By William “Skip” Deegans
According to his diary, Major Rutherford B. Hayes, who would become our nineteenth president, overnighted at Mrs. Bell’s hotel in Lewisburg (now occupied by Greenbrier Real Estate) in December 1863. A graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard Law School, Hayes was a Cincinnati lawyer when the Civil War began. An opponent of slavery, he volunteered to serve in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Although alarmed by the inhumanity he saw in both armies, he served with distinction in the Union Army and rose to major general.
In 1864, Hayes, a Republican, was elected to Congress, and in 1867 he was elected Governor of Ohio. He campaigned on a platform that advocated for African American suffrage. Once elected Governor, he ratified the 15th Amendment in Ohio that gave African Americans voting rights.
In the most contested presidential election in United States history, Hayes was elected president in 1876. He was concerned with the welfare of minorities, the poor and immigrants. He removed the last remaining federal troops from southern states after exacting promises from southern politicians that they would protect the civil rights of African Americans. As President, Hayes initiated civil service reform to end the patronage and corruption of the Grant administration. A strong advocated for public education, he pushed, unsuccessfully, for federal aid for education. He allowed female attorneys to appear for the first time before the United States Supreme Court.
In 1879, after his first two years as president, The Atlantic magazine wrote, “When the nation has outgrown and is ashamed of the fierce sectional temper which now deforms patriotism, hinders perfect union, and vexes liberty; when industry and commerce, nourished by an honest currency, again spread contentment through all our borders; when the public service has ceased, as some time it must cease, to be the spoil of parties, a delivered people will refer with honor and gratitude to the administration of President Hayes as the beginning of the republic’s better day.
Hayes promised he would serve only one term. He stuck to that promise, returned to Ohio, and continued to fight for the rights of African-Americans. He died in 1893 at the age of 70.
Sources: West Virginia Daily News, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library, PBS, The Atlantic.
