President Johnson, he voted from first to last with his party, because het believed it to be right and the course of its opponents as calculated to undo the results of the war. While he did not attempt to make himself conspicuous during his first term of service, he was enabled to do patriotic work in several directions, and left his effect upon public affairs in such manner as to show that he was no novice in statesmanship. He was the friend of the common soldier, and we find him at an early date offering the following resolution, which was agreed to: "That the committee on military affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for punishing by imprisonment or otherwise any person who, as agent or attorney, shall collect from the government money due to officers, soldiers or sailors, or to their widows or orphans, for services in the army or navy, or for pensions or bounties, and who shall fraudulently convert the same to his own use." In 1865 he submitted to leading Republicans, and subsequently to the Republican caucus, the following significant resolutions, which became the basis of the action of the party:

"Resolved, That it is the sense of the caucus that the best, if not the only mode of obtaining from the states lately in rebellion guarantees which will be irreversible is by amendments of the National Constitution. That such amendments to the National Constitution as may be deemed necessary ought to be submitted to the house for its action at as early a day as possible, in order to propose them to the several states during the present sessions of their legislatures. That an amendment, basing representation on voters instead of population, ought to be promptly. acted upon, and the judiciary committee is requested to prepare resolutions for that purpose, and submit them to the house as soon as practicable."

Another step in a like direction was taken when the ratification of the amendments became a matter of supreme concern, and General Hayes, united with two other Republican members of congress, drafted the following letter, which was signed by Republican members of congress and forwarded to Governor Brownlow of Tennessee: "The undersigned members of congress respectfully suggest that, as governor of Tennessee, you call a special session of the legislature of your state, for the purpose of ratifying the Constitutional amendment submitted by the present congress to the several states for ratification, believing that upon such ratification this congress will, during its present session, recognize the present state government of Tennessee and admit the state to representation in both houses of congress." The result of this suggestion was of far-reaching importance. The special session was called, the Fourteenth amendment was ratified, and the Tennessee members admitted to seats in congress in July, 1866. This ratification was the one needed to make the amendment valid. As a clear-cut and pointed statement of the political

views held by General Hayes at that time, the following, taken from one of his many speeches delivered in the Ohio campaign of 1865, will serve to an admirable purpose: "The Democratic plan of reorganization is this: The rebels, having laid down their arms and abandoned their attempt to break up the Union, are now entitled, as a matter of right, to be restored to all the rights, political and civil, which they enjoyed before the rebellion, precisely as if they had remained loyal. They are to vote, to hold office, to bear arms, immediately and unconditionally. There is to be no confiscation and no punishment, either for leaders or followers-no amendment or change of the Constitution by way of guaranty against future rebellion—no indemnity for the past and no security for the future. The Union party objects to this plan because it wants, before rebels shall again be restored to power, an amendment to the Constitution which shall remove all vestiges of slavery, and an amendment which shall equalize representation between the states having a large negro population and the states whose negro population is small."

In the summer of 1866 General Hayes was renominated to congress by the unanimous vote of the Republican convention of his district, and entered into the canvass with great earnestness and vigor, delivering a speech almost every afternoon and evening to the day of election. He was reelected by a majority even larger than was given him upon the first occasion. In March, 1867, he took his seat in the Fortieth congress, and was at once recognized as one of the strong and leading members of that body-not by many speeches or frequent appearance on the floor, but by quiet and effective work in committee rooms and elsewhere in the aid of measures that he believed ought to be passed. His affection for the Union soldier and care for his interests was one of his leading characteristics, and as has been well said, "his three years in congress were almost continuously employed in exacting labors, in looking after the pensions and pay of soldiers, and in making provision for their families. The soldiers of his old division, scattered over the country, sent their applications to him. as a sympathizing friend. He had as many as seven hundred cases of this kind on hand at one time. His time was therefore necessarily consumed in running to the departments, and in answering soldiers' correspondence. This service of love was of course gratuitously and most cheerfully rendered; but it withdrew him more or less from his duties on the floor of congress."

When the Democrats of Ohio, in January, 1867, placed before the people a platform which practically declared that the war had settled nothing, and chose as their candidate no less a man than Allen G. Thurman, the Republicans felt it incumbent upon them to offer a candidate equally as great in intellectual and manly qualities, and far superior in his loyalty to the Union during the dark days of war. The general feeling was that R.

B. Hayes fulfilled these conditions in a degree that would satisfy not only the partisan in politics but the reformer and independent as well; and new life and hope was infused into the contest when the Republican convention of Ohio, on June 19, nominated General Hayes upon the first ballot, and placed him upon a platform far in advance of anything yet proposed" on the broad platform of impartial manhood suffrage as embodied in the proposed amendment to the state constitution," and appealing to the "intelligence, justice and patriotism of the people of Ohio to approve it at the ballot-box." The nomination was promptly accepted, and resigning his seat in congress General Hayes went upon the stump of his native state, and made a campaign of an aggressive order. His first speech was made at Lebanon on August 5, and immediately attracted the attention of the whole country because of the earnestness of its patriotism, the advanced position it assumed, and the clearness with which it set forth the necessity of the proposed amendments to the Constitution and the enactment of the various measures which the Republicans were then urging upon congress and the country. As an illustration of his mode of thought, clearness of statement and method of oratory, and as an explanation of the issues involved not only in the state campaign of Ohio but in the Nation at large, we take the liberty of a somewhat extended extract from that speech. "There are now within the limits of the United States, "said he, "about five millions of colored people. They are not aliens or strangers. They are here not by the choice of themselves or of their ancestors. They are here by the misfortune of their fathers and the crime of ours. Their labors, privations and sufferings, unpaid and unrequited, have cleared and redeemed one-third of the inhabited territory of the Union. Their toil has added to the resources and wealth of the Nation untold millions. Whether we prefer it or not, they are our countrymen, and will remain so forever. They are more than countrymen, they are citizens. Free colored people were citizens of the colonies. The Constitution of the United States, formed by our fathers, created no disabilities on account of color. By the acts of our fathers and ourselves, they bear equally the burdens and are required to discharge the highest duties of citizens. They are compelled to pay taxes and to bear arms. They fought side by side with their white countrymen in the great struggle for independence, and in the recent war for the Union. The Nation enrolled and accepted them among her defendants to the number of about two hundred thousand, and in the new regular army act, passed at the close of the rebellion, by the votes of Democrats and Union men alike, in the senate and in the house, and by the assent of the President, regiments of colored men, cavalry and infantry, form part of the standing army of the Republic. Colored men will, in the future as in the past, in all times of National peril, be our fellow-soldiers. Tax.

