Rutherford Birchard Hayes (4 October 1822 - 17 January 1893) was the 19th President of the United States, serving from 4 March 1877 to 4 March 1881. A Republican from Ohio, Hayes came to office through one of the most disputed elections in American history, resolved by the Compromise of 1877, in which a bipartisan congressional commission awarded him the presidency in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. His single term was marked by civil service reform efforts, conflict with Congress over patronage, and the effective end of Reconstruction.

Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, and trained as a lawyer at Harvard Law School. He served as a Union officer in the Civil War, rising to the rank of brevet major general, and was wounded several times in combat. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Ohio for three terms before receiving the Republican presidential nomination in 1876. His reputation for personal integrity and his distance from the corruption scandals that marked the Grant administration made him an attractive candidate.

The presidential election of 1876 pitted Hayes against Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York. Tilden won the popular vote, but electoral votes from three Southern states - Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina - were disputed, with both parties submitting competing slates of electors. Congress created a fifteen-member Electoral Commission to resolve the dispute; the commission voted along party lines, 8-7, to award all disputed electoral votes to Hayes. Under the terms of the Compromise of 1877, Hayes took office and subsequently ordered the withdrawal of federal troops from the remaining occupied Southern states, ending the Reconstruction era. Historians continue to debate the precise terms and significance of this arrangement. See Compromise of 1877 for full treatment.

Hayes pursued civil service reform, seeking to reduce the spoils system by which political appointments were distributed to party loyalists. He clashed repeatedly with Republican congressional leaders, particularly Roscoe Conkling of New York, over control of federal patronage. Hayes removed Chester A. Arthur from the New York Customs House as part of this effort, a move that deepened the rift within the Republican Party between reform-minded “Stalwarts” and the more pragmatic “Half-Breeds.”

In 1877, Hayes used federal troops to suppress the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. His response drew criticism from labor advocates and raised questions about the use of military force against civilian workers. See Great Railroad Strike of 1877 for full treatment.

Hayes advocated for black civil and political rights in principle but presided over the collapse of federal enforcement in the South following troop withdrawal. The practical consequences of Reconstruction's end under his watch remain a significant subject of historical scrutiny. See Reconstruction - History for full treatment.

Hayes had pledged before taking office to serve only one term and kept that commitment, declining to seek renomination in 1880.

There is broad historical consensus that Hayes was personally honest and administratively competent by the standards of his era. The characterization of the Compromise of 1877 - whether it was a reasonable resolution to a constitutional crisis or a political betrayal of black Southerners - remains actively debated among historians. See Compromise of 1877 - Historical Consensus.

• Civil Service Reformer - Some historians view Hayes as a principled early advocate for merit-based federal employment who helped lay the groundwork for the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.
• Betrayer of Reconstruction - Some historians argue that Hayes's withdrawal of federal troops effectively abandoned black Southerners to disenfranchisement and violence, making the formal end of Reconstruction a moral failure regardless of its political logic.
• Constitutional Stabilizer - A minority view holds that Hayes's acceptance of the commission's decision and peaceful transition of power preserved constitutional order at a moment when the alternative may have been renewed sectional conflict.

• Rutherford B. Hayes - History
• Compromise of 1877
• Reconstruction - History
• Election of 1876
• Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• Civil Service Reform
• Rutherford B. Hayes - Debate

1. Hoogenboom, Ari. Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.
2. Davison, Kenneth E. The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972.
3. Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
4. Morris, Roy Jr. Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
5. Peskin, Allan. “Was There a Compromise of 1877?” Journal of American History 60, no. 1 (1973): 63-75.