CHAPTER XV.

PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD B. HAYES (Continued.)

General Hayes had not laid down the sword before he found himself entering upon another field of battle in the council chambers of his country. He had ever taken a warm interest in politics, and had been a most enthusiastic admirer of Daniel Webster and the other great Whig leaders. So much did he admire Webster, that, it is said, he could repeat many of his speeches without missing a word. In 1853, he began to take an active interest in the Free Soil movement and joined a Free Soil club which was formed in Cincinnati. His growing law practice had, however, kept him from devoting his time to politics, but it was only a matter of a few years before he would be drawn into the political life of his country.

In 1864 the Republicans of the second congressional district of Ohio realised that if they were going to win they must place the strongest possible man in the field. Hayes, although on active service, was chosen. He was requested to resign from the army, and return to his native State and assist in the campaign. To this request he gave a characteristic reply: "I have other business just now. Any man who would leave the army at this time to electioneer for Congress ought to be scalped." This reply no doubt

was as effective a way of canvassing as he could have adopted, and the election cry, "Hayes is stumping the Shenandoah valley " helped materially to give him a large majority. After the election he was urged to resign his commission in the army, but would not leave it until the difficulty between the North and the South was settled.

"I shall never," he said, "come to Washington until I come by the way of Richmond." Before he left the army after the war was at an end his soldiers proved by the following resolution that they appreciated his patriotism and loyalty to them:

"Resolved, That General Hayes, in addition to possessing the ability and statesmanship necessary to qualify him in an eminent degree for Chief Magistrate of the great State of Ohio, is a soldier unsurpassed for patriotism and bravery; he having served four years in the army, earning his promotion from Major in one of the Ohio regiments to his present position." This resolution was passed with the hope that their general might be elected Governor of Ohio.

When he took his seat in the House of Representatives he became an energetic worker, but was no speech-maker, and, although his voice was seldom heard, and never in an important speech, his Ohio friends retained every confidence in him and renominated him in 1866. It was in this year that he was to come prominently before the nation as a strong speaker and an able politician. It was a critical time, a time of reconstruction, when it needed wise men,-in Congress particularly so, as one lacking wisdom was filling the President's chair.

A speech delivered by him in Cincinnati during the campaign of 1866, gives his attitude towards the South with fullness and strength:

"How ought the nation to deal with the people of the States lately in rebellion? No scheme of reconstruction will be found in its practical working to be humane and just and wise, unless it is planned with particular reference to the different elements of the population of which those States are composed. That population consists of disloyal white people, loyal white people, and loyal coloured people. In the South, there is a class, or caste, which by its wealth, intelligence, and social consideration, forms the opinion and controls the political action of the masses of the people, to an extent greater than is seen in any other part of the United States. We therefore naturally divide disloyal white people into leaders and their followers, the masses of the people. The masses consist of ignorant and unthinking, but well-meaning people, and also of a class which is very large in all the slave States: I mean the ruffian class, the men who, in slave-holding communities, have been brutalised by the occupation which slavery made necessary, the slave traders, the keepers of slave pens, the slave drivers, and slave catchers, the men who have been educated in violence and cruelty to human beings of both sexes and of all ages. From the hostility of this class, which has lost its occupation, by the freedom of the slave, the loyal people of the South need special and powerful protection.

"There are now only two plans of reconstruction before the country, the plan of those who supported the war measures of Mr. Lincoln's administration, which may be called the Union plan; and the plan which originated with those who opposed the war measures of Mr. Lincoln, and which may be called the Rebel plan. There was another plan before the country, which in some of its features was like the

Union plan, in others it resembled the Rebel plan, and it had some provisions peculiar to itself.

"This plan, which may properly be called the Administration plan, never had many supporters outside of the influence of Executive patronage, and has now been, as I shall hereafter show, for all practical purposes, abandoned....

"After the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, the task of continuing the work of restoring civil government in the rebellious States devolved upon President Johnson. He undertook the work of re-organising in seven States......the first was North Carolina, an old Whig State. Its population and politicians -extremely conservative, opposed strongly to nullification in the days of Calhoun-were carried away by what General Grant calls the foolish notion of State-rights.' A decided majority of the people hostile to rebellion at the beginning, and having a considerable number of able and intelligent men, remained steadfast in their fidelity to the Union throughout the whole war. With all these advantages for the reestablishment of a State government on a loyal basis, the result is that North Carolina has a rebel governor, a rebel legislature, a rebel judiciary, and has chosen an unbroken delegation of rebel senators and rebel representatives to the Congress of the United States. I need not name the other six States. It is enough to say, that, with two or three unimportant exceptions, the history, in all its details, of North Carolina in this matter may be read as the history of each of the other States which President Johnson undertook to re-organise. All of them have chosen for governors men who were leading rebels; and rebels fill their legislative and judicial offices. Twelve of the fourteen United States senators chosen

by the rebel States are leading rebels, and the men chosen to represent them in the House of Representatives stand,-rebels, 22; men of supposed loyalty, 2; and four yet to be chosen from Texas, all of whom are likely to be rebels. The restoration of two States begun by Mr. Lincoln was continued by President Johnson,-Louisiana and Virginia. Under Mr. Lincoln they had loyal legislatures and loyal men elected to Congress. Under the plan of President Johnson, both States now have rebel legislatures and rebel congressional delegations."

After continuing his severe criticism of President Johnson's plan of reconstruction, speaking of it as synonymous with the rebel plan he went on as follows:

"Instead of this plan of dealing with the people of the rebellious States, the Union party presents a plan which also has the merit of being in perfect harmony with the opinions and history of that party during the whole war. We have already seen that the leading objects or desires with the Union party have been,

"1. The removal of every relic of slavery from the Federal Constitution and from the constitutions and laws of all the States.

"2. That loyalty should be respected and treason made odious.

"3. That the national obligations to the patriotic people who furnish men and means to crush the rebellion should be faithfully fulfilled."

In the following year in a speech at Sidney, Ohio, he again dealt at length with the all important matter of reconstructing the Union.

"We want reconstruction," he said, " upon such principles, and by means of such measures, that the causes which made reconstruction necessary shall not