THE FIRST “PROHIBITION AMENDMENT.”
On the same day a proposition was made by Mr. Preston, of Shawnee county, to amend the Miscellaneous article by adding the following section:
“Sec. ——. The Legislature shall have power to regulate or prohibit the sale of alcoholic liquors, except for mechanical and medicinal purposes.”
A motion made to lay this amendment on the table, was defeated by a vote of 18 ayes to 31 nays. But the anxiety of the members to exclude from the Constitution any provision that might render its adoption doubtful, or prevent the admission of the State, finally prevailed, and after a full interchange of views, Mr. Preston withdrew his amendment. There is, it is said, nothing new under the sun. Those who imagine that the prohibition amendment adopted in 1880 was a new departure in Constitution-making, have never examined the records of the Wyandotte Convention.