Liquor receipts show celebration of Lincoln win

[The Straight Story]

Liquor receipts show celebration of Lincoln win


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Abraham Lincoln's nomination for president 150 years ago this month called for lots of toasts.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has obtained receipts from the Chicago hotel that housed the Republican nominee's campaign, among others.

Lincoln didn't drink. But the campaign operatives in Chicago ran up a bill at the Tremont House for five days of $321.50.

Of that, $125 was for lodging. The rest went from brandy, whiskey wine and cigars.

A chronicler of the 1860 convention noted that ``torrents of liquor were poured down the hoarse throats of the multitude.''

http://www.wbbm780.com/Liquor-receipts-show-celebration-of-Lincoln-win/7054973

Cigars? They would not be able to party like that today.

[CTyankee]

1. I read about the temperance movement in the U.S. in grad school.

The movement started in the early 19th century when work moved into the industrial revolution out of the agricultural society we were primarily in at the time. Being a little tiddly on the farm wasn't the same catastrophe as getting drunk and falling into the machinery and screwing up everything in the factory. It was a BFD in its day. The temperance movement got its groove thru temperance "tent meetings" in local communities and had personal witnesses who would stand up and testify how rejection of liquor saved their lives and their marriages and families. Drunkeness was a HUGE problem in the new American republic of the day and things were changing rapidly.

It doesn't surprise me that by the 1850s and 1860s the American temperament had changed on drinking. It was a huge public health issue in its day and was vastly successful. Comparable to smoking in our time.

Quite an interesting subject, both socialogically and psychologically. It foretells our interesting American views on drinking today...

[Dr Morbius]

3. Contrast this with the way America thinks about drugs today.

I think there's something in our national character, or if you prefer something lacking in our national character, which inclines Americans to use drugs recreationally. Or drink a lot, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.

[CTyankee]

4. The days of the early American republic were difficult.

And whiskey made from corn was abundant. We had more corn than we knew what to do with, from the food and animal feed perspective. So we made whiskey. Really, really strong whiskey. It was very addicting.

There was also extreme anomie in American society of that era. Families moving to the edge of the frontier, away from their families and the homes they had known, jobs such as in the fur trade or in the construction of canals were often quite lonely and extremely hard physical labor. Whiskey eased sore muscles and made people feel less stranded and desolate.

[mr clean]

2. Oh, that Lincoln...

At first I thought Blanch Lincoln(Dino) Arkansas was celebrating early.

IMHO I hope she her lost is in the double digits.