(October 4, 1822–January, 17, 1893), was the 19th President of the United States, 1877–81; Governor of Ohio, 1868–72, 1876–77; U.S. Representative, 1864–67; Brigadier General during the Civil War, 1864; Lieutenant Colonel, 1861, wounded in the Battle of South Mountain, 1862; Major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers, 1861; City Solicitor of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1858–61; delegate to the Ohio Republican Convention, 1855; married Lucy Ware Webb, 1852; graduated from Harvard Law School and admitted to bar, 1845; and graduated from Kenyon College, Ohio, 1842.
Rutherford B. Hayes requested that his Presidential Inauguration be moved to Monday, March 5, rather than violate the Sabbath.2587 He took the oath of office as President of the U.S. on March 5, 1877, with his open palm placed on Psalm 118:13, and, after repeating the oath, he kissed the open Bible.2588 On Monday, March 5, 1877, in his Inaugural Address, President Rutherford Birchard Hayes stated:
Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you, Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and everywhere, to unite with me in an earnest effort to secure to our country the blessings, not only of material property, but of justice, peace, and union—a union depending not upon the constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion of a free people; and that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations.2589
On October 29, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
The completed circle of summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, has brought us to the accustomed season at which a religious people celebrates with praise and thanksgiving the enduring mercy of Almighty God. This devout and public confession of the constant dependance of man upon the divine favor for all the good gifts of life and health and peace and happiness, so early in our history made the habit of our people, finds in the survey of the past year new grounds for its joyful and grateful manifestation.
In all the blessings which depend upon benignant seasons, this has indeed been a memorable year. Over the wide territory of our country, with all its diversity of soil and climate and products, the earth has yielded a bountiful return to the labor of the husbandman. The health of the people has been blighted by no prevalent or widespread diseases. No great disasters of shipwreck upon our coasts or to our commerce on the seas have brought loss and hardship to merchants or mariners and clouded the happiness of the community with sympathetic sorrow.
In all that concerns our strength and peace and greatness as a nation; in all that touches the permanence and security of our Government and the beneficent institutions on which it rests; in all that affects the character and dispositions of our people and tests our capacity to enjoy and uphold the equal and free condition of society, now permanent and universal throughout the land, the experience of the last year is conspicuously marked by the protecting providence of God and is full of promise and hope for the coming generations.
Under a sense of these infinite obligations to the Great Ruler of Times and Seasons and Events, let us humbly ascribe it to our own faults and frailties if in any degree that perfect concord and happiness, peace and justice, which such great mercies should diffuse through the hearts and lives of our people do not altogether and always and everywhere prevail. Let us with one spirit and with one voice lift up praise and thanksgiving to God for His manifold goodness to our land, His manifest care for our nation.
Now, therefore, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, do appoint Thursday, the 29th day of November next, as a day of national thanksgiving and prayer; and I earnestly recommend that, withdrawing themselves from secular cares and labors, the people of the United States do meet together on that day in their respective places of worship, there to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for His mercies and to devoutly beseech their continuance.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 29th day of October, A.D. 1877, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and second. R.B. Hayes.
By the President: Wm. M. Evarts, Secretary of State.2590
On Monday, December 3, 1877, in his First Annual Message, President Rutherford B. Hayes stated:
With devout gratitude to the bountiful Giver of All Good, I congratulate you that at the beginning of your first regular session you find our country blessed with health and peace and abundant harvests, and with encouraging prospects of an early return of general prosperity. …
The Government of the Samoan Islands has sent an envoy, in the person of its secretary of state, to invite the Government of the United States to recognize and protect their independence, to establish commercial relations with their people, and to assist them in their steps toward regulated and responsible government. The inhabitants of these islands, having made considerable progress in Christian civilization and the development of trade, are doubtful of their ability to maintain peace and independence without the aid of some stronger power.2591
On October 30, 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
The recurrence of that season at which it is the habit of our people to make devout and public confession of their constant dependence upon the divine favor for all the good gifts of life and happiness and of public peace and prosperity exhibits in the record of the year abundant reasons for our gratitude and thanksgiving.
Exuberant harvests, productive mines, ample crops of the staples of trade and manufactures, have enriched the country.
The resources thus furnished to our reviving industry and expanding commerce are hastening the day when discords and distresses through the length and breadth of the land will, under the continued favor of Providence, have given way to confidence and energy and assured prosperity.
Peace with all nations has been maintained unbroken, domestic tranquillity has prevailed, and the institutions of liberty and justice which the wisdom and virtue of our fathers established remain the glory and defense of their children.
The general prevalence of the blessings of health through our wide land has made more conspicuous the sufferings and sorrows which the dark shadow of pestilence has cast upon a portion of our people. This heavy affliction even the Divine Ruler has tempered to the suffering communities in the universal sympathy and succor which have flowed to their relief, and the whole nation may rejoice in the unity of spirit in our people by which they cheerfully share one another’s burdens.
Now, therefore, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, do appoint Thursday, the 28th day of November next, as a day of national thanksgiving and prayer; and I earnestly recommend that, withdrawing themselves from secular cares and labors, the people of the United States do meet together on that day in their respective places of worship, there to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for His mercies and to devoutly beseech their continuance.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the city of Washington, this 30th day of October, A.D. 1878, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and third. R.B. Hayes.
By the President: Wm M. Evarts, Secretary of State.2592
On December 2, 1878, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President Rutherford B. Hayes stated:
Our heartfelt gratitude is due to the Divine Being who holds in His hands the destinies of nations for the continued bestowal during the last year of countless blessings upon our country.2593
On Monday, November 3, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
At no recurrence of the season, which the devout habit of a religious people has made the occasion for giving thanks to Almighty God and humbly invoking His continued favor, has the material prosperity enjoyed by our whole country been more conspicuous, more manifold, or more universal.
