Editing William A. Wheeler (section)

==Vice presidency (1877–1881)==
Wheeler was inaugurated on March 4, 1877, and served until March 4, 1881.<ref>{{cite book |author=Joint Committee On Printing, United States Congress |date=1950 |title=Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrXYvgrwkM0C&pg=PA1998 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=1998 |isbn=978-0-598-68615-2 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> During Wheeler's term, the Hayes administration pursued an alliance between Northern Republicans and Old Southern Whigs, effectively abandoning post-Civil War [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]]. Hayes intended for the former Whigs who largely made up the South's business and merchant classes to replace the Democratic planter class as the dominant force in Southern government and politics. Events did not play out as Hayes envisioned, which meant that the end of Reconstruction enabled Democrats, largely former supporters of the Confederacy, to reassert control over black residents, including passage of [[Jim Crow laws]] that lasted well into the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Perman |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CamlCytE1IgC&pg=PA150 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |page=150 |isbn=978-0-8078-9925-0 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Since Wheeler was a recent widower, his wife having died one year before he took office,<ref name="tally" /> he was a frequent guest at the White House's alcohol-free luncheons. As vice president, Wheeler presided over the Senate. According to Hayes, Wheeler "was one of the few Vice Presidents who were on cordial terms, intimate and friendly, with the President. Our family were heartily fond of him."<ref name="tally" />

Hayes had announced at the start of his administration that he would not run for a second term.  Wheeler did not run for the 1880 Republican presidential nomination, and retired at the end of his term.

===Lucy Hayes' fishing trip (1878)===
When First Lady [[Lucy Webb Hayes]] found out about Wheeler's status as a widower without children, she and her husband felt it was their duty to take the lonely Wheeler into their social circle. Wheeler was grateful for their kindness, and during the spring of 1878, he asked Lucy to accompany him on a fishing trip in the [[Adirondacks]]. Lucy accepted and joined Wheeler on May 31. On their first day, they caught a large [[trout]] that weighed about 13 pounds. Wheeler sent it to the president; Hayes telegraphed jokingly that he thought it was more like 13 ounces. Hayes was actually surprised at the size of the fish, and had it served at an informal dinner with cabinet members and senators. The next day, Wheeler and Lucy were traveling back to Malone when a group of children began waving red flags. Touched by the act, Wheeler stopped their carriage so he could introduce the first lady to the children. The trip lasted eleven days, and when Lucy and her daughter Fanny returned to Washington, she wrote to Wheeler to thank him for "a wild and joyous time".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hallas |first=Herbert |title=1878: The Vice President and the First Lady Go Fishing |date=18 December 2013 |url=https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/12/1878-vice-president-first-lady-go-fishing.html}}</ref>
[[File:Lucy Webb Hayes - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|Lucy Webb Hayes]]

[[File:Elks Lodge Malone NY 20170703.jpg|thumb|212x212px|Wheeler's home in Malone, NY]]