Rutherford B. Hayes

A commanding 1881 portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes by Eliphalet Frazer Andrews captures the 19th-century president with authoritative presence and deep green tones, inviting you to explore this piece of American history.


eliphalet frazer andrews (1835 - 1915)

Eliphalet Frazer Andrews (1835-1915) was an American portrait & genre painter, known for detailed interiors, historical scenes, and White House commissions. Founder of the Corcoran School of Art.

Galería Nacional de Retratos (Washington, Estados Unidos de América)

Descubre la historia de EE.UU. a través de sus personajes más influyentes en la Galería Nacional de Retratos, Washington D.C.! Portraits icónicos, artistas y líderes que te conectan con el alma americana.

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes lost the 1876 general election by approximately 250,000 votes, yet he was awarded the necessary electoral college votes after the two major parties struck a bargain. As a concession, Hayes withdrew federal troops from Democratic strongholds in the South, thus ending Reconstruction and the federal commitment to African American civil rights. This inauspicious beginning to his term in office earned Hayes the nickname “His Fraudulency.”A Civil War veteran, Hayes called in federal troops to put down the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 but privately expressed reservations about his decision. After the failed Indian Wars of the 1870s, Hayes began to view the use of force as futile and tragically destructive for all concerned. However, rather than granting Native Americans true sovereignty, he tried to promote their submission to white authority through the cultural assimilation of their youth, forcibly sending boys and girls from Western tribes to boarding schools in the East.