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Prohibition Party

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This article is about the American political party. For the Canadian party, see Prohibition party (Canada). For the Scottish party, see Scottish Prohibition Party.
Prohibition Party
ChairmanRick Knox
Founded1869; 155 years ago (1869)
IdeologyTemperance
Social conservatism
Political positionRight-wing
ColorsBlue, red, white
Seats in the Senate
0 / 100
Seats in the House
0 / 435
Governorships
0 / 50
State Upper Houses
0 / 1,921
State Lower Houses
0 / 5,411
Website
www.prohibitionparty.org

The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States best known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is the oldest existing third party in the US. The party was an integral part of the temperance movement. While never one of the leading parties in the United States, it was once an important force in the Third Party System during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It declined dramatically after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The party's candidate received 518 votes in the 2012 presidential election[1] and 5,617 votes in the 2016 presidential election.[2]

History

National Prohibition Convention, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1892

The Prohibition Party was founded in 1869. Its first National Committee Chairman was John Russell of Michigan.[3] It succeeded in getting communities and also many counties in the states to outlaw the production and sale of intoxicating beverages.

At the same time, its 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. Democrat Sidney J. Catts of Florida, after losing a close Democratic primary, used the Prohibition line to win election as Governor of Florida in 1916; he remained a Democrat.

The Prohibition Party's proudest moment came 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 during which alcohol was illegal in the United States is known as "Prohibition".

During the Prohibition era, the Prohibition Party pressed for stricter enforcement of the prohibition laws. During the 1928 election, for example, it considered endorsing Republican Herbert Hoover rather than running its own candidate. However, by a 3/4 vote, its national executive committee voted to nominate its own candidate, William F. Varney, instead. They did this because they felt Hoover's stance on prohibition was not strict enough.[4] The Prohibition Party became even more critical of Hoover after he was elected President. By the 1932 election, party chairman David Leigh Colvin thundered that "The Republican wet plank [i.e. supporting the repeal of Prohibition] means that Mr. Hoover is the most conspicuous turncoat since Benedict Arnold."[5] Hoover lost the election, but national prohibition was repealed anyway in 1933, with the 21st Amendment during the Roosevelt administration.

Women and the Prohibition Party

The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, did not pass until 1920. Yet, in 1869, the Prohibition Party became the first to accept women as party members[6] and even gave women who attended its first national convention full delegate rights. This was the first time any party had afforded women this right.[7] These women "spoke from the floor, entered debates, introduced resolutions, and voted on the party platform".[8] Women's suffrage appeared on the Prohibition Party platform in 1872. In 1892, the platform included the idea of equal pay for equal work. Delia L. Weatherby was an alternate delegate from the 4th congressional district of Kansas to the National Prohibition Convention in 1892, and also secured, the same year, for the second time by the same party, the nomination for the office of superintendent of public instruction in her own county. By contrast, women’s suffrage did not appear on the platform of either the Democratic or Republican platform until 1916. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which later became instrumental in the passage of the 18th Amendment, started out as the women’s branch of the Prohibition Party. It went on to become more influential than the party itself. It was "the largest women’s organization of the nineteenth century and the heart of the organized demand for prohibition and women’s rights as well as for prison and labor reform, for public support for neglected children, and for peace – in short for a transformed society dedicated to social justice".[7]

Some of the most important women involved in this movement were:

  • Marie C. Brehm – Vice Presidential candidate in 1924 – first unambiguously legally qualified woman ever to be nominated for this position[9]
  • Rachel Bubar Kelly – Vice Presidential candidate in 1996[9]
  • Susanna Madora Salter – First female mayor in the United States. Elected in Argonia, Kansas in 1887[10]
  • Eliza Stewart – Her successes in the courtroom were one reason why the Prohibition Party began to embrace lawsuits as a means to get their message across. Part of the Woman's Crusade. She went on to hold important positions within the party as well as help guide WCTU development, along with women such as Mattie McClellan Brown, Harriet Goff, and Amanda Way.[11]
  • C. Augusta Morse – In regards to the Woman's Crusade, she claimed it was "'the dawn of a new era in women's relation to reform. Never again can women be silenced by the ghost of the old dogma that her voice is not to be heard in public."[12]
  • Frances Willard – One of the founders of the WCTU. It is often forgotten that Willard made great advances before her involvement in the temperance movement. In 1871 she became the first female president of a college that granted degrees to women: Evanston College. She helped found the Association for the Advancement of Women in 1873 before she began her work in the temperance movement in 1874. After founding the WCTU, she became the first corresponding secretary. In 1879, she became the second president of the WCTU. During her 19 years as president, the WCTU became the largest organization of women in the United States. In 1883, she helped found the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Under her leadership, the WCTU advocated not only for temperance, but also for women's suffrage, equal pay for equal work, the eight-hour workday, world peace, and the protection of women and children in the workplace, among other things. The WCTU also created shelters for victims of abuse and free kindergartens.[13] She later became the first woman ever to be featured in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol[14] and was honored in 2000 by the National Women's Hall of Fame.[13]
  • Emily Pitts Stevens joined the Prohibition Party in 1882, and led the movement, in 1888, to induce the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to endorse that party.[15]

Decline

The Prohibition Party has faded into obscurity since World War II. When it briefly changed its name to the "National Statesman Party" in 1977 (it reversed the change in 1980), Time magazine suggested that it was "doubtful" that the name change would "hoist the party out of the category of political oddity".[16]

The Prohibition Party has continued running presidential candidates every four years, but its vote totals have steadily dwindled. It last received more than 100,000 votes for president in 1948, and the 1976 election was the last time the party received more than 10,000 votes.

The Prohibition Party experienced a schism in 2003, as the party's prior presidential candidate, Earl Dodge, incorporated a rival party called the National Prohibition Party in Colorado.[17][18] An opposing faction nominated Gene C. Amondson for President and filed under the Prohibition banner in Louisiana. Dodge ran under the name of the historic Prohibition Party in Colorado,[19] while the Concerns of People Party allowed Amondson to run on its line against Dodge.[20] Amondson received 1,944 votes, nationwide, while Dodge garnered 140.

One key area of disagreement between the factions was over who should control payments from a trust fund dedicated to the Prohibition Party by George Pennock in 1930.[21] The fund pays approximately $8,000 per year, and during the schism these funds were divided between the factions.[22] Dodge died in 2007, allowing the dispute over the Pennock funds to finally be resolved in 2014.[23] The party is reported as having only "three dozen fee-paying members".[24]

In the 2016 election, the party nominated James Hedges. He qualified for the ballot in three states, Arkansas, Colorado, and Mississippi, and earned 5,514 votes.

Electoral history

Presidential campaigns

The Prohibition Party 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.