payers, countrymen, fellow-citizens and fellow-soldiers, the colored men of America have been and will be. It is now too late for the adversaries of nationality and human rights to undertake to deprive these tax-payers, freemen, citizens and soldiers of the right to vote." Coming to the direct issues of the pending contest he said: "In Ohio the leaders of the Peace Democracy intend to carry on one more campaign on the old and rotten platform of prejudice against the colored people. They seek in this way to divert attention from the record they made during the War of the Rebellion. But the great facts of our recent history are against them. The principles of the fathers, reason, religion, and the spirit of the age are against them. The plain and monstrous inconsistency and injustice of excluding one-seventh of our population from all participation in a government founded on the consent of the governed in this land of free discussion, is simply impossible. No such absurdity and wrong can be permanent. Impartial suffrage will carry the day. No low prejudice will long be able to induce American citizens to deny to a weak people their best means of self-protection for the unmanly reason that they are weak. "The Union party believes that the general welfare requires that measures should be adopted which will work great changes in the south. Our adversaries are accustomed to talk of the rebellion as an affair which began when the rebels attacked Fort Sumter in 1861, and which ended when Lee surrendered to Grant in 1865. It is true that the attempt by force of arms to destroy the United States began and ended during the administration of Mr. Lincoln. But the causes, the principles and the motives which produced the rebellion, are of an older date than the generation which suffered from the fruit they bore, and their influence and power are likely to last long after that generation passes away. Ever since armed rebellion failed, a large party in the south have struggled to make participation in the rebellion honorable, and loyalty to the Union dishonorable. The lost cause with them is the honored cause. In society, in business and in politics, devotion to treason is the test of merit, the passport to preferment. They wish to return to the old state of things—an oligarchy of race and the sovereignty of states. To defeat this purpose, to secure the rights of man, and to perpetuate the National Union, are the objects of the congressional plan of reconstruction. That plan has the hearty support of the great generals-of Grant, of Thomas, of Sheridan, of Howard-who led the armies of the Union, which conquered the rebellion. The statesmen most trusted by Mr. Lincoln and by the loyal people of the country during the war, also support it. The supreme court of the United States, upon formal application and after solemn argument, refuse to interfere with its execution. The loyal press of the country, which did so much in the time of need to uphold the patriot cause, without exception are in favor of the plan." In conclusion, he

said: "I know not how it may be in other states, but if I am not greatly mistaken as to the minds of the loyal people of Ohio, they mean to trust power in the hands of no man who, during the awful struggle for the Nation's life, proved unfaithful to the cause of liberty and of union. They will continue to exclude from the administration of the government those who prominently opposed the war, until every question arising out of the rebellion relating to the integrity of the Nation and to human rights shall have been firmly settled on the basis of impartial justice. They mean that the state of Ohio, in this great progress, 'whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life,' shall tread no step backward. Penetrated and sustained by a conviction that in this contest the Union party of Ohio is doing battle for the right, I enter upon my part of the labors of the canvass with undoubting confidence that the goodness of the cause will supply the weakness of its advocates, and command in the result that triumphant success which I believe it deserves."

In this canvass General Hayes proved in the possession of a foresight as to the temper of the people, in a most remarkable degree, keeping even ahead of his party in the demand for the great reforms above outlined, and depending for the justification of his course upon the decision of the people at the polls. In many cases where he was announced to speak he was besought by committee-men, soldiers and prominent political leaders to ignore the question of negro suffrage; but he vehemently rejected these timid counsels and spoke forth the faith that was within him. The result was a very close vote; and while the legislature was secured by the Democrats who sent Mr. Thurman forth upon his long and honorable senatorial career, General Hayes and the state ticket were elected by less than three thousand votes. He was inaugurated governor of Ohio on January 13, 1868. In the course of a brief but suggestive and able inaugural address, he once more took occasion to voice his intense feelings upon the question of equal suffrage. "The last general assembly," said he, "submitted to the people a proposition to amend the state constitution so as to abolish distinctions in political rights based upon color. The proposition contained several clauses not pertinent to its main purpose, under which, if adopted, it was believed by many that the number of white citizens who would be disfranchised would be much greater than the number of colored citizens who would be allowed the right of suffrage. Notwithstanding the proposition was thus hampered, it received 216,987 votes, or nearly forty-five per cent. of all the votes cast in the state. This result shows great progress in public sentiment since the adoption of the constitution of 1851, and inspires the friends of equal political rights with a confident hope that in 1871, when the opportunity is given to the peo