During the past year, also, unbroken peace with all foreign nations, the general prevalence of domestic tranquillity, the supremacy and security of the great institutions of civil and religious freedom, have gladdened the hearts of our people and confirmed their attachment to their Government, which the wisdom and courage of our ancestors so fitly framed and the wisdom and courage of their descendants have so firmly maintained to be the habitation of liberty and justice to successive generations.
Now, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, do appoint Thursday, the 27th day of November instant, as a day of national thanksgiving and prayer; and I earnestly recommend that, withdrawing themselves from secular cares and labors, the people of the United States do meet together on that day in their respective places of worship, there to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for His mercies and to devoutly beseech their continuance.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of November, A.D. 1879, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fourth. Rutherford B. Hayes.
By the President: Wm M. Evarts, Secretary of State.2594
On December 1, 1879, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Rutherford B. Hayes stated:
The members of the Forty-sixth Congress have assembled in their first regular session under circumstances calling for mutual congratulations and grateful acknowledgement to the Giver of All Good for the large and unusual measure of national prosperity which we now enjoy.2595
On Monday, November 1, 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving:
At no period in their history since the United States became a nation has this people had so abundant and universal reasons for joy and gratitude at the favor of Almighty God or been subject to so profound an obligation to give thanks for His loving kindness and humbly to implore His continued care and protection.
Health, wealth, and prosperity throughout all our borders; peace, honor, and friendship with all the world; firm and faithful adherence by the great body of our population to the principles of liberty and justice which have made our greatness as a nation, and to the wise institutions and strong frame of government and society which will perpetuate it—for all these let the thanks of a happy and united people, as with one voice, ascend in devout homage to the Giver of All Good.
I therefore recommend that on Thursday, the 25th day of November next, the people meet in their respective places of worship to make their acknowledgments to Almighty God for His bounties and His protection and to offer to Him prayers for their continuance.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the city of Washington, this 1st day of November, A.D. 1880, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifth. R.B. Hayes.
By the President: Wm. M. Evarts, Secretary of State.2596
On December 6, 1880, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President Rutherford B. Hayes stated:
By the favor of Divine Providence we have been blessed during the past year with health, with abundant harvests, with profitable employment for all our people, and with contentment at home, and with peace and friendship with other nations.2597
On February 22, 1881, in an Executive Order issued from Washington, D.C., President Rutherford B. Hayes wrote to the Secretary of War:
In view of the well-known fact that the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Army of the United States is the cause of much demoralization among both officers and men, and that it gives rise to a large proportion of the cases before general and garrison courts-martial, involving great expense and serious injury to the service—
It is therefore directed, that the Secretary of War take suitable steps, as far as practicable consistently with vested rights, to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage at the camps, forts, and other posts of the Army.2598
It was President Rutherford B. Hayes’ habit to hold prayers following breakfast each day in the White house. A chapter of Scripture was read aloud with each person there reading a portion. The meeting ended with everyone kneeling and repeating the Lord’s prayer.2599 On the occasion of his son’s joining a church, President Rutherford B. Hayes offered fatherly encouragement:
I hope that you will be benefitted by your churchgoing. Where the habit does not Christianize it generally civilizes. There is reason enough for supporting churches if there were none higher.2600
President Rutherford B. Hayes gave financial support to and held the position of a trustee in the Methodist Church.2601 Following a speech he gave to the Catholic Knights of America, he noted these thoughts in his diary:
I am a Protestant, born a Protestant, expect to live a Protestant, and shall probably die a Protestant. I can see in the past, and to-day, faults in the Catholic Church, but I am grateful for:
(1) its work in behalf of temperance;
(2) its example in keeping together poor and rich; care for the poor; influence with the poor;
(3) for its treatment of the blacks; of all the unfortunate races. A negro sat with us at our banquet table;
(4) for its fidelity in spite of party … Archbishop Purcell strung the American flag, in the crisis of our fate, from the top of the Cathedral in Cincinnati April 16, 1861!
The spire was beautiful before, but the Catholic prelate made it radiant with hope and glory for our country!2602
President Rutherford B. Hayes explained his position on church:
I am not a subscriber to any creed. I belong to no church. But I try to be a Christian, or rather I want to be a Christian and to help do Christian work.2603
President Rutherford B. Hayes recorded in his diary:
Have been reading Genesis several Sundays … not as an infidel reads to carp and quarrel and criticize, but as one who wishes to be informed and furnished in the earliest and most wonderful of all literary productions. The literature of the Bible should be studied as one studies Shakespeare, for illustration and language, for its true picture of man and woman’s nature, for its early historical record.2604
President Rutherford B. Hayes declared:
I am a firm believer in the Divine teachings, perfect example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe also in the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God to the world for its enlightenment and salvation.2605
On March 13, 1892, in his Last Will and Testament, Rutherford Birchard Hayes stated:
I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teachings of the New Testament in its broad spirit, and to put no faith in any man’s narrow construction of its letter here or there.2606
On January 17, 1893, shortly before his death, Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in a diary entry:
I am a Christian, according to my conscience, in belief, not of course, in character and conduct, but in purpose and wish; not, of course, by the orthodox standards. But I am content and have a feeling of trust and safety. … Let me be pure and wise and kind and true in all things.2607
On January 18, 1893, from his Executive Mansion in Washington, D.C., President Benjamin Harrison wrote:
To the people of the United States:
The death of Rutherford B. Hayes, who was President of the United States from March 4, 1877, to March 4, 1881, at his home in Fremont, Ohio, at 11 p.m. yesterday, is an event the announcement of which will be received with very general and very sincere sorrow. His public service extended over many years and over a wide range of official duty. He was a patriotic citizen, a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home.2608