Rutherford B. Hayes Event Timeline

Rutherford B. Hayes (19) Event Timeline

03/04/1877 – 03/03/1881

11/07/1876

Election Day

12/06/1876

Electors cast ballots.  Neither Hayes nor Tilden got the 185 votes needed for election.  Conflicting sets of electoral votes were returned from Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina.  Constitutional provision that electoral votes be opened by the president of the Senate did not specify by whom the votes should be counted.  Democrats controlled the House; Republicans the Senate.

12/14/1876

Committee formed in House to recommend method for counting votes.

12/18/1876

Committee formed in Senate to recommend method for counting votes.

1877

01/29/1877

An Act, signed by President Grant, creates a Commission to resolve the contested electoral votes. The commission consists of five members from each house plus five Supreme Court justices.  The commission would decide contested electoral votes by a majority vote of the Commission.

03/02/1877

Congressional Commission awards disputed electoral votes to Hayes, who became President.  [Download large pdf of the Congressional Commission Report.]

03/03/1877

Oath of office privately administered at White House [March 4 was a Sunday].

03/05/1877

President Hayes Inaugurated in public ceremony.

03/08/1877

Hayes Cabinet nominations sent to the Senate; opposition to Cabinet from Senate leaders.

03/12/1877

After public support, all of Hayes Cabinet nominees approved by this date

03/15/1877

Frederick Douglass appointed US Marshal for District of Columbia.

04/22/1877

About this date, President Hayes “orders away” remaining Federal troops from Southern states, marking the end of reconstruction [Hayes Diary].

05/10/1877

First telephone installed in the White House.

05/26/1877

Executive Order Prohibiting Political Assessment of Customs House Employees.

06/17/1877

First engagement between the U.S. Army and Nez Perce warriors. Major victory for the Nez Perce.

06/22/1877

Executive Order Preventing Federal Employees from Participating in Political Activities.

06/26/1877 – 06/29/1877

Tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

07/18/1877-

17/23/1877

"Great Railroad Strike of 1877." Federal Troops ordered to restore order in Railroad strikes in West Virginia; Maryland (on 07/21) and Pennsylvania (on 07/23).

08/16/1877 –

08/24/1877

Tour of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts.

09/07/1877 –

10/25/1877

Tour of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia.

10/05/1877

Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph surrenders, effectively ending the Nez Perce War of 1877, following the battle of Bear Paw Mountain, Montana Territory.

10/24/1877

After firing officials at the NY Customs House, Hayes nominates 3 replacements.

10/29/1877

Senate rejects Hayes's nominees for Customs House.

12/03/1877

First Annual Message to Congress. Notes "the wisdom and justice of humane and liberal local legislation with respect to [the] education and general welfare" of former slaves.  Aid to the States for public education "is no longer a question." Calls for further aid for technical and higher education. "It is vain to hope for the success of a free government without the means of insuring the intelligence of those who are the source of power." Supports expansion of the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. Calls for a university in the District of Columbia.

1878

01/17/1878

President Hayes Signs the US-Samoan Treaty.

02/28/1878

Veto of Bland-Allison Act requiring Treasury to purchase quantities of silver at market prices  (Veto overridden, the only one of Hayes's vetoes overridden.).

06/18/1778

Signs Army Appropriations Act containing what has become known as the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. Army to "execute the laws" unless that use is explicitly authorized in law or by the Constitution.

07/11/1878

Suspended Chester Arthur and Alonzo B. Corness from New York Customs House. (Detailed account from New York Herald of 07/12/1878.)

09/04/1878 - 09/24/1878

Tour of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

12/02/1878

Second Annual State of the Union Message.

1879

01/01/1879

President Hayes resumes payments in gold for Civil War Greenbacks.

02/03/1879

Senate confirms Hayes’s nominees for NY Customs House.

03/01/1879

Veto of "An act to restrict the immigration of Chinese to the United States," which included terms to modify in part the 1869 Burlingame Treaty.  Hayes argues that modifying an existing treaty "is not competent for Congress."  He also warns that the restrictions in the legislation would put at risk "our citizens in China.

