the 18th Amendment
- Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
- Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
- Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages. Upon ratification of the amendment by the states, Congress voted its approval in October 1919, and enacted it into law as the National Prohibition Act of 1920. Drafting of the amendment and of the bill was the work, in large part, of Wayne Wheeler, the legislative lawyer of the Anti-Saloon League. The duty to sponsor the bill before Congress fell to the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Andrew J. Volstead, U.S. Representative from the Minnesota 7th Congressional District.
effects of prohibition
Though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Many people also kept private bars to serve their guests. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada, overland and via the Great Lakes. Even prominent citizens and politicians later admitted to having used alcohol during Prohibition. President Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor, though, as a Senator, he had voted for Prohibition. This discrepancy between legality and actual practice led to widespread comtempt for authority. Over time, more people drank illegally and so money ended up in gangsters' pockets. Arguments raged over the effectiveness of prohibition. It appears to have been successful in some parts of the country but overall led to an increase in lawlessness.From the backlash of illegal substance abuse at this period in time,the Democratic Party's platform included a promise to repeal Prohibition, and Franklin Roosevelt ran for President promising to repeal of federal Prohibition laws. By then, an estimated three quarters of American voters, and an estimated forty-six states, favored repeal.
21st amendment
- Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
- Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
- Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
On December 6, 1932, Senator John Blaine of Wisconsin submitted a resolution to Congress proposing the submission to the states of the Twenty-First Amendment, which would annul the Eighteenth. Two months later, on February 21, 1933, the amendment was sent to the state governors. Meanwhile, the newly-elected President Roosevelt asked Congress to modify the Volstead Act to provide for the sale of 3.2 percent beer. In nine days, the Congress complied and legalized beer, much to the delight of the American public. In St. Louis, at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 30,000 people stormed a motorcade of beer-laden trucks twenty blocks long. Less than a year after the Twenty-First Amendment was submitted for ratification, the necessary thirty-sixth state ratified the amendment at 5:32 PM on December 5, 1933. At 7:00 PM, President Roosevelt signed the proclamation ending Prohibition.