Rutherford B. Hayes Quote

The Answer:

We couldn't find the motto or slogan of his campaign for president during the election of 1876. But we thought maybe you were looking for Hayes' best known quotation, which was taken from his inaugural address in 1877.

He serves his party best who serves his country best.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893), the country's 19th president, is generally considered a president who did both. He was a dignified member of the Republican Party who believed that a president should not run for more than one term, and he was a Civil War veteran who was wounded four times.

After being involved in the most fiercely disputed election in American history, Hayes' term as president was highlighted by his successes in bringing together divided Southern states after the Civil War and pushing reform of civil service.

Click this link to go to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center and read from the diary Hayes kept from age 12 until his death. Or read a lengthy obituary of Hayes, pulled from the pages of the New York Times in 1893.

-The Editors