Condescending title, because it suggests that you sort of a blue stalking whose sole function in life was to serve to not serve alcohol. Lucy hayes is so much more, as his her husband frankly. And remember, everything she accomplished in the white house came in spite of the fact that her husbands legitimacy to be president was questioned right until the day he left office. She was a charming person, very delightful. She was innovative with the arts. One of our more controversial collections is the white house china. Journalists of the day wrote scathing articles. One said the art was absurd. Who is going to want to be eating this lovely meal and see a duck at the bottom of their plate . She took an active interest in Public Affairs from an early age. She had a College Degree, and she had taught. To causes that were very important to her work veterans and soldiers and also orphans. Children who had been made orphans as a result of the civil war. She combined all these roles, that is the interesting thing. She manages to be a very devout mother, she does not neglect your children, but she also embraces the life of her times. Lucy hayes wrote womens minds are strong as mans, equal in all things and superior in some. Born in 1831 in ohio, she was the first first lady to earn a College Degree and her life tells us much about the times in which she lived. Experiencing the civil war, reconstruction and the gilded age and into a period where technical ignitions and significant social forces usher in an era of enormous change in the United States. Good evening and welcome to cspan continuing series on the biographies of americas first ladies. Tonight you will learn about lucy web haze, the wife of the 19th president , rutherford behaves. Here to start us off is allida black, shes a first ladies historian and shes the author of the first ladies of the United States of america, a collection of biographies published by the White House Historical association. Welcome allida black, in 1876 this country is joyously celebrating its 100th centennial of the declaration of independence. And it is an Election Year and the election is greatly contested with no great viktor. Tell us about the atmosphere with which the haze arrive at the white house. Its pretty schizophrenia to tell you the truth. We just come out of the centennial celebration and they are coming to the white house but they do not even know if they are actually going to move into the white house because the election is not yet decided. What has happened is that samuel b. Tilden and rutherford b. Hayes were, at that point, in one of the closest election in the United StatesUnited States. Tilden won the popular vote, but there are three states where the vote is so tight that the parties are tackling each other. The republicans are saying we won, the democrats are saying no we won, so hayes goes to bed and thinks he has lost. He gets up the next morton and finds out that the republicans are challenging vote in three states and if they actually win those three states, he gets the number of electoral votes he needs to become president. Well you know, they go through all of these negotiations back and forth. Theres congress who is involved. They are trying to cut all these back deals. But literally, it is not decided until he arrives in washington, when the deals are finally set. So when they are you can only imagine sort of you know, the schizophrenia, the joy, the fear, the disappointment, everything that you feel as you are on this train coming to washington. And so worried were the hayes about the possibility of a democratic coup. The inaugural day was a sunday and so there was a private swearing in at the white house correct . Absolutely. And then he gave his inaugural address the next day. But the country itself is still very on settled. The civil war, even though it has been over for 12 years, is very much in peoples minds. And because it is such an intensely personal war. Everyone has been affected by it. And now you are trying to figure out how are you going to end reconstruction . For hayes, its how do you and reconstruction and try to stay true to your principles . For the democrats, its you know, how can we hold his feet to the fire to get rid of the troops that are down there to give us back our lands and our customs . Plus you have this technological revolution, its the telephone that just gets premiered in philadelphia, you have the typewriter, you have all of these new kinds of engines that are being done. You have labor unrest, you have Great Railroad strikes, you have a recession, its got everything. Its really sort of the first major depression that we have. So the country is trying to figure out what is going on just as much as the hayeses are trying to figure out what is going on. So rutherford be hayes and lucy hayes come to the white house with a great deal of government experience at this point. He had been a three term governor of ohio who served in congress. He was very popular as the governor of ohio. What did they do to establish their credibility when they get to washington . While they just their personalities takeover and they begin to try to acknowledge the fact that the election is really controversial. They know that he is being called your fraudulent see. He knows that, you know, hes being called rutherford fraud haze. What he does in his inaugural address is really set the tone for this. He makes overtures to the democrats, he opens the white house up. They begin to really try to engage in a public conversation and tackle the issues that sort of tarnished the Republican Party if you will. I mean, the corruption of the granite ministration, when he says hes going to do Civil Service reform, you know, when he really pledges to pull the remaining troops out of the south. Assuming that the governors that the governments in new orleans and columbia will honor their commitment to black rights. So hes trying to