Keith Sprunger, Assistant Prof. of History at Bethel College wrote in the Aug 1965 issue of The HISTORIAN (Vol XXVII, No 4.)
a 17 page article titled Cold Water Congressmen: The Congressional Temperance Society Before the Civil War.

Here's from pages 14 and 15

------------
"Temperance came back into style in the capital city. As Washingtonian Societies were being organized in 1842, Thomas Sewall, a medical doctor long active in temperance, was dramatically lecturing to large crowds on "The Pathology of Drunkenness." His talk was illustrated with eight large color drawings of the human stomach, nine times actual size, portraying a succession of alcohol-laden stomachs in all stages from normal health to the ravages of delirium tremens. To behold the sight was a fascinating and rather terrifying experience. The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal described the drawings as so lifelike that "the bloodvessels exhibited on the inflamed mucous coat really look as though they would bleed if roughly handled." 45 The combination of emotional. Washingtonian appeals and the scientific medical approach of Sewall was calculated to strike fear into the drunkard.
As members of Congress also watched the spectacle, some were noticeably shaken, including Thomas F. Marshall, well-known as a heavy drinker. After listening to Dr. Sewall's lecture and being overwhelmed by the evidence regarding the consequences of intemperance, Marshall in an emotional gesture solemnly walked forward to sign the teetotal pledge. Hardly an everyday occurence, the incident

45 Quoted in National Intelligencer (January 20, 1842), 1.

512

was voiced about with unusual interest. The National Intelligencer referred to it as "certainly one of the most interesting events which ever took place at any of temperance meetings of this metropolis. . ." 46 In the excitement of 1842 generated by Marshall's temperance conversion and Sewall's lectures, the Congressional Society was revived. This time, however, it took shape on total abstinence principles as the Congressional Total Abstinence Society.

There was a rush of meetings in the Capitol in January, February, and March of 1842, resulting in the reorganization of the society. 47    More than eighty members of Congress were added as members of the society and pledged abstinence. 48 George N. Briggs served as president. The old Congressional Society, Briggs recalled, had died of intemperance, holding the "pledge in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other"; but this time total abstinence would avoid that disaster. During those same weeks an Executive Temperance Society for members of the executive departments was also organized as a companion group to the Congressional Society. 49  This Executive group, under the leadership of Walter Forward, John Tyler's Secretary of the Treasury, held its meetings in the Treasury Department. Temperance was once again on the initiative. With this renewed interest temperance enthusiasm was at a high point, comparable to ten years before when the Congressional Society had first been organized. And 1842 was also year that Congress passed its law partially restricting navy spirit ration.

The rest is anticlimax. Enthusiasm dissipated the cause grew stale. Although temperance remained an important issue in the states for several years longer, it steadily lost ground in Washington. ...


46 January 11, 1842.

47 The "Constitution of the society is printed in the National Intelligencer (February 14, 1842), 1.

48 "Sixth Report" (1842), Permanent Temperance Documents, Vol II, 1856, n, 332. 

49 Ibid, 333

513

----------

So the Executive wasn't immune from this sort of bandwagoning either. I think Jackson was one of the first to serve no booze on occassion. I wonder how many past presidents were abstainers, at least in office. 

Dave Trippel

----- Original Message ----- 

  From: Lowell Edmunds 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 1:36 PM
  Subject: Re: alcoholism in US Congress


  Dear Jon,

  is there any info in the bio about what drinks he drank?

  Another question: was there ever a print version of my piece on women and cocktails in Victorian AMerica?

  Thank you.

  Best,

  Lowell

   
  On 10/4/06, Jon Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
    Thomas F. Marshall, a Whig from Kentucky, may have been the first
    degenerate Congressman to blame alcohol. He served in the 
    Twenty-Seventh Congress (1841-1843). Does anyone know of an earlier
    example?

    His sympathetic biographer, surveying the whole of Marshall's life,
    began: "Character, I may say at once, was Tom Marshall's weak point." 
    (See the March, 1874 number of the Galaxy magazine, which contains
    Paul R. Shipman's long article republished later as A Handful of
    Bitter Herbs).

    Marshall was a heavy drinker; he described himself as "one of your 
    spreeing gentry." His drinking habits were described and attacked in
    the press; he was accused of being drunk on the House floor. In May
    1842, he gave a pair of famous temperance speeches announcing his
    (short-lived) conversion to Washingtonian teetotalism. Marshall was
    not re-elected.

    Here are a few quotes from a speech he gave to the Great Temperance
    Meeting of May, 1842 in New York. They are remarkable, in part, for 
    the way he brags and jokes about his drinking. He also concedes that
    yes, he was drunk on the House floor. The quotes are copied from a
    pamphlet I read at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

    "Well, then, gentlemen, within all the broad territory of of the 
    Union, there does not breathe a man who knew less or cared less about
    temperance societies, or the progress of the temperance cause than
    your humble servant did some four months ago.  I had never been in a
    temperance meeting in my life, and I make the acknowledgement with 
    shame and contrition.  I never had been in a Temperance meeting in my
    life, and if I picked up a Temperance paper, or a political paper
    with anything about Temperance in it, I threw it to one side as
    smacking of fanaticism and as altogether beneath the attention of a 
    gentleman of my vast ambition and extraordinary talents! (Loud
    laughter and applause.) (page 2)

    . . .

    "There is one point, however, that it may not be improper to touch
    upon.  With regard to this subject I have necessarily had to speak of 
    myself.  I have said more on this subject perhaps than I ought to
    have said (cries of "no, no,") and certainly more than I should have
    said, had I not heard that I was expected to allude somewhat to my 
    own case, and from what has been said in the public prints.  I found
    from them that some little portion of my private history, which I had
    hoped would ever have been private, was known to you.  A good deal
    has been said that is the truth in this matter (here he paused, and 
    continued in a solemn tone,) and far more than the truth was told
    about me.  And that, too, is one of the evils of intemperance.
    (Cheers and laughter.)  Bad as it is, in its best estate, and bad
    enough that is, God knows, a man has always friends or enemies enough 
    to make it a great deal worse. (Cheers and laughter.) In my case, I
    am modest enough to admit--my case was bad enough, but it was'nt
    [sic] so bad as was stated. (Cheers.)  But oh, if my example could
    bring back to this cause any one who has now commenced the career of 
    intemperance--if it could only bring back one human being who has
    commenced such a career, he is perfectly welcome to the benefit of
    all my experience. (Terrific cheering.)  (page 5)

    . . .

    "The papers . . . say that when I made a speech [to the House of 
    Representatives] I was pretty comfortably and most considerably
    inebriated. (Cheers and laughter.) And, in all those five or six
    speeches, except one, I give you my honor as a gentleman, I was as
    sober as a judge. (Loud cheers and laughter.) And some of those 
    speeches cost me a good deal of time and considerable mental labor
    and activity." (page 10)

    (Citation: Thomas F. Marshall, Two Speeches of the Hon. Thomas F.
    Marshall, of Kentucky, before the Great Temperance Meeting, held in 
    the City of New York, on the 5th and 6th of May, 1842.  Louisville,
    Ky.: W. N. Haldeman, 1842.)

    -- Jon Miller, Dept. of English, Univ. of Akron, Akron OH 44325-1906




  -- 
  Please note my  new e-mail address.

  Lowell Edmunds
  732 932 9305 at Rutgers