"Majr General (By Brevet) Scott.
"Brave and means well; but is an officer of inadequate abilities for extreme command, and by report is addicted to drinking."
In 1795, when the United States passed an excise law, distilling became particularly profitable, and a still was set up on his plantation. In this whiskey was made from "rye" chiefly, and Indian corn in a certain proportion, and this not merely used much of the estate's product of those two grains, but quantities were purchased from elsewhere. In 1798 the profit from the distillery was three hundred and forty-four pounds, twelve shillings, and seven and three-quarter pence, with a stock carried over of seven hundred and fifty-five and one-quarter gallons; but this was the most successful year. Cider, too, was made in large quantities.
Washington resigned his command December 23, 1783, and went back to his estate, which had suffered from his eight years' absence. To his friends he offered unpretentious hospitality. "My manner of living is plain," he said, "a glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready and such as will be content to partake of them are always welcome."
At Washington's official dinners ordinarily a boiled leg of mutton was served, followed by a glass of wine. The silver service was massive, being valued at $30,000, but the menu was very simple. On a great occasion it included soup, fish roasted and boiled, meats, fowls, and so on, and for dessert, apple pies, puddings, ice cream, jelly, and fruit. After the cloth had been removed the President filled his glass and drank the health by name of each one present.
Samuel Stearns, who was a frequent visitor to Mount Vernon, thus described the habits of Washington:
"He is very regular, temperate and industrious; rises in winter and summer at the dawn of day; generally reads or writes some time before breakfast; breakfasts about seven o'clock on three small Indian hoe cakes, and as many dishes of tea, and often rides immediately to his different farms, and remains with his laborers until a little after two o'clock, then returns and dresses. At three he dines, commonly on a single dish, and drinks from half a pint to a pint of Madeira wine. This with one small glass of punch, a draught of beer, and two dishes of tea (which he takes half an hour before the setting of the sun) constitutes his whole sustenance until the next day. But his table is always furnished with elegance and exuberance; and whether he has company or not, he remains at the table an hour in familiar conversation, then every one is called upon to give some absent friend a toast. After he has dined, he applies himself to business, and about nine retires to rest; but when he has company he attends politely upon them till they wish to withdraw."
Relation of Other Prominent Americans to the Liquor Traffic
Among the early prominent American characters the total abstainer was a rare article, and the prohibitionist almost unknown. Governor John Winthrop was probably a total abstainer, and the romantic character of John Smith seems quite clear from the drinking habits of the period. "Never was warrior known," says an old writer, "from debts and dice and oaths so free," and his own words as to the object of life show a loftiness of purpose almost unknown among his contemporaries, and should be preserved for the example they furnish to posterity. "Seeing we are not born for ourselves but each to help the other, and our abilities are much alike at the hour of our birth and the minute of our death; seeing our good deeds and our bad by faith in Christ's merits is all we have to carry our souls to heaven or hell; seeing honor is our lives' ambition and our ambition after death to have an honorable memory of our life; and seeing by no means we would be abated of the dignities and glories of our predecessors let us imitate their virtues so as to be worthily their successors." So wrote the man of whom old Thomas Fuller said, "He had a prince's heart in a beggar's purse," and to whom one of his comrades, a survivor of the starving time, paid this touching tribute: "Thus we lost him that in all our proceedings made justice his first guide—ever hating baseness, sloth, pride and indignity more than any dangers; that never allowed himself more than his soldiers with him; that upon no occasion would he send them where he would not go himself; that would never see us want what he either had or could by any means get us; that would rather want than borrow or starve than not pay; that loved actions more than words and hated falsehood and covetousness worse than death; whose adventures were our lives and whose loss our deaths."
But these are two of the few oases in the dreary desert of early American drunkenness. Most prominent men of the time drank to excess. The early colonial grandees furnish a number of quaint pictures. Governor William Cosby, of New York, was admitted to the Humdrum Club on January 24, 1733, over many bowls of punch made from peculiar and valuable receipts, known only to the members of the club, which was potent in its effects even over a well seasoned veteran like the late Governor of Minorca. Sir Danvers Osborne, another governor, committed suicide. The colony of New York had been treated to a variety of rulers since the English had taken possession of the Dutch colony. They were endowed with every vice known. They were fortunately spared the dominion of a madman who succeeded a dipsomaniac in the chief office of the province. Governor Clinton immured himself in the fort and spent his time with his bottle and a little trifling circle who lived on his bounty. Governor Hunter was a man of violent passion. After he had had one of his fits an Indian said to an officer, "The governor is drunk." "No," said the officer, "he never drinks any strong liquor." The brave replied, "I do not mean he is drunk with rum, he was born drunk."