American Executor: Rutherford B. Hayes

A nation weary from division and strife,

He takes the chair amid a doubtful hour;

The ballots questioned, contested is the life

Of public trust and presidential power.

No crown commands the office he must tower,

Yet all debate surrounds the seat he gained—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The compromise that places him within

The halls of power cannot erase the doubt;

The nation asks what legitimacy can win

When half the land still questions what came out—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The war has ended, yet its questions live,

For Reconstruction stands upon the land;

The federal government must choose to give

Its force, or leave protection to each hand.

He seeks a peace that all may understand,

A reconciliation long desired—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The troops that guarded Southern governments

Are withdrawn as a new settlement begins;

The balance shifts, the nation’s arguments

Turn toward an era where another struggle spins—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The executive holds the power of force,

Yet chooses limits placed upon that might;

He follows what he sees as a better course,

A healing path beyond the endless fight.

But freedom’s promise faces fading light

When protection yields to local command—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The amendments remain within the law,

Their words declare a nation newly born;

Yet rights depend on more than written law

When justice may be weakened and worn—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

The civil service becomes his chosen field,

Reform replaces favors long maintained;

The government’s machinery must yield

To standards where corruption is restrained.

The executive’s reach is thus explained,

Not only force, but stewardship of land—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

No battles mark the years that he commands,

No foreign conquest defines his name;

His legacy rests upon quieter hands

And choices measured by a different flame—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

So stands the nineteenth in the nation’s line,

A president whose entrance bore dispute;

He sought to close a chapter’s troubled sign

And find a common ground where peace took root.

Yet history asks what price was absolute

When unity was purchased at that stand—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

For every executor must choose the way

Between authority and restraint’s demand;

Hayes reminds the nation to this day

That what is left undone may shape the land—

He bears the office where doubt has remained.

Envoi:

O keeper of a divided nation’s peace,

You sought to heal what war had torn apart;

You proved that executive powers may cease,

Yet leave their mark upon the nation’s heart—

He bears the office where doubt has remained