really extend an olive branch to people to say im addressing your concerns, i hear you, and im only going to serve one term so lets figure out how we can make the most of this together. And how did we see hayes assist him in this effort . She was shrewd the whole way along. She understood how politics worked. She understood how to entertain. She understood how to facilitate conversations between people that were difficult. She understood how to really bring people at the table in a way that would advance her husbands career. She was charming, everybody liked her, despite the no alcohol edict in the white house. She was able to grease the skids for him in a way that made him seem approachable and ethical and blunt. We have mentioned that she was the first first lady to have a College Degree, but this is a time of enormous change for women. At the philadelphia bicentennial fair, the worlds fair, all kinds of new devices, labor saving devices were being introduced for the home. The hoover vacuum cleaner. Early washing machines. Absolutely. And women beginning to take advantage of this by beginning to move into the workforce. So how is lucy hayes . Is she seen as a symbol for this kind of a woman and her approach the job . Well, i dont i really dont think so because i think its very easy to overstate the importance of the new labor saving devices and how many women went into the workforce. I mean, the women who are in the workforce already have to work. And the women who really entered the workforce talkative by their own volition and interests really are the generation after her. So when she comes in the white house, only 5 of women who work are working in what we would consider today white color jobs, like sales and stenographers and secretaries and, you know, professors and educators. I mean, it is still very very close. Shes on the cusp of that. I mean what shes really to me the thing thats really interesting about her is how she sort of stuck in the middle. And in a way that does not make her stuck. I mean, i know that sounds weird, but, you know, the Suffrage Movement is totally divided along the lines of race and whether women can vote or not. And lucy hayes is, you know, the First College educated first lady. She nursed and stood with surgeons during the civil war. Shes seen more wounds, more battles, more scars, more amputees, more suffering than probably any first lady, other than Mary Todd Lincoln. But yet, you know, shes not in avantgarde reformer. She is trying to find her own voice and so it is hard to put her in a pigeonhole. Gary robinson on twitter asks, how did washington look upon lucy, especially after julia grants presents . Well, thats tricky. I mean, because, you know, when she washington looks on her as you know as a scant with temperance issues. But, you know, they also look at her as lovely and five ages and happy and congenial, and then she does, shall we say, eccentric but gorgeous china and the press goes, you know, insane over it, writing as your credits opened, about how difficult it is to eat food and maybe even see a quail in the middle of your plate. So you mentioned the press. We had a point in history where the press is independently covering the first ladies and they become an object of natural interest . Yes. The press really is taken with her. I mean, they call her they use the title first lady more for her, you know, then they have for anybody, even though it was referenced to Mary Todd Lincoln. But they really, you know, they like her. They cover her. They see her as vibrations. They see her as somebody who is different. They are fascinated that you went to college. So they really do follow her in her own right. Throughout our program tonight, we will be taking you to the haze home in fremont, ohio. It is called speedily grove, you see a picture of it on your screen right now. This is the home where Lucy Rutherford and their family, which was a large family, lyft before the white house years. This president ial home Library Museum are all there to help inform visitors as to what the first lady and the first family were all about. Our first segment takes us into inside the home to learn about lucy hayes as a political partner to rutherford b. Haze as well as some of the causes that were important to her throughout her life. Lets watch. This is a painting that shows lucy tending to a wounded soldier during the civil war. To causes that were very important to her where veterans and soldiers, and also orphans, children who had been made orphans as a result of the civil war. This painting was created to hang in an orphanage here in ohio of which she was very supportive. So it kind of reflects those two issues that were important to her. When People Associated with those causes would come here to speak eagle grove and visit, they would sit here in this formal parlor. Spiegel growth was host to a number of reunions of civil war veterans. The 23rd ovia was the unit that rutherford served in. Future president mckinley was a member of the 23rd over the eye, so he and his family were frequent guests here. And veteran groups would always come here at spiegel grove. And when they would gather here on the grounds, when they would come into sit and talk, they would sit in this formal parlor. Lucy was such a wonderful hostess. She wanted people to feel very welcome here, and so this is where they would sit, this is where they would discuss the issues of the day. The hayeses would have hosted a number of political figures here in including future president s taft and mckinley. Also william to come say sherman was a guest for dinner as well as a number of other local and National Political figures. So as a political partner with her husband, entertaining these political figures in serving in that role of hostess and these dinners would have been incredibly important. Joining us on our set now another guest, Tom Culbertson, he is the director of the Rutherford