TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

With milk and water susceptible to contamination and spoilage in colonial times, many settlers turned to alcoholic beverages. Beer and wine were common on ships carrying colonists from Europe. Consequently, most colonists drank alcohol regularly beginning in childhood, and alcohol was key to almost every social gathering. Even church leaders commonly sanctioned moderate alcohol use. Following the American Revolution (1775–1783), distilled spirits such as whiskey became important commercial goods. With Americans drinking large quantities of liquor, concern about alcohol consumption existed from the nation's birth.

Predominantly led by evangelical Protestants, isolated pockets of opposition to the sale and consumption of distilled beverages began to coalesce by the 1810s. By the end of the War of 1812 (1812–1814), a radical temperance movement developed consisting of many denominations; Presbyterians, Quakers, Western Methodists, and people of other faiths united in a concerted effort to transform traditional social patterns. One such group, the Connecticut Society for the Reformation of Morals, formed in 1813. An early focus of the evangelical leaders was individual self-reform through abstinence to save the conscience and family harmony. In contrast, elite urban residents of property in the Northeast, who formed such groups as the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, took a more conservative approach. They focused more on suppressing consumption by the lower economic classes to maintain social order and reduce crime.

The temperance movement blossomed nationally over the next decade, with the creation of the American Temperance Society in 1826. Auxiliary groups were established in every state with thousands of local organizations. The economic transition from an agrarian to an industrialized society more demanding of efficiency and scheduling very likely contributed to popularization of the movement. Transitioning from temperance to prohibition, the Society crusaded for complete abstinence from strong spirits. Under "divine" guidance, the national movement produced volumes of literature, including a number of journals dedicated to temperance. Through the 1830s total alcohol consumption plummeted from more than seven gallons per capita annually to slightly more than three. Dissension grew, however, with many favoring temperance rather than complete abstinence from wine, beer, and stronger spirits. Though momentum flagged in the 1840s, it was regained in part through the efforts of the Washington Temperance Society and the emotional lectures of John B. Gough and others. Marking a peak in the nineteenth century temperance movement, 13 of the 40 existing states had passed prohibition laws by the inception of the American Civil War (1861–1865).

The temperance movement shifted into national politics with the formation of the National Prohibition Party in 1869; in 1874 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded. The Prohibition Party saw modest success in state elections through the 1870s and peaked in national popular support in 1892 with a presidential candidate. Its primary success was the influence of public policy to support temperance movement issues.

Following an 1888 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that key provisions of state prohibition measures violated federal interstate commerce laws, however, alcohol consumption burgeoned. The Anti-Saloon League, later considered by many to be the most effective temperance organization, was founded in 1893 by representatives of various temperance organizations and the evangelical Protestant churches. A powerful political lobby, the League worked within the existing political parties to support candidates sympathetic to governmental control of liquor.

The combined influence of the Anti-Saloon League, the WCTU, and the Prohibition Party in 1917 led to a wartime prohibition measure which quickly transformed into the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, exporting, and importing of liquor in the United States. The states ratified the amendment by January 1919. Congress passed the Volstead Act, which provided for amendment enforcement, later in 1919 over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). Prohibition went into effect January 1920, marking the twentieth century peak of the movement. For 13 years the nation was legally dry. Nevertheless, the demand for alcohol continued, giving rise to great disrespect for the law and extensive illegal activity, including smuggling, speakeasies, bootlegging, and a multibillion dollar criminal underworld. Widespread popular support did exist, however, and drinking habits altered substantially throughout the country, leading to a marked decline in alcohol-related accidents and deaths. Concerns grew through the 1920s about increasing police powers to enforce the amendment and intrusions into personal privacy.

In the end, legislators concluded that Prohibition was too oppressive and unenforceable. The Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed Prohibition and nullified the Eighteenth Amendment, quickly proceeded through ratification, becoming official in December 1933. The Volstead Act was rendered void, and individual states again became the arena for alcohol regulation. The renewed production and sale of alcohol served to bolster the depressed economy of the early 1930s by adding jobs and tax revenue.

Attitudes about alcohol consumption have fluctuated through time. Temperance again became an issue later in the twentieth century, as alcohol consumption peaked around 1980. New organizations, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, addressed alcohol-related topics such as traffic deaths, health problems, juvenile crime, and fetal alcohol syndrome.

Topic overview

The standard view that abstinence was a response to industrialization and the growth of a market economy must be carefully qualified. Such developments undoubtedly contributed to the growing receptiveness of temperance in the 1820s, but they cannot account for the origins of the movement's ideology . . . In the future we must examine carefully the long-ignored moral societies that dotted the American landscape during the 1810s . . . and the hopes and fears of average evangelicals.

James R. Rohrer, "The Origins of the Temperance Movement: A Reinterpretation", Journal of American Studies, August 1990

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

Topic overview

FURTHER READING