Amendment XVIII
Liquor Abolished
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1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Ratified: January 16, 1919 Repealed by 21st Amendment: December 5, 1933
The 18th Amendment, which prohibited alcohol, was proposed on December 18, 1917.
| # | State | Date | * |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | Jan 8, 1918 | |
| 2 | Virginia | Jan 11, 1918 | |
| 3 | Kentucky | Jan 14, 1918 | |
| 4 | North Dakota | Jan 25, 1918 | |
| 5 | South Carolina | Jan 29, 1918 | |
| 6 | Maryland | Feb 13, 1918 | |
| 7 | Montana | Feb 19, 1918 | |
| 8 | Texas | Mar 4, 1918 | |
| 9 | Delaware | Mar 18, 1918 | |
| 10 | South Dakota | Mar 20, 1918 | |
| 11 | Massachusetts | Apr 2, 1918 | |
| 12 | Arizona | May 24, 1918 | |
| 13 | Georgia | Jun 26, 1918 | |
| 14 | Louisiana | Aug 3, 1918 | |
| 15 | Florida | Dec 3, 1918 | |
| 16 | Michigan | Jan 2, 1919 | |
| 17 | Ohio | Jan 7, 1919 | |
| 18 | Oklahoma | Jan 7, 1919 | |
| 19 | Idaho | Jan 8, 1919 | |
| 20 | Maine | Jan 8, 1919 | |
| 21 | West Virginia | Jan 9, 1919 | |
| 22 | California | Jan 13, 1919 | |
| 23 | Tennessee | Jan 13, 1919 | |
| 24 | Washington | Jan 13, 1919 | |
| 25 | Arkansas | Jan 14, 1919 | |
| 26 | Kansas | Jan 14, 1919 | |
| 27 | Alabama | Jan 15, 1919 | |
| 28 | Colorado | Jan 15, 1919 | |
| 29 | Iowa | Jan 15, 1919 | |
| 30 | New Hampshire | Jan 15, 1919 | |
| 31 | Oregon | Jan 15, 1919 | |
| 32 | Nebraska | Jan 16, 1919 | |
| 33 | North Carolina | Jan 16, 1919 | |
| 34 | Utah | Jan 16, 1919 | |
| 35 | Missouri | Jan 16, 1919 | |
| 36 | Wyoming | Jan 16, 1919 | * |
| 37 | Minnesota | Jan 17, 1919 | |
| 38 | Wisconsin | Jan 17, 1919 | |
| 39 | New Mexico | Jan 20, 1919 | |
| 40 | Nevada | Jan 21, 1919 | |
| 41 | New York | Jan 29, 1919 | |
| 42 | Vermont | Jan 29, 1919 | |
| 43 | Pennsylvania | Feb 25, 1919 | |
| 44 | Connecticut | May 6, 1919 | |
| 45 | New Jersey | Mar 9, 1922 | |
| Ratified in 394 days | |||
This amendment was specifically rejected by Rhode Island.
History: Consumption of alcohol was discouraged by law in many of the states over the first century of the United States under the Constitution. By 1855, 13 of the 31 states had temperance, or alcohol prohibition, laws. The Civil War distracted the public from the temperance movement, but the proliferation of saloons after the Civil War, and the trappings of the saloons (like gambling, prostitution, and public drunkenness) led to the so-called "Women's War" in 1873. Over time, the movement became more organized and the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) was established in 1893. The ASL's goal was national prohibition, and it set up an office in Washington to that end - it even established its own publishing house in Westerville, Ohio.
The ASL polled candidates on their stand on the temperance question, endorsing candidates with a pro-temperance stance. In the election of 1915, ASL-sponsored candidates swept the elections for Congress, and on December 18, 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment. It quickly was adopted by the states, being ratified in just over a year, on January 16, 1919 (394 days).
