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Article: Prohibition Party
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PROHIBITION PARTY
PROHIBITION PARTY,
the oldest continuous third party in the United States, was founded in 1869 by temperance crusaders who broke with the Republican Party because they felt it was betraying its original spirit and aims. Men such as Neal Dow of Maine, Gerrit Smith of upstate New York, and James Black of Pennsylvania had backed the Republican Party during its early years because they saw it as an instrument of Christian reform. Although they were willing to let temperance take a back seat during the fight to end slavery, they expected prohibition to be the Republican Party's next great crusade. After the Civil War, however, Republicans increasingly focused on the ...