This may have originated in Thomas Stuart's "Stuart's Fancy Drinks and How to Mix Them" from 1904. His Liberal is 1/3 each Pecon Bitters (sic), 1/3 whiskey, and 1/3 Italian (sweet) vermouth, with 3-4 dashes of absinthe.

Been meaning to try this for probably a yr- finally did, and not a fan as it is too sweet and the orange flavor is overwhelming. I did use Bittermens Amere Nouvelle so I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes. I'd much prefer a Brooklyn cocktail.

I have seen this in Modern American Drinks by George J Kappeler (1900) as
Liberal Cocktail
1/2 large bar glass ice
1 dash simple syrup
1/2 jigger Amer Picon
1/2 jigger whiskey
1 piece lemon peel
Fill a mixing-​glass half-​full fine ice, add one dash syrup, half a jigger Amer Picon bitters, half a jigger whiskey. Mix, strain into cocktail-​glass. A small piece of lemon peel on top. Serve.

I have also seen this cocktail attributed to Joseph Santini of New Orleans' City Exchange c. 1850 but I have not seen an original publication.

Just having one right now. Quiet similar of the kampaïneapple i've posted recently.  Very nice. I've tried to up a bit the lemon juice after a few sips but original ratios are better.

Used stagg jr,  havana selección maestros.

Will do again.

This is wonderful!

Good stuff. Same sort of flavor judo as the Jasmine cocktail, but much easier to remember, and a bit more mild and approachable. Sort of the difference between fresh, ruby red grapefruit and older white grapefruit.

Varied this by using Hayman's gin and Lime Juice.

This is a great cocktail!! Reminds me of an Aviation a bit. The ingredients blend wonderfully together, without one overpowering the others. With Genevier, I find it hard to make the ingredient blend into a cocktail, but this does very well!

Nice mix of ingredients.  As with most recipes that call for equal amounts I played with proportions.  This is just a matter of taste of course.  My pick:  1.5 oz Genever; 1 oz Elderflower; 1/2 oz lemon juice; 1/2 oz Aperol

Smoky and tart, even with the small amount of lemon juice. Great drink.

Didn't have punt e mes, so substituted Cocchi Americano on a whim, delicious, a bit sweet, tart, and smoky, can't wait to make this again.

Gilded Mezcal

I used closer to 1 ounce of fresh lemon juice and stirred with two two ice cubes before straining and serving up in a coupe. Amazingly delicious!

Made it with the proportions listed. Smoky, tart, great balance. 

Misty competed with this drink in June 2008 at the St. Germain Can-Can competition. 2009 would already find her at Drink which would be too late for the timeline (she opened Drink in late 2008). Also, these are the correct proportions and not the ones that Eric Felten made up. I asked Misty about that here: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2011/10/maximilian-affair.html

a tad sweet/heavy for me as is, would up the lemon juice I think if I make again

Definitely on the sweet side but I quite liked it; subbed 1 dash Cherry and 1 dash Plum bitters, would probably go with all plum next time. Wouldn't increase the lemon myself as it's plenty acidic enough, reduce the heering to a 1/2 or 1/4 oz.

In The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book (2016) Frank Caiafa gives a version that is 2oz Jamaican Rum (or 1 oz each congnac and aged rum agricole), .25oz Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, .25 maraschino liqueur (or creme de noyaux...or amaretto, or orgeat), .25 grenadine (or simple syrup), and 2 dashes Angostura. He notes that the suggestions in parentheses are based on how 'the Old Books' listed the recipe. I tried his version as listed (and very close to the recipe in the entry here), using appleton reserve 8yr without the suggested substitutions, and it was quite good. The maraschino hits hard, but it works really well with the rum, and makes me want to experiment with that combo.

I tried with with the Savoy ratios (2:1:1 bsp:1 bsp:1 dash) using Appleton Estate hoping to reduce the sweetness tolerably vs. Smith & Cross. I used my own pomegranate grenadine, but there is just far too much grenadine in the recipe to make this anything other than a syrupy sweet drink. The flavor would be pleasant if not so cloying, utterly lacking offsetting acid or bitter. I tried to adjust the already prepared drink with 1/2 oz of lime juice, which helped but was still insufficient. This is a vintage cocktail that just doesn't work as written. It might make a decent long drink with the lime juice and plenty of soda water to tame the sugar.

The 1935 Waldorf Astoria book evens out the grenadine by making it 3 dashes each of grenadine, maraschino, and curaçao. So when I made it, it was 2 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 2 dashes. https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2017/03/chinese-cocktail.html

There are several versions of this cocktail in the 20's and 30's. The earliest I have found so far in a quick (not exhaustive) search is in a 1924 Swiss cocktail book, "Carlo's Les Cocktails et Les Boissons Americaines" by Carlo Beltramo. I don't know if this is the root recipe or not, but it is listed as the "Chine cocktail" and looks like a reasonable drink, probably the most complete of the lot: 1/2 tsp Angostura Bitters, 1 tsp maraschino, 1 tsp red curacao, 1 tsp grenadine, 50 mL of aged Jamaican rum. Stir and pour into cocktail glass, with a cherry and lemon zest.

I don't know why the large amount of grenadine crept into many later recipes, but in the 1927 "Barflies & Cocktails" listing for the Chinese it is there as: 1 dash Angostura, 3 dashes Maraschino, 3 dashes Curacao, 1/ 6 Syrup Grenadine, 1/3 Jamaica Rum. Shake well and strain. (Recipe by F. P. Newman, Paris. ) Savoy (Craddock) seems to have just copied this dubious recipe.

1934's Boothby recipe for the Chinese is more towards the 1924 recipe: Rum 2/3 jigger, Curacoa 2 dashes, Grenadine 2 dashes, Maraschino 2 dashes, Bitters 2 drops

I gave the 1924 Chine Cocktail recipe a try and it is not bad, 3/5. I used ~7/8 oz each of Appleton Estate and Wray & Nephew, 1 barspoon (teaspoon size) of P.F. Dry Curacao, 1 bsp of my pomegranate grenadine, 1 bsp Luxardo, and an actual 1/2 barspoon (1/2 teaspoon, close to 4+ dashes) of Angostura Aromatic Bitters. [Note that red curacao from Senior would likely be considerably sweeter.] I expressed the lemon peel and dropped it into the drink since I wanted it to help balance the sugar, then added a Luxardo cherry.

This makes for a full flavor intensity drink--still sweet but the baking spice/bitters help balance that.

Curated to reflect authentic historic drink, with modern improvements moved to the notes.