Rutherford B. Hayes

Ari  Hoogenboom:  Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President
Rutherford B. Hayes:  19th President (1877-1881); b. 1822; d. 1893


This book is over 700 pages long, which means is much, much more than you would ever want to read about Rud Hayes.  But there isn't a lot of selection from which to pick Hayes biographies, and this seems like the standard one.  Hoogenboom's books is technically very well executed, and he obviously researched it extensively.  But, at times, it's a little much.  It's illustrative that I finished with a large section of the book devoted to Hayes's presidency and Hoogenboom said (essentially):  and that finished the first years of his presidency.  And I said:  we have THREE MORE YEARS OF THIS!


Hayes actually seems like a decent guy.  He served valiantly in the Civil War and was truly devoted to improving the lives of his fellow citizens.  It kind of sucks that he bowed to pressure from teetotalers and made the white house dry, but it's cool that he never joined a church.


One thing that did strike me about Rud Hayes was that he parallels quite nicely with Barak Obama.  Both came from rather humble origins to attend college and The Harvard Law School.  And as presidents, both were faced with severe difficulties at the start of their terms from members of their own parties who thought that they, rather than the president, should be leading policy discussions.  Later, they faced exceedingly hostile opposition parties with bases among conservative southerners who took control of congress.  And the Democrats in the late 1870s, like the Republicans now, used riders attached to budget bills and other methods of legislative hard ball to try to force strongly ideological legislation on the president.


I think that Hayes actually did a better job that Obama in facing the opposition.  Rather than caving in to get bills past, Hayes just vetoed legislation that he disagreed with.  He had the courage of his convictions and did not back down.  In the end, congress had to back down and they eventually passed legislation that he could sign.  This was a major victory for his administration, and he deserves credit for this--indeed, he really helped preserve the independence and power of the presidency.


Hayes also make significant contributions after his presidency.  His favorite cause was education, and I think that all he did for education at colleges in Ohio and for blacks in the South was truly admirable.  Hoogenboom compares him to Carter, and I think that's fair.



He loses points, however, for abandoning the republican administrations in South Carolina and Louisiana after they did so much to make him president in the most controversial election ever (the election of 1876 makes Bush v. Gore look like smooth sailing).