that she had remained the old-fashioned girl of her youth. Her hairstyle never changed: parted in the center and pulled back into a bun. Her dresses remained modest: high-necked and long-sleeved. Her attitude toward home and family was anything but modern (higher education notwithstanding). Both Hayeses made every effort to provide a traditional White House, all the more so since the 1876 election was rancorous and disputed. Barely elected and tainted with the epithet “His Fraudulency,” Hayes and his wife strove to remain personally above reproach.
Despite Lucy’s sincere backseat temperament, she was hijacked twice. First, by Mary Clemmer Ames, a female reporter who proclaimed the First Lady to be the “New Woman.” It is unclear exactly what characteristics Lucy had to warrant that claim other than a broad academic education. Nevertheless, Ames followed First Lady Hayes like a puppy dog, singing her New Woman praises. Lucy considered herself to be shy and denied being anything other than old-fashioned and a devoted family woman. But even after eight pregnancies, she was still attractive with a shapely albeit buxom figure. Compared to the homely Julia Grant and pouty-looking Mary Lincoln, Lucy was downright pretty.
Always a teetotaler by personal inclination, she had encouraged her husband to “take the pledge” early in their marriage. (The youthful Rutherford had been known to enjoy an occasional whiskey with his equally youthful companions.) The declaration that the White House would serve no wine, whiskey, or brandy became a cause célèbre, inviting more than a century of scholars to cast blame or praise wherever they chose. Did Lucy insist on the dry house? Or did Rutherford institute the policy as a popular issue to diffuse the questionable election and related political problems? Scholars have proposed different viewpoints. Lucy always claimed she was in favor of temperance rather than abstinence, and it was not in her character to impose her will on others. It may well be that her husband suggested that she take responsibility for the decision, since good manners would protect the First Lady from undue criticism (at least then). Besides, how couldanyone condemn a first couple for opposing drunkenness? There will probably never be a definitive answer.
The dry dictum, however, was the impetus of Lucy’s second hijacking, this time by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, an organization that was quickly becoming a formidable force in the country. Mostly comprised of prim, unappealing old biddies, the WCTU declared the First Lady to be their “ideal woman” and began singing an entire chorale of her praises from the rooftops. Their publications were continually filled with Lucy Hayes stories and tributes. She was embarrassed by the unsolicited publicity, but her lawyer husband advised her to let it slide unless people said something untrue or slanderous. Lucy herself never joined the WCTU either as First Lady or in her retirement. But she did accept the beautiful portrait of her they had commissioned.
One story that seems to have withstood scrutiny is how the devout Hayes family would invite selected guests to join them at the White House for coffee, cake, and hymn singing after church services on Sunday. The only people who criticized that benign ritual were the ribald politicians who remembered the less-pious, more-glamorous Grants with more affection than they had for Lemonade Lucy and her equally boring husband.
Postscript: L EGEND HAS IT THAT ORANGES, SECRETLY INJECTED WITH RUM, WERE PLENTIFUL IN THE ANTEROOMS OF THE H AYES W HITE H OUSE, WHERE THEY WERE IMMENSELY POPULAR . T HERE IS AN AMENDED LEGEND THAT THE ORANGES WERE ONLY INJECTED WITH RUM FLAVORING . T HIS WAS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE “WAS IT L UCY OR R UTHERFORD WHO DICTATED DRY” PROPOSITIONS . W HATEVER IT WAS THAT CREATED SUCH A RUN ON ORANGES IS STILL UNKNOWN, BUT THE W HITE H OUSE WOULD NOT BE DRY AGAIN UNTIL P ROHIBITION . A ND
Despite Lucy’s sincere backseat temperament, she was hijacked twice. First, by Mary Clemmer Ames, a female reporter who proclaimed the First Lady to be the “New Woman.” It is unclear exactly what characteristics Lucy had to warrant that claim other than a broad academic education. Nevertheless, Ames followed First Lady Hayes like a puppy dog, singing her New Woman praises. Lucy considered herself to be shy and denied being anything other than old-fashioned and a devoted family woman. But even after eight pregnancies, she was still attractive with a shapely albeit buxom figure. Compared to the homely Julia Grant and pouty-looking Mary Lincoln, Lucy was downright pretty.
Always a teetotaler by personal inclination, she had encouraged her husband to “take the pledge” early in their marriage. (The youthful Rutherford had been known to enjoy an occasional whiskey with his equally youthful companions.) The declaration that the White House would serve no wine, whiskey, or brandy became a cause célèbre, inviting more than a century of scholars to cast blame or praise wherever they chose. Did Lucy insist on the dry house? Or did Rutherford institute the policy as a popular issue to diffuse the questionable election and related political problems? Scholars have proposed different viewpoints. Lucy always claimed she was in favor of temperance rather than abstinence, and it was not in her character to impose her will on others. It may well be that her husband suggested that she take responsibility for the decision, since good manners would protect the First Lady from undue criticism (at least then). Besides, how couldanyone condemn a first couple for opposing drunkenness? There will probably never be a definitive answer.
The dry dictum, however, was the impetus of Lucy’s second hijacking, this time by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, an organization that was quickly becoming a formidable force in the country. Mostly comprised of prim, unappealing old biddies, the WCTU declared the First Lady to be their “ideal woman” and began singing an entire chorale of her praises from the rooftops. Their publications were continually filled with Lucy Hayes stories and tributes. She was embarrassed by the unsolicited publicity, but her lawyer husband advised her to let it slide unless people said something untrue or slanderous. Lucy herself never joined the WCTU either as First Lady or in her retirement. But she did accept the beautiful portrait of her they had commissioned.
One story that seems to have withstood scrutiny is how the devout Hayes family would invite selected guests to join them at the White House for coffee, cake, and hymn singing after church services on Sunday. The only people who criticized that benign ritual were the ribald politicians who remembered the less-pious, more-glamorous Grants with more affection than they had for Lemonade Lucy and her equally boring husband.
Postscript: L EGEND HAS IT THAT ORANGES, SECRETLY INJECTED WITH RUM, WERE PLENTIFUL IN THE ANTEROOMS OF THE H AYES W HITE H OUSE, WHERE THEY WERE IMMENSELY POPULAR . T HERE IS AN AMENDED LEGEND THAT THE ORANGES WERE ONLY INJECTED WITH RUM FLAVORING . T HIS WAS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE “WAS IT L UCY OR R UTHERFORD WHO DICTATED DRY” PROPOSITIONS . W HATEVER IT WAS THAT CREATED SUCH A RUN ON ORANGES IS STILL UNKNOWN, BUT THE W HITE H OUSE WOULD NOT BE DRY AGAIN UNTIL P ROHIBITION . A ND
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