Editing John Hay (section)

==American Civil War==
{{main|American Civil War}}

===Secretary to Lincoln===
[[File:John Hay in 1862.jpg|thumb|upright|Hay in 1862]]
Milton Hay desired that his nephew go to Washington as a qualified attorney, and John Hay was admitted to the bar in Illinois on February 4, 1861.{{sfn|Stevenson & Stevenson|p=20}} On February 11, he embarked with [[President-elect of the United States|President-elect]] Lincoln on a circuitous journey to Washington.{{sfn|Thayer I|p=88}} By this time, several Southern states had seceded to form the [[Confederate States of America]] in reaction to the election of Lincoln, seen as an opponent of slavery.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=39}} When Lincoln [[First inauguration of Abraham Lincoln|was sworn in]] on March 4, Hay and Nicolay moved into the White House, sharing a shabby bedroom.{{efn|Hay's office is today known as the Queens' Sitting Room; the bedroom he shared with Nicolay is known as the Queens' Bedroom. See {{harvnb|Zeitz 2014a|p=87}}.}} As there was only authority for payment of one presidential secretary (Nicolay), Hay was appointed to a post in the [[United States Department of the Interior|Interior Department]] at $1,600 per year,{{efn|According to Zeitz, $1,500. See {{harvnb|Zeitz 2014a|p=71}}.}} seconded to service at the White House. They were available to Lincoln 24 hours a day.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|p=28}} As Lincoln took no vacations as president and worked seven days a week, often until 11&nbsp;pm (or later, during crucial battles) the burden on his secretaries was heavy.{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|pp=87–88}}

Hay and Nicolay divided their responsibilities, Nicolay tending to assist Lincoln in his office and in meetings, while Hay dealt with the correspondence, which was voluminous. Both men tried to shield Lincoln from office-seekers and others who wanted to meet with the President. Unlike the dour Nicolay, Hay, with his charm, escaped much of the hard feelings from those denied Lincoln's presence.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=43}} Abolitionist [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]] described Hay as "a nice young fellow, who unfortunately looks about seventeen and is oppressed with the necessity of behaving like seventy."{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|p=92}} Hay continued to write, anonymously, for newspapers, sending in columns calculated to make Lincoln appear a sorrowful man, religious and competent, giving of his life and health to preserve the Union.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|pp=31–32}} Similarly, Hay served as what Taliaferro deemed a "White House propagandist," in his columns explaining away losses such as that at [[First Bull Run]] in July 1861.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=47}}

[[File:Lincoln and his secretaries.tiff|thumb|left|upright|Lincoln and his secretaries. Hay is on the right.]]
Despite the heavy workload—Hay wrote that he was busy 20 hours a day—he tried to make as normal a life as possible, eating his meals with Nicolay at [[Willard InterContinental Washington|Willard's Hotel]], going to the theater with Abraham and [[Mary Todd Lincoln]], and reading ''[[Les Misérables]]'' in French. Hay, still in his early 20s, spent time both in barrooms and at cultured get-togethers in the homes of Washington's elite.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=45–46}} The two secretaries often clashed with Mary Lincoln, who resorted to various stratagems to get the dilapidated White House restored without depleting Lincoln's salary, which had to cover entertainment and other expenses. Despite the secretaries' objections, Mrs. Lincoln was generally the victor and managed to save almost 70 percent of her husband's salary in his four years in office.{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|pp=107–09}}

After the death of Lincoln's 11-year-old son [[Willie Lincoln|Willie]] in February 1862 (an event not mentioned in Hay's diary or correspondence), "it was Hay who became, if not a surrogate son, then a young man who stirred a higher form of parental nurturing that Lincoln, despite his best intentions, did not successfully bestow on either of his surviving children".{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=52–54}} According to Hay biographer Robert Gale, "Hay came to adore Lincoln for his goodness, patience, understanding, sense of humor, humility, magnanimity, sense of justice, healthy skepticism, resilience and power, love of the common man, and mystical patriotism".{{sfn|Gale|p=18}} Speaker of the House [[Galusha Grow]] stated, "Lincoln was very much attached to him"; writer [[Charles G. Halpine]], who knew Hay then, later recorded that "Lincoln loved him as a son".{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|pp=94–95}}

Hay and Nicolay accompanied Lincoln to [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]], for the dedication of the cemetery there, where were interred many of those who fell at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]. Although they made much of Lincoln's brief [[Gettysburg Address]] in their 1890 multi-volume biography of Lincoln, Hay's diary states "the President, in a firm, free way, with more grace than is his wont, said his half-dozen lines of consecration."{{sfn|Thayer I|pp=203–06}}