Hays president ial center where spiegel grove is also open to the public, he spent 24 years of his professional life helping america preserve the history of the hays presidency. We heard from a little black about the great political partnership, but your comments about the skills that she brought to this job as she entered the white house . While she was a partner to what suffered. She was a sounding board for him. She was a gracious hostess as allida said. She was able to engage people on oneonone and to make anyone that she talked to think that they were the only person in the room and the only person that she really wanted to talk. With now, the contested election didnt and after they were sworn in and there was a congressional inquiry. We have one of the many quotes from her that we want to show tonight and here is one where she said sometimes i feel a little worried. This press and annoyance going on, but i feel i keep myself outwardly very calm, but inwardly there is a burning venom and rat all under a smiling or pleasant exterior. What do we learn about her from that quote . We learned that she is very defensive our her husband and his image and that she does have a little bit of anger in her but. It sounds like a good politician in her own right . Yes, she was a very good politician. Able to mask the inner wrap for the public presentation. Yes, yes, right, yes. One of my favorite things about that that shows her passion in her ability sort of to hold it in is, at the end of the civil war, she was just furious that everybody started talking about reconciliation and forgiveness. She was saying mercy is one thing but we have to have justice and mercy which just shows her. I would like to invite you, as we do each week, to be a participant in our program. There are several ways you can do that. First of all, in a few minutes we will be going to your phone calls. If you live in the eastern and central time zones. 2025853880 you can go send us questions or comments by twitter by using the hashtag first ladies. You can go to our Facebook Page on cspan, theres already discussion underway about lucy hayes and you can join that by asking questions or posting comments. In 1879, and all 1812 soldier came to the white house and received an honor and was supposed to have his picture taken. When he arrived, his uniform came separately and he was distraught that the sergeants stripes were not on the uniform. So lucy went and grabbed her sewing kit, sat down on the floor, sewed on the epaulets, and the british minister came in, saw the first lady of the United States sitting on the floor. At the white house. Sewing on this gentlemans rank. Which is how we learned this story, i would imagine. Right. Hes the one that told it of the first lady. He did. Yes, it was not her. So its important for us to move on for a bit, lucy hayes and the Temperance Movement happening in the United States. Now, first of all, today we often see the expression or nickname lemonade lucy. Was she known at the time by that name . No, not at all. I mean, in fact, tom and i were talking earlier, we dont even know what we cant even find where the reference first appeared. Its been but its one of those things thats just become apocryphal about her. I mean, i think one of the things thats you know, thats interesting about lucy is that she, you know, supports temperance, but never really affiliates with the womans Christian Temperance Union, who was you know, which was founded in ohio, her home state, by people that lived, you know, within two hoursdrive from her. And theyre always trying to coopt her. So she comes to this from her mothers father, her maternal grandfather, who was a member of the state legislature, who really made her sign a pledge when she was young not to drink alcohol. And that just sort of carried over with her, but she was never really a carrie nationtype follower of the Temperance Movement. So dave murdock asking on twitter, what prompted lucy to ban alcohol from the white house . Was it religious in nature . I want to parse that. First of all, did she ban alcohol from the white house . Actually, no. Her husband made the decision to ban alcohol from the white house. And it was a decision partly political he wanted to keep the republicans within the party who were defecting to the Prohibition Party. He also wanted to set the moral tone because alcohol was the drug of choice in those days. There were many families that were ruined. Youve heard in this series about the sons of president s who managed to ruin their lives with alcohol. And hayes was never a prohibitionist. He never thought you should outlaw alcohol. He was he thought that the people who were running the Prohibition Party were political cranks who would also outlaw dancing and cardplaying. And he just wanted people to learn by education. How popular was the Temperance Movement in the United States . Well, at the hayesestime, not very. I mean, it really takes off at the end of the century. They come in right at the beginning of it. The thing that the reason that it begins to really take off is when it merges with the womens Suffrage Movement, because at the time of when the hayes first move into the white house, only 23 states allowed women to control their own property. And so one of the big problems with alcohol was, if women worked, their wages legally belonged to their sons or their brothers or their husbands. They could not cash their own paychecks or collect their own wages. So men would take that and go into the saloons. And spend the womens money on alcohol . But also but its not just on i mean, the saloons also gave you shelter and gave you food and were political bases. They also gave you really cheap beer. And so it was its a complicated issue, because its really easy to say, oh, theyre just turning everybody into alcoholics, when what theyre doing is theyre feeding people, organizing people, giving them a place to party, you k