Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the United States serving from 1877 – 1881. As the Republican nominee, Frederick Douglass campaigned for Hayes yet later felt betrayed by the way Hayes removed the remaining Union troops from the clearly unreconstructed South. Still, Hayes appointed Douglass as Marshal of Washington, D.C. While there was an effort made to prevent Douglass from attaining this position due to his race, with Hayes’ support he was approved.
“I was ever a welcome visitor at the Executive Mansion on state occasions and all others, while Rutherford B. Hayes was President of the United States. I have further to say that I have many times during his administration had the honor to introduce distinguished strangers to him, both of native and foreign birth, and never had reason to feel myself slighted by himself or his amiable wife…”[1]
Rutherford B. Hayes died on January 17, 1893 at the age of 70. He was buried in the Rutherford B. Hayes State Memorial Grounds in Fremont, Ohio.
Exact Grave GPS coordinates: 41.340058, -83.130100
[1] Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Boston: De Wolfe & Fiske Co., 1892), 518.
The Graves of Frederick Douglass 