f 
 
 / 
 
S P K Til C H 
 
 JUDGE JOHNSTON, 
 
 LIFE AND CPIARACTER 
 
 '^^. B. HIJLl^ES. 
 
 DELIVERED AT AVONDALE, OHIO 
 
 Jul.v J I. 1S76. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 
 
 1876. 
 

c\? 
 
 SPEECH OF JUDGE JOHNSTON, AT AVONDALE. 
 
 Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Bayle, ill writiiio; of Mahomet, says he never could de- 
 cide whether liis friends or his enemies tohl most hes ahoiit 
 him; and so it might too generally be said about candidates 
 for otiice. In the case of R. B. Hayes there seems to be 
 no reason for perverting the truth. His friends have no 
 occasion to exaggerate his merits; and his enemies, unless 
 they are ruffians outright, will not assail his character as a 
 gentleman, a patriot, and an honest man. 
 
 I have had rare opportunities of knowing him for the 
 last twenty-seven years, and I propose on this occasion 
 simpl}' to answer a few questions which liave been put to 
 me in regard to him, and I do this chiefly for the information 
 of a numerous circle of my early friends who have not had 
 the pleasure of his personal acquaintance. 
 
 WUO IS HAYES, AND WHAT OF HIM? 
 
 He is a plant of the Ohio soil ; was born in Delaware, 
 Ohio, in 1822, and grew up a boy of promise. He was 
 educated at Keiiyon College, Ohio, and graduated with 
 the first honors of his class in 1842. He studied the 
 law in Columbus, Ohio; and afterward, in 1845, took his 
 degree in the law school of Harvard University. In 
 1845 he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, and com- 
 menced the practice of the taw in Fremont, Ohio. In 1849 
 he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced his profession 
 about nine years, in the meantime declining a nomination 
 for Judge of the Common Pleas. From 1858 to 18G1 he 
 held the important office of City Solicitor, first by appoint- 
 ment, and afterward by election. In 18G1 he enlisted in 
 the Union army, and, with the rank of major, took the 
 
[-1] 
 
 field, and served till the fall of Richmond and the close of 
 the war, havinor been repeatedly wounded in battle and had 
 four horses killed under him ; and, in the meanwhile, rose 
 by merit from the rank of major to that of maj'ir-^eneral. 
 AVhilo he was yet in the iiehl, in 18G4, he was nominated 
 for Coiiicre-ss, in the second district, and elected by a large 
 majority, notwithstanding his refusal to leave his post to 
 canvass the district. At the close of the war he took his 
 seat in Congress and served two years, and was again 
 elected in lS-,6. In 1807 he was elected Governor of 
 Ohio, serveil his lirst term, was re-elected, and served the 
 second. He was again elected Governor in 187o, and is 
 now in the midst of his third term. He has been in the 
 public serviee, with one brief interval, eighteen years, and 
 is now, in the fift^'-fourth 3-ear of his age, a candidate for 
 the last and highest office in the nation. And here it is 
 proper to notice two peculiarities in his history : First, He 
 was never known to solicit an office or a prom<»tion, great 
 or small, in his life. Second. In all the olUces he has held, 
 whether civil or military, he has never failed, not even 
 through accident, to perform his duty witii fidelity, wisdom, 
 and success. You ane ready to exclaim, 
 
 LICKV MAX ! 
 
 Call it what you will. If this success is the result of 
 good luck, be it so ; I want a lucky man for President. If 
 it is the result of wisdom, be it so ; I want a wise man for 
 President. If it is the result of an overruling Providence, 
 be it so ; I want a chosen instrument of Heaven for Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 " There's a I>ivinity that shapes our ends, 
 Kough Ih'W thrm how we will.'' 
 
 And if, by a chain of unforeseen events, a young man of a 
 big heart ami large common-sense, making no pretensions to 
 genius, with no ambition for power or ]»lace, is led in safety 
 throui;h the trackless maze of human accidents f(^r eighteen 
 year.s — four years of the time in the " valley and shadow of 
 death *" — all the while perf »rming important pul)lic duties, 
 
[ H 
 
 without a blunder in his uftUirs or a blot on his name, is 
 not this a man of destiny? 
 
 lie had four horses shot Irom unik-r liim in battle. I do 
 not refer to this as a proof of his courage — that needs no 
 proof — bnt as a proof that the " Divinity that shapes our 
 ends " was with him, and *' covered his head in the day of 
 battle." Not because he was better than thousands who 
 fell on his right hand and on liis left, but that his life was 
 preserved for the accomplishment of something mcn-e for 
 his country. 
 
