whole war record was one of a brave and morally earnest soldier. He did not enlist for glory, but to put down the rebellion and save the country, in the hope that slavery would go down in the crash of the rebellion. He was among the first to enlist and the last to sheath his sword. He went through the whole war; did noble service all the time; went up and up by successive promotions; made no failures; gained many victories, and made it hard for rebellion and well for his country all the time. His war career was an even and complete one, like his own manhood. He was an example to his men, an honor to his country, and a terror to rebellion.

While yet in the field, his district in Cincinnati elected him to Congress, and he took his seat December 4, 1865. He was re-elected the next year. In Congress he was not a noisy but a working member, and served his country with the same fidelity that he had in the field.

GOVERNOR HAYES.

In 1867 Mr. Hayes was elected governor of Ohio. He resigned his seat in Congress, and was inaugurated January 13, 1868. In 1869 he was re-elected. These elections were very hotly contested, and the forensic power of Governor Hayes was well attested. The great questions of reconstruction, negro suffrage, finance, etc., were before the country. It was a great period in our national history when our public men had to consider the most important matters of political economy, and when great moral questions were at issue. It was the epoch of national reconstruction. Since the revolution no other so important epoch had occurred. All that went into the constitution and construction and life of the nation in consequence of slavery was now to be eliminated. The evil that our fathers had not the moral courage to put away must now be cut out from the body politic which had grown a hundred years with the evil in it. It required dextrous surgery. All involved in the issues of the time came into discussion before the people of Ohio through the candidates for governor. Mr. Hayes proved himself master of the occasion. A fine speaker, he comprehended and presented

the issues of the occasion with convincing force. His clearness, his fairness, his thorough knowledge of the subjects he treated, his force of argument, and, above all, his strong moral perceptions of the duties of the hour, made his canvasses very influential with the people. They were significant occasions in the history of Ohio. And they had somewhat the effect with him that Mr. Lincoln's canvass of Illinois had upon his fortunes. They were heard by the nation. They gave him a national reputation. They were discussions of the great interests of the nation, and bore so strongly upon humanity and the enduring principles of right, justice and honor, that they won for him national respect and confidence.

In 1875, for the third time, Mr. Hayes was candidate for governor, and in the meridian of his strength rehearsed before the people of Ohio the principles involved 'in our form of government and the possibilities before the American people. The leading issue in this last canvass was the financial one. He argued for the resumption of specie payment, for a sound currency, for trade and commerce based on just principles, for national prosperity built upon integrity and mutual fairness. The currency was so disordered, and men's minds so disordered with it, that almost a craze had set in in favor of cheap moneycongressional promises not representing any value nor having any specie equivalent. For some years neither banks nor government had paid specie on their notes. Business had prospered, had even inflated. Some thought that this state of things could go on indefinitely, and specie might be remanded to perpetual imprisonment or be used for mechanical and ornamental purposes. It took great discussion to lead the people to see the need of the resumption of specie payment and a currency based on specie. Mr. Hayes took an active part in this discussion, and did much to secure the sound conclusion which the country finally reached.

Previous to this last election for governor, Mr. Hayes had run for Congress and been beaten, giving him a brief respite from public life.

But this canvass, in which Mr. Hayes secured an election as

governor for the third time, so touched national issues, and was so commended by the better judgment of the nation, that he became a national man, and was looked to as one likely to be called upon to serve in national capacities.

Mr. Hayes was inaugurated governor the third time, in January, 1876, and served through the centennial year of the Declaration of Independence.

The republican state convention of that year met in March, and recommended the name of Rutherford B. Hayes to the national convention as the candidate for the presidency. The national republican convention met in that year, June 14, at Cincinnati, and after the convention was organized, June 15, ex-Governor Noyes, of Ohio, presented the name of Governor Hayes as Ohio's choice for the next president. He received the nomination, and the national canvass in his behalf was a very spirited one. Mr. Tilden, of New York, was the democratic candidate.

