Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States of America from March 4, 1877, to March 4, 1881. He was a member of the Republican Party who served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War. Prior to being elected president in 1876, Hayes was the governor of Ohio from 1868 to 1872 and then again from January 1876 until March 1877.
During his presidency, Hayes ended patronage in the U.S. government when he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which required that all government jobs be civil service jobs. He also ended a border dispute between the South American countries of Paraguay and Argentina. Today, the country of Paraguay honors President Hayes as its savior and the Paraguayan government named one of their provinces the Presidente Hayes Department, which is one of few things named after Hayes himself.