Mrs. Hayes enlarged the conservatory by the removal of the billiard room. Thus she was able to have a more abundant collection of plants and display of flowers. At the end of the long corridor, a brilliant and fragrant mass of growing blooming roses greeted the eye and was a source of delight to all visitors. Each morning she had baskets of flowers brought to her, and personally arranged anywhere from a dozen to fifty bouquets for various people, not only friends, but officials, and hospitals, and institutions. She carried her love of flowers and nature to the extent of purchasing a dinner service of a thousand pieces, and upon it were reproduced the flora and fauna of America. This work was done by Theodore R. Davis, an artist-naturalist who had travelled extensively and familiarized himself with the vegetation of our land. The effect of the bold designs of fish, fowl, and flowers upon the tableware brought a variety of comment. Some ridiculed and others approved, but all admitted the idea distinctive and original.
Mrs. Hayes did not emulate Mrs. Grant in her social activities. She followed the old custom of declining invitations, but she managed to be well represented by some of her family and a group of young girls.
She left Washington loved by the poor, with the unqualified admiration and devotion of the church people and those advocating prohibition. A movement was started by the temperance people to express the appreciation of her stand against liquor by a gift to the city of a fountain named for her. She did not favour this, for she had seen too much of unsanitary drinking fountains to be at all impressed with the idea, even though it was an unusually appropriate one; and when a life-size portrait of herself was suggested, instead, she entered into the plan most cheerfully. The celebrated artist, Daniel Huntington, of New York, was commissioned to paint the portrait. As she was planning to make a trip to New York to purchase her winter wardrobe, she offered to get whatever the artist considered most suitable in colour and material for the gown to be worn in the portrait. As she was what he called a rose brunette, Mr. Huntington chose the colour and material of the lovely maroon velvet gown which appears in the portrait that now graces the White House. This painting was presented by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and unveiled by a delegation at the close of the Hayes régime in March, 1887. The address was given by Frances Willard.
Mrs. Hayes did not live very long after her return to Ohio. She was spared a long and painful illness, however, dying suddenly on June 25, 1889. She was seated on the porch engaged with some fancy work, watching some of the young people of the family playing tennis. Her needle gave her a bit of trouble, and she inclined her head to see what was wrong. She was heard to give a little sigh, and before anyone realized that she was ill, she was unconscious from a stroke of apoplexy, and died a few hours later. She was buried on the knoll at Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Ohio.
President Hayes had long been interested in the preservation of historic places such as the early homes of the Presidents, their birthplaces, graves, etc., and this led to the trip to Wakefield and the placing of a marker there on the site of George Washington’s birthplace. The Washington Monument project received through his influence the needed impetus to secure the appropriation by Congress for the resumption of the construction. To Colonel Casey the task was given, and under his direction work again began. The Monument in its unfinished condition had been an eyesore to the people of Washington for nearly twenty-five years.
Rutherford Hayes won high regard for his unfailing dignity in his official duties, made so difficult by the politicians of his own party and by the Democrats who controlled the House. His choice of a private secretary, W. K. Rogers, of Minnesota, a friend of long standing, unloosed the first storm of criticism. His Cabinet selections had been met with ridicule, the claim being that they were neither Northern, Southern, Democratic, nor Republican. Throughout his term he was continually taunted with the charge of fraud, although President Grant, the electoral commission, and a vast host of powerful, staunch Americans supported and endorsed him. President Hayes mapped out his course and followed it. He would not be stampeded. His calm, deliberate policies enabled him to carry out his theory regarding the necessity of withdrawing Federal troops from the Southern States as the quickest method to aid those states to get rid of carpet-bag government. To the great consternation of the opposition and against the advice of many of his own party, he withdrew the troops—a step calling for courage. Immediately, the whites assumed control, and the worst of the reconstruction evils was over.
Out of his resolve to rid the government of the scandals that had so obscured the vision of the public for the previous eight years arose so much contention that two factions formed. One called themselves “Stalwarts”; their chief reason for existing was to express opposition to the conciliatory policy which he had manifested toward the South, in his great effort to make the reality of a reunited country manifest. For this he was called a “Puritan” and those who followed him were termed “Half-breeds.”
Very little constructive legislation could be developed against the combined opposing elements which maintained their hostility throughout his term. He vetoed the Bland-Allison Bill, which pledged the government to the purchase of silver to the extent of $24,000,000 yearly to be turned into dollars. Congress passed the bill over his veto. Specie payments were resumed, and a Chinese treaty negotiated which exercised control over the immigration from that country.
President Hayes did not seek a renomination, but returned to his home to indulge in various forms of philanthropy and to plan and have constructed under his own direction a monument that should serve as his memorial. With the death of Mrs. Hayes and her interment in the spot he had chosen, this memorial became a hallowed and sacred project to develop into a memorial park. He did not survive his wife long. His death occurred quite suddenly, on January 17, 1893, shortly after he had remarked that he had “rather die at Spiegel Grove than live anywhere else.”