President Grant had been the national executive eight years. He began as a civil service reformer, but he soon fell into the good graces, and then into the hands of the machine rings, that during his time, held the party domination, and, under their lead, which in his last term he did not seem to try to resist, the party rapidly lost the confidence of the people. Many democrats, which, during the war and after, had acted with the republicans, went back and voted for Tilden. Many republicans got lukewarm, and lost their zeal, fearing that corrupt men were getting too much favor from the leaders. In Grant's eight years, the party had lost moral tone. It may have been inevitable as a consequence of war's demoralization. Incompetent and often demoralized soldiers claimed leading places of trust. Incompetency and defalcation became too common. Hence, though the republicans had been overwhelmingly triumphant, since the election of Mr. Lincoln, they now had so lost ground that when the electoral votes came to be counted, there were honest doubts as to who should be counted in. There had been great fraud in some of the southern states in forcibly refusing negro votes and in maintaining a reign of terror against colored

supremacy, or even participation in elections. In the uncertainty, confusion and indignation, an electoral commission was proposed and agreed upon to go to the states where fraud and force were charged as having been used at the election, and inquire into the facts and determine what electoral votes should be counted. This commission performed its duties, and by its decision Mr. Hayes was counted in.

MR. HAYES AS PRESIDENT.

Mr. Hayes was inaugurated President on March 4, 1877. Not before, perhaps, had any American executive taken his seat under such unfavorable circumstances. The democrats generally felt that their candidate had received a majority of the popular votes, and were in no mood to be pliable subjects of an executive who had gone into office under such circumstances. To their credit, it must be said, that they laid nothing in President Hayes' way. Much as they scolded, they behaved well. Much as their leaders were disappointed, they acted the part of men. They had agreed to the electoral commission, and submitted with manly grace to its decision, though they generally thought it was not right.

Our republican institutions have received few severer shocks than on that occasion. There have been many revolutions on less occasions. We may all feel safer and more in the right in our devotion to popular government, because our citizens so considerately bore themselves in peace through that emergency.

In his letter of acceptance of the nomination, Mr. Hayes had said: "Believing that the restoration of the civil service to the system established by Washington, and followed by the early Presidents, can be best accomplished by an executive who is under no temptation to use the patronage of his office to promote his own re-election, I desire to perform what I regard as a duty, in stating now my inflexible purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for election to a second term."

This explicit statement was believed by the country. His public service in the army and in Ohio had taught the people that what he said he meant. The defeated party knew that a

fair chance to vote again would be open to them in four years, when a new candidate would oppose them. They knew also the honorable, generous and truthful man who was to be president, and doubtless many had no doubt of a good administration at his hands. All things considered, with such a man they had nothing to fear.

In his letter of acceptance, he had also announced his belief in civil service reform. He said: "The reform should be thorough, radical, complete. We should return to the principles and practice of the founders of the government, supplying by legislation when needed, that which was formerly the established custom. They neither expected nor desired from the public officer any partisan service. They meant that public officers should owe their whole service to the government and the people." He pledged himself to these principles. The whole country knew that he would stand by these statements. Then what had any party to fear? His letter of acceptance, which covered the whole ground, was an assurance to the whole country that his would be a sound and useful administration. He gave as truly a national administration as a man elected by a party well can, and his party secured a revival of its old strength therefrom, so that its next candidate was elected triumphantly. His administration closed with general good feeling.

MR. HAYES' MARRIAGE AND FAMILY.

Mr. Hayes was married December 20, 1852, to Miss Lucy Webb, of Delaware, Ohio, whom he first met while a young lawyer of Cincinnati, at the Delaware Sulphur Springs. She was at that time a member of the Wesleyan Female College, of Cincinnati.

The marriage proved most happy; and to it is attributed by many the uniform success of Mr. Hayes in every position, and the harmony and efficiency of his life. She has been a helpmeet indeed, and has won world-wide praise for herself as well as for the help she has given him. She is of excellent parentage; finely reared and educated; a sincere member of the Methodist Episcopal church; healthy in body and mind;