“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”—George Washington, assessing the possibility that a double-agent could betray the Continental Army, in a letter to Major General Robert Howe, Aug. 17, 1779, quoted in The Writings of George Washington: 1778-1779, edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (1890)
Americans revere George Washington, born on this date in 1732, for his virtue, but he himself had few illusions about the best qualities of most men. It wasn’t only because, for four years before he wrote the above line, he had become all too familiar with the price men would make him pay to supply the needs of his army or even with information on enemy troop movements.
No, Washington, for at least the last two decades, knew too well the base instincts underlying the scramble for office. In 1757, he allowed his name to be put forward as a candidate for the Virginia House of Burgesses--a position he may have felt as practically a birthright, given that his great-grandfather, father and elder brother had all served in the post.
But as a colonel charged with defending the colony from Indian attack, he had made clear his conviction that the “villainous Behavior of those Tippling House-keepers” had undercut military preparedness. This did not sit well with the tavern interests of his area, who threw their weight successfully behind two opponents.
The ambitious young colonel learned his lesson. A colonial law at the time stipulated that no inducements were to be offered to voters, but the latter thought that any candidate who didn’t “treat” them was an inhospitable stiff. And so, come the next election, Washington made sure to purchase 144 gallons of wine, rum, punch, beer and hard cider to distribute at the polls. It worked--he won handily this time.
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” Washington’s fellow Virginian James Madison wrote in The Federalist #51. I don’t think it was an accident that this thought, so similar to the general’s in terms of lack of illusions, was written by another politician who had lost an election to the House of Burgesses in his twenties because of hostility to colonial liquor interests.
Historians have argued for years about the intellectual sources of the worldviews of the Founding Fathers. As far as I’m concerned, the influence of John Locke, Francis Hutcheson and other Enlightenment figures can be overstated. In the republic of alcohol, Washington, Madison and all too many other figures had learned all too much about catering to the masses because of the tradition called "swilling the planters with bumbo."
Americans revere George Washington, born on this date in 1732, for his virtue, but he himself had few illusions about the best qualities of most men. It wasn’t only because, for four years before he wrote the above line, he had become all too familiar with the price men would make him pay to supply the needs of his army or even with information on enemy troop movements.
No, Washington, for at least the last two decades, knew too well the base instincts underlying the scramble for office. In 1757, he allowed his name to be put forward as a candidate for the Virginia House of Burgesses--a position he may have felt as practically a birthright, given that his great-grandfather, father and elder brother had all served in the post.
But as a colonel charged with defending the colony from Indian attack, he had made clear his conviction that the “villainous Behavior of those Tippling House-keepers” had undercut military preparedness. This did not sit well with the tavern interests of his area, who threw their weight successfully behind two opponents.
The ambitious young colonel learned his lesson. A colonial law at the time stipulated that no inducements were to be offered to voters, but the latter thought that any candidate who didn’t “treat” them was an inhospitable stiff. And so, come the next election, Washington made sure to purchase 144 gallons of wine, rum, punch, beer and hard cider to distribute at the polls. It worked--he won handily this time.
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” Washington’s fellow Virginian James Madison wrote in The Federalist #51. I don’t think it was an accident that this thought, so similar to the general’s in terms of lack of illusions, was written by another politician who had lost an election to the House of Burgesses in his twenties because of hostility to colonial liquor interests.
Historians have argued for years about the intellectual sources of the worldviews of the Founding Fathers. As far as I’m concerned, the influence of John Locke, Francis Hutcheson and other Enlightenment figures can be overstated. In the republic of alcohol, Washington, Madison and all too many other figures had learned all too much about catering to the masses because of the tradition called "swilling the planters with bumbo."
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