biography
| name: |
Hayes, Rutherford B(irchard)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1822–93)
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| biography:
| US statesman and 19th president (1877–81), born in Delaware, Ohio, USA. After graduating from Ohio's Kenyon College (1842) and attending Harvard Law School (1845), he practised law in Cincinnati. He took a military commission at the beginning of the Civil War, in which he served with modest distinction. In 1864 he won a seat in the US House of Representatives as a Republican, but did not take it until after the end of the Civil War (1865–7). He became governor of Ohio (1868–76), but resigned to run for president against Samuel J Tilden (1876). The election was so close that a special commission had to decide the issue; the outcome in favour of Hayes was apparently due to the commission's Republican majority and promises to Southern Democrats to restore power to the whites. He proved to be a competent and mildly reformist president, but alienated many supporters by insisting on ending patronage appointments and by pursuing civil service reform. Having pledged not to seek re-election, he left office in 1881, and his later years were devoted to humanitarian and reform efforts. |
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