Prohibition Party

A minor U.S. political party organized in 1869 that advocated prohibition.

For more information on Prohibition Party, visit Britannica.com.

Prohibition Party, the oldest continuous third party in the United States, was founded in 1869 by temperance crusaders who broke with the Republican Party because they felt it was betraying its original spirit and aims. Men such as Neal Dow of Maine, Gerrit Smith of upstate New York, and James Black of Pennsylvania had backed the Republican Party during its early years because they saw it as an instrument of Christian reform. Although they were willing to let temperance take a back seat during the fight to end slavery, they expected prohibition to be the Republican Party's next great crusade. After the Civil War, however, Republicans increasingly focused on the economic issues favored by eastern business interests and even defended liquor sales because of the federal revenue derived from excise taxes on alcohol. When 500 delegates from nineteen states convened in Chicago to found the new party, the abolitionist Gerrit Smith declared, "Our involuntary slaves are set free, but our millions of voluntary slaves still clang their chains."

During its first several decades, the party was dominated by "broadgauge" prohibitionists who believed that the party could help remake the social order and argued that it should embrace a wide range of issues in order to win broad public support. The party's platform in the late nineteenth century included the direct popular election of U.S. senators, civil service reform, and suffrage for all of voting age regardless of sex or race. In these years, the party helped mobilize thousands of women into the political process for the first time. In addition, since party leaders often came from affluent colleges and congregations in the Northeast, the Prohibition Party brought a reform agenda to areas that were comparatively insulated from the Greenback and Populist movements of the period. The party's first presidential nominee, Pennsylvania lawyer James Black, garnered only 5,600 popular votes in 1872. By 1892, however, John Bidwell of California attracted over 270,000 votes, becoming the party's most successful presidential nominee. (Although the party has fielded presidential and vice presidential candidates in every election since 1872, it has never won any electoral votes.)

In 1896 the controversy over maintaining the gold standard or issuing unlimited silver coins temporarily divided the Prohibition Party, and by the early twentieth century, its leaders no longer envisioned replacing one of the nation's major political parties. Instead, they joined forces with other temperance organizations, and focused on persuading the major parties to support or adopt their position on prohibition. They achieved this goal in 1919 with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Popular support for the Prohibition Party fell off dramatically after 1919, although the party itself remained active in presidential politics. After the repeal of prohibition in 1933, the party increasingly came to be dominated by Protestant fundamentalists who felt alienated from modern American society and called for a return to the moral values of an earlier era. In the late 1970s, the party briefly changed its name to the National Statesman, but it reversed that move because it tended to confuse hard-core supporters. As the twenty-first century opened, the party's platform included the right to life, opposition to commercial gambling and the "homosexual agenda," the right to prayer and bible reading in public schools, opposition to the commercial sale of alcohol, and concern about the role of the United Nations and international trade agreements.

Bibliography

Kobler, John. Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Putnam, 1973.

Smallwood, Frank. The Other Candidates: Third Parties in Presidential Elections. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1983.

Storms, Roger C. Partisan Prophets: A History of the Prohibition Party. Denver: National Prohibition Foundation, 1972.

Prohibition Party. Home page at http://www.prohibition.org/.

National Prohibition Convention, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1892.

The Prohibition Party is a political party in the United States. As the name implies, the party advocates the prohibition of the use of beverages containing alcohol and was an integral part of the temperance movement. While never one of the nation's leading parties, it was an important force in US politics in the late 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. In 1887, Prohibition Party member Susanna M. Salter of Argonia, Kansas, became the first female mayor in the United States.

History

The party was founded in 1869. Its first National Committee Chairman was John Russell of Michigan, who served from 1867-1872. The party succeeded in getting many communities and a number of states to outlaw the production and sale of intoxicating beverages.

At the same time, the party's ideology broadened to include aspects of progressivism. The party contributed to the third-party discussions of the 1910s and sent Charles H. Randall to the 64th, 65th and 66th Congresses as the representative of California's 9th congressional district. Prohibitionist Sidney J. Catts was elected Governor of Florida in 1916, serving 1917-1921.

