George Washington could not tell a lie. I guess we all veer toward the truth when we’re piss-drunk.
The man best known as a military genius and our country’s first president loved to throw back his share of booze. A lot of booze. In fact, he at one time was personally the largest producer of whiskey in the United States.
According to Drunkard.com, Washington, was “a military genius. And a full-bore hooch-hound. To begin with, his false teeth: they were so obviously wooden because his daily intake of wine and whiskey stained the grain.”
While in office, Washington spent 7 percent of his income on booze. He even used hooch to make good with voters. After losing his first political campaign to a candidate who supplied plenty of beer, whiskey and rum to voters, Washington came back three years later, booze in hand, and increased his popularity from 40 votes to 331.
And before you vilify Washington’s legacy as booze-addled, historians say that most of the Founding Fathers loved to booze it up. Even Colonials drank much more when compared with today’s populace, as each early American consumed approximately five gallons of liquor a year. Alcohol was served at church, family dinners, state legislature meetings and the Constitutional Convention. Admittedly, alcoholic drinks didn’t spread disease and had a much longer shelf life than other drinks. Children also were known to drink alcohol.
So, after retiring from politics, Washington really went all out on the lush life. His first order of business at Mount Vernon was to start production of beer and molasses, building a distillery that eventually pumped out 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year, making him the largest producer of whiskey in the country for a time.
Despite these noted facts, it’s funny how history tends to whitewash certain details from the books. For example, an iconic image of Washington toasting his troops in a New York tavern was painted with a visible flask in hand, only to have the flask excised sometime in the 19th century.
One of the most interesting connections between the Founders and their booze was a bar tab for Washington in 1787, days before the Constitution was signed. The bill included “54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer, and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.”
Now that’s a party. So let’s raise a glass to our Founding Fathers.
The Lonely Typewriter 