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Neal Mow And The Portland Rum Riot

1401 Words6 Pages

On June 2, 1855 rumors were spreading around the town of Portland Maine that their so called mayor was storing $1,600 worth of alcohol in City Hall which is worth $45,000. Neal Dow, the mayor of the town was being called a “hypocrite” because he had banned alcohol from the state 4 years earlier. 2,000 people gathered in front of City Hall that night revolting against Dow. This event was called the Portland Rum Riot, it resulted in 1 death and 7 injured. Dow believed that Maine's only problem at the time was alcohol. “Here is a fearful enemy of God and man--the liquor traffic; it makes ruthless war upon the people; it blasts and destroys their homes as with pestilence and fire; it kills savagely, cruelly, more than a hundred thousand of them every year; robbing them first and driving wives and children to rain and despair.” - Neal S. Dow. Dow was a prohibition advocate ever since he was of an early age. In Maine most men spent half the their paycheck on liquor. In 1829 Dow proposed that he was abstaining from alcoholic beverages. and He was known as the father of prohibition. However, one …show more content…

For example, Stalin the first soviet union leader created his first five year plan not long after he was just given power. Just like how Dow’s first large reform was within a month of being in office. Even though, most of Neal Dow’s prohibition plans to ban the use of alcohol were ineffective he was still radical. Dow’s early prohibition efforts were extreme and radical.Many citizens of Maine did not like the fact that he was mayor, mainly because he banned alcohol within a month of being in office. Also, Dow had very hypocritical ideas towards the Portland rum riot. Overall, Neal Dow’s reforms while mayor of Portland, Maine were radical because of the Portland rum riot, his early prohibition efforts, and the decisions he made while he was Mayor of

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