Editing John Hay (section)

===Student and Lincoln supporter===
Hay enrolled at Brown in 1855.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|p=11}} Although he enjoyed college life, he did not find it easy: his Western clothing and accent made him stand out; he was not well prepared academically and was often sick. Hay gained a reputation as a star student and became a part of Providence's literary circle that included [[Sarah Helen Whitman]] and [[Nora Perry (writer)|Nora Perry]]. He wrote poetry and experimented with [[hashish]].{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|pp=19–21}} Hay received his Master of Arts degree in 1858, and was, like his grandfather before him, Class Poet.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=27}} He returned to Illinois. Milton Hay had moved his practice to Springfield, and John became a clerk in his firm, where he could study law.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|pp=23–24}}

Milton Hay's firm was one of the most prestigious in Illinois. Lincoln maintained offices next door and was a rising star in the new Republican Party. Hay recalled an early encounter with Lincoln:

{{Blockquote|He came into the law office where I was reading ... with a copy of ''Harper's Magazine'' in hand, containing Senator Douglas's famous article on [[popular sovereignty in the United States#Emergence of the term|Popular Sovereignty]]. [whether residents of each territory could decide on slavery]  Lincoln seemed greatly roused by what he had read.  Entering the office without a salutation, he said: "This will never do.  He puts the moral element out of this question. It won't stay out."{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|p=56}}}}

Hay was not a supporter of Lincoln for president until after his nomination in 1860. Hay then made speeches and wrote newspaper articles boosting Lincoln's candidacy. When Nicolay, who had been made Lincoln's private secretary for the campaign, found he needed help with the huge amounts of correspondence, Hay worked full-time for Lincoln for six months.{{sfn|Kushner|p=367}}

After Lincoln was elected, Nicolay, who continued as Lincoln's private secretary, recommended that Hay be hired to assist him at the White House. Lincoln is reported to have said, "We can't take all Illinois with us down to Washington" but then "Well, let Hay come".{{sfn|Thayer I|p=87}} Kushner and Sherrill were dubious about "the story of Lincoln's offhand appointment of Hay" as fitting well into Hay's self-image of never having been an office-seeker, but "poorly into the realities of Springfield politics of the 1860s"—Hay must have expected some reward for handling Lincoln's correspondence for months.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|p=28}} Hay biographer John Taliaferro suggests that Lincoln engaged Nicolay and Hay to assist him, rather than more seasoned men, both "out of loyalty and surely because of the competence and compatibility that his two young aides had demonstrated".{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=37}} Historian [[Joshua Zeitz]] argues that Lincoln was moved to hire Hay when Milton agreed to pay his nephew's salary for six months.{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|p=71}}