence, which the authorities of their respective states were not able to master. He issued his proclamations on 18, 21, and 23 July, and sent into the above-mentioned states such detachments of the Federal Army as were available. Other detachments were ordered to Chicago. Whenever the troops of the United States appeared, however small the force, they succeeded in restoring order without bloodshed — in fact, without meeting with any resistance, while the state militia in many instances had bloody encounters with the rioters, sometimes with doubtful result.
In his first annual message, 3 December, 1877, President Hayes congratulated the country upon the results of the policy he had followed with regard to the south. He said: “All apprehension of danger from remitting those states to local self-government is dispelled, and a most salutary change in the minds of the people has begun and is in progress in every part of that section of the country once the theatre of unhappy civil strife; substituting for suspicion, distrust, and aversion, concord, friendship, and patriotic attachment to the Union. No unprejudiced mind will deny that the terrible and often fatal collisions which for several years have been of frequent occurrence, and have agitated and alarmed the public mind, have almost entirely ceased, and that a spirit of mutual forbearance and hearty national interest has succeeded. There has been a general re-establishment of order, and of the orderly administration of justice; instances of remaining lawlessness have become of rare occurrence; political turmoil and turbulence have disappeared; useful industries have been resumed; public credit in the southern states has been greatly strengthened and the encouraging benefit of a revival of commerce between the sections of country lately embroiled in Civil War are fully enjoyed.” He also strongly urged the resumption of specie payments. As to the difficulties to be met in this respect he said: “I must adhere to my most earnest conviction that any wavering in purpose or unsteadiness in methods, so far from avoiding or reducing the inconvenience inseparable from the transition from an irredeemable to a redeemable paper currency, would only tend to increased and prolonged disturbance in values, and, unless retrieved, must end in serious disorder, dishonor, and disaster in the financial affairs of the government and of the people.” As to the restoration of silver as a legal tender, which was at the time being agitated, he insisted that “all the bonds issued since 12 February, 1873, when gold became the only unlimited legal-tender metallic currency of the country, are justly payable in gold coin, or in coin of equal value”; and that “the bonds issued prior to 1873 were issued at a time when the gold dollar was the only coin in circulation or contemplated by either the government or the holders of the bonds as the coin in which they were to be paid.” He added: “It is far better to pay these bonds in that coin than to seem to take advantage of the unforeseen fall in silver bullion to pay in a new issue of silver coin thus made so much less valuable. The power of the United States to coin money and to regulate the value thereof ought never to be exercised for the purpose of enabling the government to pay its obligations in a coin of less value than that contemplated by the parties when the bonds were issued.” He favored the coinage of silver, but only in a limited quantity, as a legal tender to a limited amount. He expressed the fear “that only mischief and misfortune would flow from a coinage of silver dollars with the quality of unlimited legal tender, even in private transactions. Any expectation of temporary ease from an issue of silver coinage to pass as a legal tender, at a rate materially above its commercial value, is, I am persuaded, a delusion.” As to the reform of the civil service, he reiterated what he had said in his letter of acceptance and inaugural address, and insisted that the constitution imposed upon the executive the sole duty and responsibility of the selection of Federal officers who, by law, are appointed, not elected; he deprecated the practical confusion, in this respect, of the duties assigned to the several departments of the government, and earnestly recommended that Congress make a suitable appropriation for the civil-service commission, to be made immediately available. He also recommended efficient legislation for the work of civilization among the Indian tribes, and for the prevention of the destruction of the forests on lands of the United States.
