The office of the President of the United States used to look quite different from what it does now. For most of us, that is, anyone over the age of ten, when we imagine U.S. presidents, we tend to picture dignity, restraint, and moral steadiness. We think of a person ( a man in every case ) who is befitting the office. A person with integrity. Honesty. Good manners.
Currently, our president does not often show good behavior on any level. He calls people names. He is arrogant. He is rude and self-serving. He’s flipped people off in public and has publically said that it is okay to “grab women by their p*ssy.” That’s not the way George Washington would have behaved. Or Abraham Lincoln. Or any of our other presidents.
And yet? They have all been men. All of them are human.
And a few came with big problems when they came to the White House.
Alcohol and addiction were one of those problems. The story of alcohol and the American presidency is a bit tangled. One of the most notable alcoholics was Franklin Pierce.
Pierce is widely regarded by historians as the only U.S. president whose alcoholism was both severe and publicly acknowledged during his lifetime. That does not mean that others were afflicted in this way. Several other presidents had severe drinking problems.
Back to Pierce. His drinking was notable even in the mid-19th century. That is really something, considering that alcohol consumption was far more common during that time than it is today. Hi political opponents mocked him mercilessly. They dubbed him the “Hero of Many a Well-Fought Bottle.”
Pierce had a rough go of things. His life was filled with many struggles. His life was also filled with overwhelming grief.
He and his wife, Jane, lost all three of their children at a young age. The final loss was especially devastating. It was their eleven-year-old son, Benny. He was killed in a gruesome train accident just weeks before Pierce’s inauguration. Both parents witnessed the horrible event.
Jane was a devout supporter of temperance. She completely retreated from public life. She also blamed her husband’s political ambition for the tragedy.
Franklin, meanwhile, turned inward. As such, he drank more and more, and more.
Historians continue to debate how much Pierce’s drinking affected his presidency. He had a hard road there, too. His term occurred during one of the nation’s most volatile periods. There was the whole slavery question. Along with that was the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the violence of “Bleeding Kansas.”
It all demanded moral clarity and political resolve. These were qualities Pierce struggled to project. After his own party denied him renomination, he reportedly remarked, “There’s nothing left to do but get drunk.”
As I mentioned earlier, Pierce was not alone in his difficulties. Ulysses S. Grant battled alcohol abuse earlier in life. But many historians believe he was largely sober during his presidency. Andrew Johnson embarrassed the nation with public intoxication at his vice-presidential inauguration. Others, like Lyndon B. Johnson, were known as heavy drinkers. The debate of actual alcoholism remains debated.
In the end, these stories remind us that presidents are human. So many people struggle with alcoholism. These presidents were tackled by grief and pressure. Their coping mechanism, drinking, was extremely destructive.
We can now look back and see the fragile humanity behind the immense power of being our good presidents.
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“Addiction begins with the hope that something ‘out there’ can instantly fill up the emptiness inside.” — Jean Kilbourne
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“Addiction is not a choice that anybody makes; it’s not a moral failure. What it is: it’s a response to human suffering.” — Gabor Maté
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“Addiction is the gradual narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure.” — Andrew Solomon
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“Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.” — Brittany Burgunder
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“Sometimes the thing you’re most afraid to give up is the thing that’s holding you back the most.” — Mandy Hale
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The presidents who drank
