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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that believes there's no time like the present

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Speaker 1: to learn about the past. I'm Gay Bluesier and in

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're talking about the rum Riot of Portland, Maine,

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Speaker 1: a regional uprising that offered a glimpse into the future

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Speaker 1: problems of the Prohibition era to come. The day was

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Speaker 1: June two, eighteen. Roughly three thousand people stormed city hall

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Speaker 1: at Portland, Maine, looking for a secret stash of alcohol

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Speaker 1: that had been illegally purchased by the mayor. Three years earlier.

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Speaker 1: Maine become the first state in the Union to ban alcohol,

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Speaker 1: and Portland's mayor, Neil Dow, had been especially stringent and

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Speaker 1: enforcing that law. When the townspeople found out Dow had

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Speaker 1: purchased medicinal alcohol without the required approval of a committee,

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Speaker 1: they accused him of hypocrisy and marched a city hall

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Speaker 1: to gather the proof themselves. This event, now known as

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Speaker 1: the Portland rum Riot, resulted in multiple injuries and one death,

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Speaker 1: a twenty two year old sailor named John Robbins. The

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Speaker 1: incident occurred nearly seventy years before national prohibition went into effect,

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Speaker 1: but in Portland's the battle between pro and anti temperance

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Speaker 1: groups had already been brewing for decades. By the eighteen twenties,

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Speaker 1: religious attitudes had begun to soften in New England. In

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Speaker 1: a break from the region's austere Puritan roots, Protestants began

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Speaker 1: to focus on reform rather than condemnation, and effort to

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Speaker 1: better both themselves and their communities. They launched campaigns for

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Speaker 1: the abolition of slavery, the fight for women's suffrage, and

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Speaker 1: for the care of the less fortunate. Another target of

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Speaker 1: reform was the nation's growing problem with alcohol, which had

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Speaker 1: led to a steep rise in domestic violence and unemployment

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Speaker 1: in recent years. To combat the problem, religious leaders and

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Speaker 1: doctors joined forces with recovering alcoholics and established a grassroots

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Speaker 1: temperance movement in New England. Their goal was to promote

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Speaker 1: a more moderate approach to drinking, but by the mid

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Speaker 1: century some within the movement felt a less compromising approach

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Speaker 1: was needed. One such hard liner was Mayor Neil Dow

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Speaker 1: of Portland, Maine, a k a. The Napoleon of Temperance.

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Speaker 1: He and his new tougher breed of reformers weren't interested

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Speaker 1: in preaching moderation. Instead, they called for a statewide ban

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Speaker 1: on alcohol, and in eighteen fifty one they got their

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Speaker 1: wish when the Main Liquor Law was signed by the

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Speaker 1: state governor. The statute prohibited both the manufacture and sale

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Speaker 1: of alcoholic beverages in Maine. The only exception was alcohol

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Speaker 1: used for medical, mechanical or manufacturing purposes. In those select cases,

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Speaker 1: a municipal committee could decide whether or not to grant

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Speaker 1: a special dispensation for the buyer. This legislative approach to

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Speaker 1: temperance became the model for neighboring states, with several including Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: soon passing their own similar bands. Still, just like the

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Speaker 1: national prohibition that would follow it, the main law didn't

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Speaker 1: really stop people from drinking. Farmers simply made wine and

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Speaker 1: hard cider out of the fruit they grew. The more

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurial residents took to bootlegging, brewing beer and liquor at

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Speaker 1: home and then selling it to neighbors on the sly. However,

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Speaker 1: some communities were harder hit by the band than others.

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Speaker 1: In Portland, for example, about eleven percent of the city's

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Speaker 1: population were Irish immigrants, some of whom owned and operated

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Speaker 1: many of the cities now shuttered taverns. They felt targeted

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Speaker 1: by the new law, especially since their homes were the

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Speaker 1: ones the police most often raided in search of contraband liquor.

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Speaker 1: Mayor Dow's war on alcohol didn't win a many fans

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Speaker 1: in the working class and migrant communities of his city.

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Speaker 1: He lost his bid for re election in eighteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: and was quick to blame his loss on Irish immigrants,

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Speaker 1: who he alleged had voted illegally against the odds. Dow

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Speaker 1: was elected mayor again three years later, but he would

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Speaker 1: only hold the office for two months before being more

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Speaker 1: or less forced out by the Portland rum Riot. By

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Speaker 1: June of that year, some of the city's Irish and

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Speaker 1: German residents had learned that Mayor Dow was storing sixteen

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars worth of alcohol in a vault under city Hall.