The recommendations thus made by President Hayes were not heeded by Congress. No appropriation was made for the civil-service commission: on the contrary, the dissatisfaction of Republican senators and representatives with the endeavors of the administration in the direction of civil-service reform found vent in various attacks upon the president and the heads of departments. The nomination of one of the foremost citizens of New York for the office of collector of customs at that port was rejected by the Senate. The efforts of the administration to check depredations on the timber-lands of the United States, and to prevent the destruction of the forests, were denounced as an outlandish policy. Instead of facilitating the resumption of specie payments, the House of Representatives passed a bill substantially repealing the resumption act. A resolution was offered by a Republican senator, and adopted by the Senate, declaring that to restore the coinage of 412½-grain silver dollars and to pay the government bonds, principal and interest, in such silver coin, was “not in violation of the public faith, nor in derogation of the rights of the public creditor.” A “silver bill” passed both houses providing that a silver dollar should be coined at the several mints of the United States, of the weight of 412½ grains, which, together with all silver dollars of like weight and fineness coined theretofore by the United States, should be a full legal tender for all debts and dues, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, and directing the secretary of the treasury to buy not less than two million dollars' worth of silver a month, and cause it to be coined into dollars as fast as purchased. President Hayes returned this bill with his veto, mainly on the ground that the commercial value of the silver dollar was then worth eight to ten per cent. less than its nominal value, and that its use as a legal tender for the payment of pre-existing debts would be an act of bad faith. He said: “As to all debts heretofore contracted, the silver dollar should be made a legal tender only at its market value. The standard of value should not be changed without the consent of both parties to the contract. National promises should be kept with unflinching fidelity. There is no power to compel a nation to pay its just debts. Its credit depends on its honor. A nation owes what it has led or allowed its creditors to expect. I cannot approve a bill which in my judgment authorizes the violation of sacred obligations.” But the bill was passed over the veto in both houses by majorities exceeding two thirds. During the same session the House of Representatives, which had a Democratic majority, on motion of Clarkson N. Potter, of New York, resolved to institute an inquiry into the allegations of fraud said to have been committed in Louisiana and Florida in making the returns of the votes cast for presidential electors at the election of 1876. The Republicans charged that the investigation was set on foot for the purpose of ousting Mr. Hayes from the presidency and putting in Mr. Tilden. The Democrats disclaimed any such intention. The result of the investigation was an elaborate report from the Democratic majority of the committee, impugning the action of the returning boards in Louisiana and Florida as fraudulent, and a report from the Republican minority dissenting from the conclusions of the majority as unwarranted by the evidence, and alleging that the famous “cipher despatches” sent to the south by friends of Mr. Tilden showed “that the charges of corruption were but the slanders of foiled suborners of corruption.” The investigation led to no further action; the people generally acquiescing in the decision of the electoral commission, and the counting of the electoral vote by Congress based thereon, as irreversible.
President Hayes was again obliged to resort to the employment of force by the outbreak of serious disturbances caused by bands of desperadoes in the territory of New Mexico, which amounted to organized resistance to the enforcement of the laws. He issued, on 7 October, 1878, a proclamation substantially putting the disturbed portion of New Mexico under martial law, and directing the U. S. Military forces stationed there to restore and maintain peace and order.
In his message of 2 December, 1878, President Hayes found himself obliged to say that in Louisiana and South Carolina, and in some districts outside of those states, “the records of the recent [Congressional] elections compelled the conclusion that the rights of the colored voters had been overridden, and their participation in the elections not been permitted to be either general or free.” He added that, while it would be for Congress to examine into the validity of the claims of members to their seats, it became the duty of the executive and judicial departments of the government to inquire into and punish violations of the laws, and that every means in his power would be exerted to that end. At the same time he expressed his “absolute assurance that, while the country had not yet reached complete unity of feeling and confidence between the communities so lately and so seriously estranged, the tendencies were in that direction, and with increasing force.” He deprecated all interference by Congress with existing financial legislation, with the confident expectation that the resumption of specie payments would be “successfully and easily maintained,” and would be “followed by a healthful and enduring revival of business prosperity.” On 1 January, 1879, the resumption act went into operation without any difficulty. No preparation had been made for that event until the beginning of the Hayes administration. The Secretary of the Treasury, in 1877, began to accumulate coin, and, notwithstanding the opposition it found, even among Republicans, this policy was firmly pursued by the administration until the coin reserve held against the legal-tender notes was sufficient to meet all probable demands. Thus the country was lifted out of the bog of an irredeemable paper