Presidents and Pandemics: Rutherford Hayes and Yellow Fever
The problem of yellow fever that George Washington had to confront in Philadelphia would continue to be a problem in the United States for over a century. New Orleans was plagued with major epidemics during the 19th century. These were at their worst in 1833 and 1853. Its residents called the disease "yellow jack." Urban epidemics continued in the United States until 1905, with the last outbreak affecting New Orleans in 1905. At least 25 major outbreaks took place in the Americas during the 18th and 19th centuries, with the worst outbreakes occurring in Chile, in 1741, in Cuba in 1762 and 1900, in Santo Domingo in 1803 and in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1878, during the Presidency of Rutherford Hayes.
The prevalence of yellow fever in the Caribbean hit the United States Navy particularly hard. Deaths and sickness from the disease impacted and impaired naval operations. The disease also destroyed morale among sailors. For example, in April of 1822 the frigate USS Macedonian left Boston to join Commodore James Biddle's West India Squadron. The ship's assignment was to guard United States merchant shipping and suppress piracy. Between May 26 and August 3 of 1822, 74 of the Macedonian's officers and sailors died from yellow fever, including the ship's surgeon, Dr. John Cadle, Surgeon USN. Another 52 members of the crew were ill but survived. The squadron was forced to return to Norfolk Navy Yard early. Upon arrival, the Macedonian's crew were quarantined at Craney Island, Virginia.
In 1853, another outbreak of yellow fever hit Cloutierville, Louisiana, 68 of the town's 91 inhabitants. A local doctor concluded that some infectious agent had arrived in a package from New Orleans. The following year, in 1854, 650 residents of Savannah, Georgia died from yellow fever. Further outbreaks occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1858, when 308 yellow fever deaths occurred among one church congregation. In Hampton Roads, in June 1855 an outbreak occurred caused by an infected passenger from a ship that arrived there. The disease spread quickly through the community, eventually killing over 3,000 people, mostly residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth. In 1873, Shreveport, Louisiana, lost 759 citizens over an 80-day period due to a yellow fever epidemic. Another 400 deaths followed.
It was during Hayes Presidency in 1878 that a widespread epidemic hit the Mississippi River Valley, killing over 20,000 people. That year, Memphis had an unusually large amount of rain, and this led to an increase in the mosquito population. The steamship John D. Porter took people fleeing Memphis northward in hopes of escaping the disease, but passengers were not allowed to disembark due to concerns of spreading yellow fever. The ship roamed the Mississippi River for the over two months before unloading her passengers.
In those days, Presidents did not hold press conferences about pandemics, but Hayes did make the outbreak the subject of his second Annual Message to Congress on December 2, 1878. Hayes described how the disease had ravaged the population, and reported on the current state of affairs:
The enjoyment of health by our people generally has, however, been interrupted during the past season by the prevalence of a fatal pestilence (the yellow fever) in some portions of the Southern States, creating an emergency which called for prompt and extraordinary measures of relief. The disease appeared as an epidemic at New Orleans and at other places on the Lower Mississippi soon after midsummer. It was rapidly spread by fugitives from the infected cities and towns, and did not disappear until early in November. The States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee have suffered severely. About 100,000 cases are believed to have occurred, of which about 20,000, according to intelligent estimates, proved fatal.
It is impossible to estimate with any approach to accuracy the loss to the country occasioned by this epidemic It is to be reckoned by the hundred millions of dollars. The suffering and destitution that resulted excited the deepest sympathy in all parts of the Union. Physicians and nurses hastened from every quarter to the assistance of the afflicted communities. Voluntary contributions of money and supplies, in every needed form, were speedily and generously furnished. The Government was able to respond in some measure to the call for help, by providing tents, medicines, and food for the sick and destitute, the requisite directions for the purpose being given in the confident expectation that this action of the Executive would receive the sanction of Congress. About 1,800 tents, and rations of the value of about $25,000, were sent to cities and-towns which applied for them, full details of which will be furnished to Congress by the proper Department.
The fearful spread of this pestilence has awakened a very general public sentiment in favor of national sanitary administration, which shall not only control quarantine, but have the sanitary supervision of internal commerce in times of epidemics, and hold an advisory relation to the State and municipal health authorities, with power to deal with whatever endangers the public health, and which the municipal and State authorities are unable to regulate. The national quarantine act approved April 29, 1878, which was passed too late in the last session of Congress to provide the means for carrying it into practical operation during the past season, is a step in the direction here indicated. In view of the necessity for the most effective measures, by quarantine and otherwise, for the protection of our seaports and the country generally from this and other epidemics, it is recommended that Congress give to the whole subject early and careful consideration.
As Hayes stated in his message, the Quarantine Act passed by Congress came too late for those who died from the disease in the Mississippi River region. On April 26, President Hayes signed the Quarantine Act of 1878 into law, giving the Marine Hospital Service responsibility to stop disease from coming ashore via sailors from ships.
Those who remained in Memphis relied on volunteers from religious organizations to tend to the sick. The madam of a local brothel, Annie Cook, converted her place of business into a hospital, where she nursed stricken patients. She herself died from the disease in September. By the end of the year, more than 5,000 were confirmed dead in Memphis. The New Orleans health board listed "not less than 4,600" dead. The Mississippi Valley experienced 120,000 cases of yellow fever, with 20,000 deaths.
In New Orleans, the city's Medical and Surgical Association argued for improved drainage and sanitary measures to quell future yellow fever outbreaks. Such efforts, though they were undertaken to eliminate germs, helped to remove the breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and New Orleans never again experienced the scope of the 1878 epidemic. The $15 million in losses caused by the epidemic bankrupted the city of Memphis. The federal government convened a commission to investigate the outbreak and established the National Board of Health in 1879. In a report to Congress shortly before the national agency was created, John Woodworth, the Marine Hospital Service surgeon general, emphasized the gravity of the situation: "Yellow fever should be dealt with as an enemy which imperils life and cripples commerce and industry. To no other great nation of the earth is yellow fever so calamitous as to the United States of America."
