In 1755, 23 year-old George Washington decided to run for the Virginia House of Burgesses. He chose to take a principled stand and buck the longstanding British election practice of offering free alcohol to voters on election day, in essence buying their vote. He believed there were too many taverns in town, and even complained to the Virginia Governor that excessive drinking affected the readiness of his soldiers. He was rewarded for his effort by being trounced 40 – 270 in the election. He was a principled man, but he was also a quick learner. The next election he was prepared; 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine, 46 gallons of beer, and two gallons of cider royal — nearly enough for a half-gallon per voter. He received 331 votes, easily defeating his three rivals. It was illegal to give voters gifts in exchange for their votes, but there was nothing wrong with having a party! The practice was known as ‘Swilling the planters with bumbo.’ The planters referred to farmers, and as landowners were eligible to vote, and bumbo was a popular rum drink consisting of rum, lime, sugar, and nutmeg – very popular in the taverns of the day (and actually quite tasty).
There is a long history of the relationship between presidents and alcohol. Some were drunks, some were teetotalers, and some, like Washington, saw the value of the spirit. He not only used it to get elected, but knew of its importance to his men and fought throughout the Revolutionary War to keep a steady source of rum for his soldiers. After the war he tried his hand at making whiskey, building a distillery at Mount Vernon. By 1799, he was producing 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year, becoming one of the largest distilleries in America at the time, even though it is unlikely that he ever drank any of it himself.
John Adams was a drinker and started every day with a tankard of hard cider in the morning and enjoyed three glasses of Madera, a fortified wine from Portugal, mixed with rum in the evening while he read before bed. And Jefferson, our Francophile president, spent much of the Revolutionary war in France, enjoying the wine. While he defended himself against the charge of being a drunk, claiming he only drank 3 or 4 glasses of wine at dinner, he imported somewhere around 20,000 bottles of French wine during his presidency.
This was a time when Americans drank. By 1790 the Average American was drinking the equivalent of 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year, and by 1830 that number had risen to 7.1 gallons. This is startling compared to today when we, on average, consume approximately 2.3 gallons a year. But it really makes your head spin when you realize that women drank little, so the number for the average male was significantly higher.
The 1800s saw presidents on both sides, both alcoholics and those who avoided strong drink. While Abraham Lincoln chose not to drink, others like Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur were heavy drinkers. Most of the presidents during this century were fans of whiskey (Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Johnson), beer (Garfield, Cleveland), or wine/sherry/champagne (Masison, Monroe, JQ Adams, Tyler, Polk, Filmore, Buchanan). But Pierce and Arthur were known to drink everything. It is said that Arthur drank to deal with the loss of his wife, but Pierce, possibly our drunkest president, drank himself to death at the age 65. As he said once after leaving office, “What can an ex-president of the Unites States do after leaving office, except get drunk?”
The century aligns with the history of the spirit, more or less. The first part of the era is loaded with bottled wines and champagnes, but as American whiskey begins to come into its own, the whiskey drinkers become more prevalent. Beer doesn’t appear until the end of the century – as production of beer becomes much more refined and the product becomes much better.
The next century added the cocktail to the drinking habits of the presidents. William McKinley, the last president of the 1800s and serving until he was assassinated in September of 1901, is the only president with a cocktail named after him that is worth mentioning – McKinley’s Delight, consisting of 2oz rye, 1oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes cherry brandy, and 1 dash of absinthe. It was very popular at the time, right as the golden era of the cocktail was at its peak.
Teddy Roosevelt was not a fan of hard liquor and drank “no more than a haff a dozen (mint julips) a year.” After leaving office he even sued a newspaper that claimed he was a drunk. His fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, however, is perhaps the president we associated the most with the cocktail. He ran for president on a platform of ending Prohibition – which he did – and uttered that now famous line, “What America needs now is a drink.” While Anheuser-Busch put together a ceremonial team of Clydesdale horses (the first use of those familiar animals) to deliver some of the first legal cases of beer to the Whitehouse, and Yuengling brewery sent an entire shipload of his favorite beer to him to say thanks, FDR was a cocktail guy. He was fond of the dirty gin martinis and whiskey Manhattans. During WWII, Roosevelt would meet with Winston Churchill at the White House and the two would stay up all night drinking and smoking cigars. The Whitehouse staff referred to these benders as “Winston Hours”. Despite his reputation for drinking cocktails, Roosevelt was not a heavy drinker, and he would end up sleeping for 10 hours a night for 3 nights in a row to recover once Churchill left.
The rest of the presidents either drank little or nothing (Carter, Bush Jr., Trump. Biden), drank primarily beer (Obama), or scotch/whiskey (Eisenhauer, Johnson, Nixon). The exceptions were Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy. Ford was a fan of the three martini lunch – at least until he was thrust into the presidency – but Truman loved the hard stuff, and the harder the better. His drink was a bourbon Old Fashioned, but he liked it strong, and would complain to the Whitehouse staff if it as too weak. He was also known to knock back a shot of bourbon in the morning as well.
Kennedy was a fan of flavorful mixed drinks. He loved a Bloody Mary, and was particularly partial to Jackie’s daiquiris, Sadly, it was made from limeade concentrate, and she tacked the recipe to the kitchen wall “for the staff to follow”. Seriously? Limeade?
Cheers!
Bill
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