The government of the peoples republic of china. I am so glad this delegation could come here to the United States and enjoy some of our hospitality, just as we enjoyed that in their country. I do appreciate them taking such good care of the pandas on the long trip and after they arrived at their new home. Zoo, theye national will be enjoyed by the millions of people who come from across the country to visit the Nations Capital each year. We too want to express appreciation for all of the hospitality that you have given us in your country, and we wish all your people well. And thank you very much for this the pandas, album, and for this beautiful picture, and best of all, for the gift of the pandas which all children whatever age will enjoy. And i include myself in that category. I noticed dr. Ripley is wearing a panda tie, and i have my panda pin on. Pandamonium is going to break out right here at the zoo. Thank you very much. [applause] next on American History tv, benjamin carp examines the link between alcohol and politics in prerevolutionary new york city. Places,al meeting taverns stimulated discussions about british policies and helped foster a patriotic spirit leading up to the revolutionary war. The Fraunces Tavern museum hosted this hourlong event. All right. I felix 15 toasts would have been an appropriate way for us to get started. Everyone grab a drink to get in the spirit. Im going to start with a story. Kasichary 3, 1775, john walked into drakes tavern on water street. He was a 16yearold loyalist from suffolk county. It was an odd place for a loyalist to be. It was a popular hangout for seamen and revolutionaries. Jesper drake was the fatherinlaw of the newer patriot isaac sears. The patriots included sears and Alexander Mcdougall who invited case of tweet discussion of politics into a discussion of politics. When case back down, sears and his companions when case would not back down, sears and his companions nearly knocking down with noise. Discuss thets issues at hand going back to the stamp act of 1765. One of the members got impatient and said it could be put to death for supporting congress in the top traverse it controversy. The patrons of the tavern forced case to sit in a chair by the chimney corner. [laughter] sears called over a young slave of drakes and try to order him to sit in the corner as well saying case belonged in the company of slaves because he was a slave to the British Empire, although the young man knew better than to comply with that. The company agreed to put case in coventry, meaning none would be available able to speak with him. Anyone who spoke to him would have to treat the rest of the company to a drink. According to case, someone threatened to brand his backside, which would have been very painful. Ultimately, case got the hint and retreated from the tavern. Account,er newspaper it was concluded these actions every patriotnce how dangerous a situation we should be in the sons of liberty are suffered to assume the lead in our public transactions. Tourged his fellow subjects unite against such men whose actions proved instead of freedom or aim was to establish disorder, depression, and anarchy. Case was a loyalist and is trying to demonstrate these are the types of people the revolutionaries are. My argument is taverns contributed to revolutionary policy. They welcomed and encouraged people to get involved in civic life. Taverns were places for challenging authority. Taverns were also places that helped people in new york city communicate with other places in Great Britain, the west indies, other parts of north america, and beyond. Andlly, taverns existed, this is where the title of my talk comes from, taverns existed on the fault line between order and disorder. This encounter tells us a lot significance in the years preceding the revolution. Case tried to engagement google and sears in an orderly discussion about imperial policies, having participated in polite discourse in a refined tavern. But the assembled patriots have their own idea about how to maintain order. They set up a drinking game. If you talked to a tory, you had to buy the crowd some pottage. Sears classified people according to his own notions of the social order announcing loyalists, like slaves, were beneath polite company. This encounter may or may not have degenerated into threats of violence, but that was the risk you took sometimes when you mixed alcohol with politics. I have written two books on ways americans became politically mobilized in the large cities of north america prior to the revolution. In a more recent book and the talk i gave at Fraunces Tavern a year and a half ago, i focused on the boston tea party. Where a nonalcoholic drink, but still addictive drink, became the focus of political protests in boston and elsewhere. Not just because a bunch of guys dumped tea in the harbor but because it involved boycotts where individuals had to make choices about whether to serve it in their homes. Before i got interested in the tea party, i got interested in College Ranks in the way taverns were an important part. F politics men found ways to unify and become this unified in taverns. Disagreements often spilled into the newspapers like this article about the john kasich incident or even into the streets. Some attempted to restore order by encouraging civilized discourse, organizing social clubs and associations were saying the only places that are to serve alcohol in new york are to be orderly taverns with proper licenses and Everything Else meaning it just needs to be regulated and shut down. These are ways you can try to impose order on the drinking culture of new york. Despite these attempts to establish an orderly dragging culture and despite the sons of establishattempts to an orderly resistance to british toicy, drunkenness was bound accompany both have in life and the revolutionary movement itself. New yorkers have different views on dragging and taverns. This became part of the tension that shaped their political culture. The resistance to Great Britain writing from taverns also encompassed trunk and disorder as well as ordered the mobilization. As new yorkers found mutual affirmation, political leaders attempted to harness and mobilize tavern goers as part of their resistance to the British Empire. Colonial new york city was a drinking town and a culture where the consumption of alcohol was staggering. Americans over, 15 downed 6. 