Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio. Hayes, a lawyer and staunch abolitionist, defended refugee slaves in court proceedings in the antebellum years. This biography differs chiefly from other biographies in the large use made of original letters, diaries, notebooks and scrapbooks placed at the disposal of the author without restriction and without instruction. Howells has been guided solely by his own sense of fitness and his respect for the just limits of personality.