Maine Enacts the Maine Law

On June 2, 1851, Maine enacted a law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages except for limited medicinal, mechanical, and manufacturing purposes. The measure was promoted by Portland mayor and temperance campaigner Neal Dow, who argued that regulating individual sellers was insufficient and that the liquor trade itself should be suppressed. Known widely as the Maine Law, the legislation made Maine the leading model for statewide prohibition in the United States. Similar measures spread to other states during the 1850s, while Dow promoted the approach nationally and internationally. Although opposition and enforcement difficulties led to the law’s repeal in 1856, prohibition was later restored in Maine. The Maine Law demonstrated how organized temperance activism could be transformed into political power and provided an important precedent for the later campaign for national Prohibition.