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If political and social matters gained disproportionate verbal attention from taverngoers deep in their cups, the underlying egalitarianism and meanings of their interactions should garner greater historical attention from astute scholars. James Walker, an early traveler, future preacher, and admitted temperance advocate, frequented bars for a unique reason. His rationalization provides a great deal of insight into the social, egalitarian, and ultimately republican aspect of the institution.
And as I boarded at the hotel, and he [an unnamed friend of Walker] spent a good share of his leisure time there, our drinking...may be supposed to have been a pretty extensive patronage of the bar. Strange as it may seem, I never had, and never contracted, a taste for ardent spirits. I drank because it was universal social usage; and friendship and good fellowship were supposed to be indicated by the invitation to partake of the poisonous beverage.19
Walker admittedly did not drink to inebriation. Nor did he consume alcoholic beverage because he enjoyed the taste of the “poisonous beverage” or the feeling accompanying its ingestion. Rather he drank at the tavern solely for its redeeming social quality.
In fact, it is this leveling or socially equalizing feature of the tavern most often decried in newspaper articles promoting temperance on the Western Reserve. One such article claims that, “A man who, on meeting a number of friends or acquaintance at a Tavern...calls for his bottle and urges all to drink, and will accept no excuse: they absolutely must drink”.20 Not surprisingly, taverns and shared drinking constituted a social event then as it does today. Although temperance advocates wanted readers to believe that these men were forced to sit at taverns and drink alcoholic beverages, statements made by men like Walker refute such claims. In fact, sifting through the anti-alcohol rhetoric written by such temperate souls provides even more insight into the shared social experience and equalizing effects of the rural ordinary. Later in this same article, the author asks rhetorically “Do we find those who are so noble in the bar-room and grog-shop, equally generous on other occasions?”21 The tavern incited untypical behavior in its patrons. Within the tavern, all were equal and there was a level of respect for one another in reciprocal treating. The author of that essay answers his or her own rhetorical question with a pointed response.
Call on one of these liberal, urgent distributors of spirits, to take a share in a social library, to sign a dollar or two for the support of a school in a poor neighborhood, or even for the support of the Gospel; and he really cannot —he has nothing to spare. But he is a noble-spirited, whole-souled fellow, —he calls for his bottle, and does his full share at making Drunkards”22
