The Alcoholic Republic

THE ALCOHOLIC REPUBLIC AN AMERICAN TRADITION w. J. RORABAUGH - . - New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1979 THE GROG-SHOP o come le t us all to the grog- shop: The tempest is gatheri ng fa st- The re sure lyis nought li ke the grog- shop To shield fr om the turbulent blast. For there will be wrangli ng Wi lly Disputing about a lame ox; And there will be bullyi ng Billy Challengi ng negroes to box: Toby Fillpot with carbuncle nose Mixi ng politics up with his li quor; Ti m Tuneful that si ngs even prose, And hiccups and coughs in hi s beaker. Dick Drowsy with emerald eyes, Kit Crusty with hair like a comet, Sam Smootly that whilom grewwise But returned like a dog to his vomit And the re will be tippli ng and talk And fuddling and fu n to the lif e, And swaggering, swearing, and smoke, And shuffling and sc uffling and strife. And there will be swappi ng ofhorses, And betting, and beating, and blows, And laughter, and lewdness, and losses, And winning, and wounding and woes. o the n le t us offto the grog- shop; Come, fa ther, come, jonathan, come; Far drearier fa r than a Sunday Is a storm in the dull ness ofhome . GREEN'S ANTI-INTEMPERANCE ALMANACK (1831) PREFACE THIS PROJECT began when I discovered a sizeable collec tion of early nineteenth-century temperance pamphlets. As I read those tracts, I wondered what had prompted so many authors to expend so much effort and expense to attack alcohol. I began to suspect that the temperance movement had been launched in the 1820S as a response to a period of exceptionally hearty drinking. The truth was startling: Americans between 1790 and 1830 drank more alcoholic beverages per capita than ever before or since. Little has been written about this veritable national binge, and some reflection concerning the development of American historiography explains the neglect. In the firstplace, throughout most of American history alcohol has been a taboo subject. While nineteenth-cen tury librarians filed references to it under a pejorative, the 'liquor problem,' proper people did not even mention strong beverages. Neither did historians, who long ne glected the fact that the United States had been one of the world's great drinking countries. A recent biographer of Patrick Henry, George Willison, tells us that one of Henry's early biographers transformed that patriot's tavern-keeping for his father...:in-Iaw into occasional visits to that drinking house. And a few years later Henry's grandson wrote a biography that did not even mention the tavern. Sometimes, late nineteenth-century authors IX Preface Preface became politely vague. When Richard H. Collins in his of industrialization during the mid-nineteenth century History of Kentucky (Louisville, 1877), 767, described began to attract more attention, and that interest stimu Thomas F. Marshall, a drunkard nephew of Chief Justice lated a number of works focusing on such developments John Marshall, he wrote, "In spite of his great as the American railroad. A rising consciousness about weakness-a weakness which often made him disagree ethnicity led to studies of immigrant groups. The chang able and unwelcome to his best friends, the weakness ing roles of women were investigated. Most of these most common among men of brilliant promise-he was inquiries, either explicitly or implicitly, eroded the im in truth a remarkable man. ." Thus was the innuendo portance of such customary dividing points as the closed with a dash, as the author retreated behind a fa Revolution or the Civil War, and, indeed, the prolifer cade of respectability. ation of social history threatened to leave much of the In the second place, American historians traditionally American past without significant turning points. have focused upon political events, especially upon such The present study suggests a new turning point. The obvious turning points as the Revolution and the Civil changes in drinking patterns that occurred between 1790 War, with the consequence that life during the years be and 1840 were more dramatic than any that occurred at tween those wars has often been ignored. Even scholars any other time in American history. Furthermore, the as who have written on the early nineteenth century have sociation of particular patterns in the consumption of emphasized politics, including Arthur M. Schlesinger, alcohol with certain social and psychological traits has led Jr., in his path-breaking The Age ofJa ckson. That work, me to conclude that the United States in those years un published in 1945, led a generation of historians to see derwent such profound social and psychological change Jacksonian America primarily as the era that gave birth that a new national character emerged. Indeed, the to modern liberal values. This view gave the period a fa American of 1840 was in assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, vorable reputation until it was discovered that Andrew behavior, and mind closer