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