Education Quote by Rutherford B. Hayes

Hayes is puncturing a peculiarly American myth: that leadership is a technical credential you can purchase with the right uniform and the right institution. West Point, in the post-Civil War imagination, wasn’t just a school; it was a brand of competence, a shorthand for order after chaos. By saying he’s "less disposed" to believe it’s "requisite", Hayes performs a careful retreat rather than a flamboyant reversal. The phrasing signals political tact: he’s not attacking the military establishment so much as downgrading its monopoly on legitimacy.

The line works because it quietly recasts what counts as expertise. "This business" is the sly tell. Hayes doesn’t bother to specify whether he means command, governance, or reform; the ambiguity is strategic, letting the remark travel across bureaucracies. It also hints at a broader Reconstruction-era anxiety: the country is trying to professionalize everything - civil service, policing, administration - while fearing that professionalism can harden into caste.

"Good sense and energy" sounds plain, almost homely, but it’s doing ideological work. "Good sense" elevates practical judgment over theory, and "energy" suggests moral vigor and administrative drive - the Progressive impulse before it had a name. Hayes is arguing for merit without fetishizing pedigree, a democratic corrective aimed as much at elite gatekeeping as at romantic military hero-worship. It’s credential skepticism with a patriot’s restraint, designed to open the door without kicking it in.