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A White House Tradition is in Danger of Disappearing
Jump to full article: Cigar Aficionado, 2010-03-09
Author: [item undated] Carl Sferrzza Anthony
Intro: If his current reluctance to actually smoke a hand-rolled premium cigar remains intact, Clinton will be endangering a presidential tradition--the 196-year-old relationship between the Oval Office and cigars.
In the early days of White House life, it was those men and women from Southern plantations who seemed to be the greatest consumers of tobacco in all forms. The seventh president, Tennessean Andrew Jackson, was such a regular user of plug that brass spittoons--now in his Tennessee estate, the Hermitage--were installed at the White House. Virginian Dolley Madison scandalized Washington as one of the few women to openly pinch snuff with congressmen. Still, it was tobacco in the form of cigars that remained the choice of presidents.
Although he raised tobacco as a cash crop at Mount Vernon, there is no evidence that George Washington smoked cigars. The first president to enjoy a "seegar" was James Madison, the country's fourth leader, who smoked until his death at 85 in 1836.
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