The History of Prohibition in the USA

Table of Contents

Chapter I:
The History of Prohibition in the USA
1.1 Introduction:
1.2 The Role of Alcohol in early America:
1.3 First Steps to Prohibition:
1.4 Ethnic Background:
1.5 Religious Background:
1.6 New Prohibitionist Movements
1.7 Post Civil War
1.8 The Women’s Temperance Movement
1.9 The Anti-Saloon League
1.10 The law for Prohibition
1.11 The Ways to Circumvent (Break) the Law
1.12 Attempts at Law Enforcement
1.13 The End of Prohibition

Chapter II:
Prohibition and the Fourth Amendment
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Fourth Amendment
2.3 Significant Cases during Prohibition Concerning the Fourth Amendment
3.2.1 Carroll v. United States:
3.2.2 Olmstead v. United States

Chapter III:
Contemporary Attitudes toward Alcohol
3.1 Introduction:
3.2 Summary of the Survey:
3.3 Evaluation:

4. Bibliography

Books:

Internet:

Chapter I:
The History of Prohibition in the USA

1.1 Introduction :

“Prohibition was satisfying three tremendous popular passions: the passion of the Prohibitionists for law, the passion of the drinking classes for drink and the passion of the largest and best-organized smuggling trade that has ever existed for money. “

“The remedy was worse than the disease. Intolerance led to indulgence”.^[1]

1.2 The Role of Alcohol in early America:

Prohibitionists challenged a tradition deeply cherished by the Americans. Few business transactions, few births, christenings, graduations or marriages were celebrated without serving alcohol. Alcohol was prescribed by doctors for practically any pain. In the colonies it was said to be one of the good creatures of god. The clergy was the group who was known for drinking the most.

Alcohol was part of everyday life. Bells ushered in employee breaks 11 and 4 o’clock every day for their bitters and there were other daily opportunities to drink. Bitters could be any kind of alcohol and differed regionally. In 1792 there were 2,579 registered distilleries in the United States with a population of about 400,000. This number increased throughout the years and by omitting the probable non-drinkers, the estimated annual intake of alcohol per person was at least 12 gallons. When Washington stood for election he distributed among the voters of Frederick County 160 gallons of beer, wine, cider, punch and rum. During the first three months as president almost one fourth of his household expenses went for liquor.

1.3 First Steps to Prohibition:

Benjamin Rush, a great physician, Member of Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence was influenced by Anthony Benezet, a saintly Quaker teacher and he, too devoted himself to combating intemperance.

Benezet took up temperance work and wrote the first American temperance pamphlet in 1774. He wanted to solve the problem by raising the taxes to an extent that alcohol should become barely affordable.

The temperance leaders later claimed the Founding Fathers as spiritual ancestors but they preached more than they practiced it.

The earliest attempt at prohibition in the New World was made by General James Edward Oglethorpe in 1733 in the colony of Georgia. The importation of ardent spirits was illegal. Soon smugglers from South Carolina sold them rum and nine years later it became legal.

For most people abstinence as urged by Benezet was unnatural behaviour. The Virginia Assembly wanted ministers to reprove drunkards publicly. Judges who drank during court hours were fined 500 pounds. The Massachusetts Bay Colony defined excess as more than half a pint at one time. Offenders of this rule were forced to wear a red D around their necks (Debauchees). There were anti-drinking rules of some sort in almost any colony. The sources of liquor remained very free, however.

For white anti-liquor preachers like Benezet, the conversion of the noble savage to the wild beast was the best example what alcohol did to people. As we would suspect, the preachers attracted and reformed few. They needed a renowned man of science in the guise of Benjamin Rush. He proposed the first influential document in temperance history. “An Inquiry into the Effect of Ardent Spirits.” The doctor prescribed moderate amounts of wine but warned against the dangers of drinking hard liquor. It had negative effects on intellect and morality and lead to falsehood, fraud, theft, uncleanliness and murder as well as many lethal diseases. In his view, even moderate drinkers could become alcoholics. The only salvation for these people was religion, a view typical for temperance reformers of that age. “An Inquiry” aroused the populace and Rush laid the foundation for a new way of thinking in America.^[2]

1.4 Ethnic Background:

When the Isle of Manhattan was discovered by Hudson in 1609 he gave the so-called “firewater” to the Chief of the Delaware Indians. From that day on it was an accepted way of paying the Indians. The first ban the leaders of the colonies had to impose was the selling of alcohol to Indians. This was the first prohibitory move in American history. They did not prohibit it out of conscience but out of fear of often very brutal Indians under the influence of alcohol. Of course, business interests were greater and the law became weak.

Alcohol also played an important role in American slaving. The owners traded alcohol for slaves. Later, after slavery was banned, African-Americans were prohibited to drink, using the justification that alcohol made them dangerous.

The arrival of the European immigrants was the next challenge to the Protestant, Anglo-Saxon prohibitionists wanting to uphold morality.

1.5 Religious Background:

The religious foundation of Prohibition is Puritanism. It is the religious idea of the early settlers and parts of it remained in the modern way of American life. Intolerance toward other groups is part of their belief. The colonial Puritans believed that the heavenly kingdom could be erected on earth but the people had to be improved by law. These laws were the so-called “blue laws”. The “kill-joy” movement was the forerunner of prohibition. It prohibited any pleasure on Sundays. According to Puritans pleasure and relish were inventions of the devil. Drinking was misuse of God’s gifts and had to be punished or stopped.^[3] Perhaps initially for religious reasons it became a scientific endeavor to spread the word that alcohol was in fact not healthy. Sir Benjamin Ward-Richardson, an English physician destroyed the theory that alcohol intake maintained body warmth.^[4]

1.6 New Prohibitionist Movements

The state of Maine was the hardest drinking state in the Union. A statistic says that in twenty years, a sum equivalent to the value of all the property of Maine was spent on drink. It is not surprising that members of the temperance movement were not very welcome in Maine and received violent receptions. In 1827 after the former governor Enoch Lincoln drank himself to death, the temperance movement had a slight impetus. Total abstinence groups gained strength. After a big orgy in the town hall, the soberer residents burned it down. More importantly, though they pushed an ordinance through the town council closing all saloons, a legislative principle adopted later by many other states. The state government left it open to the local government to allow liquor shops and saloons.

