Neal Dow
Neal Dow | |
---|---|
Mayor of Portland, Maine | |
In office April 24, 1855 – April 24, 1856 | |
Preceded by | John B. Cahoon |
Succeeded by | J. T. McCobb |
In office April 24, 1851 – April 24, 1852 | |
Preceded by | John B. Cahoon |
Succeeded by | Albion Parris |
Personal details | |
Born | Portland, Maine, U.S. | March 20, 1804
Died | October 2, 1897 Portland, Maine, U.S. | (aged 93)
Political party | Whig, Free Soil, Republican, Prohibition |
Spouse | Maria Cornelia Durant Maynard Dow |
Profession | Politician |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1861–64 |
Rank | Brigadier general |
Commands | 1st Brigade, 2nd Division of the XIX Corps |
Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American
Dow was later elected to two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, but retired after a financial scandal. He joined the Union Army shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general. He was wounded at the siege of Port Hudson and later captured. After being exchanged for another officer in 1864, Dow resigned from the military and devoted himself once more to prohibition. He spoke across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in support of the cause. In 1880, Dow headed the Prohibition Party ticket for President of the United States. After losing the election, he continued to write and speak on behalf of the prohibition movement for the rest of his life until his death in Portland at the age of 93.
Early life and family
Dow was born in Portland, Maine on March 20, 1804, the son of Josiah Dow and his wife, Dorcas Allen Dow.[1] Josiah Dow was a member of the Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers) and a farmer originally from New Hampshire.[1] Dorcas Allen was also a Quaker, and a member of a prosperous Maine family headed by her prominent grandfather, Hate-Evil Hall.[2] They had three children, of whom Neal was the middle child and only son.[1] After his marriage, Dow's father opened a tannery in Portland, which soon became a successful business.[3] After attending a Friends school in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and further schooling at Edward Payson's Portland Academy, Dow followed his father into the tanning trade in 1826.[4] He embraced technology, becoming one of the first in the city to incorporate steam power in the tanning process.[5]
Dow struggled to conform to the tenets of his parents' Quaker faith; he was hot-tempered and enjoyed brawling from a young age.
The next year, Dow met his future wife, Maria Cornelia Maynard, the daughter of a Massachusetts merchant.
Temperance advocate
Early Prohibition efforts
In the 19th century, a typical American male consumed on average more than three times the alcohol of his modern-day counterpart.[a][19] In his memoirs, Dow noted that in Portland a significant portion of a working man's pay was in the form of daily rum rations: "it was ... the rule to quit work at eleven in the forenoon and four in the afternoon to drink ... In every grocer's shop were casks [of] ... rum punch constantly prepared in a tub, sometimes on the sidewalk, just as lemonade is to be seen now on the Fourth of July."[20] He saw alcohol as responsible for the downfall of individuals, families, and fortunes, often pointing out ramshackle homes or businesses to his family and saying "Rum did that."[15] His quest to reform people by reforming their environment grew out of the religious movements of the Second Great Awakening and, as historian Judith N. McArthur later wrote, "temperance reformers urged their listeners to cast Demon Rum out of their lives just as evangelical ministers exhorted them to cast the Devil out of their hearts."[21]
Many of Portland's middle- and upper-class citizens, including Dow, believed drunkenness was a great threat to the city's moral and financial well-being.