 On Braddock's Held, AVashington had two horses shot 
 under him; and man}- a time and oft, when I was a cliild, 
 liave I heard our good old mothers teach their children, 
 from this fact, tliat Washington was a chosen instrument of 
 Heaven to achieve our independence. It may be asked, 
 whether this man of destiny has any 
 
 MARKED PECULIARITIES. 
 
 I answer, none whatever. Neither his body nor his mind 
 runs into rickety proportions. Place him on a platform 
 toirether with one hundred distinguished men, and call in 
 an able connoisseur, who has neither seen nor heard of any 
 one of them, and he will point him out as a model man ; 
 neither too large nor too small, nor too tall' nor too short, 
 nor too fat nor too lean, nor too old nor too young. A 
 man in the prime and vigor of healthful manhood, with 
 blood in his veins and marrow in his bones; able to endure 
 any labor, either of body or of mind, whicli may devolve 
 upon him. 
 
 His face seems made to match his form. No painful, 
 care-worn wrinkles, indicative of intirmities or mistortunes, 
 to provoke a grudge against nature, or engeudei* sourness 
 toward mankind. Nor does he wear a smirking face, as if 
 he were a candidate for admiration ; but a line sunny coun- 
 tenance, such as men and women respect, and children 
 love — such as the good old farmer wore, of wliom the little 
 boy said, " That old gent wo n't lick a little feller for gettin' 
 on behind him on his sle(L" 
 
 lli-i manner.-, like his countenance, are simple and sincere. 
 
[G] 
 
 He do n't run to meet you, and call yon " HT>/ very dear 
 sir.'' He takes you by the hand, with a cordial kindness 
 Avhicli recognizes the universal brotherhood of man, and 
 inipressesyou that he is a man who <;ets above nobody, and 
 nobody gets above him. 
 Let us take a peep into 
 
 niS DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 It is a sad tnitii th.' world over, that nearly every dis- 
 tinguished literary man has had domestic troubles, result- 
 ing in separation trom their wives. Politicians have 
 liad but little better luck. A hunger-bitten, seedy scrub 
 marries a wile who is oidy too good for him. By and 
 by the wheel of fortune turns him up in Congress, or 
 some other respectable post. The lift is too high for his 
 weak head, lie imagines that he is a great man thrown 
 away on an inferior woman, and takes on swells, lie 
 sets the world to talking about hi< idle gallantries, and 
 forfeits the affections of his own family, and domestic 
 liappiness is sacrificed to the shams of artificial life. 
 
 But here is a thoroughly domestic man, whose cheerful 
 spirit does not require the dissipations of artificial life — 
 whose own home is dearer to him than any other spot on 
 earth — whose affections never wandered from the lode-star 
 of his life — who loves his wife and children with a tender- 
 ness unknown to a weak and vulgar lieart ; and whose wife 
 and children, and even his domestic aninuils, love him. 
 
 " ' Tis sweet to hear the wateh-tlog's honest bark 
 Bay deep-moutlied welcome as we draw near home; 
 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye to mark 
 Our coming, and look brighter when we come." 
 
 It is a moral irrandeur of which a nation may he proud 
 to nave at its head such an cxami)le of conjugal Ihlelity and 
 domestic happiness. 
 
 Allowing -Mr. Hayes to be a good nnm, and a forlunate 
 man, the ct)mmon (piestion still reeurs, 
 
[7] 
 
 IS hi; a I'Auty man? 
 
 Unqncstionabl}', in a certain sense, he is. From the 
 lionr the Republican party was formed to resist the repeal 
 of the Mitisouri compromise and the encroachments of 
 slavery in the new territories, he has stood in the foremost 
 rank of the party, battling for the great principle that all 
 men are created ecpial, and that all men should be equal 
 before the law. 
 