Prohibition Party National Conventions and Campaigns
Year No. Convention Site & City Dates Presidential nominee Vice-Presidential nominee Votes Votes %
1872 1st Comstock's Opera House, Columbus, Ohio Feb. 22, 1872 James Black (Pennsylvania) John Russell (Michigan) 5,607 0.1
1876 2nd Halle's Hall,
Cleveland, Ohio		 May 17, 1876 Green Clay Smith (Kentucky) Gideon T. Stewart (Ohio) 6,945 0.08
1880 3rd June 17, 1880 Neal Dow (Maine) Henry Adams Thompson (Ohio) 10,364 0.11
1884 4th Lafayette Hall,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania		 July 23–24, 1884 John P. St. John (Kansas) William Daniel (Maryland) 147,482 1.50
1888 5th Tomlinson Hall,
Indianapolis, Indiana		 May 30–31, 1888 Clinton B. Fisk (New Jersey) John A. Brooks (Missouri) 249,819 2.20
1892 6th Music Hall,
Cincinnati, Ohio		 June 29–30, 1892 John Bidwell (California) James B. Cranfill (Texas) 270,879 2.24
1896 7th Exposition Hall, Pittsburgh May 27–28, 1896 Joshua Levering (Maryland) Hale Johnson (Illinois) 131,312 0.94
[7th] Pittsburgh May 28, 1896 Charles Eugene Bentley (Nebraska) James H. Southgate (N. Car.) 13,968 0.10
1900 8th First Regiment Armory,
Chicago, Illinois		 June 27–28, 1900 John G. Woolley (Illinois) Henry B. Metcalf (Rhode Island) 210,864 1.51
1904 9th Tomlinson Hall, Indianapolis June 29 to
July 1, 1904		 Silas C. Swallow (Pennsylvania) George W. Carroll (Texas) 259,102 1.92
1908 10th Memorial Hall, Columbus July 15–16, 1908 Eugene W. Chafin (Illinois) Aaron S. Watkins (Ohio) 254,087 1.71
1912 11th on a large temporary pier,
Atlantic City, New Jersey		 July 10–12, 1912 208,156 1.38
1916 12th St. Paul, Minnesota July 19–21, 1916 J. Frank Hanly (Indiana) Rev. Dr. Ira Landrith (Tennessee) 221,302 1.19
1920 13th Lincoln, Nebraska July 21–22, 1920 Aaron S. Watkins (Ohio) D. Leigh Colvin (New York) 188,787 0.71
1924 14th Memorial Hall, Columbus June 4–6, 1924 Herman P. Faris (Missouri) Marie C. Brehm (California) 55,951 0.19
1928 15th Hotel LaSalle, Chicago July 10–12, 1928 William F. Varney (New York) James A. Edgerton 20,101 0.05
[15th] [California ticket] Herbert Hoover (California) Charles Curtis (Kansas) 14,394
1932 16th Cadle Tabernacle,
Indianapolis		 July 5–7, 1932 William D. Upshaw (Georgia) Frank S. Regan (Illinois) 81,905 0.21
1936 17th State Armory Building,
Niagara Falls, New York		 May 5–7, 1936 D. Leigh Colvin (New York) Alvin York (Tenn.) (declined);
Claude A. Watson (California)		 37,659 0.08
1940 18th Chicago May 8–10, 1940 Roger W. Babson (Mass.) Edgar V. Moorman (Illinois) 57,925 0.12
1944 19th Indianapolis Nov. 10–12, 1943 Claude A. Watson (California) Floyd C. Carrier (Maryland) (withdrew);
Andrew N. Johnson (Kentucky)		 74,758 0.16
1948 20th Winona Lake, Indiana June 26–28, 1947 Dale H. Learn (Pennsylvania) 103,708 0.21
1952 21st Indianapolis Nov. 13–15, 1951 Stuart Hamblen (California) Enoch A. Holtwick (Illinois) 73,412 0.12
1956 22nd Camp Mack,
Milford, Indiana		 Sept. 4–6, 1955 Enoch A. Holtwick (Illinois) Herbert C. Holdridge (California) (withdrew);
Edwin M. Cooper (California)		 41,937 0.07
1960 23rd Westminster Hotel,
Winona Lake		 Sept. 1–3, 1959 Rutherford Decker (Missouri) E. Harold Munn (Michigan) 46,203 0.07
1964 24th Pick Congress Hotel,
Chicago		 August 26–27, 1963 E. Harold Munn (Michigan) Mark R. Shaw (Massachusetts) 23,267 0.03
1968 25th YWCA, Detroit, Mich. June 28–29, 1968 Rolland E. Fisher (Kansas) 15,123 0.02
1972 26th Nazarene Church Building,
Wichita, Kansas		 June 24–25, 1971 Marshall E. Uncapher (Kansas) 13,497 0.02
1976 27th Beth Eden Baptist Church Bldg, Wheat Ridge, Colo. June 26–27, 1975 Benjamin C. Bubar (Maine) Earl F. Dodge (Colorado) 15,932 0.02
1980 28th Motel Birmingham,
Birmingham, Alabama		 June 20–21, 1979 7,206 0.01
1984 29th Mandan, North Dakota June 22–24, 1983 Earl Dodge (Colorado) Warren C. Martin (Kansas) 4,243 0.00
1988 30th Heritage House,
Springfield, Illinois		 June 25–26, 1987 George Ormsby (Pennsylvania) 8,002 0.01
1992 31st Minneapolis, Minnesota June 24–26, 1991 961 0.00
1996 32nd Denver, Colorado 1995 Rachel Bubar Kelly (Maine) 1,298 0.00
2000 33rd Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania June 28–30, 1999 W. Dean Watkins (Arizona) 208 0.00
2004 34th Fairfield Glade, Tennessee February 1, 2004 Gene Amondson (Washington) Leroy Pletten (Michigan) 1,944 0.00
[34th] Lakewood, Colorado August 2003 Earl Dodge (Colorado) Howard Lydick (Texas) 140 0.00
2008 35th Adam's Mark Hotel,
Indianapolis		 Sept. 13–14, 2007 Gene Amondson (Washington) Leroy Pletten (Michigan) 655 0.00
2012 36th Holiday Inn Express,
Cullman, Alabama		 June 20–22, 2011 Jack Fellure (West Virginia) Toby Davis (Mississippi) 518 0.00
2016 37th Conference call[25][26] July 31, 2015 James Hedges (Pennsylvania) Bill Bayes (Mississippi) 5,617[27] 0.00