In 1837, the Maine Temperance Society split over whether they should seek to ban wine as well as spirits; Dow sided with the anti-wine forces, who formed their own organization, the Maine Temperance Union.[25] That year James Appleton, a Whig representative in the state legislature, proposed a prohibition law, and Dow spoke often and forcefully in favor of the effort, which was unsuccessful.[26] Appleton proposed a similar law in 1838 and 1839, but despite his and Dow's best efforts, he continued to be defeated.[26]
Dow worked fervently on behalf of Whig candidates and came to detest
Dow spent the early 1840s attending to his tanning business, but also found time to encourage individual drinkers to take up abstinence.[29] In 1842, he and his allies succeeded in getting the city government in Portland to require licenses for liquor dealers and to prosecute unlicensed sellers; a referendum on the question was decided in the prohibitionists' favor later that year.[30] The next year saw the Democrats win election to city government, replacing the more prohibition-friendly Whigs, and many liquor-sellers resumed their trade as prosecutions were deferred indefinitely.[31] Dow kept up his speaking efforts around the state, despite once being assaulted by a man hired by a liquor dealer.[31]
In 1846, Dow spoke before the legislature in favor of statewide prohibition. The bill passed but lacked the enforcement mechanisms necessary to give it effect.[32] The following year, he ran for the state legislature in a special election but was narrowly defeated.[33] In 1850, now a member of the new Free Soil Party, he encouraged like-minded legislators to pass a stronger prohibition law. They did so but saw it vetoed by Democratic governor John W. Dana.[34] The legislature fell one vote short of overriding the veto.[34]
Mayor of Portland
In 1850, Dow was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union.[35] The next year, he ran for mayor of Portland on the Whig ticket, and was elected by a vote of 1332 to 986.[35] Within a month of taking office, he lobbied the state legislature to pass a statewide prohibition law.[36] It did so, and Dow met with the new Governor, John Hubbard, who signed the bill into law on June 2.[37] Maine was the first state to ban alcohol, and statewide prohibition became known around the country as "the Maine law".[37] The law's passage propelled Dow to national fame. He was called the "Napoleon of Temperance", and was the featured speaker in August at a National Temperance Convention in New York City.[38]
After the Maine law came into force, Dow allowed liquor dealers a two-week grace period to sell their stock out of state, then began confiscations.[39] His enforcement efforts quickly drove respectable drinking establishments out of business, but less fancy saloons, especially those frequented by Portland's poor and immigrant residents, simply moved their operations to secret locations.[40] Even so, Dow proclaimed in an address to the city council that he had eliminated all but a "few secret grog-shops", whose persistence he blamed on "foreigners".[40]
Despite his growing national fame, Dow continued to face opposition at home. Both Dow and his opponents engaged in anonymous newspaper campaigns against the other, often making personal attacks alongside political arguments.[41] For the 1852 municipal election, the Democrats nominated Albion Parris, a former governor and United States Senator, to run against Dow.[42] While the Democrats rallied behind their candidate, Dow's vigorous enforcement of prohibition divided his party, and in two wards the Whigs ran an anti-Dow ticket instead.[42] On election day, Dow slightly increased his vote total from the year before, with 1496, but Parris outpolled him, bringing in 1900 votes.[42] Although the Whigs controlled voter registration at the time, Dow blamed his loss on illegal voting by Irish immigrants.[42]
After his defeat, Dow continued to promote prohibition around the country, and was gratified to see it spread to eleven states.[43] He also made efforts to refute the charge made by his enemies (including his cousin John Neal) that the Maine law was ineffective and that drinking had actually increased in Portland during Dow's term in office.[44] In 1854, Dow ran for mayor again unsuccessfully; as the Whig Party began to break apart, Dow attracted support from the Free Soilers and the Know Nothings, a nativist party.[45] By the next year, those two parties began to join anti-slavery Whigs in a new party, the Republicans. They soon controlled the state legislature and, with Dow's encouragement, strengthened the enforcement provisions of the Maine law.[46] Dow ran again for mayor in 1855 and was narrowly re-elected to the office he had left three years earlier.[47]
Portland Rum Riot
Two months into his term, Dow inadvertently ran afoul of his own prohibition laws. After setting up a committee to dispense alcohol for medicinal and industrial use (the only uses permitted), Dow ordered $1600 worth of alcohol and stored it at City Hall.[48] Dow neglected to appoint an official agent to hold it there; because the invoice was in his name, this placed Dow in technical violation of the law.[43] Dow's enemies seized on the mistake and demanded that the police search the municipal building for illegal liquor. Because the recent additions to the Maine law had removed judicial discretion, the judge had no choice but to issue the warrant.[49] Police seized the alcohol, but did not arrest Dow.[49]
