Portland Rum Riot
Discussed in this Post:
Politics in Maine in the mid-nineteenth century
A protest that turned into a riot
The Maine Law
DISCLAIMER: This is a political post. It leans a little to the left.
Anti-immigrant laws, vote suppression, authoritarian government provoking violent protest, “alternative facts,” selective prosecution:
issues from the headlines?
Yes, the headlines in Portland, Maine in the middle of the 19th century.
The following posts provide an overview of the background, story, and consequences of Portland’s Rum Riot, as delivered in a Three of Strong Distillery Zoom Virtual Cocktail Class and History Talk on June 4, 2020.
The Gathering Crowd
Bricks thudded against the door of Portlandʼs City Hall. Fifty to 75 young men, most under 20 stood, shouted, and occasionally hurled bricks at the door on the Middle Street side of the building in the early evening of June 2, 1855. Another five- or six-hundred stood about the area, drawn by the ruckus or called out by the earlier fire alarm. Some, like Elbridge Hall had followed Deputy Marshal Oren Ring, “with no more object or interest than to see him seize an Irishman.” Others had come intent on seeing Mayor Neal Dow, “The Napoleon of Temperance” fined and imprisoned, given “a taste of his own medicine.” All would be disappointed. Some would be injured. One would be killed.
The 'Maine Law' Background
In the early nineteenth century Portland, Maine was a drinking city. In his memoirs Dow claimed, "It was normal for workers to drink on the job, for ministers to drink before delivering a sermon, or for a gentleman of society to get beastly drunk and dance a jig on top of a table at a public gathering. The town bell rang at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. as a reminder for workers to break for some rum, which employers were expected to provide.” A city report in 1840 estimated one thousand of Portlandʼs 12,000 residents were addicted to the excessive use of intoxicants.
But Portland, like the rest of New England also was a hotbed of intellectual and spiritual reform. The reform-minded, Neal Dow and others, saw drunkenness as contributing to the degradation of Portlanders. Prohibition would become Maineʼs contribution to the progressive struggle to remake America as John Winthropʼs “Shining City Upon a Hill.”
Over the course of several years the political parties in Maine had been shattered by conflict over 'The Maine Law' -- prohibition. Imagine the recent splitting due to the Tea Party and Occupy movements occurring at a time when the main parties were less firmly entrenched in power. A reform-minded progressive group, the new Republican party, arose from the remnants of the old Whig party, and joined with the anti-immigrant Know-Nothings in a coalition of convenience to challenge the recently dominant Democrats. The Democrats supported the interests of merchants and businessmen, pandering to Irish immigrants by demonizing the Republicans. A local political broad sheet addressed "To the Irish Voters" attacked a Whig newspaper for calling Irish voters "Irish cattle," attempting to lure Irish voters to the Democrats.
However, the Republican/Whig/Know-Nothing coalition won out in Portland in 1855, and Neal Dow, the main spokesman on the main issue in Maine politics for the past half decade, was returned to the office of Mayor of Portland.