He fell a victim to the drinking customs of our national capital.

Everywhere and on all social occasions invitations to wine met him.

He drank with a friend on his way to the House, and with another in the Capitol buildings before taking his seat for business.
He drank at lunch and at dinner, and he drank more freely at party or levee in the evening.

Only in the early morning was he free from the bewildering effects of liquor.
Four years of such a life broke down his manhood.

Hard as he sometimes struggled to rise above the debasing appetite that had enslaved him, resolution snapped like thread in a flame with every new temptation.