Customer Reviews

The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is told from and unbiased standpoint. The author does an excellent job ofjust giving the facts and not letting his opinion or anyone else's get in the way. The best example of this is in the first two chapters which talks about his campaign and then the disputed election, where to sum it up quickly, Hayes did not have the popular majority and won by 1 electoral vote. The book supplies me quotes and historical references from both Republican and Democrats and then gets into of the details of the election. So before I know all the details I already have evidence from both sides. Once one gets to the details it is simply facts no opinions. Hoogenboom does an extraordinary job giving facts and references from the time period and making and unbiased point of view. That is tolled form all sides and does not just concentrate on Hayes' side. The book remarkably managed to take and unbiased stance and still attack the widely held belief that Hayes was and ineffective leader and an inept politician. The author bring an entire new perspective on how to view Hayes. According to the American Presidency Series this book is supposed to present historians and the general public with interesting, scholarly assessments of Hayes' administration. Yet I found this book to be geared to the historians and the scholarly. The book is obviously being written for someone with good amount of intelligence. After reading this book one gains an entire new respect for the 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes. END

Rutherford B. Hayes' victory in the presidential election of 1876 was fraught with irregularities. In the end, he received 185 electoral votes to 184 for Samuel Tilden. After the initial election, Tilden had 184, Hayes 165 and the remaining 20 were disputed. To settle the dispute, a commission with fifteen members was appointed. Four were judges, 2 Democratic and 2 Republican, there were five Democratic and five Republican members of Congress and one additional judge that was supposed to be an independent. However, independent judge David Davis, who was slated to be the fifteenth member, could not serve and was replaced by Republican judge Joseph Bradley. By a series of eight-to-seven votes, all twenty disputed votes, and the presidency, were awarded to Hayes. As a consequence of the maneuvering that put him in the White House, Hayes was constantly referred to as "his fraudulency."
However, as Hoogenboom explains very well, the manipulations that ended with the Hayes victory involved a great deal of compromise. At the time he took office, federal troops still occupied several southern states, maintaining carpetbagger Republican governments that protected the voting rights of the recently freed black population. In exchange for Democratic acquiescence to his assumption of the Presidency, Hayes agreed to end the occupations. Hayes was concerned about black rights and extracted a hollow promise from the Democrats that they would not interfere with the voting rights of blacks. Once the troops were removed, the Democrats took over from the Republican governments and initiated the process of segregation.
Hayes was an able administrator and had the best of intentions in his attempts to aid the plight of blacks. However, the white leadership of the South was largely unrepentant and everyone wanted the conflict to finally be over. Therefore, while things did not go the way Hayes wanted in the South, what happened was probably inevitable. He was also a transitional figure, as the American economy was emerging from depression and the industrial revolution was about to explode. During his term, labor organizations were forming and the first major strike took place. Unlike other figures in power, Hayes at least had some empathy for the workers and worked only to keep the peace. He was very precise in staying within constitutional bounds and avoided taking sides as much as possible. As the author is careful to point out, Hayes did not break the strike. His role in ending it is limited to the consequences of his actions in maintaining the public order.
Hayes was also a transitional figure in terms of American foreign involvement. He is the last president to keep their focus within the borders of the United States and less than twenty pages are devoted to foreign affairs. All future presidents were forced by circumstances to pay a great deal of attention to the rest of the world. His involvement in the treatment of Native Americans was similar to what happened with southern blacks. His intentions were good and humane, however the circumstances prevented him from making a significant positive impact.
Hayes is often portrayed as an aloof and inept president, which is not the case. As Hoogenboom does an excellent job of explaining, Hayes was an honorable man who was pressed by circumstances to make compromises that he found distasteful. In reading this history of those times, I was convinced that Hayes did the best that anyone could have done, given the circumstances.

I have made it a goal to read a book about every president and it's amazing that there are some presidents who simply don't have a lot to write about. This book does a good job of summarizing the man and there were a few interesting events in his four years of service. I guess the most interesting part of his presidency is simply how he followed so many lousy presidents. Starting his presidency in the most rocky way, it never got much easier. However, I think the quote from Mark Twain at the end of the book describing Hayes and his legacy might best summarize his life..As time goes on, it will be regarded more importantly.

There are two series out there about the Presidents. The American Presidency Series in by far the better of the two. This is a short book full of facts but not a deep look into Hayes life. not alot out there on this guy so this may be one of the better books on Hayes.