Whisky Caused the Rebellion
WHISKY has much to answer for, but here is a new count in the indictment, made by General Daniel E. Sickles:— "The War of the Rebellion was really a whisky war. Yes, whisky caused the Rebellion! I was in the Congress preceding the war. It was whisky in the morning—the morning cocktail—a Congress of whisky drinkers. Then whisky all day; whisky and gambling all night. Drinks before Congress opened its morning session, drinks before it adjourned. Scarcely a committee-room without its demijohn of whisky, and the clink of the glasses could be heard in the Capitol corridors. The fights—the angry speeches—were whisky. The atmosphere was redolent with whisky—nervous excitement seeking relief in whisky, and whisky adding to nervous excitement. Yes, the Rebellion was launched in whisky. If the French Assembly were to drink some morning one-half the whisky consumed in one day by that Congress, France would declare war against Germany in twenty minutes."