war, there are no slang, there has been no crime -- there are no slain. >> learn more about the rising crimes of nazi germany this sunday on american history tv. annual meeting of the american historical association in new york city, professor thomas balcerski talks about the theidence of drinking in political and social life before the civil war. host: joining us from the new york is a professor in eastern connecticut state university, the author of the book "bossom friends, the internet world of the canon and king." thanks for joining us. begin with researcher conducted on the congressional temperance society back in the mid-1800s. exactly what was that and why is it significant? dr. balcerski: yes. the congressional temperance a reflectionway is of a larger movement at this time in america that is to say t he temperance movement. it is almost a phenomenon to this larger national movement. there was an organization called the american temperance society, which was founded in the 1820's with the goal to lessen the consumption of alcohol. they were not yet committed to full abstinence or tea totaling. so that the congressional temperance society founded in the 1830's was an outgrowth of those early efforts of this first american temperance society. a precursor tohf this the prohibition movement in the early 20th century. dr. balcerski: yeah. it is a long history. of the history of temperance as being a precursor to prohibition but i like to think of them as stages in a series of a social movement that will lead to one of the greatest constitutional revolutions in american history. with the 18th amendment. temperance is aptly named. it is the early 19th century version of the movement to remove alcohol from american society. and temperance has been and was debated in terms of what it meant. the early temperance reformers were not so much against all abstinence just yet. that will come later. then prohibition as a legal proscription against alcohol is the logical outgrowth for many of the temperance reformers. the hallse were roam of capitol hill in the 1830's or 1840's and saw members of the house and senate, all men at the time, where debate drink and who was most prominent in terms of drinking in congress? dr. balcerski: an excellent question. and a congress that was a lot smaller, in a building that was physically more contained than our modern chambers, you first have to imagine what it would've been like to be in the old house chamber and the old senate chamber. the same time, that historic capitol building, as tour, had lots of next and crannies that one can go in and out of in the rotunda. in the case of congressman in the capital of the 1820's and 1830's at this time, there was three different places one could get a drink. a room called the hole in the wall outside the senate and house chamber, and in the basement a larger cafeteria where one got both food and spirit. host: how did that compare to the use of tobacco, chewing tobacco and cigars? dr. balcerski: it's good to connects the two. aboute when one thinks vice in the capital, tobacco and alcohol related. where is alcohol was illicit in the sense that one could not the floorcontainer on of the house or senate, one could still consume alcohol in the capital, although it would eventually be prohibited by a joint rule. tobacco, an the other hand, was commonly consumed and you might say promoted. congressman walked onto the floor of the house or senate on either side of the door would be a snuffbox. snuff is a pulverized version of tobacco. they can be consumed and snorted. one could smoke through cigarettes and chewing tobacco was the third form. and's petitions were calmly put out nearby on the floor of the house and senate. so, alcohol and tobacco are twin vices in the eyes of reformers but in the eyes of users they go hand-in-hand. host: as you tour the capitol, the spittoon's are still visible. let me ask you about the congressional calendar, because it is important with congress in session, 10 or 11 months out of the year, it was a very different calendar in this time period. can you explain? dr. balcerski: think about it this way. i like to think that congress is cycle.o year as we know from the constitution, the original senators were set up on three two year cycles. even today we have 1/3 of the senate elected every two years. within that two-year cycle, you start in away with the election, the federal election in november, and then you think about when a congressman they hisd tho show up, on first day of work. the election cycle was often spaced in reverse. some states would elect representatives nearly a year before they would go on to their first session. but typically, the session would off inm december until june, july, or august and the very latest september. that's the main session of a two-year term. there's a second session called the lame-duck session which came back the following december. and would run till the expiration of the two-year term in march, because again there, too, remember, the inauguration day for the president and the changeover for the house and senate was in march and not january. erage congressman would spend fewer than 12 months in the capital. host: in researching this, what surprised you the most? what is your number one take away? dr. balcerski: well, again, the congressional temperance society was the big surprise. that somehow this burgeoning national temperance movement was able to convince a series of politicians to take on what i thought at that time was a fairly early reform movement. by comparison, abolition which would become one of the most divisive issues politically in its period won't have proponents until the 1840's and by the 1850's. to imagine in the early 1830's with there was a group of congressman in favor of temperance was the greatest surprise. then try to think about politically what that meant. in the 1830's. what i have found was that perhaps it was 1/10 of the senate. it was a minority position. as compared to abolition, as compared to anti-slavery politics, temperance will decline. starts outperance strong, by the time of the civil war, they move on to prohibition politics but even that will decline after 1855. it's sort of like the movement i think is somewhat almost like a reforms likether slavery. asked you where members of congress would have a drink on capitol hill and what about the social life and was there a drink of choice? dr. balcerski: radio from the capital itself, those bars, around the capitol one did not have to go far to obtain alcohol. dram shops and poorhouses and grocery stores that sold different kinds of alcohol. once you got behind the commercial center into the boarding houses emma that is where you found alcohol. for the boarding house culture is important to understand the anti-bill in congress. because most congressmen lived in communal living arrangements. one could go from a drink to the capital to a drink at home. and for many uses of alcohol, that would probably be their course during the day. beyond boarding houses, beyond the day to day life, there were lots of social occasions, formal parties, levies, gatherings at the white house and other boarding houses, so that in the high season, in those winter months, january, february, march, congressmen would attend multiple social gatherings a to the terms of the alcohol consumption, the daily consumption that took twice at work and at home. host: that included everything from a dear wine to hard cider to whiskey-- and madeira wine. dr. balcerski: one things about the wide variety of options for consuming alcohol, one wonders if there was mixing of alcohol consumption. what i find is the type of alcohol one consumed was probably less of various than we might think. there were only a few basic kinds of alcohol consumed at this time. you mentored three of them. hard cider was popular in a north because apple's work common in the north. john adams's started his day with the tankard of hard cider. that was on the decline. probably because washington did not, as proximate to the production of cider. theit was more recently consume. whiskey, by contrast, was that traveled most easily. and particularly as you think about the nation's growth, the corn-appalchian west, could most easily be transported as a distilled spirit or whiskey. corn whiskey. madeira, there is always been a class element, classic take on wine, that continues today. wine has always been the refined palate. maderia, although today we would not think of it as a wine snob's wine, was at that time the wine of the elite. madeira is a fortified wine. brandy is added. a higher alcohol by volume. perhaps quicker way to get drunk. was commonly served and boarding houses. and the people that i studied, certainly madeira was the drink of choice. host: congress was smaller and the country was smaller. you have a sense of what percentage of approximately had families back in their districts versus those who were bachelors? dr. balcerski: that is an excellent point, because with buchanan in king we get to the are of what it meant to be bachelor. they were not the only bachelors. of studyinge biographical entries of the congressman. seven to ten congressman during, say, a 15-20 year period show up as bachelors or widowers. the calculations between 4% and 7%. one do not have to be on mary to ase -- be married to live a bachelor. congressman let's like bachelors. the connection there is if family stay at home and if the congressman stay to the capital -- come to the capital without his wife or family are children, those conditions are rife for a bachelor style lifestyle. drinking and tobacco usage, these are two things that fit within that lifestyle. one was more likely to drink to excess when one was away from wife and children. host: let's turn to your book. "the internet world of james buchanan and william rufus king." james buchanan, our 15th president. what did you learn about him, and explain who mr. kaine was. -- mr. king was. dr. balcerski: bossom friends aboutway to learn how bachelors related. viceam rufus king was the president of the united states, like that the ticket with frank lynn pierce in 1852. but, because he was terminally ill with tuberculosis, he actually never served in office. he was inaugurated and famously the only vice president inaugurated outside of the united states, in cuba. but he return to the united states to die in april of 1853. be canon, the 15th president, succeeded president pierce -- buchanan, the 15th president will be in office from 1857 to 1862. he's often blame for allowing the civil war to happen. part of what my book tried to do is understand how these two m en were so successful in politics and get at the political conditions of the period, the big question about what extent they were personally responsible for this massive tragedy that was the american civil war. i started with their early biographies, and started with them as young men. follow their college years, their entry into politics, meeting and friendship in the senate, their various overseas adventures, ministers abroad, and their success in national office as vice president and president. host: were they noted drinkers? did they share lots outside of congress? dr. balcerski: they did. drinkers.ere madeira buchanan enjoyed whiskey. lancaster you can find barrels of the old j.d. whiskey. stood for a -- j.b. local producer jacob bower. but buchanan likes the coincidence. the canon was an inveterate drinker -- buchanan was an inveterate drinker. immy, whichs, j was a playful way to talk to a man who was a senator or president. but alcohol was a great leveling force in politics for the democratic party and the canon was savvy enough as well as physically and constitutionally capable enough to handle his alcohol -- the canon was savv-- buchanan was savvy enough. king would've been right there drinking alongside buchanan. give largen to barbecues as part of his electoral politicking. and the culture political culture of barbecues is fascinating in that it was a known time for been thinking. -- binge drinking. it became part of their identity. host: you reference no heel tapping. you need to explain. dr. balcerski: there are so many little references and stories about these men in our high political officers being served drinks. one could imagine if one is constantly drinking, one may not finish his drink. some of the glassware was different. it would not be a clear glass where one could see the bottom of the cup. so, essentially what that would mean is saying you have to finish her drin -- your drin, k. the heel tap is referencing the bottom part of the cup that contains the last drop. pressure worse today to pressure someone to take every left drop -- every last drop. host: i want to get back to james the canon. c-span is conducting a survey of american presidents. oftenbuchanan is more than not at the bottom of the list. why? dr. balcerski: steve, if i could answer that question, i think i would be something of a mystic. have studied how historian psychology work but it does require that. you have to go back to the 1960's to arthur's/and or an -- arthur's lessened o-- sc hlesinger and his son. buchanan was somewhat higher. he's gone down. in that first poll, dwight eisenhower was near or below average. so, why do historians in an anonymous poll put james buchanan last? answer is -- it has become wisdom to do so. when you are writing down your answer, you have to sort of create a beginning and an end, a narrative of greatness. it is easy to make james buchanan the worst president because he was then the worst president. at the organization of american is storing there was a whole panel dedicated to the question of the worst president, and james buchanan should not be ranked last. but,a gain, when we are talking about who is worst and we are throwing that name, it gets kind of sad. a professor of history at eastern connecticut state university. friends."bossom thanks for joining us on c-span3's american history tv. we appreciate it. dr. balcerski: thanks, steve. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] caucuses justwa days away, we take a look at the history of the first in the nation iowa caucuses sunday at 3 p.m. eastern on american history tv. >> the carter campaign creates this sense that something is going on in i will. -- in iowa. and manage is partly on the follow-up to apple's story about 1972 to convince the national media that what happens in iowa is going to matter and uses iowa as a springboard, as a way to say this guy from georgia you have never heard of is in fact a viable candidate because a bunch of people in iowa who have never heard of him either voted for him. ofa discussion on history the iowa caucuses sunday at 3 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3.