Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment: temperance reform, legal culture, and the polity, 1880-1920

670 Pages·1995·1.69 MB·English

by  Richard F. Hamm

Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment :
title: Temperance Reform, Legal Culture, and the
Polity, 1880-1920 Studies in Legal History
author: Hamm, Richard F.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807821810
print isbn13: 9780807821817
ebook isbn13: 9780807861875
language: English
Prohibition--United States--History, Liquor
laws--United States--History, Temperance--
subject
United States--History, United States.--
Constitution.--18th Amendment--History.
publication date: 1995
lcc: KF3919.H35 1995eb
ddc: 344.73/0541
Prohibition--United States--History, Liquor
laws--United States--History, Temperance--
subject:
United States--History, United States.--
Constitution.--18th Amendment--History.
SHAPING THE EIGHTEENTH
AMENDMENT
STUDIES IN LEGAL HISTORY
Published by the University
of North Carolina Press in
association with the American
Society for Legal History
Thomas A. Green and
Hendrik Hartog, editors
RICHARD F. HAMM
SHAPING THE
EIGHTEENTH
AMENDMENT
TEMPERANCE REFORM,
LEGAL CULTURE, AND
THE POLITY, 1880-1920
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS Chapel Hill& London
© 1995 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hamm, Richard F.
Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment: temperance reform, legal
culture, and the polity, 1880-1920/ Richard F. Hamm
p. cm.-(Studies in legal history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2181-0 (cloth : alk. paper).-ISBN 0-8078-4493-4 (pbk.:
alk. paper)
1. Prohibition-United States-History. 2. Liquor laws-United States-
History. 3. Temperance-United States-History. 4. United
States-Constitutional law-Amendments-18th-History. I. Title. II.
Series.
KF3919.H35 1995
344·73'0541 --dc20
[347·304541]
94-17948
CIP
99 98 97 96 95 5 4 3 2 1
DEDICATED TO HILDA D. HAMM
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments, ix
Introduction: Reformers and the Polity, 1
PART 1. RADICALS AND THE POLITY
1The Radical Prohibition Movement and the Liquor Industry, 19
2Liquor and Interstate Commerce: Court and Congress, 56
3The Federal Liquor Tax and the Radical Prohibitionists, 92
PART 2. PRAGMATISTS AND THE POLITY
4The Transformation of Prohibitionist Means, 123
5The Liquor Tax and the Pragmatic Prohibitionists, 155
6Interstate Commerce, Pragmatic Prohibitionists, and Federal 175
Power in the Progressive Era,
7Commerce, Pragmatic Prohibitionists, and Congress, 203
8A Dry Nation, 227
Conclusion: The Relationship of the Polity to Reforms and the 256
Legacy of Concurrent Power during National Prohibition,
Sources and Textual Methods, 273
Notes, 275
Index, 337
Page ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was a long time in the making. It began many years ago as
a conversation with Charles W. McCurdy. Early in 1980 he mentioned
as a paper topic the effect of interstate commerce doctrines on the
prohibition movement. Since then the work has grown. It has put
down roots in various literatures, sprawled across far larger periods of
time, blossomed with unexpected fruits, and required more tending
and effort than this historical gardener would ever have imagined.
Along the way I have accumulated many debts that must be
acknowledged.
The greatest debts are those I owe to my family. Without their
intellectual, moral, and financial support this work would never have
begun, let alone been completed. At various times I lived with family
members while researching or writing this work, and they all endured
my stays with good cheer. Elaine Cascio sustained me more than I can
ever say. She read various versions two or three times, proving that
love has great patience. Her sharp editorial eye and common sense has
made this a better book.
Also this work has benefited from a number of suggestions from
various people coerced into reading it. At different times both Phil
Merkel and Denise Thompson read the entire manuscript with pen in
hand and removed hundreds of convoluted constructions. Richard
Fiesta and Candice Bredbenner pointed me to literatures and
interpretations that enriched the work. Christopher Lee, Jean Lee, and
Robert Stanley made suggestions about issues that proved especially
useful in rethinking the work at a particularly critical stage. Christine
Paquette suggested a number of changes that improved both the
introduction and conclusion. Reid Mitchell performed a feat that few
will equal: he read the work twice, each time making comments that
bettered the book. William Harbaugh's observations aided the
development of this work in its earliest stages. Joseph Kett, Edward
Ayers, and Calvin Woodard closely read the manuscript and suggested
paths to follow in making it into a book. Stanley Katz, Robert Wesser,
and Lewis Bateman expressed strong faith in the project, keeping me
on track during the vagaries of the publishing process. The far-
reaching, lengthy, and constructive criticisms of the anonymous