The party's greatest success was in 1919, with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed the production, sale, transportation, import, and export of alcohol. The era of illegal alcohol in the USA is generally known as "Prohibition". The enactment of national prohibition took away the party's main issue, and the party declined in importance. The "Prohibition" era saw the rise of "Speakeasies", bootleggers, and a great growth of organized crime. By the start of the Great Depression, the cause of prohibition was considered discredited by much of the public. National prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. While hardline prohibitionists objected, the US Prohibition Party declined into insignificance.

Components of the Prohibition Party organizational structure are the Prohibition National Committee, the National Prohibition Foundation, the Partisan Prohibition Historical Society, the Prohibitionists’ Caucus, the Action!, and all state and local affiliates.[1] Gene Amondson has been chairman of the Prohibition National Committee since 2005.

From 1977 to 1980, the party was called the National Statesman Party. The party still exists today, though its following is small, and since 2003, there has been a schism between supporters and opponents of longtime former party chairman Earl Dodge. It has nominated a candidate for president in every election since 1872, and is thus the longest-lived American political party after the Democrats and Republicans.

Electoral history

Presidential tickets unless otherwise indicated.

1872 - James Black & John Russell 1876 - Green Clay Smith & Gideon T. Stewrt 1880 - Neal Dow & Henry A. Thompson 1884 - John Saint John & William Daniel 1888 - Clinton B. Fisk & John A. Brooks 1892 - John Bidwell & James B. Cranfill 2.2% 1896 - Joshua Levering & Hale Johnson 1900 - John G. Woolley & Henry B. Metcalf 1904 - Silas C. Swallow & George W. Carroll 1908 - Eugene W. Chafin & Aaron S. Watkins 1912 - Eugene W. Chafin & Aaron S. Watkins 1916 - Frank Hanly & Ira Landrith 1920 - Aaron Watkins & D. Leigh Colvin 1924 - Herman P. Faris & Marie C. Brehm 1928 - William F. Varney & James A. Edgerton 1932 - William D. Upshaw & Frank S. Regan 1936 - D. Leigh Colvin & Claude A. Watson 1940 - Roger Babson & Edgar V. Moorman 1944 - Claude A. Watson & Andrew Johnson 1948 - Claude A. Watson & Dale H. Learn 1952 - Stuart Hamblen & Enoch A. Holtwick 1956 - Enoch A. Holtwick & Edwin M. Cooper 1960 - Rutherford Decker & E. Harold Munn 1964 - E. Harold Munn & Mark R. Shaw 1968 - E. Harold Munn & Rolland E. Fisher 1972 - E. Harold Munn & Marshall E. Uncapher 1976 - Benjamin C. Bubar & Earl F. Dodge 1980 - Benjamin C. Bubar & Earl F. Dodge 1984 - Earl Dodge & Warren C. Martin 4,243 votes 1988 - Earl Dodge & George Ormsby 8,002 votes 1992 - Earl Dodge & George Ormsby 961 votes 1996 - Earl Dodge & Rachel Bubar Kelly 1,298 votes 2000 - Earl Dodge & W. Dean Watkins 208 votes (all from Colorado) 2004 - Two separate competing tickets Earl Dodge & Howard Lydick 140 votes Gene Amondson & Leroy Pletten 1,944 votes 2008 - Gene Amondson & Leroy Pletten - Nominated at party national convention on 9/14/2007

Elected Officials

• Governor of Florida Sidney Johnston Catts: 1917-1921
• U.S. Representative from California's 9th congressional district Charles Hiram Randall: 1915-1921

See also

• Robert P. Shuler
• List of political parties in the United States
• Alcohol during and after prohibition
• Temperance organizations
• Prohibition Party presidential election results
• Scottish Prohibition Party

External links

• Prohibition Party website
• '04 Candidate Gene Amondson Interview - WhoShouldBePresident.com

National political parties in the United States
Major parties	Democratic · Republican
Third parties	Constitution · Green · Libertarian
Smaller parties	America First · Communist · Independent American · Marijuana · Populist · Prohibition · Reform · Socialist · Socialist Equality · Socialist Workers · Veterans · Workers World
Historical parties	American Independent · Anti-Masonic · Citizens · Democratic-Republican · Dixiecrat · Farmer-Labor · Federalist · Free Soil · National Republican · National Union · Natural Law · New Alliance · Populist (People's) · Progressive (1912~1924~1948) · Whig
- List of political parties - Politics of the United States

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