currency. The operation was facilitated by increased exports and a general revival of business. Although his first nominee for the office of collector of customs in New York had been rejected by the Senate, President Hayes made a second nomination for the same place, as well as for that of naval officer of the same port, and in a special message addressed to the Senate on 31 January, 1879, he gave the following reasons for the suspension of the incumbents, Chester A. Arthur and Alonzo B. Cornell, who had failed to conform their conduct to the executive order of 22 June, 1877: “For a long period of time it [the New York custom-house] has been used to manage and control political affairs. The officers suspended by me are, and for several years have been, engaged in the active personal management of the party politics of the city and state of New York. The duties of the offices held by them have been regarded as of subordinate importance to their partisan work. Their offices have been conducted as part of the political machinery under their control. They have made the custom-house a centre of partisan political management.” [For the other side of this disputed question, see Arthur, Chester Alan, vol. i., pp. 100, 101.] For like reasons, President Hayes moved an influential party manager in the west, the postmaster of St. Louis. With the aid of Democratic votes in the Senate, the new nominations were confirmed. President Hayes then addressed a letter to the new collector of customs at New York, General Edwin A. Merritt, instructing him to conduct his office “on strictly business principles, and according to the rules which were adopted, on the recommendation of the civil-service commission, by the administration of General Grant.” He added: “Neither my recommendation, nor that of the Secretary of the Treasury, nor the recommendation of any member of Congress, or other influential person, should be specially regarded. Let appointments and removals be made on business principles, and by fixed rules.” Thus the system of competitive examinations, which under the preceding administration had been abandoned upon the failure of Congress to make appropriations for the civil-service commission, was, by direction of President Hayes, restored in the custom-house of New York. A like system was introduced in the New York post-office under the postmaster, Thomas L. James.
Congress passed a bill “to restrict the immigration of Chinese to the United States,” requiring the president immediately to give notice to the government of China of the abrogation of certain articles of the treaty of 1858 between the United States and China, which recognized “the inherent and inalienable right of a man to change his home and allegiance,” and provided that “the citizens of the United States visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, or exemptions, in respect to travel or residence, as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation,” and reciprocally that Chinese subjects should enjoy the same advantages in the United States. The bill further limited the number of Chinese passengers that might be brought to this country by any one vessel to fifteen. President Hayes, on 1 March, 1879, returned the bill to Congress with his veto. While recognizing some of the difficulties created by the immigration of the Chinese as worthy of consideration, he objected to the bill mainly on the ground that it was inconsistent with existing treaty relations between the United States and China; that a treaty could be abrogated or modified by the treaty-making power, and not, under the constitution, by act of Congress; and that “the abrogation of a treaty by one of the contracting parties is justifiable only upon reasons both of the highest justice and of the highest necessity”; and “to do this without notice, without fixing a day in advance when the act shall take effect, without affording an opportunity to China to be heard, and without the happening of any grave unforeseen emergency, would be regarded by the enlightened judgment of mankind as the denial of the obligation of the national faith.”
The 45th Congress adjourned on 4 March, 1879, without making the usual and necessary appropriations for the expenses of the government. The house, controlled by a Democratic majority, attached to the Army appropriation bill a legislative provision substantially repealing a law passed in 1865, under President Lincoln, which permitted the use of troops “to keep the peace at the polls” on election-days. The house also attached to the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill a repeal of existing laws providing for the appointment of supervisors of election and special deputy marshals to act at elections of members of Congress. The Republican majority of the Senate struck out these legislative provisions, and, the two houses disagreeing, the appropriation bills failed. President Hayes, on 4 March, 1879, called an extra session of Congress to meet on 18 March. The Democrats then had a majority in the Senate as well as in the house, and attached to the Army appropriation bill the same legislative provision on which in the preceding Congress the two houses had disagreed. President Hayes returned the bill with his veto on 29 April, 1879. He took the ground that there was ample legislation to prevent military interference at elections; that there never had been any such interference since the passage of the act of 1865, and was no danger of any; that if the proposed legislation should become law, there would be no power vested in any officer of the government to protect from violence the officers of the United States engaged in the discharge of their duties; that the states may employ both military and civil power to keep the peace, and to enforce the laws at state elections, but that it was now proposed to deny to the United States even the necessary civil authority to protect the national elections. He pointed out also that the tacking of legislative provisions to appropriation bills was a practice calculated to be used as a means