October 16

"Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness."

Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President, 1877-1881, From a diary entry written while at the Soldiers' Home, August 9, 1878. Many issues, some highly political and others more practical faced Hayes during his tenure in office. This quote serves as a corollary from his Inaugural Address in 1877 when he stated, "he serves his party best who serves his country best." Hayes attempts to gain independence as President, without having to be beholden to the Spoils system where party supporters were "supposed" to be appointed to federal offices for supporting and "contributing" monetarily to the party and the President. Hayes battled to reform the practice but was unsuccessful during his term. Only after the assassination of James Garfield, who followed Hayes, was a law passed prohibiting contributions or "assessments" from appointees and requiring entrance exams for potential office holders. The diary entry, itself, was written at what is called "Lincoln's Cottage" at the Soldier's Home, the summer residence of Presidents going back to the Lincoln administration. It was (and is) located on a hill three miles north of the White House in Washington D.C.. There were cooler breezes away from the disease bearing heat and humidity found nearer to the Capital, located on the Potomac River. (Lincoln is said to have spent his last night on earth at the cottage on April 13, 1865, before he was assassinated.) Hayes mentions the "season" of pestilence (Yellow Fever) in his December 2, 1878 State of the Union Address..."The enjoyment of health by our people generally has, however, been interrupted during the past season by the prevalence of a fatal pestilence (the yellow fever) in some portions of the Southern States, creating an emergency which called for prompt and extraordinary measures of relief...About 100,000 cases are believed to have occurred, of which about 20,000, according to intelligent estimates, proved fatal...The fearful spread of this pestilence has awakened a very general public sentiment in favor of national sanitary administration, which shall not only control quarantine, but have the sanitary supervision of internal commerce in times of epidemics, and hold an advisory relation to the State and municipal health authorities, with power to deal with whatever endangers the public health..." (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29519)