Thomas Fleming: Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale
[Mr. Fleming, a former president of the Society of American Historians, is the author, most recently, of "The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers" (Smithsonian, 2009).]
On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery…
On Dec. 22, 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, turning the whole nation dry—if and when two-thirds of the states ratified it...
The ratification process moved slowly at first. By the fall of 1918, only 14 states had approved the 18th Amendment. To speed things up, the drys in Congress tacked a rider on a vital agricultural appropriation bill, establishing national Prohibition as of July 1, 1919.
In the White House, President Wilson's Irish-American adviser, Joseph Tumulty, urged Wilson to veto the bill. Tumulty warned it would alienate millions of ethnic Democrats in the big cities in the upcoming midterm elections. Tumulty called the Dry rider "mob legislation pure and simple." But Wilson conferred with other members of his cabinet, who recommended signing it. Wilson had been re-elected in 1916 by a heavy percentage of dry states. The president signed the bill and, as Tumulty predicted, outraged Irish and German Americans voted Republican and the Democrats lost Congress…
For the next 13 years, Prohibition corrupted and tormented Americans from coast to coast...
In 1933, a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made the repeal of the 18th Amendment one of his priorities. But the evil effects of this plunge into national redemption linger to this day, most notably in the influence of organized crime, better known as the Mafia, in many areas of American life.
In 2010, with talk of restructuring large swaths of our economy back in vogue, Prohibition should also remind us that Congress, scientists and economists seized by the noble desire to achieve some great moral goal may be abysmally wrong.
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On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery…
On Dec. 22, 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, turning the whole nation dry—if and when two-thirds of the states ratified it...
The ratification process moved slowly at first. By the fall of 1918, only 14 states had approved the 18th Amendment. To speed things up, the drys in Congress tacked a rider on a vital agricultural appropriation bill, establishing national Prohibition as of July 1, 1919.
In the White House, President Wilson's Irish-American adviser, Joseph Tumulty, urged Wilson to veto the bill. Tumulty warned it would alienate millions of ethnic Democrats in the big cities in the upcoming midterm elections. Tumulty called the Dry rider "mob legislation pure and simple." But Wilson conferred with other members of his cabinet, who recommended signing it. Wilson had been re-elected in 1916 by a heavy percentage of dry states. The president signed the bill and, as Tumulty predicted, outraged Irish and German Americans voted Republican and the Democrats lost Congress…
For the next 13 years, Prohibition corrupted and tormented Americans from coast to coast...
In 1933, a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made the repeal of the 18th Amendment one of his priorities. But the evil effects of this plunge into national redemption linger to this day, most notably in the influence of organized crime, better known as the Mafia, in many areas of American life.
In 2010, with talk of restructuring large swaths of our economy back in vogue, Prohibition should also remind us that Congress, scientists and economists seized by the noble desire to achieve some great moral goal may be abysmally wrong.