She had always maintained that every woman should be absolute mistress of her own home and dictate its policy. If she wished to serve wines, she would certainly do so. On the other hand, she reserved the right to decline to serve them, whether the home over which she was mistress was in Ohio or the White House. The zealots of temperance in search of a new sensation to spring to advance their course seized upon this attitude of hers as an opening for a definite commitment of a policy emanating from the White House as a national example. Soon after Mrs. Hayes arrived at the White House, the wife of a minister visited her and begged her earnestly to forbid the use of liquor and wines in the mansion during her régime. Mrs. Hayes was somewhat surprised at the request; she did not commit herself as to what stand she would take, but replied: “Madame, it is my husband, not myself, who is President. I think a man who is capable of filling so important a position, as I believe my husband to be, is quite competent to establish such rules as will obtain in his house without calling on members of other households. I would not offend you, and I would not offend Mr. Hayes, who knows what is due to his position, his family and himself, without any interference of others directly or through his wife.” The President and Mrs. Hayes conferred over this matter and were agreed that, to secure the greatest good to the greatest number, it would be well for them to advocate and practise total abstinence. Consequently, when the new mistress of the White House made her plans for her first functions, the use of wines was tabooed. This statement created a furore of criticism, ridicule, and protest among the Cabinet and official and social leaders, many going so far as to predict international complications, since the absence of liquors at state functions would be regarded as an affront by the diplomats. Not even cartoons or the sneering title “Lemonade Lucy” moved her: Mrs. Hayes remained firm, and wine remained absent from her table--and no complications ensued, though, from the Cabinet down, the President and his wife were besought to change this dictum, “for the honour of the country,” as many expressed it. Among the letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, one dated Spiegel Grove, Fremont Park, March 10, 1891, published for the Hayes Memorial Library, regarding the absence of wines during his administration, says in part: