The Press., 1894-03-15
in battle, and for many months prisoner

SOHal IubSE6Sb tO lUbSII6E6. u6 pES5Gub generation has little conception of the task winch he undertook more than sixty years ago. It was to reverse public opinion founded in the custom of centuries, and to change the policy of legislation touch- ing the liquor traffic which had obtained for period as long. A man with less than iron nerve and without an uncon- querable will would have faltered before it. In the community in which Mr. Dow found his immediate field of labor, as ev. anywhere else, intoxicating liquor was then deemed as indispensable to the health, comfort and happiness of man as flour. It was believed necessary to preserve the health of those who were well and restore that of those who were sick. Regarded as gift from God, to refuse its reason- able use was considered reflection upon the Almighty. It was as much matter of course for employers of laboEs to fur- nish it to their employees as to pay them wages, and the town bell was rung twice daily at eleven a. m. and four p. m., at the expense of the municipality, as a mo- tice to laborers to take their dram.
 The liquor traffic then constituted a large part of the business of Portland; her leading merchants were engaged in it, her wealthiest citizens had secured their fortunes through it. Authorized by law, it was legitimate trade, supplying an all most universal demand, it was sustained by an overwhelming public sentiment. Seven distlleries were run, often by night as well as by day, enriching their owners, indirectly paying dividends on wharf, ship ping and other property, and furnishing profitable employment to many. The trade in liquor was as respectable as any other calling. No man lost caste in so- ciety or influence in state through connec- tion with it, while the sale of liquor was deemed as consistent with Christian pro- fession, and as appropriate to saintly life as dealing in Bibles and hymn books. To be lawfully engaged in it was a patent of responsibility, the proper authorities hay ing declared the licensees to be men of 'sobe1 life and conversation"
 In the midst of such conditions, to de- clare the liquor traffic hurtful in effect and wrong per SC was regarded as an in- suit to the intelligence and an impeach- ment of the integrity of most respectable citizens. To urge it's suppression was to incur the hostility of leaders in every walk of life, to arouse the opposition of those who thought business would suffer thereby, and to lose the countenance O. conservative citizens favorable to reform
 but opposed to going "too fast or too far" But convinced that no progress could be made while the liquor trade was legally considered necessary and respectable, MT. Dow aimed to strip it of it's legal indorse- ment, and to this end to convince the peo- pie that the trade was infamous, through exposing it as the prolific parent of pov- erty, misery and crime.
 It is impossible to follow him througa this week; it covered years. He address ed the people in meetings large and small. travelling hundreds of miles each season in his own conveyance, over country roads
 wretched with rocks and mud in summer,
 and we'll l-nigh impossible with snow drift,, in winter. No hamlet was so small or so remote that he did not reach it. He pro pared and circulated petitions to the leg.
 islature for prohibitory law, he lookc'l up evidence of violations of existing li- cense laws, forced unwilling officers tn present it to grand juries, and to make T pretense at least of attempting to convi violators. Prosecuting officers, irritatc | by his persistency in this, insulted him in open court, sometimes bringing upon themselves the rebuke of the bench for so doing. He accompanied witnesses to all from the courts to protect them from per sonal danger from angry crowds avowe,!- ly gathered to mob them. In season all out of season, upon every available oi- portunity and reasonable pretext, when ever and wherever he thought it would a ai his object, he proclaimed adherence of the liquor trade and his determination t' suppress it and to oppose all those wLo supported or favored it.
 He became the object of hostility in va rious forms. Incendiaries fired his built. SSs
 siles, ruffians, hired and volunteer, | tackled him in the streets, sometimes y day, sometimes by night, though alwa. to their own discomfort. Nor was oppu~ sition of this kind the worst that he en
 countered. Boycotting as a term Wa | then unknown, but it was resorted to r, morsely against all engaged in the wor,>
 in which he was leader Even tempe ance societies of the day formally di. claimed sympathy with his views. But undaunted, he kept on his course, col vinced that he was making progress, pel haps slowly, but surely.
 Again and again he appeared befor n 1 legislative committee with enormous p,- titions urging the adoption of prohibition. | only to be repulsed. Now a committee would report unfavorably, then one house or the other would reject 0 favorable re- | port, and again a governor would veto a bill which had passed both houses. Ar ter all such disappointments he appeale | to the people, who, through action at th>. polls, manifested their determination that. the liquor traffic should no longer b, shielded by legislation, but should be out lawed as accursed.
 In April, 1851, MT. Dow was elected mayor of Portland by larger vote than before given there to a mayorality candi | date. Though nominee of the whii, party, his selection as such was in defer ence to the temperance sentiment of tn l community he had been instrumental iA creating. Clothed now with the influence | of official position, he again appeared be- | fore legislative committee with the draft of prohibitory law, pledging himself il this was enacted that within nine months the open traffic in liquor in the city oi | Portland should be annihilated. This pledge he subsequently, amply redeemed.
 The bill was reported, passed both houses without change, and was approved by the governor, June ?, 1851, and has ever since
 been known as ''the Maine law" l The enactment of the law and his suc-