 Like the good Zachary Taylor, he would leave the evil 
 aloiie where it was established by law, but would not allow 
 it to overspread one acre more of the public domain. In 
 this faith he lived till treason raised its baleful head — 
 appealed from the ballot to the sword — and commenced 
 the work of destruction — till, according to Stephen A. 
 Douglass, the nation was divided into two parties, "the 
 Patriots and the Traitors." Then he belonged to the 
 party of Patriots, and pledged his life in support of his 
 laitli ; and so was a party man. 
 
 When the war was over, and the broken fragments of a 
 once glorious country were to be collected and again united 
 under the old banner, he was among the active laborers in 
 the blessed work of reunion, and in such amendments to 
 the constitution as Avere deemed necessary to secure to all 
 men equtd rights and equal protection under the law. 
 
 Others, who had "run well for a season," became tired 
 of private life, and impatient of delay, and turned their 
 backs on their old friends. But li. 1>. Hayes stands fast in 
 the faith — a party man. 
 
 But when you speak of a partizanship like that of Tam- 
 many Hall, which declares that the spoils belong to the 
 victors — a doctrine worthy only of pirates — he is no longer 
 a -party man. In the platform on which he stands, and in 
 his letter of acceptance, he distinctly and emphatically re- 
 pudiates this barbarous system ; laying down as a principle 
 in civil service reform, that honest and capable men' are to 
 be chosen for the civil service, regardless of party names, 
 and, when chosen, shall hold their places so long as tlu-y do 
 tlirir work fiiillitullv. 
 
[«] 
 
 Xor is this a new idea with Mr. Kayos. "When it became 
 his (hity, under the hiw, to ajtpoint coniinissioners to relieve 
 the Siipreiue Court of an overehari;eJ docket, he had before 
 him both personal and party tricnds etiough to till all the 
 places. But he did that which was both wiser and better 
 — made a fair division, appointini^ able and honest men of 
 both parties. 
 
 This is magnanimous, to be sure, but 
 
 IS HE A GREAT MAN? 
 
 I answer, no ; not in tlie vulvar sense of the term. But 
 what is it to be a j^reat man ? Is it to be a Avondrous orator, 
 teaclnng lessons of wisdom to-day, and committing acts of 
 folly to-inorrt)W ? Is it to be a ruthless conqueror, deso- 
 lating half the globe, and bringing ruin on his own head 
 at last? Is it to be an ill-b;ilanced genius, partly strong 
 and partly weak, like the feet of Xebuchadnessar's image, 
 part of iron and part of clay? I have read of a hero so 
 strong that he carried away the gates of a city, posts, bar, 
 and all, on his shoulders; and so weak that he revealed the 
 secret of his strength to a graceless woman, and then went 
 to sleep in her lap, to be shorn of his locks and have his 
 eyes gouged out. A fair sample this of heroes, from Xim- 
 rod to Louis Napoleon. And what of the Alexanders, the 
 Ctesars, tiie Tamerlanes, of Charles XII. of Sweden and 
 Napoleon I, of France, these destroyers of nations and 
 scourges of human kind ? Call ye these great men ? They 
 were ijreat men vulgarly so called. Thev terrified the na- 
 tions of the earth, as comets usetl to do, but they shed 
 neither light nor hope on the cause ot humanity. From 
 such lilazing meteors the republican heart fondly turns 
 to the modest but unfading lights of our own Washington 
 and Lincoln, 
 
 "Constant as the Northern star, 
 Of whose true-fixod anil resting i|uality, 
 There is no fellow in th<' lirmanient. " 
 
 Pardon me, I do not nu-au to tonijiare Mr. Hayes, or any 
 body else, with AVashington or Lincoln. If he had all the 
 
Crcat and (j!:ood qnalitu's ol" ln)tli tlioso iiioii toi^'otlior, lie 
 never liad the opportunity to ht; their e(pniL To he the 
 cliosen instrnment of Heaven in winniui; and c-^tahlishing 
 the iVeedoni and independence of four millions oi'i»re^.scd 
 colonists, and erecting on the ruins of despotism a great 
 and free republic, was an opportunity which could happen 
 only to one man in four millions, and l)Ut once in a thou- 
 sand years. To be the instrument in saving from ruin the 
 structure which "Washington and his compeers liad built, 
 and striking the fetters from four million shives, was an 
 opi'ortunity wliich could only happen to one man in forty- 
 two millions, and but once in a hundred years. 
 
