recognizes that many concurring circumstances come to the aid of spirituous liquors in working fatal results; still the general abuse of drink is declared to be one of the heaviest and most threatening evils under which the country groans. The taverns of the day on all public occasions, 1 and frequently in the ordinary course of their business, were filled with gambling, carousing, drinking crowds. The extent to which the great occasions of state were seized upon as opportunities for open and shameless drinking had become a scandal. The custom of granting a certain allowance of rum per day to laborers was honored in at least some sections of the country. 2 Accidental deaths due to drunkenness, and cases of suicide and insanity traceable to the same cause, were frequently reported. 3 All classes of society,
- 1 Diary of William Bentley, vol. ii, p. 92: May 31, 1794: "The observation of holydays at Election is an abuse in this part of the Country. Not only at our return yesterday, did we observe crowds around the new Tavern at the entrance of the Town, but even at this day, we saw at Perkins' on the neck, persons of all descriptions, dancing to a fiddle, drinking, playing with pennies, &c. It is proper such excesses should be checked." Cf. also ibid., pp. 58, 363, 410, 444 et seq. Cf. also E'arle, Alice Morse, Stage-coach and Tavern Days, New York, 1900.
- 2 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 6th Series, vol. iv, Belknap Papers, pt. iii, p. 456. Jeremiah Libbey writes of the situation at Portsmouth, [N. H.?]: "The common allowance of rum to labourers here is half a pint per day, which has been the rule or custom as long as I can remember. There are several persons in this town that are endeavouring to abolish the custom by giving them more wages in lieu of the allowance, as it is call'd; but the custom is so rooted that it is very difficult to break it. The attachment is so great, that in general if you were to offer double the price of the allowance in money it would not be satisfactory to the labourers, and altho' that is the case & it is the ruin of them and familys in many instances . . . untill a substitute of beer or some other drink is introduced in general, it will be difficult to get over it ".
- 3 Diary of William Bentley, vol. i, pp. 167, 175, 217, 218, 244, 247, 248, 255, 256, 281 et seq.