Appleton was the so called father of Prohibition and Dow his follower.

Dow actually managed to win enough people over to win the referendum on Prohibition. It was a big victory, but it was not easy to put into action. Only a few liquor stores went out of business and all others sold alcohol without a license. There existed no agency large enough to police them.

Dow did not stop fighting. He collected 40,000 signatures across the country and a prohibitory law was finally enacted in 1846. Penalties for violation were very low, but it was a big step in any case. The law said nothing about giving away rum, so many vendors sold cheese for a high price and gave a free drink with it. The police could be easily bribed. Dow intensified his pursuit and his life was often threatened. Dow ran for Mayor of Portland and won in 1851. He presented a new bill to the Lower House and had by then many allies among them. The bill stated: prohibition of sale and manufacturing of any intoxicating liquor would result in very high fines and possible imprisonment for violation. Any three citizens who suspected violation could get a warrant and enter the suspect’s home. Dow was not re-elected in 1852 but was famous throughout the country for his Maine Law. Throughout the next four years, eleven states and two territories enacted laws similar to the Maine Law. Dow was then re-elected as mayor. Alcohol was ordered for medical use and stored in the town hall. A mob deemed this to be illegal and formed in front of the hall. The militia wounded seven and killed one man. Dow was taken to trial for possession of liquor and homicide but was acquitted. The Maine Law was changed into a law which allowed selling alcohol by the glass. He then passed a new law, less stringent than the Maine Law. Of the thirteen states which had enacted prohibitory laws since 1851 Maine was the only dry State left.

The main reason was that policing was so difficult. Between 1850 and 1860, when the temperance movements had its most influential period, the drinking of wine, beer and whiskey had increased dramatically. There were also more concerns than temperance, such as the upcoming civil war.

1.7 Post Civil War

The temperance movement arose once again. The first organized opposition of prohibition was the United States Brewers Association (1862). Most of them were German immigrants. It formed four months after the Internal Revenue Law was passed. They demanded to lower of beer taxes and they would support no candidate of any party who supported the total-abstinence cause. They achieved their first goal within a year when taxes were lowered.

This opposing group provoked strong resistance of the Good Templers, the only group which lasted through the Civil War and even increased its number of members afterwards. Since neither Democrats nor Republicans fought for temperance any longer the Prohibitionists had to form their own party.

1.8 The Women’s Temperance Movement

The new temperance movement came from women. The first women to “fight” were in Illinois in 1859.^[5] The movement involved at least 50,000 women. They visited saloons and prayed for drinkers to take abstinence pledges and for saloon keepers to close down. They also wanted local politicians to support them with restrictions.^[6] Some women preferred the violent way, destroying liquor containers with hatchets and hammers. The greatest interest was not created until Christmas Eve in 1873 in a small town in Ohio.^[7] Many prohibitionist men found women to be more understanding of spiritual verities than men and supported woman’s suffrage as both a functional and symbolic means of cleansing society.^[8] This group of women, with male members of congregation to help them, went to druggists, hotels and saloons to urge them to stop selling liquor. At first they were not heard but they did not give in, went praying in front of homes and establishments and gradually gained more success. Many of the saloonkeepers withstood for many weeks.^[9] In the short run the women were successful and many saloons closed their doors temporarily^[10]. The crusaders wanted to ban alcohol for medical and religious reasons. The women were often subject to physical and psychological maltreatment. It was a life threatening job. Many were arrested but freed shortly after. Nothing could stop the Crusaders; no violence no insults. They stayed and prayed until they won the battle. It seemed as if they were unstoppable and were taking over America. To many men they were acting unwomanly. Especially in the South the role of the woman as mother and housekeeper was very restricted. At the height of the Crusade 30,000 liquor sellers had been closed down throughout the country. Liquor laws could not be changed, however and most saloons reopened after six months and the Crusade movement slowly vanished, because it was disrupting women’s home lives.^[11] A year after the Crusade began the WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) was founded.^[12]

[...]

^[1] Cashman, Sean Dennis, Prohibition: The Lie of the Land (New York, The Free Press, 1981), p. 29, 2

^[2] Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits (London, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1974), p. 23-48

^[3] Schmölders, Günter, Die Prohibition in den Vereinigten Staaten (Berlin, C.L. Hirschfeld, 1930), p. 1-15

^[4] Cashman, Sean Dennis, Prohibition: The Lie of the Land (New York, The Free Press, 1981), p. 3

^[5] Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits (London, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1974), p. 48-95

^[6] Kerr, K. Austin, Organized For Prohibition (Chelsea, Saybrook Press, 1985), p. 44

^[7] Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits (London, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1974), p. 114-124

^[8] Blocker, Jack S., Retreat From Reform ( Westport, Greenwood Press, 1976), p.23

^[9] Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits (London, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1974), p. 114- 131

^[10] Kerr, K. Austin, Organized for Prohibition (Chelsea, Saybrook Press, 1985), p. 44

^[11] Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits (London, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1974), p. 114- 131

^[12] Kerr, K. Austin, Organized for Prohibition (Chelsea, Saybrook Press, 1985), p. 44