On this day in 1851 Maine approved a ban on the manuafacture and sale of liquor.

The temperance movement begain in Maine in 1815 with the foundation of the Total Abstinence Society.

A statute limiting the sale of alcoholic beverages was passed in 1846 but was replaced by a complete ban under the leadership of Portland’s Neal Dow.

The concern over the sale of alcohol culminated in the national law to ban its sale. National Prohibition was finally repealed in 1934.