Evening star., 1951-06-10
Temperance
Early Prohibition Organizations
Active in the District of Columbia
By John CIoqett Proctor

By John Clos
Though the first temperance
organization in the United States
did not come into existence until
about 1908, yet the temperance
question itself dates back to the
very beginning of the Republic.
In the District of Columbia it
was agitated from the beginning,
particularly because of the num-
ber of drinking places then per-
mitted to exist here, there being
at an early date an estimated
number of 256 in Washington,
Georgetown and the county, or
an average of one for every 80
persons. Indeed, w. B. Bryan
tells us that by 1912 the average
had become one licensed place to
every 512 inhabitants. indicating
that at the latter date the situa-
ton had greatly improved.
However, the City Directory for
|1843 gives only the name OF one
Iof the then existing pioneer tenn
perance bodies, namely, the Frank
lin Temperance Society of Wash
ington, having membership
chiefly Of printers. and which
barred all form of intoxicating
liquors except in cases of bodily
hurt or sickness. Also, the moder-
ate use Of malt liquor, wine or
cider was not prohibited. Unfor-
tunately, only the names of the
first. three officers of this society
have come down to us, they being
Reuben johnson, president; A.
Rothweil, vice president, and S. A.
Elliot, secretary.
The City Directory for 1843,
again, gives only the name OF one
of these pioneer temperance work.
ers, and this source discloses the
fact that by this date Andrew
Rothwell had left the lease" and
was serving as the tax collector,
with an Office in the City Hall,
and residing on the east side of
Seventh street between I street
and New York avenue NV.
An earlier organization than the
Franklin Society was the Temper
ance Society of Washington,
which held its preliminary meet
ing in the City Hall on July 81,
1928, and later selected Mr.. Will
liam Cranch as president; the Rev.
Robert B. Semple, vice president;
James L. Edwards, treasurer, and
John Coyle, jr., secretary, the di-
rectors chosen being the Rev. John
Davis, the Rev. Reuben Post, the
Rev. Obediah B. Brown, the Rev
Andrew Coyle and the Rev. James
H. Handy. Judge William Cranch
was for many years the chief JUS
tice of the District Of Columbia
Circuit Court and a jurist greatly
esteemed and regarded even to
this day for his many valuable
decisions.
Bonded Together
From this date temperance
bodies sprang up rapidly, until
within four years a temperance
union was formed of the II
organizations then existing. OF
this union of bodies Walter
Lowrie, the secretary of the Sen
ate, was made the first president
Judge Cranch vice president and
John Coyle secretary.
At this period Francis Scott
Key, author of THE Star
Spangled Banner" was the United
States district attorney for the
District Of Columbia, and was
called upon for a report on the
criminal cases prosecuted by him
and their bearing in relation to
drunkenness.
About this time members o1
Congress became interested in the
temperance movement, especially
lin connection with the American
Congressional Temperance Soci.
ETY., formed in 1888. One hundred
members of Congress and officers
of the Government are reported
to have signed the constitution
of the society and pledged them
selves "by example and moral in
fluence to discountenance the ust
of ardent spirits and it's traffic.
But apparently this did not stol
members of Congress from want
ling their toddy, for a few year.
later the Temperance Union O.
the city deplored the sale of in
toxicating liquors permitted il
the Capitol Building.
In 1887 the Senate took tn,
matter up and provided in it
standing rules that no "spirituou
liquors should be offered for salt
or exhibited in the Capitol or IL
the grounds" At that time tn,
House was apparently wette,
than the Senate, for it took sever
years to get its consent to thu
rule covering the whole Capitol
although the Senate, on the sur
! face at least. did make an effol