of coercion as to the other branches of the government, and to make the House of Representatives a despotic power. Congress then passed the Army appropriation bill without the obnoxious clause, but containing the provision that no money appropriated should be paid for the subsistence, equipment, transportation, or compensation of any portion of the army of the United States “to be used as a police force to keep the peace at the polls at any election held within any state.” This President Hayes approved. The two houses then passed a separate bill, substantially embodying the provision objected to by the president in the vetoed Army-appropriation bill. This “act to prohibit military interference at elections” President Hayes returned with his veto. He said: “The true rule as to the employment of military force at the elections is not doubtful. No intimidation or coercion should be allowed to influence citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, whether it appears in the shape of combinations of evil-disposed persons, or of armed bodies of the militia of a state, or of the military force of the United States. The elections should be free from all forcible interference, and, as far as practicable, from all apprehension of such interference. No soldiery, either of the United States or of the state militia, should be present at the polls to perform the duties of the ordinary civil police force. There has been and will be no violation of this rule under orders from me during this administration. That there should be no denial of the right of the national government to employ its military force on any day and at any place in case such employment is necessary to enforce the constitution and laws of the United States.” The legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill passed by Congress contained a legislative provision not, indeed, abolishing the supervisors of election, but divesting the government of the power to protect them, or to prevent interference with their duties, or to punish any violation of the law from which their power was derived. President Hayes returned this bill also with his veto, referring to his preceding veto message as to the impropriety of tacking general legislation to appropriation bills. He further pointed out that, in the various legal proceedings under the law sought to be repealed, its constitutionality had never been questioned; and that the necessity of such a law had been amply demonstrated by the great election frauds in New York City in 1868. He added: “The great body of the people of all parties want free and fair elections. They do not think that a free election means freedom from the wholesome restraints of law, or that the place of an election should be a sanctuary for lawlessness and crime.” If any oppression, any partisan partiality, had been shown in the execution of the existing law, he added, efficient correctives of the mischief should be applied; but as no congressional election was immediately impending, the matter might properly be referred to the regular session of Congress.
In a bill “making appropriations for certain judicial expenses,” passed by Congress, it was attempted not to repeal the election laws, but to make their enforcement impossible by prohibiting the payment of any salaries, fees, or expenses under or in virtue of them, and providing also that no contract should be made, and no liability incurred, under any of their provisions. President Hayes vetoed this bill, 23 June, 1879, on the ground that as no bill repealing the election laws had been passed over his veto, those laws were still in existence, and the present bill, if it became a law, would make it impossible for the executive to perform his constitutional duty to see to it that the laws be faithfully executed. On the same ground the president returned with his veto a bill making appropriations to pay fees of United States marshals and their general deputies, in which the same attempt was made to defeat the execution of the election laws by withholding the necessary funds as well as the power to incur liabilities under them. All the appropriation bills were passed without the obnoxious provisions except the last. President Hayes appealed to Congress in a special message on 30 June, 1879, the end of the fiscal year, not to permit the marshals and their general deputies, officers so necessary to the administration of justice, to go unprovided for, but in vain. The Attorney-General then admonished the marshals to continue in the performance of their duties, and to rely upon future legislation by Congress, which would be just to them.
In his annual message of 1 December, 1879, President Hayes found occasion to congratulate the country upon the successful resumption of specie payments and upon “a very great revival of business.” He announced a most gratifying reduction of the interest on the public debt by refunding at lower rates. He strongly urged Congress to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to suspend the silver coinage, as the cheaper coin, if forced into circulation, would eventually become the sole standard of value. He also recommended the retirement of United States notes with the capacity of legal tender in private contracts, it being his “firm conviction that the issue of legal-tender paper money based wholly upon the authority and credit of the government, except in extreme emergency, is without warrant in the constitution, and a violation of sound financial principles.” He recommended a vigorous enforcement of the laws against polygamy in the territory of Utah. He presented a strong argument in favor of civil-service reform, pointed out the successful trial of the competitive system in the interior department, the post-office department, and the post-office and the custom-house in New York, and once more earnestly urged that an appropriation be made for the civil-service commission, and that those in the public service be protected by law against exactions in the pay of party assessments. But these recommendations remained without effect.
