Tuesday July 4, 2023
GUEST COMMENTARY: I'll have what George and Tom are having!| Abe Lincoln, the Fourth, and our modern political dilemma | Fourth of July Events
GUEST COMMENTARY: I’ll have what George and Tom are having!
by David S. Kerr
When I read about events and gatherings of the Founding Fathers — whether it's a meeting of revolutionaries in Boston at the Black Horse Tavern or the fare at a sit-down meal at Monticello or Mount Vernon — I am often left wondering, given the historical descriptions of what they consumed, just how sauced were they?
I know this sounds disrespectful, but after reading about the drinking habits of our Founding Fathers, it seems a miracle that so many people, obviously with too much to drink, or so it seems, accomplished so much.
Some accounts of the consumption are rather incredible. George Washington bought his Madeira by the “pond,” and he bought several at one time. A pond is roughly 150 gallons. Washington was also reported to like to drink a whole bottle of wine with dinner and then, without looking the slightest bit bothered, dance the night away.
But Washington’s interest in alcoholic beverages extended beyond wine. He was an active distiller. His whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon is reported to have produced 11,000 gallons in one year. His mixture was 60 percent rye, 35 percent corn and 5 percent barley. It was perhaps, the largest whiskey distillery of the era.
Thomas Jefferson was known for keeping meticulous household accounts and, in one year, recorded an incredible consumption of 1,203 bottles of wine at Monticello. However, as noted by Andrew Barr in “Drink: A Social History of America,” Jefferson said he didn’t consider himself a drinking man and claimed to never have more than four glasses of wine with dinner. That also lacks any reference to the tradition of the before dinner drink and the after-dinner liquor.
This consumption wasn’t limited to leading men of society. Ben Franklin, in writing about his early days as a pressman — as documented in Brian Simpson’s book, “Benjamin Franklin” — said that his fellow printers drank at least four or five pints of beer a day, starting with a pint before breakfast. Franklin, however, was the exception. He was an ambitious young man, and he was convinced that too much alcohol dulled the mind. So instead opted for tea or water.
In “Drinking in America” by Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, the average per capita consumption of alcohol in the Colonies was about six to seven gallons a year. Today, according to the World Health Organization, that figure in the U.S. is about 2.3 gallons. And I still think that's a lot of alcohol.
However, before the revolution, a Colonist's choice when it came to alcoholic beverages was limited. Native grapes, called “fox grapes,” had a relatively low sugar content and didn't make the best wine.
Therefore, most wine was imported, making it too expensive for the average colonist. Beer was available in good supply as was cider fermented from apples, peaches, and pears. As for hard liquor in Colonial America, rum was the drink of choice. Rum is made from molasses, which was shipped to the colonies from the Caribbean to be distilled. But after the start of the revolution, when the British turned off the spigot from the islands, whiskey started to take its place.
However, there were some reasons behind this rather amazing consumption of alcohol. Perhaps the most serious was the quality of the water. All sorts of diseases were transmitted in contaminated water. However, the alcohol in wine, beer and spirits killed the contagions, making those a far safer drink than water.
And then there was a medicinal function. Along with a host of purges and elixirs, doctors — or what passed for doctors in this period — when faced with aches, pains, and discomfort, and yes even to cope with pregnancy, recommended a drink of rum or whiskey.
This intense passion for alcohol continued well into the 19th century. And while we never lost our desire for alcoholic beverages, the consumption level dropped off considerably after the Civil War. The presence of better water, non-alcoholic soft drinks and the growing religious fervor against drinking dampened our once-mighty thirst.
However, getting back to our founders. It’s easy to be a bit too tough on the founders and their hard-drinking ways. Maybe it’s wise to take a more generous view. After all, they developed the basic ideals of our republic, raised an army, wrote the Declaration of Independence, won the War for Independence, and created a government that works to this day.
Given all that, if I were back in 1776 and sitting at a table with these great men, I think I would just say, “I’ll have what George and Tom are having.”
David Kerr is a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and a regular contributor to F2S.
Honest Abe, the Fourth, and Braver Angels
Editor’s Note: Lincoln scholar Duncan Newcomer - author of Quiet Fire - has pulled together a collection of essays on the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and Lincoln’s subsequent “Gettysburg Address,” for Read the Spirit magazine. These writings are meant to draw attention to, and build upon, a meeting of more than 600 people in the Braver Angels society, who are this week at the site of this famed battlefield to promote and grow their programs to de-polarize American politics and practice.
“They chose Gettysburg,” Newcomer writes,
because—as Lincoln’s Address explains—the Union victory there was the re-birth place of America. Much of the success of the Braver Angel movement comes from its Lincoln inspiration. The group originally was named Better Angels after the words from Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. Because another group already had claimed that name, they changed to Braver Angels.
The entire package of essays is well worth your time this July 4, and I commend them to you. I am reprinting my own contribution here for our readers.
Are our battle-scarred American roads capable of carrying us toward unity?
In Spotsylvania, Virginia, a sign reading “Crossroads of the Civil War” greets visitors driving into the county from the west on State Route 3.
They are driving through land that Gens. Robert E. Lee and Joseph Hooker would still recognize, as it is little changed since they clashed in April 1863 at Chancellorsville, from which Lee turned north and toward his fateful battle at Gettysburg.
