Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. A member of the Republican Party, he was born in Ohio and became known for his strong stance against slavery as a lawyer and abolitionist. His presidency marked the end of Reconstruction, a significant period in American history following the Civil War, and he is often associated with the beginning of the Gilded Age, a time of rapid economic growth and industrialization in the United States.