Rutherford B. Hayes: Quotes about war

“Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Diary (4 January 1861)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Context: Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation.

War , Fear

“War is a cruel business and there is brutality in it on all sides”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Letter to Lucy Webb Hayes, whose cousin was a prisoner and died at Andersonville prison (2 July 1864)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Context: You use the phrase “brutal Rebels.” Don’t be cheated in that way. There are enough “brutal Rebels” no doubt, but we have brutal officers and men too. I have had men brutally treated by our own officers on this raid [to Lynchburg, Va. ]. And there are plenty of humane Rebels. I have seen a good deal of it on this trip. War is a cruel business and there is brutality in it on all sides, but it is very idle to get up anxiety on account of any supposed peculiar cruelty on the part of Rebels. Keepers of prisons in Cincinnati, as well as in Danville, are hard-hearted and cruel.

War , Business

“Strikes and boycotting are akin to war, and can be justified only on grounds analogous to those which justify war, viz., intolerable injustice and oppression.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Diary (6 April 1886)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

War

“The general review of the past tends to satisfy me with my political life. No man, I suppose, ever came up to his ideal. The first half [of] my political life was first to resist the increase of slavery and secondly to destroy it…. The second half of my political life has been to rebuild, and to get rid of the despotic and corrupting tendencies and the animosities of the war, and other legacies of slavery.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Diary (17 February 1882)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

Life , War , Past

“I still feel just as I told you, that I shall come safely out of this war. I felt so the other day when danger was near. I certainly enjoyed the excitement of fighting our way out of Giles to the Narrows as much as any excitement I ever experienced. I had a good deal of anxiety the first hour or two on account of my command, but not a particle on my own account. After that, and after I saw that we were getting on well, it was really jolly. We all joked and laughed and cheered constantly.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Letter to Lucy Webb Hayes (26 May 1862)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

War , Way , Feeling , Fight

“Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration; but the soldier’s occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

Diary (11 August 1890)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

War , Soul , Nature

“The debt was the most sacred obligation incurred during the war. It was by no means the largest in amount. We do not haggle with those who lent us money. We should not with those who gave health and blood and life. If doors are opened to fraud, contrive to close them. But don’t deny the obligation, or scold at its performance.”

Rutherford B. Hayes

About the Arrears of Pensions Act (1879) for disabled Union veterans, which Hayes cheerfully signed, which was roundly criticized as too expensive and too open to fraud by unscrupulous veterans fabricating service-related injuries.
Letter to William Henry Smith (19 December 1881)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

Life , Money , War , Health