BIOGRAPHIES OF THE NEW WORLD POWER RuTHERFORD B HAYES Thomas An Eoson Manager of poverty existing alongside such great fortune While these activists advocated for the economically disadvantaged others took up the causes of historically oppressed groups Women's rights advocates such as Margaret Sanger and Susan B Anthony gave women a voice on issues such as birth control and suf frage African Americans were championed by the journalist Ida B Wells Barnett who spearheaded an antilynching campaign and other initiatives aimed at racial justice And in 1909 just 46 years after the Emancipation Proclamation the African American editor historian and sociologist W E B Du Bois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP Another individual who contributed to the discussion of race in the United States was Mark Twain whose classic and controversial novel Huckleberry Finn addressed the shame ful legacy of slavery in the antebellum South and the persistent racial discrimination and violence After the end of the Reconstruction period the United States began to grow into a world power of unprecedented wealth and 10
INTRODUCTION cultural and social awareness It would con tinue to build power and prestige until by the end of World War II it was the strongest nation in the world The social reform move ments that took root in the late 19th and early 20th centuries also would endure with the strengthening of the labor movement and the reemergence of the civil rights and women s movements in the 1960s and 70s The individuals profiled in this volume are just a sample of the great leaders who helped shape the nation during this formative period of American history 11
CHAPTER 1 RUTHERFORD B HAYES he presidential election of 1876 between Rutherford B Hayes and Samuel Tilden was among the most bitterly contested in U S history Both the Democrats and the Republicans accused each other of fraud Not until March 2 two days before Pres Ulysses S Grant s term expired was the issue at last settled The electoral commission decided in favor of the Republican candi date Hayes After eight years of corruption in Washington Hayes tried to establish new standards of integrity in the White House EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware Ohio on Oct 4 1822 At 16 he entered Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio and in 1842 he graduated at the head of his class He then attended School Harvard Law in Cambridge Mass receiving a bachelor of laws degree in 1845 Returning to Ohio he established a successful legal practice in Cincinnati 12
RUTHERFORD B HAYES Hayes also entered local politics in the new Republican party While serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War he was nominated and elected to the U S Congress He took his seat in the House of Representatives in December 1865 and was reelected in 1866 He then served three terms as governor of Ohio attracting national attention with his strong advocacy of a sound currency backed by gold THE DISPUTED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION The Republican nominating convention for the 1876 presidential election met in Cincinnati The leading candidate Senator James G Blaine of Maine had been accused of graft and reformers controlled the convention Hayes Ohio’s favorite son won the nomination The Democratic party also nominated a reform candidate Samuel J Tilden The campaign was bit terly fought though the platforms of the two major parties differed little Tilden won a popular majority and early returns indi cated a Democratic victory in the electoral College as well 13
