Stricken with the cancerous condition in his throat while he was at the beginning of this, he faced the knowledge that he must work with unremitting zeal to provide a source of income for his family. Only those close to him had a real understanding of the physical suffering when his voice was finally gone and the agonizing struggle to keep on writing when too weak to move about his room. Nothing in medical knowledge offered any release from his pains, and he struggled valiantly, completing his task four days before his death at Mt. McGregor, on July 23, 1885. CHAPTER IV THE ADMINISTRATION OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES _March 4, 1877, to March 4, 1881_ Rutherford Birchard Hayes the nineteenth President of the United States, was the only Chief Executive of the nation to be kept in suspense regarding his victory in the election until the eve of inauguration, and the only one to be the storm centre of an after-election contest of such bitterness and scope that a commission had to be appointed by Congress to determine whether the Governor of Ohio or the Governor of New York should be installed in the White House on March 4, 1877. In consequence of the long-drawn bitter controversy, the result of which was communicated to Governor Hayes en route to Washington from Columbus, the inauguration festivities were lacking in many of the usual spectacular features and much of the customary jubilation of the quadrennial ceremony, and were reduced to the simplest of public installations. [Illustration: MRS. LUCY WEBB HAYES The Huntington Portrait, 1881, presented to the White House by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.] [Illustration: RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES Storm centre of an after-election contest which kept him in suspense until his inauguration in 1877.] The fact that the 4th of March fell upon Sunday added somewhat to the perturbed state of the official mind as to whether or not the oath should be taken on Saturday, March 3d, or Monday, March 5th. The anxiety lest something unpleasant transpire as an aftermath of the contest was present in many minds. President Grant decided to have Governor Hayes sworn in as quickly as possible--and on March 3d. A farewell dinner had been arranged at the Executive Mansion on the evening of March 3d, to which he invited Governor and Mrs. Hayes. Before the guests assembled for this function, President Grant conferred with Chief Justice Waite and a small group gathered in the Red Room, where Rutherford Hayes was formally sworn. The fact that Hayes was duly vested with the powers of Chief Magistrate was not even announced to the guests at the dinner or known to any outside the group participating until after the second and public ceremony of Monday, March 5th.