The Struggle for Temperance in the New Territory
Legislators in the newly formed Washington Territory debate a strict 'Maine-style' liquor law, aiming to build a moral foundation for the burgeoning frontier society.
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Mr. Bradford, a member from the Cascades, rose to support the prohibitory liquor law. 'I thank God that I, in the first Legislature of our young Territory, have the opportunity to record my vote on the journals of this body in favor of this bill,' he declared. He described visiting the Sound and finding that, despite the prevalence of drinking, citizens almost universally demanded an act to allay this great curse. The proposed law would ban the manufacture and sale of intoxicating spirits, with the exception of an appointed county agent for medicinal and sacramental purposes, subject to a three-thousand-dollar bond. The legislation aims to signal to the world that Washington Territory is a place where morality and order are valued, and where emigrants can safely rear their children.
“Will it not hold up to the view of the world a Territory which, in its infant legislation, engrafts upon its statute book the elevated notion that 'Righteousness elevateth a nation'?”
This 1854 debate over the 'Maine Liquor Law' mirrors the perennial civic tension in Olympia over public order and local morality, a battle that would eventually lead to Washington State's early adoption of Prohibition in 1916.
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