Elected officials

The Drunkard's Progress: A lithograph by Nathaniel Currier supporting the temperance movement, January 1846

See also

Primary sources

  • Black, James. Is There a Necessity for a Prohibition Party? (National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1876.)[29]

References

  1. ^ Federal Elections 2012: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives Archived 2013-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, Washington D.C., Federal Election Commission, July 2013.
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2012-04-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Our Campaigns - Container Detail Page". Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "National Affairs: Men of Principle". Time. September 10, 1928. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-22. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "National Affairs: In Cadle Tabernacle". Time. July 18, 1932. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-22. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869–1912". Journal of Women's History 2: 137
  7. ^ a b Gillespie, J. David. Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in the American Two-Party System. 2012. p. 47
  8. ^ Andersen, Lisa M. F. 2011. "Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869–1912". Journal of Women's History 2: 137
  9. ^ a b "Prohibitionists Historical Vote Record". Prohibitionists.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Susanna Madora Salter - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society". KSHS. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Andersen, Lisa M. F. 2011. "Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869–1912". Journal of Women's History 2: 143, 141.
  12. ^ Andersen, Lisa M. F. 2011. "Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869–1912". Journal of Women's History 2: 145
  13. ^ a b "Frances E. Willard". 2000. National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved on November 18, 2014 from [1]. Archived August 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Gillespie, J. David. 2012. Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press. P. 47
  15. ^ Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. pp. 686–.
  16. ^ "Americana: Time to Toast the Party?". Time. November 7, 1977. Archived from the original on October 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-22. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Pitkin, Ryan (2004-10-13). "Beyond Bush, Kerry & Nader". Creative Loafing Charlotte. Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ The National Prohibitionist, 6/2003, p. 1
  19. ^ "CO US President Race - Nov 02, 2004". Our Campaigns. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ The National Prohibitionist, 11/2004, p. 1.
  21. ^ "Internal Prohibition Party Battle Has Court Hearing on January 16". Ballot Access News. 2007-01-15. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "Ballot Access News - March 1, 2006". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "Prohibition Party Now to Receive Full Pennock Trust Income". 19 October 2014. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ "A sobering alternative? Prohibition party back on the ticket this election" Archived 2016-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, May 11, 2016.
  25. ^ Winger, Richard (2015-05-07). "Prohibition Party Cancels Presidential Convention and Instead will Nominate by Direct Vote of Members". Ballot Access News. Archived from the original on 2015-06-08. Retrieved 2015-06-08. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "Prohibition Party Nominates National Ticket". Ballot Access News. July 31, 2015. Archived from the original on August 3, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ "2016 Election Results: President Live Map by State, Real-Time Voting Updates". Election Hub. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "Candidates". Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ "Is There a Necessity for a Prohibition Party? - James Black". Books.google.com. 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2016-01-30.

Further reading

  • Andersen, Lisa, "From Unpopular to Excluded: Prohibitionists and the Ascendancy of a Democratic-Republican System, 1888–1912", Journal of Policy History, 24 (no. 2, 2012), pp. 288–318.
  • Cherrington, Ernest Hurst, ed. Standard encyclopedia of the alcohol problem (5 vol. 1930).
  • Colvin, David Leigh. Prohibition in the United States: a History of the Prohibition Party, and of the Prohibition Movement (1926))
  • McGirr, Lisa. The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State (2015)
  • Pegram, Thomas R. Battling demon rum: The struggle for a dry America, 1800–1933 (1998)
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