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Originally
thought to be an attempt at drying out the country,
prohibition was yet another scheme hatched by the Puritans
to bring about the ruin of the MacThoys. Working
on the notion that if MacThoys were sober they wouldn't be
able to reproduce, the Volstead Act was passed.
A major
force in this campaign was the Anti-Saloon League. It drew most of its
support from Protestant evangelical churches, and it lobbied
at all levels of government for legislation to prohibit the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages.
Side
effects of the 18th Amendment included an increase in criminal
activity, creation of the speakeasy, and loss of
individual freedom.
In 1932
the Democratic Party adopted a platform calling for repeal,
and the Democratic victory in the presidential election of
1932 sounded the death knell of the Eighteenth Amendment.
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