Home Rule and Local Self Government During Prohibition, 1914

After the Civil War, the temperance movement swept the nation. Starting with Maine in 1851, states and localities around the country held referendums to let its citizens vote on whether or not to ban alcohol. In 1886, Virginia adopted the “Local Option,” which let each city or county vote to be “wet” (allowing alcohol) or “dry.” By the time this map was published in 1909, only nine cities and two counties remained “wet.” In 1914, Virginia held a referendum on state-wide prohibition. Campaigning was fierce on both sides. The fiery minister Reverend James Cannon led the Anti-Saloon League branch in Virginia. His stirring speeches at meetings and rallies throughout the state convinced the public that alcohol caused “pauperism and insanity and crime and shame and misery and broken hearts and ruined homes and shortened, wasted lives.”

Support for the “wet local option” came from breweries, bars, and their devoted patrons. Looking to establish an organization that opposed state-wide prohibition on other grounds, a group of Richmond professional men formed the Virginia Association for Local Self-Government. Its leaders included a judge, a surgeon, a lawyer, and several prominent businessmen. Careful to disassociate themselves from the bar scene, the Association for Local Self-Government distributed propaganda to counter the flood of literature of the Anti-Saloon League, declaring that the desire for local, not state control, was their reason to oppose prohibition.

The Virginia Association for Local Self-Government published this pamphlet in 1914, urging Confederate veterans and their sons to vote for home rule. The brochure drew a direct parallel between the fight for the local option and the Confederate ideal of states’ rights. The organization stated that Confederate soldiers “fought for the principle of self-government fifty years ago and today these veterans should vote for the preservation of the right to each local community to regulate its own affairs in the manner best suited to the conditions, habits and customs of its people.” This pamphlet was designed to appeal to whites, particularly those who believed in the "Lost Cause" narrative. The pamphlet's creator referenced a famous painting by Ohio's Archibald Willard titled "The Spirit of '76." This was actually a painting glorifying the American Revolution and was displayed in 1876 during the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
 
Deriding the Anti-Saloon League as an “Ohio institution," the Virginia Association for Local Self-Government claimed that state-wide prohibition would “destroy a fundamental principle of government for which [the Confederates] fought.” Despite their often passionate appeal, the local option was defeated in the state-wide referendum held on September 22, 1914. Buoyed by a huge voter turnout (15 percent larger than the 1912 presidential election), state-wide prohibition won with almost 60 percent of the vote. Prohibition in Virginia went into effect on November 1, 1916. Just over three years later on January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment mandated national prohibition.

Citations/For Further Reading:

Home Rule and Local Self-Government, 1914, Box 3, Folder 9, Virginia Governor (1918-1922: Davis), Executive Papers, 1918-1922, Accession 21567a, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond.

Virginia Association for Local Self-Government Papers, Online Index, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Preview Activity

Look at It: Look at the image. What might be the purpose of this piece of propaganda art? Why might have it been created?

Post Activities

Analyze: The Virginia Association for Local Self Government compared the Local Option to the Civil War. Is this a valid argument? Do you think this idea convinced voters?

Another Perspective: The messaging and propaganda effort of The Virginia Association for Local Self Government did not work. Why do you think this was the case? How would you have approached the issue differently to get a better result?