Temperance: After the Civil War

Temperance efforts blossomed at the end of the war. The weakened American Temperance Union re-formed into the National Temperance Society and called for northern states to revitalize their prohibition laws. Massachusetts restored prohibition in 1865, hiring war veterans as state constables whose sole responsibility was enforcement of alcohol laws. Maine founded its state police force that same year to combat prohibition violators. Many other states banned Sunday sales of beer, wine, and liquor, mandating enforcement by local officials. In 1867 Massachusetts voters temporarily repealed the alcohol prohibition law, and the national Republican Party retreated from the issue, courting working-class urban voters. German and Irish immigrants again formed opposition groups that actively protested against Sunday prohibitions and other restrictions on drinking. In essence, the temperance issue remained the ideological centerpiece in the political and economic power struggle between old-line Anglo Protestant groups and immigrant interests, disguising other concerns. In the context of late-nineteenth-century America, demographic changes threatened the status quo, which favored those holding social and political power. Although many temperance advocates held sincere moral beliefs, historians questioned the extent to which prohibition crusades were a means of preserving control over a changing society.