 According to my poor notion of greatness, in a republic, 
 recogni/ing the principle that all men are created equal, 
 the man who in trying times performs with wisdom, tidcl- 
 ity, and success, every duty, great and small, to whicli the 
 providence of God has c:ille<l him, is a great man. If I am 
 right in this, then Mr. Hayes is a great man now, but you 
 can make him greater. If you make him President, which 
 I believe you will, and, following the uniform bent of his 
 character,' he discharges the duties of the future as well aa 
 be has discharged the duties of the past, his title will be 
 complete; and who can doubt of this, cousidering his char- 
 acter as 
 
 A MAX OF PURPOSE. 
 
 " No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking 
 back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Xor is he lit for any 
 oth( r kingdom. That man alone is fit to rule, who when 
 l)e sees the line of duty lietore him, pursues it — not with 
 headhmg zeal to-day, lukcwarmness to-morrow, coldness 
 the day after; but with steady and unfaltering step to the 
 end. If I was in search of an illustration, I would lind it 
 in the military life of K. U. Hayes. 
 
 This man had no natural bent to military life — no fond- 
 ness for bloodshed. No Quaker ever loved peace and har- 
 mony more than he. But when the alternative of live or 
 die, sink or swim, was presented to the country in which 
 he was born and reared — when the glorious fabric of re- 
 pultlican freedom reared l)y our fathers was assailed by 
 
[10] 
 
 traitor hands, and menaced to be laid in ruin, and the liope 
 of the world bhisted ; when this broad hmd, mapped out 
 ]jy the fini^er of God as thesite of freedom's empire, was 
 about to be torn asunder, and a new empire erected on its 
 ruins, with shivery for its corner-stone ; when Eni;lish aris- 
 tocracy proehiinied the American Republic a failure; then 
 tbis unpretendiuf^ young num buckled on his sword and 
 nuirciied to tbe field, askins: no quct^tions what was to befal 
 /j/m, if his country could be saved: and having "put bis 
 liand to tlie plow,"' never for a moment looked back, till 
 lie saw the capitol of treason fall, and the traitor chief an 
 exile, hiding in female attire from the vengeance of his 
 country. 
 
 While he was yet in the tiehl, lie was nomir.ated for Con- 
 •grcps in the Second District, and urged by a friend to come 
 home and canvass tbe district. His rtjily was short hut 
 cbaracteristic : " Any man that woubl leave his post in the 
 field to canvass for Congress ouglit to be scaljtcd." Atter 
 he was elected I wrote to him from "Wasbingtoii tbat I had 
 a nice suit of rooms at his serviee, and asked him when he 
 would come to Wasbington. His reply was tbat he never 
 would come to Wasbington miless be could come tbrough 
 Kichmon(L And he did come through Ricbmond — came, 
 not as a Roman conqueror claiming a triumpb. but as :i re- 
 I)ublican citizen, wlio bad tini>bod his work in the field, 
 and Avas ready to enter on his woik in tbe council ot' the 
 nation. 
 
 I relate these anecih)tes not to ]>rove the patriotism of 
 Mr. Hayes — that needs no proof — but to illustrate bis 
 character as a man of purpose — a man of stability. 
 
 I have known a man of great altility, in some respects, 
 to di'vofe a ([iiartcr of a ct'iitin-y to deiu)unciiig slavery and 
 slaveholders, and wlien the legitimate eonserpienee of bis 
 logic come to tbe tug of war, to give the contest u\) — to 
 he willing Un- the sake of peace to deliver <ner tbe better 
 lialf of the continent to tbe dominion of slavery, antl con- 
 sign four million human beiuL's and their ]>o>tcrity to tbe 
 fetter and tlie lash iorever. Xot so R. T.. llaycs. Tbe 
 loixic of bis toni:uc»aiid the logic of bis swoid vpoke tbe 
 
1 11 ] 
 
 same lanc:na<TO. " The TTnidn inust and shall he preserved." 
 Tin' wicked rehi'llion niust bo abandoned or the cause of it 
 rooted out forever. .Vnd it is footed out, tliatd<s ijo to God, 
 and thanks to the instruments under God who ucconi- 
 plisliod tlie work. 
 
