To Americans, Rutherford B. Hayes is a blip in their country’s rich history of 45 unique presidents. But nestled in the subtropical country of Paraguay, whose landlocked status means they don’t even border a shining sea, the 19th U.S. president is a hero.
Following the War of the Triple Alliance, a territory dispute broke out between Paraguay and Argentina over the Chaco region. In response, the countries called on U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes to be the arbiter. In the years that followed, Paraguay named a city, department, and national holiday in Hayes’ honor.
At the time of the dispute, the United Nations didn’t exist, meaning that there wasn’t a major precedent for these territorial disputes. With Paraguay having already sent telegrams to the U.S. under the Grant administration, it’s believed that the U.S. may have been on Paraguay’s radar already.
While for some, this relationship may have faded into obscurity over nearly 150 years, the two parties still have a unique bond. Today, Fremont, Ohio, where Hayes lived, and Villa Hayes, in Paraguay, are sister cities.
Christie Weininger: One of the things that we’ve worked on is trying to connect our classroom at our local high school here, with our Spanish teacher and our Spanish language classes, here at Fremont City Schools with classes in Paraguay.
That’s Christie Weininger, the Executive Director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont. She went on to mention that there’s currently a bill going through the Ohio Legislature to declare a state holiday for Hayes.
These connections have persisted throughout history as well, and have even led to alliances during major international wars. Sam Boucher, a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa, was a Fulbright scholar in Paraguay. He explains that this connection led to military advantages.
Samuel Boucher: During the Cold War, Paraguay was one of the US’s staunchest allies in the region. And they played a kind of important role in even today there’s lots of military bases there, and because it’s kind of centrally located in the continent, it’s very important like if you have bases there, you can reach any part of South America, so they have quite a few airfields there. And the beginning of a much more tight connection between Paraguay and the US is from Hayes’ ruling giving Chaco to Paraguay.
However, despite Hayes’ heroics to the Paraguayan people, Julie Mayle, the Curator of Manuscripts at the Hayes Museum, emphasized that then-Secretary of State William Evarts likely played a bigger role.
Julie Mayle: They bring all this documentation, the maps, the books, all these things to kind of state their case for which country they should decide for. And that really falls on, I said, the State Department members and Evarts. And so, then they compile all their findings, and Everts presents this to Hayes, kind of goes over it for his review and says, yeah, that looks about right, you know, and he agrees with it, and then signs it. So I think really Evarts plays a bigger role in this.
Despite Evarts’ role, Mayle and Weininger emphasized Hayes as an eternal student. His library contained multiple books on Paraguay before the dispute took place.
Today, Hayes’ legacy looks a little different between these locations. He is celebrated widely in Paraguay for his impact. The war caused Paraguay to lose over half of its population, historians believe. For the people of Paraguay, the awarding of such a large portion of land in the Chaco region was a major source of unity.
Weininger: It was a big deal. So if you understand the trauma that Paraguay had been through and you know, there and then to have Hayes decide in their favor, I think just had a, obviously had a significant impact, a tremendous impact on their country.
In addition to the Chaco region making up over half of the country’s current landmass, it is also a vital economic source. Boucher explains that, for a country like Paraguay, this region has been a major part of global trade.
Boucher: One of the largest exports of Paraguay today is beef, and the mass majority of that comes from the Chaco region. So just economically for the country, it’s one of its main connections to the wider world because it’s kind of known as a very isolated country in history in general.
These triumphs for Paraguay have led to Hayes’ celebration through holidays and location names. While Boucher emphasized that many Paraguayans he talked to knew about Hayes, there was not a deep historical teaching of him to most people in the country. Villa Hayes, the city named after Hayes, does have a procession on the holiday in his honor. This often includes stars and stripes in local bars, and at times, American flags.
In the grand scheme of U.S. presidents, Hayes isn’t as commonly recognized. The website Sporcle has a quiz where users attempt to name every U.S. President in 10 minutes. After over 15 million plays, just 56.2% of users correctly named Hayes. That’s the lowest percentage of any U.S. president.
But what is Hayes’ legacy stateside? Many know him for his 1876 election victory that gave him the nickname “Rutherfraud.” Others associate him with pulling troops from the South. However, legacies can often by muddied by the one or two associations that jump to mind. As a result, some believe that Hayes’ legacy is misunderstood.
But for Mayle and Weininger, who have extensive knowledge of Hayes, think of him as a civil servant.
Weininger: So, I think his legacy isn’t, isn’t as, you know, robust as those that have served more than one term, but, you know, certainly, some of the decisions he made, you know, economically, in terms of civil service reform, you know, he was doing a lot of work in civil service reform, as part of his presidency, which made him unpopular with both parties. In fact, members of his own party were referring to it as snivel service reform. But, you know, it was really important to him that people were appointed to government positions because they were qualified.
Perhaps between the nearly 5,000 miles that separate these two pivotal locations, a middle ground between these starkly contrasting legacies exists.
For WNUR News and my co-author John Kowalski, I’m Gabe Shumway.
