Rutherford B. Hayes: Middle-of-the-Road

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are talking about Rutherford B.

03Hayes.

04He took office in 1877 and was president during the end of what Americans call Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War.

05Hayes had a public image as an honest, dignified man, and even though he had ideas that were radical at the time, he supported moderate policies and measured change.

06One exception was alcoholic drinks.

07Hayes banned wine and liquor from the White House.

08Before Rutherford Hayes was born, his father died.

09Not too long after that, his older brother died too.

10As a result, Hayes grew up mostly with just his mother and his older sister.

11Later, an uncle helped raise him as well.

12As a boy, Rutherford Hayes was called Rudd.

13He grew up on a farm in Ohio and spent his early years playing with his sister, who taught him to love books.

14Hayes was an excellent student, and in time he attended Kenyon College and Harvard Law School.

15Hayes started his career as a lawyer in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio.

16He did not go into a field that made much money.

17Instead, he defended people who were poor or in difficult situations.

18He also courted the woman he would marry.

19Lucy Webb, like Hayes' mother and sister, strongly influenced the way Hayes thought.

20Hayes' own views at the time were moderate.

21He drank alcohol, but not much.

22He opposed slavery, but he was not an anti-slavery activist.

23His new wife, however, was strongly against alcohol and slavery.

24She was part of social movements at the time to ban alcoholic drinks entirely in the United States.

25And she encouraged Hayes to defend not only the poor in his law business, but also runaway slaves.

26Together, Rutherford and Lucy Hayes formed an equal marriage committed to helping others.

27They were known for being friendly, informal, and welcoming.

28They also went on to have eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood.

29Lucy Webb Hayes said her husband was always calm as a father and took time even when he was president to care for his children.

30Because Hayes had such a positive public image, it is ironic that the contest that elected him president was one of the most hostile in U.S.

31history.

32The full story is complex, but the general story is that Hayes was the Republican candidate candidate, and Samuel Tilden was the Democratic candidate.

33Tilden won more popular votes across the country.

34But in the U.S.

35system, the majority of voters do not choose the president.

36Instead, a few electors in each state cast votes.

37In a way, then, the states choose the president.

38And in the election of 1876, three southern states gave conflicting reports.

39It was not clear whether Tilden or Hayes had won South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

40Even though the election was held in November, the debate over the winner lasted until the following March, days before the new president was to be sworn in.

41One of the most serious accusations was that Democrats in the South had prevented many black men from voting.

42If those men had been able to vote, they almost certainly would have voted for Hayes.

43In the end, a special commission in Congress gave the votes in all three disputed states to Rutherford Hayes.

44His opponents pointed out that the majority of people on the commission were Republicans.

45As a result, they said, the new president had earned his position only because of party politics.

46They called him Rutherford and his fraudulency.

47But in the end, Hayes was widely considered an independent president who operated outside of party loyalties.

48One of Hayes' first acts as president was probably the first president of the House of the House of Representatives.

49The House of Representatives.

50He withdrew federal troops from southern states.

51The troops had been trying to protect the civil and political rights of African Americans.

52But white Democrats disliked the federal government's involvement in their affairs.

53Also, the troops were not very effective.

54So, Hayes said, if southern officials promised to obey the country's laws, protecting all people equally, he would end the federal government's occupation of their states.

55The officials agreed, and the period known as Reconstruction officially ended.

56But as the years went on, the rights of black Americans were increasingly violated.

57As a result, part of Hayes' legacy is one of betrayal.

58His policy permitted systemic violence and racism to continue for decades.

59Another of his important acts was to reform the country's civil service.

60For the most part, members of Congress offered their political allies government jobs with good pay.

61But Hayes sought to change the rules.

62He wanted to give government jobs to the most able workers.

63While his goal was a good one, his action shocked and angered many members of Congress.

64The Democrats especially sought to weaken Hayes' position by removing the president's ability to veto their bills.

65Hayes fought back and won.

66By the second half of his term, Hayes had restored some of Americans' trust in government that had been lost under the two presidents before him, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S.

67Grant.

68He had helped ease the tensions between the North and South.

69He had stabilized the economy.

70He had increased the power of the presidency in a mostly positive way.

71And he had prepared the way for major civil service reform.

72But Hayes is not remembered as an especially great president.

73He is often placed toward the middle, not one of the best and not one of the worst.

74Some historians suggest that Hayes would be better remembered if he had stayed a second term and supervised some of the gains begun in his first years.

75But Hayes had promised that he would serve only one term as president.

76So, true to his word, Hayes did not seek re-election.

77Hayes had always believed that the best way to solve the country's problems was to improve the education system.

78So, in his retirement, Hayes became president of two social welfare organizations.

79One aimed to provide a Christian education to blacks in the South.

80One of the people helped by that organization was the well-known writer and activist W.E.B.

81Du Bois.

82Hayes also led a group aimed at reforming the country's prison system.

83When he was 70 years old, Hayes fell ill.

84Although he had a big heart for children and for helping people, he died of heart failure.

85Afterwards, one of his sons began a new tradition in honor of his father.

86He established the first presidential library.

87I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

88I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

89I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.