That evening, June 2, a crowd of anti-prohibitionists gathered to demand that the law be enforced, shouting threats to spill "Neal Dow's liquor".[49] Dow ordered the state militia to block the protesters and had the sheriff read the crowd the Riot Act.[50] As darkness fell, Dow ordered the crowd to disperse; when they refused, he ordered the militia to fire.[51] One man was killed and seven were wounded, and the crowd fled.[52] On learning of the fatality, Dow maintained that the shooting was justified.[52]
The violence turned public opinion against Dow, and he was denounced in newspapers across the nation.[52] He was tried for violation of the prohibition law; the prosecutor was former U.S. Attorney General Nathan Clifford, a longtime Dow opponent, and the defense attorney was a fellow founder of the Maine Temperance Society, future senator William P. Fessenden.[53] Dow was acquitted, but his opponents convinced the coroner to impanel a jury that pronounced the protester's death a homicide.[54] He was ultimately acquitted of that charge, but his popularity had suffered and he declined to run for re-election as mayor.[52]
State legislator
Republicans lost the governorship that fall, and in 1856 the Democrats combined with the remaining Whigs in the state legislature to repeal the Maine law entirely.[55] Some of the other states that had passed Maine laws followed suit as they learned that the promised benefits were not forthcoming and enforcement was difficult, if not impossible.[56] Dow continued to travel the country (and the United Kingdom) speaking in support of prohibition, but to little legislative effect.[57] Maine passed a new, much milder Maine law in 1858, which Dow disliked but defended as better than nothing.[58]
In 1858, Dow won a
Civil War
Dow continued to promote prohibition after leaving office, but also added his voice to the growing chorus advocating the
New Orleans
After a winter of training in Maine, Dow and the 13th Maine were dispatched to the
Butler's army, aided by Flag Officer David Farragut's fleet, captured New Orleans on April 29, 1862.[69] Dow and the 13th Maine did not join in the attack, remaining behind to guard Ship Island. A day earlier, Congress had approved Dow's promotion to brigadier general. He blamed Butler for excluding him from the battle, believing that Butler was threatened by his promotion and calling him a "bully and a beast".[67] He spent much of the time quarreling with his second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Francis S. Hesseltine, while the regiment occupied forts around New Orleans.[70] While there, Dow encouraged black slaves to run away from captivity and take shelter with the Union Army.[71] He also confiscated property from nearby planters, including those who supported the Union, and tried unsuccessfully to claim personal salvage rights over Confederate military property abandoned in the river.[71]
In October 1862, Dow was given command over the District of
Port Hudson and capture
In December 1862,
Banks was determined to break the siege by a direct assault on the Confederate lines.[76] Dow believed the attack to be a mistake, and delayed his units' participation until later in the day.[77] In the assault, which was unsuccessful, Dow was wounded in the right arm and left thigh and sent to a nearby plantation to convalesce.[77] While in the hospital, he lobbied for a transfer to a theater where his chances of promotion would be greater.[77] On June 30, having healed enough to mount a horse again, Dow visited his troops. As he returned to the hospital after dark, he was captured by Confederate cavalry operating behind Union lines.[78]
Dow was taken by wagon and train to
Postwar politics
After the war, Dow returned to his leadership of the prohibition movement, co-founding the National Temperance Society and Publishing House with James Black in 1865.[83] He spent the rest of the 1860s and 1870s giving speeches in support of temperance across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. His efforts produced little success, as the public turned against prohibition and the alcohol industry was better organized to resist.[84] Dow expended a great deal of effort organizing and giving speeches in support of the Liberal Party before the British elections of 1874, as their leader, William Ewart Gladstone, was sympathetic to prohibition; the Liberals lost decisively, a result Gladstone and Dow blamed on liquor interests.[84] Dow continued to promote prohibition in Britain until May 1875 when, exhausted, he returned home.[84]
Against calls for personal temperance instead of government restraint, Dow remained steadfast, saying that the only way to fight drunkenness was "more jail for the rascals."
Presidential election of 1880
In 1880, Maine Republicans refused to pass more anti-alcohol legislation, and Dow quit the party to join the Prohibitionists;[86] he instantly became the party's most prominent member. His friend and ally James Black requested that Dow's name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the 1880 convention, to which Dow agreed.[86] The convention that met in Cleveland that June welcomed delegates from twelve states, but attracted almost no attention from the press.[88] Dow himself did not attend, staying home with his ailing wife (candidates for a party's nomination often did not attend conventions in person at that time).[86] He was nominated, heading a ticket with vice-presidential nominee Henry Adams Thompson of Ohio.[89]
Dow mostly ignored the national contest that summer, focusing on campaigning for pro-temperance candidates in local Maine elections.