The prevalence of yellow fever in the Caribbean hit the United States Navy particularly hard. Deaths and sickness from the disease impacted and impaired naval operations. The disease also destroyed morale among sailors. For example, in April of 1822 the frigate USS Macedonian left Boston to join Commodore James Biddle's West India Squadron. The ship's assignment was to guard United States merchant shipping and suppress piracy. Between May 26 and August 3 of 1822, 74 of the Macedonian's officers and sailors died from yellow fever, including the ship's surgeon, Dr. John Cadle, Surgeon USN. Another 52 members of the crew were ill but survived. The squadron was forced to return to Norfolk Navy Yard early. Upon arrival, the Macedonian's crew were quarantined at Craney Island, Virginia.
In 1853, another outbreak of yellow fever hit Cloutierville, Louisiana, 68 of the town's 91 inhabitants. A local doctor concluded that some infectious agent had arrived in a package from New Orleans. The following year, in 1854, 650 residents of Savannah, Georgia died from yellow fever. Further outbreaks occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1858, when 308 yellow fever deaths occurred among one church congregation. In Hampton Roads, in June 1855 an outbreak occurred caused by an infected passenger from a ship that arrived there. The disease spread quickly through the community, eventually killing over 3,000 people, mostly residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth. In 1873, Shreveport, Louisiana, lost 759 citizens over an 80-day period due to a yellow fever epidemic. Another 400 deaths followed.
It was during Hayes Presidency in 1878 that a widespread epidemic hit the Mississippi River Valley, killing over 20,000 people. That year, Memphis had an unusually large amount of rain, and this led to an increase in the mosquito population. The steamship John D. Porter took people fleeing Memphis northward in hopes of escaping the disease, but passengers were not allowed to disembark due to concerns of spreading yellow fever. The ship roamed the Mississippi River for the over two months before unloading her passengers.
In those days, Presidents did not hold press conferences about pandemics, but Hayes did make the outbreak the subject of his second Annual Message to Congress on December 2, 1878. Hayes described how the disease had ravaged the population, and reported on the current state of affairs:
The enjoyment of health by our people generally has, however, been interrupted during the past season by the prevalence of a fatal pestilence (the yellow fever) in some portions of the Southern States, creating an emergency which called for prompt and extraordinary measures of relief. The disease appeared as an epidemic at New Orleans and at other places on the Lower Mississippi soon after midsummer. It was rapidly spread by fugitives from the infected cities and towns, and did not disappear until early in November. The States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee have suffered severely. About 100,000 cases are believed to have occurred, of which about 20,000, according to intelligent estimates, proved fatal.
It is impossible to estimate with any approach to accuracy the loss to the country occasioned by this epidemic It is to be reckoned by the hundred millions of dollars. The suffering and destitution that resulted excited the deepest sympathy in all parts of the Union. Physicians and nurses hastened from every quarter to the assistance of the afflicted communities. Voluntary contributions of money and supplies, in every needed form, were speedily and generously furnished. The Government was able to respond in some measure to the call for help, by providing tents, medicines, and food for the sick and destitute, the requisite directions for the purpose being given in the confident expectation that this action of the Executive would receive the sanction of Congress. About 1,800 tents, and rations of the value of about $25,000, were sent to cities and-towns which applied for them, full details of which will be furnished to Congress by the proper Department.
The fearful spread of this pestilence has awakened a very general public sentiment in favor of national sanitary administration, which shall not only control quarantine, but have the sanitary supervision of internal commerce in times of epidemics, and hold an advisory relation to the State and municipal health authorities, with power to deal with whatever endangers the public health, and which the municipal and State authorities are unable to regulate. The national quarantine act approved April 29, 1878, which was passed too late in the last session of Congress to provide the means for carrying it into practical operation during the past season, is a step in the direction here indicated. In view of the necessity for the most effective measures, by quarantine and otherwise, for the protection of our seaports and the country generally from this and other epidemics, it is recommended that Congress give to the whole subject early and careful consideration.
As Hayes stated in his message, the Quarantine Act passed by Congress came too late for those who died from the disease in the Mississippi River region. On April 26, President Hayes signed the Quarantine Act of 1878 into law, giving the Marine Hospital Service responsibility to stop disease from coming ashore via sailors from ships.
Those who remained in Memphis relied on volunteers from religious organizations to tend to the sick. The madam of a local brothel, Annie Cook, converted her place of business into a hospital, where she nursed stricken patients. She herself died from the disease in September. By the end of the year, more than 5,000 were confirmed dead in Memphis. The New Orleans health board listed "not less than 4,600" dead. The Mississippi Valley experienced 120,000 cases of yellow fever, with 20,000 deaths.
In New Orleans, the city's Medical and Surgical Association argued for improved drainage and sanitary measures to quell future yellow fever outbreaks. Such efforts, though they were undertaken to eliminate germs, helped to remove the breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and New Orleans never again experienced the scope of the 1878 epidemic. The $15 million in losses caused by the epidemic bankrupted the city of Memphis. The federal government convened a commission to investigate the outbreak and established the National Board of Health in 1879. In a report to Congress shortly before the national agency was created, John Woodworth, the Marine Hospital Service surgeon general, emphasized the gravity of the situation: "Yellow fever should be dealt with as an enemy which imperils life and cripples commerce and industry. To no other great nation of the earth is yellow fever so calamitous as to the United States of America."