6 gallons of alcohol for cap that per capita over the year 1770. Towards the end of the 20th century, it was about 2. 8 gallons per adult. We are much less of a drinking culture in general than they were in the 18th century. Drinking was almost more certainly prevalent in new york city than in boston or philadelphia. New york merchants insisted their liquor be distilled at a high proof. Visitors found new york more lively than philadelphia. [laughter] because it was a town run by quakers who were thought to be too stingy. N guest saidphia and g the next generation of the new yorkers might consume the whole vintage of madeira wine. Said,do i believe, he there existed a city more thoroughly devoted to baucas. Alexander hamilton, a different person from the secretary of the treasury. Dr. Hamilton, a scotsman observed among new yorkers, a man could not have a more sociable quality than to be poured down liquor while others sunk under the table. This was how you prove yourself in polite company, being able to drink everybody else under the table. New york city officials issued over 300 licenses between march 1772. 1 and new york had double the number of establishments than other large colonial cities. It is in many ways more of a drinking town of the other cities in north america. We are not talking very large. New york city has about 25,000 people at this time. Was unlike boston and philadelphia in other ways, unfettered by the cultural predominance of quakers or descendents of puritans. New york citys ethnically diverse population could find Common Ground over their desire to make money and also hanging out over bowls of punch and tankards of ale. Public houses can be found throughout the city. They had a close relationship with commercial life. Cabins sprang up with all parts of the city as a group, usually ahead of churches and other public buildings. It was easier to turn a house into a tavern and back again, much easier than establishing a church. New yorks networks of taverns became pipelines for medication with the rest of the world for communication with the rest of the world. Ships deposited the mail, gossip, and newspapers that found their way into the public houses. Taverns were places for government business, job recruitment, military enlistment, and signing up for privateering. Patrons could discuss matters of news float among the Transatlantic Networks from london to new york and from new york to other cities. Becometworks would vitally important as mechanisms for political mobilization. News androutes gossip and information are traveling, these are the same political news and propaganda are going to travel as the revolutionary movement unfolds. If you are in power as part of the imperial government, provincial government, or local government, how could you impose order on hundreds of taverns scattered throughout the city . Governments past two types of laws regarding alcohol. To profit that sought from alcohol and those that sought to prohibit from certain groups. The first made sure duties and fees were collected and licensed caverns kept in order the house according to the law. The power tod limit the number of establishments, this was not their goal. They raised revenues by encouraging drinking in new york city. The more taverns, the morpheus got spread around. The second type of law tried to curb disorder. You could not serve hard liquor to service. They could not take clothing or goods as a mentor you were not to bet on certain games. You could not sell drinks two locals on a sunday. You had to report the name and profession of outoftown guests. New yorkers feared disorder that might arise from drinking among blacks. More than three slaves were not allowed to be together without their masters consent. You could not sell hard liquor to any block to or slave without their masters permission. After the negro conspiracy of , after this conspiracy among africanamericans who supposedly burn down the city, the new York Assembly tightened penalties for serving liquor to said thecause they public houses in which negroes had been entertained had been the principal instruments to their diabolical villainy. Despite these regulations, blacks continue to find ways to gather and drink, often in the company of with whites. There is an attempt to regulate, but the laws are not perfect. There are a lot of violations. There are going to be prosecutions for keeping disorderly houses throughout the colonial period. One of the reasons whites were so worried about disorder among blacks was because they had witnessed the immorality and other disorders that had arisen among whites themselves in taverns. 18thcentury sources reveal a constant tension between people comfortable with integration of drinking and those who were not. They knew alcohol might lead to the loss of selfcontrol or weakening of controls over the community. Songs,ts declared bawdy gossip, and discussions of fashion would disconcert the modest. John adams when he visited new york said there is no conversation that is agreeable, no modesty, no attention to one another. They talk very loud, very fast, and altogether. [laughter] a new yorker would ask you a question and interrupt you before you got three words out. [laughter] msse were ada observations on his way to the first continental congress. He said there is very little good breeding to be found. I have not seen one good gentleman in the town. Dr. Alexander hamilton had said 30 years earlier the commonly held their heads higher than the rest of mankind and imagined few were there it calls. I found this proceeded from their narrow notion, ignorance of the world. New yorkers were to provincial and arrogant to be able to see how provincial they were. [laughter] the cure for this jumble of taverns speech and lack of manners might be the establishment of certain kinds of informal order among tavern companies. Clubs, johnuals or dennis drunkenness helped to put everyone on equal footing. You