Rutherford B. Hayes

a.k.a. Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Author Code: ARBH

Hayes graduated from Kenyon College and Harvard Law School (1843) and practiced law in Cincinnati until the outbreak of the Civil War. He served as a Union general during the war and became a member of Congress in 1865. He served three terms as Governor of Ohio and was nominated by the Republican party in 1876 for president. He won the election and began his administration by an attempt to reconcile the South by ending Reconstruction and withdrawing Federal troops from southern capitals. His tenure was marred by the continuation of corruption and political rewards. By 1878, the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress and effectively blocked any strategy that Hayes attempted. Hayes refused his party's nomination for a second term.