Rutherford B. Hayes

Abstract

Despite his troubled election that brought jeers of “Your Fraudulency,” or “President RutherFRAUD B. Hayes,” undoubtedly Hayes was a man of integrity and ability. He worked vigorously to protect his office, battling Congress on appointments, and won. He sought to conciliate the South, and received assurance from its leaders that they would ensure black rights. In response, he withdrew the few remaining troops of occupation. Southern leaders refused to honor their commitments, and Hayes’s southern policy was a failure. He was naïve, but there was so little support remaining nationally for ensuring civil rights that perhaps no president could been successful at the time. Regardless, he was a strong and vigorous leader, and does not fit the stereotype of the weak Gilded Age president.