Congressman Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, June 14, 1866

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 14, 1866.

MY SWEET WIFE: I read with genuine sympathy for you the beautiful talk you send me about the dear one who is gone. I wish you were here to talk with me and let me fondle you, as you talk about him. But I suppose you are right. Well, I hope it will not be long.

We passed the plan of Reconstruction as it came from the Senate. No man elected, or claiming to be, Union, voted against it. Raymond, Green Clay Smith, and all were right. Rousseau was absent, perhaps purposely.

General Crook and wife are still here. I shall not room here next session, as I mean to have you with me as much [as] possible. I consult you as to the rooms I shall engage before I go home. I am inclined to go to the Avenue House. Other Ohio men talk of it. What say you?

Yours ever,

H.

MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 27