Temperance+Reform


 * Summary **
 * [[image:imagesCAKDM2W2.jpg align="right"]]The temperance movement occurred in the mid 1800s. The goal of the movement was to limit the heavy drinking that most Americans were doing. Their drinking was excessive and had a negative effect on the economy. It caused a decrease in work productivity and an increase in work accidents. It also caused family issues. Groups and societies were set up in order to get people to control the amount they drank. Also, there were laws passed to regulate drinking. These laws weren’t successful, but the groups were. Although the movement wasn’t completely successful, it did have a lot of positive gains. There was an overall decrease in the amount per capita consumption of hard liquor.

Causes of the Movement
 * People in the 1800s considered drinking a custom. They believed that drinking a glass of whiskey before breakfast would help you have good health.
 * A cause of people becoming such heavy drinkers was the cheap price of alcohol. (A gallon of whiskey could be as cheap as 25 cents).
 * The temperance movement needed to happen because the heavy drinking of Americans lead to decreased labor efficiency.
 * Many American workers would go to work drunk and this raised the risk of having an accidents while using the machinery.
 * Drunkenness ruined families, spiritual welfare, and the safety of women and children.
 * The temperance movement needed to happen so that these problems could be resolved or at least weren’t as severe.
 * Drinking led the gambling and prostitution.

Goals and Objectives for Movement
 * Reformers wanted to persuade Americans to become more Godly and practice better personal habits.
 * Associations were set up to battle profanity and start people living their lives by the Sabbath.
 * Some associations went as far as trying to put a bible in every American home to replace the use of alcohol.
 * Reformers strongly wanted to “restore the government of God”.
 * Most importantly reformers wanted to stop people from drinking to stop them from doing the bad things they were doing under the influence of alcohol.

Tactics/ Strategies
 * Reformers established groups and associations to make people pledge against heavy drinking.
 * Organizations were set up to protect children from abusive parents.
 * Powerful lectures were spoken for temperance and informing people why drinking was influencing people poorly.

Successes
 * American Temperance Society was formed in 1826.
 * Part of a growing effort to limit the amount of alcohol being consumed.
 * Thousands of societys formed and they helped to cause the amount of alcohol consumed by making members taking a pledge.
 * Temperance reformers were very successful in the use of pictures and pamphlets to get across their point.

Failures
 * "Maine Laws"
 * Result of a campaign led to restrict the manufacture and sale of alcohol.
 * Maine 1851 - nation's first statewide prohibition law.
 * Led to other prohibition laws - "Maine Laws"
 * Laws were ineffective and were repealed after only a decade.

Key Figures/ People
 * Neal S. Dow was the mayor of Portland and he sponsored the Maine Law of 1851.
 * He was known as the "Father of Prohibition."
 * T.S. Arthur wrote a novel called “Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There.”
 * It w as written in 1854. It described a once happy village was ruined by Sam Slade’s tavern and drinking.
 * John B. Gough was a temperance reformer and lecturer who delivered some 9,000 lectures to more than nine million people throughout the United States and Europe. He was credited with inspiring 200,000 people to sign “the pledge” to stop drinking.
 * Susan B. Anthony, Frances F. Willard, and Cary A Nation were known for regulating drinking by government, instruction of alcohol in schools, and studying alcoholism.

Key Events
 * 1826, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance was formed.
 * First formal national temperance organization.
 * Led by the clergy and the laypeople.
 * Called for the total abstinence from distilled liquor.
 * 1830 - 1860, many immigrants from "heavy drinking" countries came to the US.
 * 2 million Irish and 893,000 Germans.
 * The Washingtonian Movement
 * Reformed alcoholics sought to reform other drinkers.
 * 600,000 drinkers took the Washingtonian pledge of abstinence.
 * A long term outcom of the temperance movement was the creation of the 18th amendment.

Additional Information Bibliography
 * John Gough's autobiography
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 * Temperance Movement
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 * enotes - Temperance Movement
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 * Reformers of the 1800s
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 * Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. New York: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.
 * "Pre-Civil War Reform." Digital History (2006): 2. Web. 28 Oct 2010. .
 * "The Temperance Movement." United States History 2. Web. 29 Oct 2010. .