 But has he the ability to defend himself and Ins doc- 
 trines ? In short, 
 
 IS HE AN ORATOR? 
 
 IIow much oratory does it require to make a good Presi- 
 dent? Judging by what I liave read of others, and what 
 I know of Hayes, he is a better public speaker than George 
 AVashington, Thomas Jetterson, or Andrew Jackson — all 
 of wiioni seem to have held their own. True, be is not a 
 metaphysical gladiator, like Calhoun ; he lacks tlie graceful 
 elocpience of Clay, the massive logic of AVebster, and the 
 moving pathos of Corwin. He can not " roar you " like 
 Governor AJlen, nor "tear a passion to tatters'*' like Gen. 
 Carey. But he always understands his subject, and speaks 
 with logical clearness and classic accuracy. When you go 
 to hear him, you are not traus['0rted by his eloquence to the 
 regions of imagination ; but you understand him, and when 
 you go home, you can remember and repeat every point of 
 his argument; and I believe he understands the [irinciples 
 of our federal government as well, can state them as clearly, 
 and defend them as ably as any man of my acquaintance, 
 in or out of public life. All the shining qualities of the 
 orator belong to the department of genius, and may, and 
 otten do, exist without wisdom. But 
 
 IS HAYES AN ABLE LAWYER ? 
 
 lie will not compare with Marshall, or Piid-cney, or Ham- 
 ilton, or Burr, or Webster, or Curtis, or Ewing. But he is a 
 sound and able lawyer; at least I always thought so. About 
 twenty-two years ago I chose him from amongst the able 
 bar of Cincinnati to manage a cause of my own, in which 
 I felt some interest ; and about the same time tlie l)ar of 
 Cincinnati recommended him to Governor Chase to till a 
 vacancy on the bench of the Common Pleas. 
 
 Of his sharpness as a special pleader I know nothing. 
 
[ 1^] 
 
 Special pleas are l)iit the liaiulinaitls of justice in tlie outer 
 court ; and I should hardly tliiiik he wasted much time iu 
 Hirtatioiis with them. Xnr do I suppose he )-emembers as 
 many decided cases hy their titles as our late dud<;e Storer, 
 or Mr. Justice Swayne. But he knows tlie great lunda- 
 mental maxims of the hiw, an<l the great jirinciples of 
 moral ethics which underlie all hiw, as well as the best of 
 them. 
 
 AVe have never had for President what the world esteems 
 a great lawyer. It is even doubtful whether tiie hair-split- 
 ting distinctions of the special pleader, the unseemly wrang- 
 lings of the nisi prius court, and the blind devotion to musty 
 precedents, do not dwarf rather than enlarge the under- 
 standing ; iind whether the simjile rules of reciprocal jus- 
 tice, known as the law of nations, are not better understood 
 by the candid student of history than by the great lawyer, 
 more es[K'cially the great railroad lavyijcr. 
 
 But what is to be said of the general 
 
 SCIIOLARSUIP OF MR. HAYES? 
 
 Scholarshi[t is an accomplishment rather than a qualiti- 
 cation for the office of President. That of George Wash- 
 ington consisted of a ]>laiu, common English education, with 
 a knowledge of surveying. That of Abraham Lincoln was 
 precisely the same. Yet Lord Brougham does not liesitate 
 to say that "Washington's education was ijetter adajited to 
 the duties he had to perform than the learning acrpiired at 
 the universities. And the same observatit>n has been made 
 in regard to LincoUi by some of the lirst s<.-holars in Europe 
 and America. 
 
 Ill addition to large stores of comnu)n sense, and common 
 inroniiation, and conniion hom-sty, which are the chief 
 t|ualilications, it is desirable that the chief magistrate of 
 the nation shouM write and sjicak the national hmguage 
 with jiropricty ; and nobody who knows him tloubts the 
 ability of Mr. Jlayes to do this. \\\\{ J make no apology 
 for his lack of scholarship. At twenty years of age he took 
 his degree of Baciielor «)f Arts at Kenyon College, with 
 the lir>t honors of his class. Shortly after, ho took his de- 
 
[13] 
 
 gree of Bachelor of Law at Harvard University, ami Im- lias 
 been a diligent student ever since, except when the ardu- 
 ons duties of the cani[) ahsorhed his tiine. Of the fifteen 
 Presidents who have gone before, Thomas Jefferson and 
 John Qniney A(hinis only have snrpassed him in scholar- 
 ship ; while neither "Washington nor Jackson nor Lincoln 
 were his eqnals in this respect. But 
 
 HAS HE EXPERIENCE ? 
 
