The Road to Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893), born Delaware, Ohio, served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio. A lawyer and staunch abolitionist, he had defended refugee slaves in court proceedings during the antebellum years.

1863 -- President Lincoln begins process of installation Reconstruction governments in rebellious southern states as they come back under Union control.

1865 fall  -- President Johnson declares the the war goals of national unity and the ending of slavery achieved and Reconstruction completed

1866 --- Radical Reconstructionists in the Republican Party sweep into power in Congress, allowing override of Johnson's veto.

1867 -- Beginning of the Era of Radical Reconstruction.

That same year, Congress removed civilian governments in the South, and placed the former Confederacy under the rule of the U.S. Army (except in Tennessee, where anti-Johnson Republicans were already in control). The Army conducted new elections in which the freed slaves could vote, while Whites who had held leading positions under the Confederacy were temporarily denied the vote and were not permitted to run for office.

1868 -- Ulysses Grant elected President.

1871 -- Grant orders federal military intervention into the South to suppress the Ku Klux Klan.

1872 -- Ulysses Grant re-elected President for a second term

1873 -- Major financial panic in the United States leads to economic depression. 

1874 -- Democrats make major gains in the North in Congressional midterms, weakening support for Reconstruction.

1876 spring --  Ulysses Grant declines interest in running for a third term.

1876 Jun -- Republican National Convention at Exposition Hall in Cincinnati selects Republican nominee for the fall election. James Blaine, Governor of Maine, leads on the first ballot but cannot get a majority. After five rounds of balloting, Rutherford B. Hayes, Governor of Ohio emerges from the distant pack to win the nomination.