===Presidential emissary===
[[File:Col. John Hay - NARA - 525834 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Hay as a young man. Portrait by [[Mathew Brady]].]]
Lincoln sent Hay away from the White House on various missions. In August 1861, Hay escorted Mary Lincoln and her children to [[Long Branch, New Jersey]], a resort on the [[Jersey Shore]], both as their caretaker and as a means of giving Hay a much-needed break. The following month, Lincoln sent him to Missouri to deliver a letter to Union General [[John C. Frémont]], who had irritated the President with military blunders and by freeing local slaves without authorization, endangering Lincoln's attempts to keep the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]] in the Union.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=48–49}}

In April 1863, Lincoln sent Hay to the Union-occupied South Carolina coast to report back on the [[ironclad]] vessels being used in an attempt to recapture Charleston Harbor. Hay then went on to the Florida coast.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|pp=33–34}} He returned to Florida in January 1864, after Lincoln had announced his [[Ten Percent Plan]], that if ten percent of the 1860 electorate in a state took oaths of loyalty and to support emancipation, they could form a government with federal protection. Lincoln considered Florida, with its small population, a good test case, and made Hay a [[Major (United States)|major]],{{efn|Hay was brevetted [[Lieutenant Colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]] and [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] in May 1865. See {{harvnb|Gale|p=18}}.}} sending him to see if he could get sufficient men to take the oath. Hay spent a month in the state during February and March 1864, but [[Battle of Olustee|Union defeats]] there reduced the area under federal control. Believing his mission impractical, he sailed back to Washington.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=77–82}}{{sfn|Thayer I|pp=155–56}}

In July 1864, New York publisher [[Horace Greeley]] sent word to Lincoln that there were Southern peace emissaries in Canada. Lincoln doubted that they actually spoke for Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]], but had Hay journey to New York to persuade the publisher to go to [[Niagara Falls, Ontario]], to meet with them and bring them to Washington. Greeley reported to Lincoln that the emissaries lacked accreditation by Davis, but were confident they could bring both sides together. Lincoln sent Hay to Ontario with what became known as the Niagara Manifesto: that if the South laid down its arms, freed the slaves, and reentered the Union, it could expect liberal terms on other points. The Southerners refused to come to Washington to negotiate.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=86–89}}

===Assassination of Lincoln===
{{main|Assassination of Abraham Lincoln}}
By the end of 1864, with Lincoln reelected and the victorious war winding down, both Hay and Nicolay let it be known that they desired different jobs. Soon after [[Lincoln's second inauguration]] in March 1865, the two secretaries were appointed to the US delegation in Paris, Nicolay as consul and Hay as secretary of legation. Hay wrote to his brother Charles that the appointment was "entirely unsolicited and unexpected", a statement that Kushner and Sherrill found unconvincing given that Hay had spent hundreds of hours during the war with Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]], who had often discussed personal and political matters with him, and the close relationship between the two men was so well known that office-seekers cultivated Hay as a means of getting to Seward.{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|p=62}} The two men were also motivated to find new jobs by their deteriorating relationship with Mary Lincoln, who sought their ouster, and by Nicolay's desire to wed his intended—he could not bring a bride to his shared room at the White House. They remained at the White House pending the arrival and training of replacements.{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|pp=161–64}}

Hay did not accompany the Lincolns to [[Ford's Theatre]] on the night of April 14, 1865, but remained at the White House, drinking whiskey with Robert Lincoln. When the two were informed that the President [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|had been shot]], they hastened to the Petersen House, a [[boarding house]] where the stricken Lincoln had been taken. Hay remained by Lincoln's deathbed through the night{{sfn|Zeitz 2014b}} and was present when he died. At the moment of Lincoln's death, Hay observed "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hay|first=John|title=The Life and Letters of John Hay, ''Vol. 1 (quote's original source is Hay's diary, which is quoted in'' Abraham Lincoln: A History'', Vol. 10, p. 292, by John G. Nicolay and John Hay)''|date=1915|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeandlettersof007751mbp/lifeandlettersof007751mbp_djvu.txt|access-date=April 25, 2014}}</ref> He heard War Secretary [[Edwin Stanton]]'s declaration, "Now he belongs to the ages."{{sfn|Thayer I|pp=219–220}}

According to Kushner and Sherrill, "Lincoln's death was for Hay a personal loss, like the loss of a father&nbsp;... Lincoln's assassination erased any remaining doubts Hay had about Lincoln's greatness."{{sfn|Kushner & Sherrill|p=62}} In 1866, in a personal letter, Hay deemed Lincoln, "the greatest character since Christ".{{sfn|Gale|p=18}} Taliaferro noted that "Hay would spend the rest of his life mourning Lincoln&nbsp;... wherever Hay went and whatever he did, Lincoln would ''always'' be watching".{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=105, 107}}