Later years
After the election, Dow began to work with Republicans again in Maine to advance prohibition issues, and in 1884 he endorsed fellow Mainer and Republican candidate for president
Cornelia Dow had died in 1883, but Dow's unmarried daughter, also named Cornelia, lived with him and assisted in temperance causes. In 1891, his son Frederick and his family moved in as well. Frederick remained active in his father's former Republican Party and was the editor of the
Notes
- ^ Historian W. J. Rorabaugh estimates that the average American consumed five gallons of spirits per year in the 1830s, the highest level before or since.[18]
References
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Kobler 1993, p. 78.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 19.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 7, 10; Miner 1894, p. 399.
- ^ Babcock 1990, p. 25.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 3–4; Dow 1898, pp. 35–37.
- ^ Babcock 1990, p. 20.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 5–7.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 8.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 10.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 13.
- ^ Kobler 1993, p. 79.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 17.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 82.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 18.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 20.
- ^ Neal Dow House 2016.
- ^ Rorabaugh 1979, p. 8.
- ^ Okrent 2010, p. 8.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 159.
- ^ McArthur 1989, p. 528.
- ^ Okrent 2010, p. 11.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 21.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 24.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, pp. 24–26.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 35.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 120.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 27.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 30–31.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Miner 1894, pp. 404–405.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, pp. 43–44.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 44.
- ^ Kobler 1993, p. 83.
- ^ a b Kobler 1993, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Kobler 1993, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 46.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 47.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 49.
- ^ a b c d Byrne 1961, pp. 50–51.
- ^ a b Kobler 1993, p. 88.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 55.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 58.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 59.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 61.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 62.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 63.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 64.
- ^ a b c d Kobler 1993, p. 89.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 65.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 66.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 67.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 69.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 70–75.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 78.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, pp. 79–80.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, pp. 81–83.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 85.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 620.
- ^ Dow 1898, p. 621.
- ^ Lufkin 1898, pp. 5–11.
- ^ a b c d Byrne 1961, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Lufkin 1898, pp. 20–22.
- ^ McPherson 1988, pp. 419–420.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, pp. 91–92.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 93.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 94.
- ^ McPherson 1988, pp. 626–636.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 95.
- ^ McPherson 1988, p. 637.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 96.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 97.
- ^ Dow 1898, pp. 704–709.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 99.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 103.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 105.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 107.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, pp. 108–111.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 112.
- ^ a b c d e Byrne 1961, p. 113.
- ^ a b Kleppner 1979, pp. 252–255.
- ^ Philipp 1917, p. 54.
- ^ Clancy 1958, p. 165.
- ^ a b c d Byrne 1961, p. 114.
- ^ a b Clancy 1958, p. 243.
- ^ a b c Byrne 1961, p. 115.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 116.
- ^ a b Byrne 1961, p. 117.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 120.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 121–122.
- ^ Byrne 1961, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 123.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 126.
- ^ Byrne 1961, p. 127.
Sources
Books
- Byrne, Frank L. (1961). Prophet of Prohibition: Neal Dow and His Crusade. Madison, Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin. OCLC 2126034.
- Clancy, Herbert J. (1958). The Presidential Election of 1880. Chicago, Illinois: Loyola University Press. ISBN 978-1-258-19190-0.
- Dow, Neal (1898). The Reminiscences of Neal Dow: Recollections of Eighty Years. Portland, Maine: The Evening Express Publishing Company. OCLC 60713405.
- Kleppner, Paul (1979). The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1328-1.
- Kobler, John (1993) [1973]. Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York, New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80512-X.
- Lufkin, Edwin B. (1898). History of the Thirteenth Maine Regiment. Bridgton, Maine: H.A. Shorery and Sons. OCLC 5652295.
- ISBN 0-345-35942-9.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-7702-0.
- ISBN 0-19-502584-9.
Articles
- Babcock, Robert H. (March 1990). "The Decline of Artisan Republicanism in Portland, Maine, 1825–1850". The New England Quarterly. 63 (1): 3–34. JSTOR 366058.
- McArthur, Judith N. (Winter 1989). "Demon Rum on the Boards: Temperance Melodrama and the Tradition of Antebellum Reform". Journal of the Early Republic. 9 (4): 517–540. JSTOR 3123754.
- Miner, Alonzo Ames (June 1894). "Neal Dow and his Life Work". The New England Magazine. 10 (4): 397–412. OCLC 1644447.
Thesis
- Philipp, Ernest Joseph (1917). "Chapter 6: Minor Party Conventions". The Presidential Election of 1880 (M.A. thesis). University of Wisconsin.
Website
- "Neal Dow House Endowment". Neal Dow House. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2016.