Women and the Temperance Sentiment in Kansas: Kansas Liquor Laws 1855-1881

Summary

Alcoholism was a problem that plagued men on the Kansas frontier. To combat it, the territorial government drew up restrictive liquor laws designed to benefit the wives and daughters of drunkards. The first liquor law, adopted in 1855, required cities to vote every two years on whether to allow liquor sales. In addition, a would-be saloon-keeper had to petition the county board, obtain the signatures of a majority of men over 21, and post a $2000 bond. People selling liquor without a license were subject to fines and a jail sentence. Although temperance activists, Mrs. Samuel Wood and Susan Spencer, raided a saloon and destroyed its supply of alcohol in 1856, direct action was rare. The law was rarely enforced, and public opinion about the liquor law was mixed. Changes were passed in 1859 to allow people whose person or property was damaged by an intoxicated person to sue those who provided the liquor to the miscreant. Married women were allowed to sue under this law. The amendment also barred the sale of liquor to a married man against the wishes of his wife. There is no record of a married woman exercising her veto power or of suits under this law. The best that may be said is that the statute may have served as a deterrent.

At the 1859 state constitutional convention, a prohibition law was discussed but was not approved. When Kansas gained statehood in 1861, however, the old territorial liquor laws were reenacted and drunkenness was made a ground for divorce. Six years later, the state legislature passed laws extending the coverage of the liquor laws to large towns and cities and including women over 21 in the petitioning for liquor licenses. Women were active in trying to get liquor license petitions denied. Because they were seen as the moral guardian of the family, women were given an implicit duty to cure male intoxication.

For most women, entering saloons to disrupt the liquor trade was too radical a move. Reluctance to take strong enforcement steps continued to inhibit enforcement of the liquor laws. The first known lawsuit under the liquor law was not brought until 1878, when Mrs. M.V. Edmiston sued Emil Werner, a saloon-keeper who served her dead husband alcohol even after she asked him to stop. Although the case was ultimately decided on procedural grounds, the state Supreme Court said in dicta that the laws should be strictly enforced. The same year, the court upheld the provision including women in the petitioning for liquor licenses. In 1883, Mary Borgman won a lawsuit against Charles Jockers, a saloon-keeper who repeatedly served her alcoholic husband liquor. The case, however, was decided after Kansas had passed a prohibition law.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized in 1878, and by the following year, there was a chapter in every major city in Kansas. In 1880, a prohibition amendment was passed, banning the sale of liquor except for scientific, medical, or mechanical purposes. This exemption effectively gave druggists a monopoly on liquor sales. In theory, druggists were subject to the same permit and liability systems as saloon-keepers were before prohibition. In addition, they were supposed to sell liquor only in the case of actual sickness, but they often ran unofficial saloons, which were openly acknowledged by the public and ignored by the police. Only one lawsuit was brought against a druggist, and courts were reluctant to recognize the existence of illegal saloons. When enforcement actions were brought the fines levied were not large enough to put druggists or saloons out of business. The WCTU worked diligently to shut down illegal saloons. Some women participated in destructive raids with Carry Nation; others used legal means. Even if not always successful in obtaining their goals, the women of the temperance movement discovered they had the power to organize, speak out, and take action in public affairs.

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