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Speaker 1: The liquor was ostensibly for distribution to pharmacists and doctors,

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Speaker 1: but Dow hadn't bothered to seek permission for the purchase

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Speaker 1: from a municipal committee. Many who felt targeted by the

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Speaker 1: mayor were furious to learn of his apparent hypocrisy. It

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Speaker 1: was with this in mind that a local paper, the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Argus, published the following call to arms on the

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Speaker 1: morning of June two. It read quote, while the city

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Speaker 1: authorities are busy searching private houses for Demi John's and

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Speaker 1: jugs of liquor, it is perhaps not strange that they

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Speaker 1: should overlook wholesale importations into the city of what are

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Speaker 1: probably impure liquors intended for sale. Why doesn't the marshal

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Speaker 1: sees and destroy The mayor of the city has no

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Speaker 1: more right to deal in liquors without authority than any

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Speaker 1: other citizen. Where are our vigilant police, who are aware

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Speaker 1: of the above facts, and who think it their duty

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Speaker 1: to move about in search of the poor man's cider,

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Speaker 1: and often pushed their search into private houses, contrary to

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Speaker 1: every principle of just law. We call upon them, by

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Speaker 1: virtue of Neil Dow's law, to seize Neil Dow's liquors

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Speaker 1: and pour them into the street. Many of the papers

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Speaker 1: readers took that directive to heart, but at first the

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Speaker 1: move against Dow was completely by the books. According to

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Speaker 1: state law, any three citizens could request a search warrant

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Speaker 1: from a judge if they believed a crime had been committed.

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Speaker 1: On June second, three representatives from the Irish community asked

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Speaker 1: for and were granted a search warrant for City Hall. However,

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Speaker 1: when they showed the search warrant at the door, the

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Speaker 1: police refused to let them in. Neither side back down,

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Speaker 1: and soon a large crowd began to form outside City Hall.

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Speaker 1: By five pm, more than two hundred people had gathered,

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Speaker 1: and as the work day drew to a close, the

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Speaker 1: crowd swelled to as many as three thousand people, most

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Speaker 1: of whom were Irish. As the standoff dragged on, some

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Speaker 1: in the crowd began threatening to storm the building. A

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Speaker 1: short time later, a few men began throwing rocks at

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Speaker 1: the vault where the illicit liquor was being held. It

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Speaker 1: was around that time that Mayor Dow called out the

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Speaker 1: local militia and ordered them to fire on the crowd.

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Speaker 1: Amidst the chaos, John Robbins managed to unlock the door

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Speaker 1: the liquor vault. He had hoped to conduct the lawful

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Speaker 1: search that he and the other residents were entitled to,

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Speaker 1: but instead he was struck down by a hail of bullets.

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Speaker 1: The rest of the crowd began to disperse, but the

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Speaker 1: militia kept right on shooting, eventually wounding seven more people

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Speaker 1: in the process. In the aftermath of the riot, Mayor

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Speaker 1: Dow was heavily criticized for ordering the militia to fire,

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Speaker 1: but he never showed remorse or received any kind of

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Speaker 1: discipline reaction. In fact, he was later acquitted of the

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Speaker 1: only charges against him that he had broken his own

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Speaker 1: law by obtaining alcohol without approval. That said, the Portland

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Speaker 1: rum riot effectively killed both Dao's political career and the

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Speaker 1: main liquor law. Dal lost reelection by a huge margin,

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Speaker 1: and in eighteen fifty six Maine repealed its statewide ban

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Speaker 1: on alcohol. Five years later, Neil Dow served the Union

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Speaker 1: as a colonel in the Civil War. He returned home

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Speaker 1: a hero, having been wounded, captured, rescued, and promoted to general.

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Speaker 1: But even with his somewhat redeemed status, Dow was still

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Speaker 1: unable to return to public office. He ran for governor

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Speaker 1: of Maine and for the presidency of the United States

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Speaker 1: on the Prohibition Party ticket, naturally, but neither bid was successful. Undeterred,

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Speaker 1: Dal continued to fight for prohibition as a private citizen

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Speaker 1: until his death in eighteen ninety seven, at the age

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Speaker 1: of ninety three. It would be another three decades before

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Speaker 1: his dream of nationwide prohibition would come to pass, an

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Speaker 1: experiment that lasted longer than his own but was ultimately

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Speaker 1: just as doomed to fail. I'm Gay, Bluesier and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you enjoy today's show, consider keeping

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Speaker 1: review the show on Apple Podcasts, or you can send

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Speaker 1: your feedback directly to me by writing to This Day

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Speaker 1: at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another Day in

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Speaker 1: History class