In 1791, George Washington approved an excise tax on liquor. They wanted their own liquor. It was a grand system that had actually been around since about 1870 when bottles became more common as a way of packaging whiskey, but as local Prohibition spread, drinkers in dry areas began writing away for whiskey like never before, and they were treated to some marvelous offers and premiums. There was, however, another whiskey scandal looming, later in the 1800s--this time it came from within the industry itself, and had a direct effect on which brands of whiskey are available to us today. Around the turn of the century, most saloons were unruly places that served liquor, wine, and beer to almost anyone--young or old, sober or drunk, morning, noon, or night. Oh, the guys in Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia weren’t too pleased about the taxes either--there were skirmishes and demonstrations, and tax collectors were burned in effigy--but it seems to have boiled down to Washington choosing to quell one area to set an example for the rest of the country.

They had “conned” Grant into becoming an ally, and the scheme backfired. Corn, an indigenous grain, was also cultivated, and although the immigrants weren’t used to using it to make whiskey, it was gradually introduced to the process in small quantities. The Union troops procured their whiskey from wherever they could, having it sent by their families, dodging the guards and finding their way to a local grogshop, and in the case of one whole regiment during the Christmas celebrations of 1864, making a full 15 gallons of bad whiskey all by themselves. The first money used for the investigation went to reporter Myron Colony, who was hired by the Treasury Department to gather evidence against whoever was responsible for misdirecting the excise taxes. The following year, 1792, the government reduced the taxes a little (down to around 7¢ per gallon from 11¢, dependent on proof), and Kentucky finally became a state. The primary types of American whiskey are bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, rye malt whiskey, malt whiskey, wheat whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, and corn whiskey. Laws that would properly define foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, and help protect consumers, were, therefore, presented to Congress, and luckily for us, whiskey was one of the items under discussion. Furthermore, the solids left behind from the distillation process were usable as cattle feed, thus, for farmers, producing whiskey made darned good business sense. At one point he advocated reducing taxes on such products saying that nations where cheap wine was available for the common man did not suffer the same insobrieties as those where whiskey was the least-expensive ardent drink. They had no points to pay on the closing, no smooth broker taking a percentage, and no rent to pay until the Revolutionary War ended (The Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783). The bonding period was increased to three years in 1879, and in 1894, after the nation had just suffered a massive depression known as “The Panic of 1893,” it was increased again, this time to eight years. The worst is, that precisely as a consequence of the law, the taste for alcohol has spread ever more widely among the youth. These days what they produced is called blended whiskey, and we would be remiss if we didn’t mention just how good blended whiskeys can be. In 1826, a league, The American Temperance Society, was founded in Boston, and it was a society that distillers would come to dread. The “Whiskey Ring” agents claimed to have a “higher” purpose in their treachery; they told distillers that the dollars they collected were going into a special fund to help re-elect Grant. When groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) sprung up, the whole country started talking, once more, about the evils of drink. His new book, The Art of American Whiskey, traces the history of surprisingly elaborate labels from the 1800s to today. Two quotes from Lincoln often are used out of context and make him sound like a drinking man; both are taken from a speech he made to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society in 1842. Updated: 6 days ago. We might as well ask who was the first person to bake bread. Some sat alone at the bar taking notes on the particular malt they were sampling; others assembled in groups, experienced a few different drams, and discussed and compared each one’s particular intricacies. But it wasn’t until the following year that Carry Nation actually wielded the hatchet that became her trademark when she destroyed a saloon in Wichita. But this profession is beloved because it is essential, and it is respected because its pursuit is clothed with an element of danger and with a sporting risk. (Mail-order liquor, of course, was not restricted to dry states, the whole country took advantage of some of the sizeable discounts the system offered.) Sites along the American Whiskey Trail can be visited in any order or sequence desired, although the George Washington Distillery is promoted as the "gateway" to the trail and is a common starting point. It just expands the black market for such goods. Another bone of contention on the Craig theory is the fact that since Craig never actually lived in Bourbon County (he was based slightly to the west of the county border), some people claim that this discredits him completely from ever having made a whiskey known as bourbon. One thing was for sure--there would be major changes in the way the industry conducted itself. Until then, glass bottles remained fragile, expensive, hand-blown vessels that were very dear in every way. Lincoln’s secretary, John Hay, when recording the 1863 arrival of the Sons of Temperance at the White House, noted that the group blamed the defeats of Union troops on intemperance among the soldiers. Now and then one is caught, that must happen pro forma and then he must do time or, if he is wealthy enough, get someone to do time for him. of Louisville, points out that, although quinine and laudanum were used medicinally in the mid-1800s, few other medicines, apart from whiskey, were available.