Thu, 04 Jul 2024 20:36:16 GMT

I'm celebrating July 4th by reading Gordon Wood's "Empire of Liberty," a history of the US from 1789-1815. Here are some things I've learned about our Founding Era:

Alcohol consumption per capita was the highest in American history. Even children regularly drank. One (alpha) Dartmouth student informed the dean of his university that "the least quantity he could put up with...was from two to three pints daily."

In 1800, nearly 90 percent of the labor force was engaged in farming. By 1810, almost 70 percent of the white population in America was under the age of 25. Frat boys and farm boys ruled the country.

Politically-motivated mob violence (incl. murder) was not at all uncommon. In one example in Baltimore, 1812, a Republican mob stormed a jail to beat senseless a group of Federalist detainees. One was Robert E. Lee's father, whom they unfortunately only crippled for life.

Routine frontier violence included not only duels (which were prevalent in the "aristocratic" northern states, too) but intense hand-to-hand combat in which "eye-gouging" and trying to rip off your opponent's balls were top strategies.

James Monroe, later President, expressed in a letter to James Madison his desire to challenge then-President John Adams to a duel because Adams recalled Monroe as Ambassador to France.

In 1792, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson complained to James Madison that Alexander Hamilton's creation of the Bank of the United States amounted to "treason" punishable by execution. Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury.

Later, Hamilton himself attempted to rig elections against the Republicans in New York when public opinion had violently turned against his Federalist party. He was just trying to Keep America Great.

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