In 1932, wealthy industrialist
John D. Rockefeller stated in a letter:
When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the
speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.
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As more and more Americans opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, movement grew for repeal. However, repeal was complicated by
grassroots politics. Although the US Constitution provides two methods for ratifying constitutional amendments, only one method had been used until then; that was for ratification by the state legislatures of three-fourths of the states. However, the wisdom of the day was that the state legislators of many states were either beholden to or simply fearful of the temperance lobby. For that reason, when
Congress formally proposed the repeal of Prohibition on February 20, 1933, (with the requisite two-thirds having voted in favor in each house; 63 to 21 in the Senate and 289 to 121 in the House) they chose the other ratification method established by
Article V, that being via
state conventions. To date, the Twenty-first is the only amendment ratified by conventions held in the several states, rather than being ratified by the state legislatures.
The Twenty-first Amendment is also one of only two operative provisions of the Constitution which prohibit private conduct; the other is the
Thirteenth Amendment. As
Laurence Tribe points out: "there are two ways, and only two ways, in which an ordinary private citizen ... can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave someone, a suitably hellish act. The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control lawsan act that might have been thought juvenile, and perhaps even lawless, but unconstitutional?"
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