Temperance at Washington
A brief note contrasting the drunken congressional sessions of half a century earlier with the sober habits of 1876's lawmakers, crediting a temperance society for the change — except, pointedly, among newly elected Democrats.
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Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 18, 1876 · Page 1
1 min readAlthough wine is drunk at dinner-tables, and jorums of punch are brewed when the nights are cold, the sad sight of a drunken congressman is never witnessed nowadays. Half a century ago, travelers who described the capitol used to describe the drunkenness there during the sessions of Congress; and the night sessions were scenes of debauch. But now there are members of Congress who do not even have wine on their dinner-tables, and good old Dr. Chickering, who reorganizes the congressional temperance society at the commencement of each session, is unusually successful, this winter, except among the newly-elected democrats.—Washington Letter.
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