temperance_movement_past

toc =//__** Temperance Movement 19th Century **__//=

Introduction
The Temperance movement was an effort lasting from the 1800's into the early1900's to prohibit the use of alcohol. Because the United States was a relatively new nation, there was no defined culture. During this period there were many actions to reform and "purify" the free nation. The temperance movement was just one of the many instances during this time where an organization saw a problem in society and took a systematic approach to fix it.

Pre-Temperance Movement
What lead to the beginning of the Temperance Movement?
 * A large influence into the beginning of temperance was sprouted from society's close connection with God. ** Religion ** was a major focus in everyday life for the average American, and it was thought that if alcohol was consumed, the connection and **closeness to God was lost**. The affects of alcohol were also worrisome because the consumer may lose touch with the teachings of Jesus while under the influence of alcohol. Some Christian denominations turned the consumption of alcohol into a sin.
 * The productivity of society and the ** economy ** was thought to be in jeopardy if temperance was not taken. Alcohol could be seen as the cause for much of social disorder, unemployment, and many other of society's issues.
 * **Depression** within the society as a whole caused many people, especially men, to turn to drinking hard liquor. This devastated not only families, but the economy as well. Unemployment was frequent, and was both caused by over-consumption of alcohol as well as causing consumption of alcohol because of stress.
 * Alcohol was **cheaper** than clean water during this time, making it the **easier option** for many poverty-stricken men. The average person in America at this time consumed **seven gallons of hard-liquor per year**, which evidently shows the issue of over-consumption.

** Efforts Made and Major Contributors **
Who were major figures in the Temperance Movement?
 * The **first** group try and reform society's view on alcohol consumption was the ** American Temperance Society ** founded in 1826. Because it was the first organization against alcohol; a strong membership was built with about 1.5 million followers throughout the country.
 * The ** Women's Christian Temperance Union ** was an organization founded in 1873 in Illinois. This group was mostly made up of women who had been at some point in their lives affected negatively by alcohol. Drunken husbands and fathers were the main srouces of pain for these women. The primary goal of the WCTU was to stop the consumption of alcohol. The WCTU was active in other reforms, temperance towards alcohol being their main and most noticable one. This opinion of temperance by the WCTU spread quickly primarily because of religeon, and caused their large membership numbers. In 1891 there were 138,377 members throughout the country.
 * ** Frances E. Willard ** was influential in the creation of the WCTU. Willard was elected to be the first Corresponding Secretary and was eventually elected president of the Union. While president Willard took many forward thinking steps and was very persistent throughout her 19 year service as president. She lead many actions for temperance, such as rallies and protests.
 * ** Lucy Webb Hayes ** was First Lady to President Rutherford B. Hayes. With her public image and methodist background, Hayes brought temperance to the White House. No alcohol was served at state functions, and this image made for many people to follow suit. This White House acted like a role model, and for this the WCTU praised Hayes for making such a positive difference.
 * ** The ** ** Anti-Saloon League ** was officially founded in 1895 and used lobbying in order to push for temperance. The Anti-Saloon League was the first temperance group to take a truly political approach in order to achieve temperance.
 * **The National Prohibition Party** was a political party that didn't have any significant numbers of people to be taken into consideration for elections, but was still played a large role in attempting to stop sales of alcohol.
 * **The Washingtonians,** founded in 1840 by recovering alcoholics, were a group of people who claimed that alcoholism was a disease that needed medical treatment.

** Carrying out Temperance in the Nation **
What methods were used in the fight for temperance?
 * Members of organizations ** spoke publicly ** about the dangers of alcohol by having conventions, protests, and parades.
 * ** Lobbying ** took place to pass bills that would ban the selling and distribution alcohol.
 * Creating **Pamphlets** and **Newsletters** to help spread the word about how society's issues are caused by over-consumption of alcohol.
 * Some extreme practitioners of temperance went as far as **breaking bottles** of alcohol in saloons.
 * Barnum, a temperance advocate, integrated temperance into entertainment by writing two **plays promoting temperance** entitled // ** The Drunkard ** // and // ** The Fallen Saved ** // . Enforcing the moral of the play, Barnum served iced water during the intermission. Barnum also required another ticket to be bought if the viewer left to have a drink at a saloon and then come back after intermission.

The End of an Era
Why did the temperance movement end? Was it a success? Maine passed a law in **1846 prohibiting the consumption of alcohol**, and twelve states passed similar laws afterwards. Most states quickly took away the law because of the challenges with enforcing it. Not enough people, in most states, were for temperance to have such a law be passed without furthur issues. Maine, however, was able to enforce the law until 1868, and by then all of the other states removed their temperance laws.
 * The **large amount of members** for the organizations shows the success and **popularity** throughout the state of Maine, but the fact that political actions didn't last long show how ineffective the movement actually was.
 * For the **long-term, the effort was obviously not a success**, for we don't see a ban on alcohol in modern-day society. However, there was a period of time during which temperance was a success, mainly in the early to mid nineteenth century.