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What was the Temperance movement?

Temperance was an organized American movement that began in the mid-1800s to urge prohibition of the manufacture and consumption of all alcoholic beverages. By 1855 support for prohibition resulted in thirty-one states making alcohol illegal to some degree. By the 1870s the temperance movement had strong ties to the growing women's movement, members of which believed alcohol to be directly responsible for much of the nation's moral decline, as well as related to issues of ill health, poverty, and the spread of crime.

In 1874 a group of women established the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), leading the way for the Anti-Saloon League, formed in 1895. These groups exerted political influence and forced the issue of prohibition into the election process. President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) supported prohibition as one of the domestic policies in his New Freedom Program....

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