He took a glass of wine with Mrs.Law first, which example was followed by Dr.Croker Crakes and Mrs.Washington, myself and Mrs.Peters, Mr.Fayette and the young lady whose name is Custis.

When the cloth was taken away the President gave 'all our Friends.'" The General ordinarily confined himself to a few courses and if offered anything very rich would reply, "That is too good for me." He often drank beer with the meal, with one or two glasses of wine and perhaps as many more afterward, often eating nuts, another delicacy with him, as he sipped the wine.
He was, in fact, no prohibitionist, but he was a strong believer in temperance.

He and the public men of his time, being aristocrats, were wine drinkers and few of them were drunkards.

The political revolution of 1830, ushered in by Jackson, brought in a different type--Westerners who drank whisky and brandy, with the result that drunkenness in public station was much more common.

Many of the Virginia gentlemen of Washington's day spent a fourth or even a third of their income upon their cellars.