10. Rutherford B. Hayes worked for educational and political reform
When Rutherford B. Hayes left the presidency in 1881, honoring his own prior pledge to only serve a single term as president, he returned to his native Ohio. Post-Reconstruction America had many cracks in its society, divided by the issues of race, immigration, Indian affairs, trade and tariffs, labor unions, women’s suffrage, and many more. Hayes believed that the key to resolving many of the issues dividing the country was through improved education, including vocational training. “I believe in skilled labor as a part of education,” he wrote, and he took action to put his beliefs into practice. Hayes lobbied for charities which supported improved education, and for federal subsidies for schools and students.
In arguing for improved education Hayes also worked to make higher education more readily available to all, rather than to merely those who could afford its costs and the time to complete. Hayes was concerned about the growing trend in the United States in which a small minority controlled a disparate proportion of the national wealth. “Money is power”, Hayes wrote, while noting its influence in the government at all levels, as well as its influence in the churches and the press. He argued that only an informed and educated populace could exert a balance against the influence of money, particularly in politics, where its distribution was largely unregulated and poorly monitored.