RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Leading up to America’s 250th birthday this July, we are highlighting things you may not know about our presidents.
In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed into law the “Act to Relieve Certain Legal Disabilities of Women,” which allowed women to become members of the Supreme Court bar and to submit and argue cases before the high court.
Hayes was born on Oct. 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio. He graduated from Kenyon College and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1845.
He married Lucy Ware Webb, and the couple had eight children, with five living to adulthood. Lucy banned alcohol from the White House, earning her the nickname “Lemonade Lucy”.
Hayes had a successful law practice in Cincinnati and was an active member of the Republican Party in the 1850s.
Hayes fought for the Union in the Civil War and was seriously wounded. After the war, he won a seat in Congress in 1865, was reelected, but resigned to become the governor of Ohio, where he served three terms in Columbus.
He was the Republicans’ choice for president in 1876. Hayes lost the popular vote, but due to disputes about both parties’ actions, neither Hayes nor Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden had the required electoral votes. A 15-member commission appointed by Congress then decided America’s fate.
Republicans and Democrats made a deal. The Compromise of 1877 declared Hayes the winner by one vote, contingent on the withdrawal of federal troops from Southern states still under occupation, thus ending Reconstruction in his first year as president.
He did not run for a second term. Hayes returned to Ohio, where he was a trustee at three universities, including Ohio State.
He died of heart failure in 1893 at the age of 70.
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