The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes | Page 6

during life for this
maiden effort in a United States Court.
In November, 1848, in consequence of bleeding at the lungs and other
alarming admonitions of failing health, Mr. Hayes left Fremont to pass
a winter with his friend, Guy M. Bryan, in Texas. A half year of
boating, fishing, hunting, and scouring the prairies brought about a
physical revolution. He came back as sound as a dollar--that is, a coin
dollar--and has so remained ever since.
In December, 1849, he put in execution a design for some time
contemplated, and on Christmas eve arrived in Cincinnati. He had

consulted professional friends in Cincinnati about seeking the stimulus
of a wider field for permanent occupation, and was doubtless
influenced somewhat by the advice received. One who had been with
him at Harvard wrote: "I have not flattered the face of man or woman
for years, but I think honestly that the R. B. Hayes whom I knew four
years ago would be sure to succeed at this bar, if he can afford to live
and wait." Another professional brother, on terms of intimacy, wrote:
"With your energies, talents, education, and address, you are
green--verdant as grass--to stay in a country village." On the 8th of
January, 1850, the new candidate for public and professional favor took
possession of an office on the south side of Third street, between Main
and Sycamore, opposite the Henrie House. His office companion was
John W. Herron, with whose appearance and manners the new comer
seems to have been well pleased. The first year in Cincinnati brought
little professional business, but no day was passed in idleness. His
studies were systematic, and his reading comprehensive in both law
and literature. Shakespeare, Burke, Webster, and Emerson were his
inseparable companions. He sought to widen the circle of his
acquaintances, and add daily to the number of his friends. Having been
a member of the order of Odd-Fellows and Sons of Temperance in
Fremont, he united again with those organizations in Cincinnati. The
addresses he was invited to deliver at Odd-Fellow's lodges and at many
more public places were very numerous. In this way he made
reputation as a public speaker, if not money. He was not only becoming
known, but becoming favorably known.
The widely renowned literary club of Cincinnati, which he joined in
1850, and of which he remained an active member for eleven years,
awakened his social sympathies and ardent interest. To the reading of
essays, and to the discussions on political, social, and moral questions,
he always listened, and in the latter often took part. In debate, he was
strong, eager, clear, and logical. He had an aptitude at seeing principles
and getting at the kernel of questions. Among those who during these
years participated in the social or literary entertainments of the
club-room were Chief Justice Chase, Thomas Corwin, Thomas Ewing,
father and son, General Pope, General Edward F. Noyes, Stanley
Matthews, M. D. Conway, Manning F. Force, W. K. Rogers, John W.

Herron, D. Thew Wright, Isaac Collins, Charles P. James, R. D.
Mussey, and many others of ability and distinction. In January, 1852,
the opportunity for "getting a start" in his professional career came.
While making a sensible, energetic little speech in behalf of a criminal
indicted for grand larceny, named Cunningham, he attracted the
attention and won the commendation of Judge R. B. Warden, then
president judge of the criminal court, who thereupon appointed the
modest young attorney counsel for Nancy Farrer, whose case became
the great criminal case of the term, if not of the times.
Nancy Farrer had poisoned all the members of two families. She had a
bad countenance, a sinister, revolting look. It is not strange that she
should have been considered by the court and jury that tried her, and by
the entire public, a qualified candidate for the gallows. Hayes, in
defending his client, had to contend against the passions, the
indignation of the public, and the predispositions and prejudices of
judge and jury. The judge who tried the case was not the one who
appointed the comparatively unknown attorney as counsel. Hayes saw
instinctively the immense importance of the case, and knew intuitively
that a crisis had come in his career. He set laboriously to work to
establish an impregnable line of defense.
He found on examination of the proofs that the supposed murderess
was totally irresponsible, because of hereditary idiocy and insanity. Her
father had died of drunkenness in a Cincinnati hospital, and her mother
went about under the insane hallucination that she was a prophetess.
Nancy's conduct and conversations while employed in the wholesale
poisoning business showed that she had no moral comprehension of
what she was about. But the plea of insanity had been so often and so
vehemently pressed in