The Portland daily press., 1884-04-29
A SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF THE
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION IN
THE STATE.

Monday, Sept 8, the people of Maine will vote
upon the following proposed amendment to
| the constitution:
The manufacture of intoxicating LIQUORS.
not including cider, and the sale and keeping
| Tor sale OF Intoxicating liquors, are and shall
pc forever prohibited. Except, however. that
the sale and keeping for sale of such liquors
ipr neulclnal ana mechanical purposes and
the arts, and the sale and keeping for sale of
cider, may be permitted under such regula-
| tons as the legislature may provide. The
| legislature shall enact laws with suitable pen
alties for the suppression of the manufacture,
| sale, and keeping for sale of intoxicating
| liquors, with the exceptions herein specified"
The legal voters Of the state who desire
this to become part of the constitution of
Maine will deposit ballot with the word
Eyes" written or printed thereon, and those
who are opposed to this becoming a part Of
the said constitution will deposit ballot with
the word mo" written or printed thereon.
A majority of the legal votes cast will
decide the fate of the proposed amendment.
As Maine is the pioneer prohibitory state of
the Union and has been welded to the pro-
hibitory policy almost without interruption
for 80 years, it will be interesting at this time
to take note Of what has been attempted and
what accomplished there in the matter of
restricting and suppressing the traffic in in
toxicating liquors.
The First Prohibitory Law.
The commonly entertained idea that the first
prohibitory liquor law in Maine was enacted in
1851 is an erroneous one. The law of 1851 was
sort of revision of four preceding laws. 1t
was specially stringent, however, and was the
| first law to contain the search and seizure
clause. The laws previously enacted did not
| specially disturb any considerable body of
| the people, although containing the prohibi-
tory principle. 1t was not until the enact
ment of a law which included the search and
seizure clause that there began to be trouble
| and the people to show disposition to array
themselves for and against prohibition. The
| first prohibitory law was enacted in 1876. 1t
was approved August 18th of that year and
| was entitled:
can act to restrict the sale of Intoxicating
drinks"
1t was enacted by a democratic legislature
and approved by a democratic governor, Hugh
J. Anderson. The three other laws enacted
| prior to the statute of 1851, which is com
monty cited as the original Maine law, were
| as follows:
An act additional to ''an act to restrict the
sale of intoxicating drinks" approved Aug
| Z, 1876. Approved Aug. 10, 184S.
An act to prevent the sale of intoxicating
| drinks at cattle shows. Approved August
| Is, 1849.
An act in relation to common selling of in
| toxicating liquors Approved Aug. %, 1850.
Each Of the above laws was passed by
democratic legislature and approved by a
1 fbo f,.s+ I, Ga,-
| John w. Dana and the third by Gov. John
Hubbard. The act Of 1851, about which so
much has been said and written and which
| has been quoted at home and abroad as the
original and famous Maine law. was enacted
by democratic legislature and approved
June /. 1851, by democratic govenor-John
Hubbard. 1t was entitled:
An act for the suppression of drinking
houses and tipping shops.
Following the enactment of this law came
SO other laws aimed at the liquor traffic.
The States First and Only License Law.
From 1916 to 1884, with only brief inter-
ruption, Maine has chung to her prohibition
idols The law of 1851 stood upon the statute
books of the state with some slight amend
ments, until 1855. In that year more strin-
gent law was passed with the same title The
legislature which passed the law is known in
history as the Morrill, legislature" This law
Of 1855 repealed the law of 1851 and all pre-
vious statutes upon the subject. Invent into
effect May !, 1855, and it was this law that
led to a riotous outbreak in Portland during
which Mr.. Robbins was killed and quite a
number of persons. were wounded. A strong
feeling in opposition to the prohibitory law
began to show itself and increased in strength
until the election in the following autumn,
when a democratic legislature, opposed to
prohibition, was chosen. There was no choice
for governor and the legislature elected Sam
uel Wells, democrat, who had received
As, 341 votes to to 81, Al for Arson P Morrill,
and 1860 for Isaac Reed.
This legislature repealed all the prohibition
legislation and passed license law. For the
benefit of Maine readers who may be interest
ed, the vote in both branches on the passage
of the only license law the state has ever had
| is here given. misrepresentation who voted
in the affirmative were:
Messrs. Andrews, J. c. Baker, R. M. Baker,
Bean, Blake, S. G. Blanchard, E. Brown, II.
Brown, r. P. Brown, Burkett, Burleigh,
Came, Council, Chandler, Charles Clark j.
b. Coffin, Collins, Cutter, Dakin, Dana, Oar
ling, Eaton, j. Foster, 0. Foster, Frost, Fuller,
Goodale, Goodwin, Haley. Hanseom, Hewes,
Hobort, Hooper, Hunton, Hunt, Hysom, Irish,
Knight, Leyonsaler, Little, Lyman, j. Merrill,
Miller, A. Moore, Morton, Mason, Owen, Pal
mer, Patten, Patterson, Pike, Prince, Putnam,
Record, Reed, Rich, Russell, Sawyer, Shack
ley, Smith, Stonewood, Sweat, Talbot, Tit
Webster, d. Wentworth, Wing.-73.
Those who voted in the negative were:
Messrs. Archer, Barker, Barrows Britton,
| w. Brown, Cargill, Chamberlain, Chase, j,
| w. Coffin Curtis, M. Currier, r. S. Currier,
Cushman, Deering, bennett, Dingley, Duren,
Elder, Emerson, Fisher, Gilman, Gould,
Gregg, Ham, Handy, Hines, Howes Hume,
Lunt, Lyford, Mari, Mayo, McGilvery, A.
| Merrill, Mitchell, J. S. Moore, Morse, Neal,
| Norris, Pearson, Pool, Pray, Sargent, Scam
mon, Silsby, Stanton, Stinson. Swasey, Tay-
lor, Irott, Vaughan, Walton, Weed, H. Went
worth, West, Winslow, Woodman.-63.
The senators who voted in the affirmative
were:
Messrs. Aver, Barnes, Blaisdell, Crane,
| Farley, French, Heagan, Hodsdon, Hayden,
| Holland, Jones, JunkinS, Kezar, Lowell, Mar
| den, O'Brion, Read, Robinson, Rowell,
| Swasey, Talbot, Thompson and Weston.-23
Those who voted in the negative were:
Messrs. Burrill, Butler, Morrill, and Shop
dIQ-4.
The Return to Prohibition.
This license law went into effect April 10,
1856 1t was short lived. however. The DEM
ocratic party was on the down grade. National
issues were beingpressed to the front, and I'm
der the lead OF Hannibal Hamlin a large body
| Of voters had deserted from the democracy.
| The republican party was born about this
time, and IN the fall of 1856 it scored its first
| victory. electing Hamlin governor. The pro-
| hibltlon sentiment began to grow again and
| was assiduously nursed by the republican
leaders, In 1858 the republican legislature
| repealed the democratic license law, and in
| its stead enacted a stringent prohibitory law,
| which was approved March %, 1858, by Gov.
| Lot nj. Morrill,, and was to take effect July
| Is, 1858. This law was passed, as above
| stated, but then there was another act passed
| submitting this latter law and also the law of
1856 to the people, and provided that if ma
| jority voted for the License Law of 1867
| then the ''Prohibitory law of 1852 which
| they had passed should be repealed and the
| License law of 1867 should be revived-that
| is to say, the law which had the majority of
| the votes cast should be the law upon that
! subject. The ''Prohibitory law received
| large majority of the votes thrown.
On the final passage of the prohibitory law
OF 1853, IN the house the vote stood: Yea, 1O4;