In December 1852 he married Lucy Ware Webb a sweetheart from his childhood. She had the same interests as Hayes. She was the one that prohibit Hayes to take alcoholic beverages. With the earnings of his practice and the help of his uncle he bought a house. In his long marriage Rutherford and Lucy had seven sons and one daughter.

Hays became interested in the politics of the wing party. Then he became caught up in the national controversy between the northern and the southern states. Influenced by his wife, who didn’t like slavery he took a moderate antislavery stand and defended fugitive slaves. Two years later he was elected to his first public post as city solicitor of Cincinnati. He continued to pray that the rival between the north and the south can one day be settled.

In 1864 Rutherford and the Cincinnati citizens nominated him to be their representative in the United States Congress. Hays was in action in the Shenandoah valley with General Philip Sheridan when he was elected. Hays took his seat in December 1865 and was reelected in 1866. As chairman of the Joint Committee in the library of Congress he added a valuable scientific collection to the library. Congressman Hayes had scarcely started his second term when the Republican party nominated him for governor of Ohio. The measure failed but he won it by few votes.

1. Encarta

2. Internet