THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3874, 16 March 1877, Page 2

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

(" Saturday Review.") Mb Hayes' career has been sufficiently distinguished to show that he possesses some sterling qualities. As is the case with so many other Americans, his ancestors on both sides narrowly escaped coming over in the Mayflower. He entered a Western college, and afterwards became a law student, attending the lectures of Judge S tory. After admission, to the bar, his great feat was the defence of the famous Nancy Farrer, who had been induced by a villain to poison two families. She admitted the fact, and her face was repulsively plain and brutal. Mr Hayes, however, defended her on the ground of insanity, and established, it is said, an important, precedent in regßrd to the legal questions involved. Afc any rate he gained reputation, became a successful lawyer, appeared in a good many fugitive slave cases, and took parfc on the abolitionist side in the political agitations which preceded the war. When the w r ar broke out, Hayes was modest enough to refuse a colonelcy; but he became major in a regiment which was sent into the field after sis weeks' drilling. He rose in tbe course of the war to be a brigadiergeneral. He did a great deal of fighting, being four times wounded, and being under fire (as we are told with the American love of statistics) on 60 days between May and October, 1864. Various anecdotes illustrate his courage and devotion. If, like otber volunteers, he remained in a subordinate position, he seems to have discharged all the duties which fell to his share' in a creditable manner, and be had the good forturne, owing to the sphere of his duties, which was chiefly in Western Virginia, to be only once involved in a defeat. His chief exploit was his share in running down Morgan on the famous raid through Ohio in 1863. Mr Hayes had no chance of rivalling the military glory of Grant or Sherman ; but he seems to have been amongst tbe best of those ready-made I soldiers who went straight from lawyers' offices to the command of regiments. He I confesses frankly to his uncomfortable feeling when first asked for orders by a West Point captain, to whom he judiciously replied tbat there was nothing out of the usual routine ; but four years of pretty steady fighting seemed "to have trained him to be a very competent regimental officer. Mr Hayes services at the j head of an Ohio regiment naturally recommended him to his own State. He j was twice sent to Congress, where he always voted and never talked ; he has been thrice Governor of his State, in spite, on the lasfc two occasions, of his own wish for retirement, and has reduced the debt and promoted general economy and reform. As a prominent Kepublican, strongly in favor of hard money, secular education, the rights of the negroes, and Civil Service reform, he has now received the nomination of the Presidency. Of the various questions at issue, the most interesting to English observers is probably that of Civil Service reform. We are told that Mr Hayes is specially sound. When Governor of Ohio, he was asked to turn out the State librarian as a democrat, in favor of a worthy and competent Republican. He refused, on the ground tbat the present incumbent was a " faithful painstaking old gentleman, with a family of invalid girls dependent on bim." Moreover, he was habitually courteous and popular witb all who used the library. For these excellent reasons the Governor declined to turn the poor old man out. Nobody will deny that he did right ; but one would be inclined to hope thafc such an act of leniency is not regarded in America as a superhuman display of virtue. To these facts we may add that Mr Hayes is not first-rate on the stump ; indeed we are told that one of his speeches is almost "as helpless as the utterance of some able, slow languaged Englishman." On the other hand, he has a systematic mode of collecting newspaper cuttings, which enable him to come down with tremendous effect upon politicians who have ventured to change their principles, in hope of oblivion as to their previous career. In short, if not brilliant, he is solid, and sensible, and business-like.