Drunkenness was common, even among children. Looking back on his early years, Lincoln recalled that “intoxicating liquor [was] recognized by every body, used by every body and repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant, and the last draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson, down to the ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the other disease. Government provided it for its soldiers and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or hoe-down; any where without it, was positively insufferable.” Some New Englanders in the village, led by the pious Dr. John Allen, tried to civilize it by establishing a temperance society. (According to New Salem tradition, Lincoln once said, while pointing to Allen: “There stands the man who, years ago, was instrumental in convincing me of the evils of trafficking in and using ardent spirits. I am glad that I ever saw him. I am glad that I ever heard his testimony on this terrible subject.”) When the local schoolmaster joined Allen’s group, he was expelled from the Baptist church because the fundamentalist congregants regarded membership in such a society as an unwarranted distraction from God’s work. When the same congregation subsequently dismissed a member for drunkenness, a perplexed fellow, brandishing a whiskey flask, asked for clarification: “Brethering, it seems to me that you are not [con]sistent because you have turned out one man for taking the [temperance] pledge and another for getting drunk. Now, brethering, how much of this critter have I got to drink to have good standing among you?” Temperance advocates in New Salem faced ridicule and stiff opposition.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