On 12 February, 1880, President Hayes issued a second proclamation — the first having been issued in April, 1879 — against the attempts made by lawless persons to possess themselves for settlement of lands within the Indian territory, and effective measures were taken to expel the invaders. On 8 March, 1880, he sent to the House of Representatives a special message communicating correspondence in relation to the interoceanic canal, which had passed between the American and foreign governments, and expressing his own opinion on the subject as follows: “The policy of this country is a canal under American control. The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power, or to any combination of European powers. If existing treaties between the United States and other nations, or if the rights of sovereignty or property of other nations, stand in the way of this policy — a contingency which is not apprehended — suitable steps should be taken by just and liberal negotiations to promote and establish the American policy on this subject, consistently with the rights of the nations to be affected by it. An interoceanic canal across the American isthmus will be the great ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the coast-line of the United States. No other great power would, under similar circumstances, fail to assert a rightful control over a work so closely and vitally affecting its interest and welfare.” Congress passed a deficiency appropriation bill, which contained provisions materially changing, and, by implication, repealing certain important parts of the election laws. President Hayes, on 4 May, 1880, returned the bill with his veto, whereupon Congress made the appropriation without re-enacting the obnoxious clauses.
In November, 1880, was held the election that put James A. Garfield into the presidential chair and proved conclusively that the Republican Party had gained largely in the confidence of the public during the Hayes administration. In his last annual message, 6 December, 1880, President Hayes again mentioned the occurrence of election disorders in a part of the Union, and the necessity of their repression and correction, but declared himself satisfied, at the same time, that the evil was diminishing. Again he argued in favor of civil-service reform, especially competitive examinations, which had been conducted with great success in some of the executive departments and adopted by his direction in the larger custom-houses and post-offices. He reiterated his recommendation of an appropriation for the civil-service commission, and of a law against political assessments. He also, to stop the interference of members of Congress with the civil service, suggested that an act be passed “defining the relations of members of Congress with regard to appointments to office by the president,” and that the tenure-of-office act be repealed. He recommended “that Congress provide for the government of Utah by a governor and judges, or commissioners, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate — a government analogous to the provisional government established for the territory northwest of the Ohio, by the ordinance of 1787,” dispensing with an elected territorial legislature. He announced that on 17 November two treaties had been signed at Peking by the commissioners of the United States and the plenipotentiaries of the emperor of China — one purely commercial, and the other authorizing the government of the United States, whenever the immigration of Chinese laborers threatened to affect the interests of the country, to regulate, limit, or suspend such immigration, but not altogether to prohibit it, said government at the same time promising to secure to Chinese permanently or temporarily residing in the United States the same protection and rights as to citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. President Hayes further suggested the importance of making provision for regular steam postal communication with the Central and South American states; he recommended that Congress, by suitable legislation and with proper safeguards, supplement the local educational funds in the several states where the grave duties and responsibilities of citizenship have been devolved upon uneducated people, by devoting to the purpose grants of lands, and, if necessary, by appropriations from the treasury of the United States; he repeated his recommendations as to the suspension of the silver coinage, and as to the retirement from circulation of the United States notes, and added one that provision be made by law to put General Grant upon the retired list of the army, with rank and pay befitting the great services he had rendered to the country.
On 1 February, 1880, he addressed a special message to Congress in relation to the Ponca Indians, in which he pointed out the principles that should guide our Indian policy: preparation for citizenship by industrial and general education; allotment of land in severalty, inalienable for a certain period; fair compensation for Indian lands not required for allotment; and, finally, investment of the Indians, so educated and provided for, with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. His last communication to Congress, 3 March, 1881, was a message returning with his veto a bill “to facilitate the refunding of the national debt,” which contained a provision seriously impairing the value and tending to the destruction of the national banking system. On the following day he assisted at the inauguration of his successor.