There is no such sign to greet visitors traveling north or south through the county on Interstate 95. And while Lee and Gen. Ambrose Burnside—who collided in Fredericksburg in December 1862—would recognize the general terrain along the interstate, they certainly wouldn’t recognize the region.
This is the area that I call home. In local-government speak, it’s Planning District 16. In everyday speak, it’s the embodiment of a divided America.
Travel five miles east and west of I-95, and you’ll find highly educated, well-paid, professionals; as well as college-educated middle-class citizens. Many travel 50-or-more miles north to work every day. They settled here for plentiful land and relatively inexpensive homes. They were also attracted to good school divisions, the beautiful Rappahannock River, and the city of Fredericksburg with its arts and food scene.
The explosion in growth, the accompanying money, and the educational pedigree created a class of people unsympathetic to the Lost Cause. Their economic and social dominance also created a veneer of peace over the land that once played host to the battles of Chancellorsville (31,000 casualties), Wilderness (29,000 casualties), Fredericksburg (18,500 casualties), and Spotsylvania Courthouse (30,000 casualties).
The foes of Union, however, never went away. A small percentage of residents still fly confederate flags, and a larger percentage—through either quiet affirmation or silence in the face of pro-confederate propaganda—ensured the county remained a welcome locale for the very people who split Lincoln’s beloved Union in 1861.
Alongside these neo-confederates have risen the Christian Nationalists, the evangelical fundamentalists and the Trumpists. Donald Trump carried both Spotsylvania and Stafford counties in 2016. He carried Spotsylvania again in 2020, but by a smaller margin, and he lost to Biden—barely—in Stafford. Fredericksburg went Democratic in both races. (See here and here for a closer look.)
And the tensions that have erupted match those leading up to the Civil War in tone, if not in ferocity. I’ve spent the past two years reporting on these controversies—mostly in local school boards.
In the midst of such battles, I often wonder where the next Lincoln will come from—that one voice that can craft a vision forward to put down the forces opposed to freedom, and lead those who believe in the ideals of America.
That Lincoln, however, never existed.
Abraham Lincoln’s greatest moments were great in retrospect only. The Gettysburg Address, for example, was so short that most who were there didn’t even hear it. His rise to the presidency in 1861 brought not a unified Republican Party, but rather a divided body politic and a ferocious “team of rivals,” as Doris Kearns Goodwin described in what is surely the best biography of Lincoln over the past 50 years. (With all due respect to David Herbert Donald, and his magnum opus on the 16th president.)
Lincoln doubted himself. He was prone to fits of depression. And the office rarely took as great a toll on any one man as it did him, as side-by-side photos from 1861 and 1865 make clear.
So how did this flawed, frequently politically weak, Lincoln become the Great Man we pine for today in places like my home? The answer lies in understanding what Lincoln had that too many have missed–his Quiet Fire—a side of Lincoln it took scholar Duncan Newcomer to unearth. This quiet fire was a spiritual compass born not of orthodox religion, but an awareness of his own finitude. And his connection to a higher power.
This is the Lincoln we need. And that Lincoln exists.
He lives in the collaborative spirit of The New Dominion Podcast, where the former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia sits weekly with a card-carrying progressive – the author – and interviews people in our community who understand the glue that is our local Union, and work daily to strengthen it.
He lives in the committed spirits of Nicole Cole, a member of the Spotsylvania School Board who caucuses with Democrats and has been stripped of power by a board majority of Christian Nationalist extremists, and Rich Lieberman, a parent who self-identifies as a conservative. Together, they are addressing issues related to student hunger, and challenging in court the many acts of questionable legality the board majority perpetuates.
And he lives in the life of Scott Mayausky, a Republican Commissioner of the Revenue in Stafford County who is committed to expanding our understanding of those not like us, and finding innovative solutions to taxing problems that unfairly burden the poor.
America the ideal is about e pluribus unum. From the many, one.
But the hard reality of America is that we are forever defined by the roads that we travel through our lives. Roads that bring change, and that remind us of who we once were.
Roads that once carried armies to battle, and that now carry children of all races and classes to school. Roads like Plank and Old Plank roads in Spotsylvania.
Lincoln still travels these roads today. In the lives of those who burn with quiet fire, and a commitment to union. A union of shared humanity.
Reprinted from Read the Spirit magazine under Creative Commons License 3.0.
Fourth of July
There are lots of interesting events happening this Fourth. Want to share your events? Send an email to the editor. We’ll get it in.
Stafford
Stafford has a number of events for the entire family. Learn more about Stafford’s Fourth of July Spectacular.
Also, the 4th marks the Grand Opening of the Patawomeck Museum and Cultural Center. Learn more.
Fredericksburg
There’s a lot of activities downtown. Click through here to learn about everything happening in the city.
Story Time & Family Fun | Rising Sun Tavern
Tuesday, July 4, 2023
11:30 am and 1:30 pm
Join us on the lawn behind the Rising Sun Tavern as costumed interpreters will read children’s books on the American Revolution and this historic day in our nation’s history. Bring the family for face painting and additional fun activities themed around the Fourth of July. This family event is free and open to the public. Tours are available at standard admission prices.
Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence | Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop
Tuesday, July 4, 2023
11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm
Join WHM on the steps of the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop as we celebrate our independence with a live reading of the Declaration of Independence. This is a moving experience you won’t want to miss! This event is free and open to the public. Tours are available at standard admission rates.