RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
(Rutherford Birchard Hayes)
Hayes was a Civil Service reformer. After the presidency of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and subsequent Presidents fired large numbers of public servants—even minor poitions and replaced them with supporters. Hayes stopped that practice and initiated civil servce reform.
“Sectionalism” really referred to the North / South animosity which carried over from the Civil War. The South would hardly ever elect a Republican as it was the Republican Lincoln Government that ended slavery and put down their rebellion in the Civil War. There was a language difference that was much greater than modern times and the South was way behind most of the rest of the country in terms of education and standard of living. Every time the Federal Government would try and enforce the Constitution with respect to race, the sectional friction would break out again. The sectional issues carried into the 21st century but had gotten much better.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was an American politician and attorney who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving 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. He negotiated the political agreement to end federal support of Reconstruction.