The administration of President Hayes, although much attacked by the politicians of both parties, was on the whole very satisfactory to the people at large. By withdrawing the Federal troops from the southern state-houses, and restoring to the people of those states practical self-government, it prepared the way for that revival of patriotism among those lately estranged from the Union, that fraternal feeling between the two sections of the country, and the wonderful material advancement of the south which we now witness. It conducted with wisdom and firmness the preparations for the resumption of specie payments, as well as the funding of the public debt at lower rates of interest, and thus facilitated the development of the remarkable business prosperity that continued to its close. While in its endeavors to effect a thorough and permanent reform of the civil service there were conspicuous lapses and inconsistencies, it accomplished important and lasting results. Not only without any appropriations of money and without encouragement of any kind from Congress, but in the face of the decided hostility of a large majority of its members, the system of competitive examinations was successfully applied in some of the executive departments at Washington and in the great government offices at New York, thus proving its practicability and usefulness. The removal by President Hayes of some of the most powerful party managers from their offices, avowedly on the ground that the offices had been used as part of the political machinery, was an act of high courage, and during his administration there was far less meddling with party politics on the part of officers of the government than at any period since Andrew Jackson's time. The success of the Republican Party in the election of 1880 was largely owing to the general satisfaction among the people with the Hayes administration.
On the expiration of his term, ex-President Hayes retired to his home at Fremont, Ohio. He was the recipient of various distinctions. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Kenyon College, Harvard University, Yale College, and Johns Hopkins University. He was made senior vice-commander of the military order of the Loyal legion, commander of the Ohio commandery of the same order, the first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia, and president of the 23d Regiment Ohio Volunteers association. Much of his time is devoted to benevolent and useful enterprises. He is president of the trustees of the John F. Slater education-fund, one of the trustees of the Peabody education-fund, president of the National prison-reform association, an active member of the National conference of corrections and charities, a trustee of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, of the Wesleyan University of Delaware, Ohio, of Mount Union College, at Alliance, Ohio, and of several other charitable and educational institutions. On the occasion of a meeting of the National prison-reform association, held at Atlanta, Georgia, in November, 1886, he was received with much popular enthusiasm, and greeted by an ex-governor of Georgia as one to whom, more than to any other, the people were indebted for the era of peace and union which they now enjoyed, and by the present governor, John B. Gordon, as the man who had “made a true and noble effort to complete the restoration of the Union by restoring fraternal feeling between the estranged sections.” See “Life, Public Services, and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes,” by James Quay Howard (Cincinnati, 1876). Campaign lives were also written by William D. Howells (New York, 1876) and Russell H. Conwell (Boston, 1876). — His wife, Lucy Ware Webb, born in Chillicothe, Ohio, 28 August, 1831; died in Fremont, Ohio, 25 June, 1889. She was the daughter of a physician, and married in 1852. Of eight children, four sons and one daughter are living. Mrs. Hayes was noted for her devotion to the wounded soldiers during the war. She refused to permit wine to be served on the White House table, and for this innovation incurred much censure in some political circles, but received high praise from the advocates of total abstinence, who, on the expiration of her husband's term of office, presented her with various testimonials, including an album filled with autograph expressions of approval from many prominent persons. Appleton’s 1888, 1892 pp. 134-143.
Hecker, Friedrich Karl Franz
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HECKER, Friedrich Karl Franz, German revolutionist, born in Eichtersheim, Baden, 28 September, 1811; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 24 March, 1881. He went to school in Mannheim, and studied law at Heidelberg. He began practice as an advocate at Mannheim in 1838, entered politics, and was elected to the Baden assembly in 1842. His expulsion from the Prussian dominions, while upon a visit to Berlin with Itzstein in 1845, made his name known in all German lands. In 1846-7 he was the leader of the extreme left in the Baden diet. His energy and eloquence made him popular, and he was carried by the drift of the age toward Republicanism, until he took ground with Struve as a Republican and Socialist-Democrat when the arrangements for a German parliament were under discussion. His political plans having been rejected by the majority of the constituent assembly, he appealed to the masses. Appearing at the head of columns of working-men, he unfolded the banner of the social republic, and advanced into the highlands of Baden from Constance. He was beaten by the Baden soldiery at Kaudern, 20 May, 1848, and retreated into Switzerland. There he learned that the national assembly, which had met meanwhile at Frankfort, had denounced him as a traitor. His hopes of a revolution having been dashed, with the prospect of a felon's death before him if he remained, he fled to the United States in September. The following year, at the news of the May revolution, he returned to Germany, but arrived after the rising had been suppressed. Hecker recrossed the Atlantic, became a citizen of the United States, and settled as a fanner in Belleville, Illinois. Like others of the German revolutionists, he took part in American politics, but did not make a new career for himself. He refused brilliant diplomatic positions, feeling an honorable reluctance to accept a personal gain in requital for the services he performed for the party to which he attached himself. The anti-slavery cause awakened the enthusiasm of his nature, and to the end of his life he was a powerful speaker on the Republican side. He joined the Republican Party on its formation, and in the Civil War led a regiment of volunteers in Fremont's division of the National Army. He resigned his colonelcy in 1864, and devoted himself thenceforth to agricultural occupations. During the Franco-German War he uttered words of hope and sympathy for the German cause, but, after visiting Germany in 1873, he expressed disappointment at the actual political condition. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 156.
