Below The Beltway

Apparently our first President was pretty good at making his own whiskey:

[James] Rees [executive director of Mount Vernon] is proud that Mount Vernon is helping showcase our Founding Father’s business career by opening a complete reconstruction of his 75-by-30-foot distillery, which at its peak turned out 11,000 gallons a year of corn and rye whiskey along with fruit brandy. (The distillery and accompanying museum open to the public on March 31.) James Anderson, a Scot who was convinced making whiskey was a growth industry, pitched the idea to Washington just weeks before he retired from office. Import taxes had reduced the consumption of molasses-based rum and made home-grown hooch popular. At the time, the average American consumed five gallons of distilled spirits every year, compared with only 1.8 gallons today.

Washington admitted in a letter he wrote to Anderson that liquor was “a business I am entirely unacquainted with,” but the advice of a rum distiller friend of his persuaded him to invest in two stills that produced an initial 80 gallons of whiskey. Sales were brisk enough that within months Washington decided to build a distillery on the site of one of his unprofitable farms. The building housed five copper stills, a boiler and 50 mash tubs.

And, though not a drinker himself, Washington was aware of the salutory benefits of alcohol:

But for all of Washington’s commendable belief in moderate alcohol use, he very much appreciated its utility. Esther White, a Mount Vernon archaeologist, told me Washington once lost a 1755 campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates because he didn’t treat prospective supporters to a drink. Two years later, he rolled out 144 gallons of refreshment. He won with 307 votes, a return on his investment of better than two votes per gallon. He never lost another campaign.

During the Revolution, Washington was also convinced of the salutary effects of alcohol on his troops: It kept them feeling warm and upbeat and discouraged desertions. In 1777, he instructed the purchasing officer of the Continental Army that “there should always be a sufficient quantity of spirits with the army.” He noted in a letter to John Hancock that the “benefits arising from moderate use of liquor have been experienced in all armies and are not to be disputed.”

So as we mark President Washington’s 275th birthday today, perhaps it would be appropriate to life a glass in tribute.