are measured by how much you drink instead of helpers digits you were. The tavern and its social workers were potentially open to all. You are pressured into drinking for fear of attended offending the company. You could not sit out a toast or people would say you did not support what was being toasted. Opportunity to ingratiate yourself to strangers. New yorkers respected a man who could hold his liquor. Satires get there is an inherent contradiction. They ridiculed orderly drunkenness. This freewheeling sense of inequality while drinking was significant. It gave people a sense of belonging because taverns were places where visitors and residents mixed together. You could organize a social club. All of these could bring people together into local networks and connect them with Transatlantic Networks. Bees began to emerge in a big way in the 1740s. There were clubs for outlook usefulness. Three presbyterian bloggers who have gone to yale formed a encouragedlubs that Civic Improvement hoping to raise new york up to the metropolitan standards of london. They began launching a number of projects. They founded the society for the promotion of useful knowledge followed by the new york society library. Founded thermed form for legal discussion. Yorks adultf new white male population belonged to voluntary associations like this, not including social clubs. 1763, date added the hospital society, chamber of commerce, marine society, and the society of house carpenters. There were all kinds of clubs you could join as a way of keeping yourself organized in taverns. There would be drinking involved and it would be a good time. But some had other purposes as well. Taverns were places where working new yorkers found rest and networks. Broadway was the. Nofficial headquarters they could hitch horses and wagons. They could fetch mail and find out who is hiring. During the privateering craze, the captains of vessels would post recruitment notices in taverns. If you were a merchant, you can get clothing, small loans, and other services at a tavern. Humeish philosopher david predicted men would flock into cities to receive and communicate knowledge, to show their wit or breeding. As club members, new yorkers might harness their private interests and individual pursuits of happiness to promote public benefits, civic spirit, and solidarity. The spirit of voluntary participation also became an important component of political mobilization in the decade preceding the revolution. They were part of the debate over representation and democracy. Letters from the an American Farmer observed two problems with mixing alcohol and politics firsthand living in new york. Taverns encouraged equality trade he thought this was a bad thing. The frequent use of liquors and inebriation swells people with the idea of equality when they were talking with their betters. This gives an american high opinion of himself, higher than deserved, because the average american only knew the rudiments of politics. He is saying most americans did not know much about politics. But they would start drinking and were swelled with a big opinion of themselves and Start Talking to their betters like they knew better. Aat is what distinguishes monarchical system where everyone knows their place and a more Democratic Society where ordinary people are beginning to talk about and participate in politics. The second thing he observed was voters often judged portable candidates based on gossip. People neither know nor foresee what service this man will be to their country. The only way they are judging candidates for office is based on what they hear set of them in taverns and other public places. He thinks this is a bad thing. The way people learn whether a candidate was fit for office was not the proper ways to judge them but because they listened to tavern gossip, and that was how they were influenced. This is how we understand democracy nowadays. To him, it seemed new and strange. These are a couple of problems with tavern politicking. Oftenhe polite clubs were prone to disorder even though many forbade clerical discussion. Meetings often dissented and chaos he cause of disagreements. Critics became frustrated when new yorkers failed to observe the standards of politeness the clubs attempted to instill. Alcohol was constantly confounding attempts to place social controls on new yorkers. As a result, successful new york politicians recognized it was better to operate among the beer houses than to try to rise above them. Straitlaced presbyterians might poopoo the idea of mixing liquor and politics, but this was disingenuous. Cabins inspired feelings of individuality and equality by encouraging civic awareness and participation. The historian divides new york politicians into two types. The first, popular whigs, sociable gladhand his comfortable doing their politicking in taverns. Original Fraunces Tavern had been a mansion before they sold it. He bristled from his tavern going. He describes the politics of the next crowd as corresponding to a second kind of your politician. Ho were more prudish and aloof for them, a good evening was conversation with other educated men. Both groups sought to use tavern sociability for political ends. By the 1760s, the divisions have become less relevant in your politics. Both had reluctant dealings with the new leaders of the street and tavern. These were the liberty boys. After years as a privateer captain kept a slop shop for sailors. Sears had a fatherinlaw whos tavern i mentioned earlier. Hn lam must have had business with retailers all over the city. A loyalist also sold wine and liquor. These are some of the most famous Young Liberty boys who drove the revolutionary movement. During the imperial crisis, these men would mobilize new yorkers in the places they knew best, taverns. They also faced the challenge of maintaining order among them. The imperial crisis created disorder in new york just as it did throughout north america. Parliaments harsh implementation of order caused mobilization. New yorkers reacted to the stamp act with outrage. This was parliaments first attempt to tax the colonies under a new regime by placing on playing cards and legal d