Henderson, John Brooks, 1826-1913, lawyer. U.S. Senator from Missouri. Appointed senator in 1863. Member of the Democrat, Unionist, and Republican Party. Co-authored and voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 163-164; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 527; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 569; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HENDERSON, John Brooks, senator, born near Danville, Virginia, 16 November, 1826. He moved with his parents to Missouri in 1836, spent his early years on a farm, and taught while receiving his education. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and in that year and 1856 was elected to the legislature, originating the state railroad and banking laws in 1857. He was a presidential elector in 1856 and 1860, and opposed Pierce's administration after the president’s message on the Kansas question. Mr. Henderson was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic Convention of 1860, and to the State Convention of 1861 to determine whether Missouri should secede. In June. 1861, he equipped a regiment of state militia, which he commanded for a time. On the expulsion of Trusten Polk from the U. S. Senate, in 1862, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in 1863 was elected for the full term ending in 1869, serving as chairman on the committee on Indian affairs. He was one of the seven Republican senators whose votes defeated the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He was a commissioner to treat with hostile tribes of Indians in 1867, and in 1875 was appointed assistant U. S. District attorney to prosecute men that were accused of evading the revenue laws, but reflected on President Grant in one of his arguments and was HH Gen, from this office.— His wife, Mary Foote, author, born in New York about 1835, is a daughter of Judge Elisha Foote (q. v.). She was married to Mr. Henderson in Washington, D. C, moved with him to St. Louis, Missouri, and has taken a wide interest in woman's suffrage, serving as president of the State suffrage Association in 1876. In that year she organized in St. Louis the School of Design, or Industrial Art-School, and in 1879 the Woman's Exchange. From 1881 till 1885 she studied art in the Washington University, St. Louis. She has published "Practical Cooking and Dinner-Giving" (New York, 1876), and "Diet for the Sick " (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 163-164.
Hitchcock, Phineas Warrener
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HITCHCOCK, Phineas Warrener, senator, born in New Lebanon, New York, 30 November, 1831; died in Omaha, Nebraska, 10 July, 1881. He was graduated at Williams in 1855, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and settled in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1857. He was a member of the National Republican Convention that nominated Lincoln for president in 1860. In 1861 he was appointed marshal of the territory, holding office until his election as delegate to Congress, as a Republican, in 1864. He was a member of the national committee appointed to accompany the remains of President Lincoln to Illinois. On the organization of Nebraska as a state in March, 1867, he was appointed surveyor-general, held office two years, and in 1870 was elected to the United States Senate, serving till 1877, and, failing of re-election, retired to private life. Mr. Hitchcock was the author of the timber-culture laws, which have done so much to put forest-trees on western prairies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 218.
Hooper, Samuel, 1808-1875, merchant. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Elected in 1860, served until his death in 1875. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 252; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 203; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 144; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HOOPER, Samuel, merchant, born in Marblehead. Massachusetts. 3 February, 1808; died in Washington, D. C, 13 February, 1875. After receiving a common-school education he entered at an early age the counting house of his father, who was engaged in European and West Indian trade. As agent of this enterprise the son visited Russia, Spain, and the West Indies. About 1832 he became junior partner in the mercantile house of Bryant, Sturgis, and Company, in Boston, where he remained for ten years, and then was a member of the firm of William Appleton and Company, who were engaged in the China trade. He was much interested in the iron business and its relation to questions of political economy, and possessed shares in the mines and furnaces near Port Henry, Lake Champlain, and in the Bay-State Rolling-Mills, South Boston. In 1851 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served three years, declining a re-election, and in 1857 became state senator, but refused a renomination on account of his business enterprises. In 1860 he was elected to Congress, as a Republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Appleton, and was re-elected at each successive biennial election until his death. He served on the committees on Ways and Means, on Banking and Currency, and on the war debts of the loyal states. The success of the national loan of April, 1861, was greatly due to his efforts. In 1869 Chief-Justice Chase wrote a letter attributing the success of the bill that provided for the national banking system to the "good judgment, persevering exertions, and disinterested patriotism of Mr. Hooper." In 1866 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention. He presented $50,000 to Harvard, in 1866, to found a school of mining and practical geology in close connection with the Lawrence scientific school, and in that year received the degree of M. A. from the university. He wrote two pamphlets on currency, which became well known for their broad and comprehensive treatment of this subject. His house in Washington, which was noted for its hospitality, was the headquarters of General George B. McClellan in 1861-2. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 252.
