Having gathered with friends and family while receiving the returns, Hayes wrote, “But soon we began to feel that Ohio was not doing as well as we had hoped. The effect ws depressing. I commanded without much effort my usual composure and cheerfulness. Lucy felt it more keenly. …I comforted her by consoling talk. …Without difficulty, or much effort, I became the most composed, and cheerful of the party…” He went on to record that he and Lucy “felt more anxiety about the South – about the colored people especially than anything else sinister in the result. …There the [Reconstruction] amendments [13th, 14th, & 15th] will be nullified, disorder will continue, prosperity to both whites and colored people, will be pushed off for years. But I took my way to my office as usual, Wed. morning, and was master of myself and contented and cheerful.” (The cited passages are found in the 1964 edition of the edited diary, on pages 47-48.)

These are not the words of a gloomy loser; moreover, they demonstrate Hayes’ concern for blacks in the South, which is often overlooked. Other sources may suggest that Hayes was gloomy about the result of the election, but his diary entries do not.