Temperance
was not only about abstinence. Temperance advocates held their
own entainments, suppers, and song fests. One of their recurrent
messages, in fact, was that you could enjoy life more fully without
liquor as the excerpt at right proclaims. Click on it for the
full text. "Old Sir Toddy,"
sung to the tune of "Old Dan Tucker, is equally cheery.
Many disagreed, usually humorously. "Don't Be Addicted To Drinking" is a good example of an anti-temperance ditty.
"Go It
While You're Young", which seems to have been written in the wake
of the Panic of 1857, in another cheerful injunction to "eat,
drink, and be merry." This spirit of jocularity did not initially
disappear in the wake of various restrictive measures. The earliest
of these sought to eliminate the rum seller's trade by prohibiting
the sale of liquor in quantities smaller than fifteen or twenty
or more gallons. The failure of such measures is gleefully recounted
in "The Dedham Muster." Militia musters were annual
events in New England towns. Citizen soldiers would march, parade,
engage in sharpshooting contests, stage mock maneuvers while townsfolk
cheered them on. After the muster there traditionally were games,
food, and much drinking. The fifteen gallon law was aimed at eliminating
this last feature of the day. But a clever fellow got a license,
not to sell liquor, but to exhibit a striped pig. Price of admission
coincided with the usual price of a drink. The pig exhibitor gave
to each of his patrons the drink of their choice. He did not sell
it, however. He gave away the liquor. He only charged for admission
to see the pig.
The failure of the fifteen gallon laws
led temperance advocates to call for outright prohibition. In
Maine, in 1850, this became the law. Neal Dow, the leading crusader
for it in the state, became overnight the great temperance champion.
In the eyes of opponents he became the great tyrant who would
destroy their rights. Even
liquor dealers, the song proclaimed, have rights. The adoption
of the Maine Law would, a parody predicted, bring war, Civil War,
to New York. For temperance advocates, theirs was the cause of
true patriotism. Even as thier grandparents had overthrown British
tyranny, so should they overthrow the tyranny of alcohol. A "National
Temperance Ode," composed in 1839, called upon the faithful.
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