Howard, Jacob Merritt
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HOWARD, Jacob Merritt, senator, born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, 10 July, 1805; died in Detroit, Michigan, 2 April, 1871. By teaching he gained the means of obtaining an education at Williams College, where he was graduated in 1830. Moving to Detroit, Michigan, in 1832, he studied law, was admitted to the bar the next year, and was a member of the legislature in 1838. In 1840 he was elected to Congress, serving from 1841 till 1843, and in 1854-'8 was Attorney-General of Michigan. In 1854 Mr. Howard drew up the platform of the first convention ever held by the Republican Party, and is accredited with giving the party its name, he was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1862, as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of Kinsley S. Bingham, deceased, was re-elected in 1865, and served until 3 March, 1871. During his term as senator he was chairman of the Ordnance Committee. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalist Convention of 1866, and in that year Williams gave him the degree of LL. D. He published a "Translation from the French of the Secret Memoirs of the Empress Josephine " (New York, 1847). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 277.
Howard, William Alanson
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HOWARD, William Alanson, lawyer, born in Hinesburg, Chittenden County, Vermont, 8 April. 1813; died in Washington, D. C., 10 April, 1880. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to the cabinetmaker's trade at Albion, New York. He remained there four years, and in 1832 entered an academy at Wyoming, where he studied three years, and in 1839 was graduated from Middlebury. In 1840 he became tutor of mathematics in the Michigan University, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Detroit in 1842. He was elected a representative in Congress from Michigan for three successive terms, serving from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1861. While in the House of Representatives he took a decided stand in opposition to slavery. In 1861 he was appointed postmaster at Detroit, and in 1869 declined an appointment as minister to China. He was a delegate to the National Republican Conventions of 1868, 1872, and 1876. In 1869 he was appointed land-commissioner of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway, and in 1872 of the Northern Pacific. He was appointed governor of Dakota Territory in 1878, and spent the remainder of his life at Yankton. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 279.
Howell, James B.
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
HOWELL, James B., senator, born near Morristown, New Jersey, 4 July. 1816; died in Keokuk, Iowa, 17 June, 1880. His father, Elias, moved with his family to Ohio in 1819, and, settling in Licking County, was state senator, and in 1830 a member of Congress. James was graduated at Miami University in 1839, and settled in Newark, Ohio. In 1841 he moved to Kosauque, Iowa, practised law, and engaged in politics, and was the editor of the "Des Moines Valley Whig." In 1849 he moved with his paper to Keokuk, and abandoning law devoted himself to politics and to his journal, which he now published under the title of the 'Daily Gate City." He was one of the earliest advocates for the formation of the Republican Party in the state, and in 1856 was a delegate from Iowa to the convention that nominated John C. Fremont for president. He supported Abraham Lincoln in the presidential campaign of 1861, and vehemently opposed slavery. In 1870 he was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of James W. Grimes, and served till 3 March, 1871. Shortly after the close of the session of 1871, President Grant selected him as one of the three commissioners that were authorized by the act of 3 March, 1871, to examine and report on claims for stores and supplies that had been taken or furnished for the use of the National Army in the seceded states. He was engaged in this work until 10 March, 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284-285.
Hussey, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad. Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840. Co-founder of the Republican Party. Member of the Free-Soil and Liberty Parties. (Dumond, 1961, p. 339)
