as a governor, second
to none of Ohio's great magistrates.

The most striking characteristic of Hayes as a soldier was his personal
intrepidity. Anthony Wayne, Francis Marion, and Ethan Allen were called
brave men in the Revolution, and so they were; but we look in vain in
their histories for as numerous proofs of unsurpassable daring as the
hero of Cloyd Mountain, Cedar Creek, and South Mountain, has given us.
Four horses shot under him; four wounds in action; fighting after he
fell; a hundred days exposed to death under fire--these are the
evidences of as lofty a courage as is yet known among men.

As a regimental, brigade, and division commander, his most striking
quality as a leader was his impetuosity. General Crook used to say that
Hayes fought infantry as other men fought cavalry. He was always wanting
to move forward, to charge, to get at the enemy with cold steel. His
favorite step was the double-quick; his choice of distance two paces;
and his preferred mode of fighting, the hand-to-hand grapple. This meant
business, was decisive, and was soon over.

Another characteristic was his constant care for the comfort of his
soldiers. He was much in the hospitals, cheering up the wounded, writing
letters for them, and sending last messages from the lips of the dying
to wives, mothers, and friends. He shared his blanket, his last crust,
his last penny, with the neediest of his men, and abstained from food
when they had none.

His house is to-day, and has been since the war, a soldiers' home, where
all who served with him are invited to come at all times and partake at
his own table with his wife and children. Seldom is this generous
hospitality imposed on by the members of his large military family.
Once, only, a pseudo-soldier, whom the children called the "Veteran,"
having served two days and a half in the army, remained just double the
term of his military service under the governor's roof. He doubtless
found that the rations at this camp were good.

As a civil magistrate, Governor Hayes has developed executive and
administrative abilities of the highest order. He has a practical,
common-sense, direct way of doing things. He first finds what things
ought to be done, and then how. When his own party has been in a
minority, he has made friends with a few of the most reasonable men in
the opposition, and through them, as instruments, has accomplished his
purposes.

He is a discriminating judge of human nature, a