to the American of 1960 than Jackson, that primordial liberal, had been a holder of to his own grandfather. In other words, the early nine slaves and a slayer of Indians. teenth century was a key formative period in American During the 1 960s, while scholars were recoiling from social history. Jackson and losing interest in his times, Americans were This project began with more modest aims. As I began living through unprecedented turmoil. We discovered to investigate the period of high consumption during the that social change had the potential to be as tumultuous early nineteenth century, I considered who drank, what and alarming as political change. Historians began to ex they imbibed, when and where they consumed. Had this amine more closely the social changes that had occurred work never advanced beyond those questions, it would in the United States in past times, and they began to have been a suggestive though inchoate essay in manners. question the utility of such turning points as the Revolu What has enabled me to consider broader questions has tion or the Civil War. A number of studies of New Eng been the use of the theoretical literature on the consump land towns during the colonial period pointed to the tion of alcohol. From the work of social scientists who importance of evolutionary change as the basis for examined the drinking mores in particular cultures and long-term rearrangements of the social order. The impact made cross-cultural comparisons of drinking in primitive x Xl Prefac e Preface societies, I learned that drinking customs and habits were and Kirby Miller fo r access to many Irish immigrant let not random but reflective of a society's fabric, tensions, ters; to Edward Pessen for comments on my dissertation; and inner dynamics, and of the psychological sets of its and to Michael McGiffert and Gary Walton for critiqu people. Because the wealth of this material enabled me to ing early drafts of chapters two and three, respectively. An apply social science theory to many of my observations earlier version of my consumption estimates appeared in of drinking patternsin nineteenth-century America, I was "Estimated U. S. Alcoholic Beverage Consumption , able, consequently, to draw conclusions concerning the 1790-1860," Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 37 (1976), psychology and social behavior of Americans in that 357-364. The next round honors Alfred Knopf, Inc.; th� period. At the same time, this inquiry became a kind of Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; and the Rhode laboratory in which to test hypotheses from the literature Island Historical Society , respectively, for permission to on alcohol. In that sense, theorists of drinking motivation reproduce three illustrations. Photographs were made at can view the work as a historical case study. the University of California, Berkeley, and the Univer And here I will add a warning. Because this book sity of Washington. Permission was given to quote from mixes history and the social sciences, it employs methods several manuscript collections: Benjamin Rush Papers, that are not traditional to any single discipline, and its Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Michael Collins Pa conclusions are sometimes more suggestive than pers, Duke University; Robison Family Papers, Maine rigorously proved. My justification for such speculation Historical Society; J. H. Cocke Papers, Mrs. Forney is that there is a need for books that provide questions Johnston and the University of Virginia; and Bacon Fam rather than answers. It matters less that my speculations ily Papers, Yale University. are correct, although I hope that some of them will be I also salute the members of my thesis committee at proved in time, than that I have provoked the reader to Berkeley, Troy Duster, Winthrop Jordan, and especially think and explore for himself. That is why I wrote the chairman Charles Sellers. He shepherded this work from book. its inception to its completion as a thesis, warned me of numerous pitfalls, and made many helpful suggestions, including the title. The University of California, Berke Finally, by way of appreciation, I would like to offer sev ley, gave financial support as a Teaching Assistant and as eral toasts. First, to the many cooperative librarians, par a Dean's Fellow with a travel allowance. l owe a special ticularly those at the Congregational Society Library and toast to Elizabeth Rosenfield. Her generosity in provid Harvard's Baker Business Library Manuscripts Depart ing a place to write and inimitable dinner conversation ment; to helping friends, Suzanne Aldridge, Steve Fish, sped my thesis to its conclusion. Mine was the sixth dis Bill Gienapp, Keith Howard, Tony Martin, Steve Novak, sertation written in her home. More recently, she has ex Roy Weatherup, Hugh West, and Kent Wood; and to ercised her editorial skill upon the manuscript.

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