[Note: Neal Dow led the campaign for the prohibition of the sale of alcohol in Maine. The legislation passed in 1850. Several other northern states and cities adopted versions of the "Maine Law" in the 1850s. Dow himself became mayor of Portland where he led a vigorous crusade to enforce the law, as the illustration below shows. The caption, from the "women of Maine," applauds: "On! If that had been done twenty years ago, my husband would not have been a drunkard, and I would not have been left with my children."

In 1855 the "Portland Riot" against Dow's enforcement of the law led to the death of John Robbins, an event which significantly weakened Dow's influence and that of prohibition.

Dow's campaign against the use of alcohol began more than twenty-five years earlier. In looking at this Fourth of July oration, excerpted below, note Dow's implacable hostility to any use of liquor. Note too the "horrors" to which he compares "temperate" drinking. The misery occasioned by the ritual slaughter of infants is "trifling" in comparison.

Mechanics associations were common throughout the North. Mechanics as a class comprised all skilled workers. The associations were for self-improvement. They acquired libraries, sponsored lectures, held trade fairs, and often served as insurance companies for members. This particular association, in the spirit of self-improvement, had sworn off alcohol.]

An Oration, Delivered Before the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, at their Triennial Celebration, July 4, 1829. By Neal Dow. Published at the request of the Association. Portland: Printed at the Argus Office by Th: Todd. 1829
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Pp6-7: Let us look through the history of the world; let us trace the progress of nations from a state of the rudest barbarism to that high degree of civilization to which many of them have now arrived -- let us look at one glance upon their former and their present condition -- and what is it that constitutes the difference which strikes us so forcibly? Is it the want of grace in the external deportment of the savage? Is it the want of that degree of wealth which would enable any of them to support themselves without submitting to the ordinary occupations of the tribe? Is it that they have no privileged classes among them, no masters nor servants, no lords nor vassals? No: it is neither of these. It is that the savage clothes himself [p.7] with the skins fo the animals which he has slain in the chase, and upon whose bodies he is obliged to subsist; that he sleeps in the wretched cabin that he is able to construct with his own hands; in a word, that his comforts are few, because his knowledge of the mechanic powers and arts is extremely limited. And we find that the advancement of civilization has always been in exact proportion to the advancement in the arts, which even at the present day form the basis of national power.
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Pp. 11-12: . . . Common sense and experience declare, in language which cannot be misunderstood, that the state of that society cannot be sound and healthy, in which the ignorant, the depraved and vicious associate on equal terms with the intelligent, the virtuous and the learned; and though violent agitation may occasion a temporary mixture, yet the oil will separate from the heavier substance, and remain entirely distinct. Men of similar habits and feelings and pursuits, associate together from a common law of nature; hence it is, the learned, the intelligent and the virtuous do, and ever ought to form a distinct class in society; for although our Constitution and Laws recognise no privileged class, yet the nobility of mind is felt and acknowledged by all.
The hand, hardened by labor -- the brow, furrowed by exposure, are not in our country, considered stamps of vulgarity, which will forever exclude a man from the society of the intellectual and the good; . . . [P.12] the efforts which you have made in the cause of Education will have great influence in promoting so desirable an end.
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P. 13: A taste for reading, then, is the great lever by which the laboring classes of the community, must raise themselves from the situations which many of them have hitherto occupied, into those which they possess native talent enough to fill with honor.
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Pp. 20-21: The influence which the mechanic Associations can exert in the promotion of temperance, is greater than that which any other socieities possess; because if we look abroad through our whole country, we shall see, that though this vice has not confined its ruinous effects to any particular body of men, yet our mechanics, our yeomanry, and all laboring classes of the community, are the principle sufferers.
And that they are so is not strange, when we become acquainted with the custom of taking spirit regularly and frequently, which has universally prevailed among them . . . .
We are struck with horror, when we are told of the contests of the gladiators, to witness which [P. 21] was the pastime of the Romans; we melt with compassion, when we hear that Hindoo widows offer themselves a sacrifice to the manes of their husbands; and we are roused into action by the tales which we hear from the western isles, of infants, who are sacrificed to the gods of their fathers. But, Brethren, why does not our blood chill, when we look upon scenes of misery, and suffering, and wretchedness, which exist every where around us, and which intemperate men bring upon themselves; why do we shed no tear when we look upon the desolate situation of the inebriate's wife, who is infinitely more forlorn than if she were a widow -- and who looks toward the end of life with impatience, as the termination of suffering, worse than than of death; why are we not roused into more vigorous and effectual exertion, when we see infants, in our own neighborhoods, perhaps, offered up body and soul to the Demon, worshipped by their parents!
Facts will support us in asserting that the practice of drinking ardent spirits "temperately" results in greater misery and suffering to more individuals than any other custom, which has ever existed . . . . The gladiatorial contests, which have procured for the Romans the name of cruel barbarians, were the cause of but little comparative misery, especially as the combatants were generally [P. 22] criminals who had forfeited their lives to the laws of their country -- or were prisoners of war whom common usage authorised the captors to put to death. And the other customs to which I have alluded as being the most shocking to christians of the present day, occasion indeed a momentary pang to the victims, and that is all -- for the friends through mistaken notions of duty, rejoice that their gods consider them worthy to contribute to their glory -- and except on the very pyre, the Hindoo widow herself anticipates with joy the happy meeting with her husband, to which she is hastening. But not so trifling are the consequences of intemperance, which is arrived at only through temperate drinking -- for it destroys its unhappy victims as effectually as the flames -- and like the gibbet withholds their disgusting carcasses from the grave, to harrow up the feelings of those, who were the friends of the minds which once inhabited them.