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