 Something more than liis antagonist, wlio never served 
 the United States in any capacity, civil or military ; but 
 whose experience has been limited to the politics of Tam- 
 many Hall and railroad law3-ering, neither of wliich tend 
 to increase one's stock either of wisdom or honesty. But 
 history is somewhat sarcastic as to the value of experience. 
 In looking back, we find the longest experience and the 
 worst President uniting in the person of James Buchanan ; 
 and the shortest experience and the best President (AVash- 
 ington excepted) uniting in Al)raham Lincoln. 
 
 What I have said under the head of scholarship, I repeat 
 under the head of experience. A large store of common 
 sense, and common information, and common honesty, ap- 
 plied with patriotic solicitude to the wants of the country, 
 are worth more than whole cyclopedias of learidng and 
 ages of experience. But is it true that 
 
 GOVERNOR HAYES IS RICH ? 
 
 So I am told, and if it is so, I am glad to learn it, but far 
 gladder to know that he came l)y it honestly. That he did 
 not acquire it by gambling in the gold room at New York, 
 Eor by trading in crooked whisky, nor l>.y absorbin<; rail- 
 road subsidies, nor b}' receiving labulous donations in the 
 name of fees, nor by jobbing in the stocks of decayed cor- 
 porations ; nor by watering railroad stocks, nor by credit 
 mobilier. 
 
 A French writersays there are but three ways of acrpiir- 
 ing a fortune: By inheritance from an ancestor; by per- 
 severing incbistry ; or by stealing. By the first and second 
 of these motles .\L-. llaye>' has acquired his fortune, be the 
 
pamc more or less, and left the third mode of acquisition 
 to whom it may concern. 
 
 In a great and rich and growing countr}', like ours, it is 
 appropriate at least tliat the cliief magistrate should have 
 the means of sustaining his position before the world with- 
 out disreputable shifts, or dependence on the liberality of 
 his friends; ami Avhen we consider the ruinous extrava- 
 gance into which the ladies of the capitol plunge them- 
 selves and drag their husbands, a reasonable degree of 
 independence in the executive mansion may have its re- 
 fornuitory influence. If the excellent lady who [iresides 
 over the ton should rebuke this folly by attiring herself in 
 Christian simplieity, it can not be ascribed to povert}' ; and 
 if she shouitl add richness to simjilicity, we shall know that 
 it is paid for. But I must close. 
 
 I have been a great idolator in ray day. AVhcu I was 
 young I had a great admiration of great men, at a great 
 distance; but on near approach they dwindle down to the 
 common stature of my neighbors ; some of them lower. 
 Some vice, some folly, or some weakness, to mar the per- 
 fection of the god, and teach me that they were mere men ; 
 some of them bad men. Give me a man without rickety 
 ]ir<)porti<^>ns, a sound mind in a sound body — a man whom 
 I know to be honest and believe t() be cajiable. 
 
 Some days since a gentleman, not himself above medioc- 
 rity, asked me it All-. Hayes was not a mediocre man. "Well, 
 we shall not disunite about words. I have weighed in iho 
 balanee of history the Theocrat, the Autocrat, the Aristo- 
 crat, the ])emo<'i'at, and the Medioerat, and of all these the 
 Mediocrat suits me best, lie is the man who represents most 
 nearly the comnkon sense, the common lionesty, the com- 
 mon wants, the common wealth, and the common prosperity 
 of our common i-ountry. And without admitting his infe- 
 riority to the great raili'oad lawyer and railroad siiecuiattir, 
 on the other side, Kutherrord 15. Hayes fills the bill. 
 
 T shall next sp.'ak of the platt'orins. but not this eveniui^. 
 
LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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UBRARV Of COt^GRESS 
 
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