04/26/1979

Proclamation Warning Against Unauthorized Settlement in the Indian Territory.

04/29/1879

Vetoes Army Appropriations Bill. Hayes objected to language prohibiting use of troops at election sites "to keep peace at the polls."  He argued that no soldier had ever interfered with any election and that laws were already in place to prevent that.  Moreover, he argued that the legislation would "deprive the civil authorities. . . of all power to keep the peace at the Congressional elections."  He stated that "national legislation to provide safeguards for free and honest elections is necessary. . . to secure the right to vote to the enfranchised race at the South, but also to prevent fraudulent voting in the large cities of the North."  Veto sustained.

05/12/1879

Vetoes "Act to Prohibit Military Interference at Elections."  Hayes references his prior veto of 04/29/1879 and offers a detailed accounting of prior law relating to the use of the military by the National Government. He notes that under the legislation it would be unlawful to use the Army or Navy "to uphold the authority of the Government of the United States."  Veto sustained. 

05/29/1879

Vetoes general Appropriations Bill. The Bill raises the same kinds of concerns raised in the message of 04/29/1879.  "The supervision of the elections will be reduced to a mere inspection, without authority. . .to make the election a fair one."  And, "on the day of an election, peace and good order are more necessary than on any other day of the year." The veto was sustained.

06/23/1879

Veto of "An act making appropriations for certain judicial expenditures."  Again citing his veto of 04/29/1879, Hayes writes "It is not sought by the bill before me to repeal the election laws.  Its object is to defeat their enforcement." The veto was sustained.

06/30/1879

Veto of "An act making appropriations to pay fees of the United States marshals and their general deputies."  He notes that the bill has sections that are "identical in tenor and effect" to the bill he vetoed on 06/23/1879.  Hayes points out that this is coupled with appropriations in a way to force him to choose either to continue essential functions or to approve legislation to which he has objected.  This legislation has been described by the House historian as an important early example of the use of appropriations "riders."  This strategy was developed by Southern Democrats who were seeking an end to reconstruction. As a consequence of Hayes's insistence, some of the government was not funded until the middle of 1880.  This veto was sustained.

09/09/1879 - 10/18/1879

Tour of Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri.

02/15/1879

Signed Act (45 Stat 292) to allow women to practice before the Supreme Court.

12/01/1879

Third Annual State of the Union Message.

12/19/1879

Transmits to Congress a draft bill to reclaim the marshes of the District of Columbia.

1880

03/08/1880

Supports Canal Across the Isthmus Between North and South America.

05/04/1880

Veto of "An act making appropriations to supply certain deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880. Hayes observes, " Under these circumstances, to attempt in an appropriation bill the modification or repeal of these laws is to annex a condition to the passage of needed and proper appropriations, which tends to deprive the Executive of that equal and independent exercise of discretion and judgment which the Constitution contemplates."  This veto was unchallenged.

06/15/1880

Vetoes for third time bill about paying Deputy Marshals. Includes strong statement defending national sovereignty. This veto was unchallenged.

08/26/1880 – 11/06/1880

Extended tour including Iowa, Illinois, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico.  First Presidential trip to West Coast.  Visits Yosemite.

11/02/1880

James A. Garfield is Elected to Succeed President Hayes.

11/17/1880

Two treaties negotiated with China, one regulating immigration, the other trade. 

12/06/1880

Fourth Annual State of the Union Message. Calls for prompt and hearty obedience to the equal-rights amendments to the Constitution. "It will be the duty of the Executive . . . to prosecute unsparingly all who have been engaged in depriving citizens of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution." Universal education is "the best and surest guaranty of the primary rights of citizenship." "Whatever Government can fairly do to promote free popular education ought to be done." There is a need for increased appropriations for "educational facilities for the Indians."

"The conduct of the Indians throughout the country during the past year, with but few noteworthy exceptions, has been orderly and peaceful." Foresees "gradual merging of our Indian population in the great body of American citizenship."

1881

02/22/1881

Executive order to ban sale of intoxicating liquors on Army posts.

03/03/1881

Veto of Act to Facilitate Refunding of the National Debt.