Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, Nineteenth President

Autograph letter signed ("Rutherford B Hayes"), one page (8 ½ x 5 ½ in.; 216 x 140 mm), Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Ohio, 1 December 1891, to Elliot T. Barrows, offering his opinion on how "hereditary" members of the Loyal Legion should be distinguished from "companions;" formerly folded, small stain on verso.

Autograph letter signed ("Rutherford B Hayes"), one page (8 ½ x 5 ½ in.; 216 x 140 mm), Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Ohio, 1 December 1891, to Elliot T. Barrows, offering his opinion on how "hereditary" members of the Loyal Legion should be distinguished from "companions;" formerly folded, small stain on verso.
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"The man who has been carried off the field in a bloody blanket naturally feels that his case is of higher tone than that of his boy who was playing base ball at College."

At this time the former president, and Civil War veteran, was serving on the board of trustees of Ohio State University, a school he had helped found as governor of Ohio. Elliot T. Barrows was a member of the New York Produce Exchange. Both men were members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, with Hayes as commander-in-chief and Barrows a "hereditary" member of the New York Commandery.

The Legion was formed by Union officers after the assassination of Lincoln, in order to demonstrate their loyalty, modeled upon the post-Revolutionary War Society of the Cincinnati. These original members were known as "Companions." With the eventual aging of the original Companions, membership within the Loyal Legion was changed to provide for "Hereditary Companions" — namely, descendants of eligible officers.

Barrows had written to Hayes on 17 November 1891 (a photocopy of this letter comes with this lot) detailing the controversy in which the younger members of the Legion were no longer to be allowed to wear the "red ribbon" of the original companions, even when they had inherited it from their fathers, but required to wear a "blue ribbon" showing their hereditary status.

Hayes is sympathetic and takes a diplomatic position, addressing the letter "My Dear Sir & Companion" [the phrase "& Companion" clearly added as an afterthought]: "My individual feelings and convictions on the question you argue are with you. If opportunity offers, in the proper place, it will afford me pleasure so to speak and vote. I would have one faith, one law, one flag. Even on this corner stone idea, however, let us be brotherly. No offense, nothing hostile was meant ... The man who has been carried off the field in a bloody blanket naturally feels that his case is of higher tone than that of his boy who was playing base ball at College."