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18th Amendment Of Prohibition Dbq Essay

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Alcohol is horrible for the body, but it might be good for the country. The 18th Amendment was approved on December 18, 1917 by Congress to take away alcohol in the United States. This was followed by the Volstead Act that defined a drink as intoxicating if it contained more than 1% alcohol. This eliminated beer, wine, and other soft liquors. America later repealed the Amendment. Why did America repeal something they were originally so for? America decided to repeal the 18th Amendment of Prohibition because of the increase in crime, the inability to enforce the law, and basic economics. After the 18th Amendment was approved, crime increased dramatically. According to Document B, before Prohibition, homicides were at an average of 6 deaths per 100,000 people in America. Once Prohibition was put into place, there was an immediate increase in murders. Near the end of Prohibition, there was an average of 10 homicides per 100,000 people in America. Another way in which crime increased was the smuggling of alcoholic beverages. In Document C, it stated that "On the Atlantic Coast the smugglers are so numerous and so active that there is at all times a rum fleet standing off or anchored outside the 3-mile limit near New York and New Jersey.” The extreme increase in crime that the government couldn't really do anything about, changed Americans point of view on Prohibition. …show more content…

In Document C, the article explains how the smugglers coming from Mexico and Canada were so numerous that the enforcement just couldn't cover the thousands of miles of borders between the countries. It even stated in Document D that there were also several people in the government that were selling alcohol; even some of the people who were involved with making the law. This inability to enforce the law even furthered the belief that the 18th Amendment should be

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