TEMPERANCE, TAXATION, AND TURMOIL: FEDERAL REGULATION OF INTOXICATING BEVERAGES 1789-1918

Abstract

This paper presents a history of the federal role in regulating the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States from the opening of the First Congress of 1789 to the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1918. Beginning with the passage of the nation's first tariff, imposing duties on imported beer, wine, and spirits, and ending with the onset of national Prohibition and the complete ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages, the story of the federal regulation of alcohol from 1789 to 1918 encompasses a wide variety of political, economic, sociological, and constitutional issues and features a series of epic debates and even violent struggles involving all three branches of government.