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The Great Commoner of Ohio

Washington Gladden · 1893

A 1893 memorial discourse by the clergyman and writer Washington Gladden, delivered in Columbus, Ohio, honoring Rutherford Birchard Hayes after his death.

This memorial discourse was delivered after Hayes's death and shows how his contemporaries chose to remember him as a public figure.

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The Great Commoner of OhioPDF · 60 pages
Washington Gladden, The Great Commoner of Ohio, 1893. Scanned PDF copy, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a printed version of a discourse in memory of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, delivered in the First Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio, in January 1893. The speaker was Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D. The text uses the lives of great people as a way to teach moral lessons. The copy online is a scanned PDF from the Internet Archive, so students are reading a digital scan of the printed pamphlet rather than a modern transcription.

Why it matters

The discourse was given soon after Hayes died and reflects how his contemporaries wanted him remembered. It shows the importance of churches and religious speakers in public mourning in the 1890s. Gladden's view of Hayes is an interpretation by one admirer, so it reveals as much about the speaker and his audience as about Hayes.

Look closer

  • What qualities does Gladden praise, and which of them does he connect with lessons for listeners?
  • Why might a church speaker choose to frame a politician's life as a moral story?
  • What would a historian need to add to this tribute to get a fuller picture of Hayes?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rutherford B. Hayes on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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