Withington, William. A Temperance Bowling Alley, for the Maine Law. 1852. Brown
University, Center for Digital Initiatives.
http://library.brown.edu/cds/catalog/catalog.php?verb=render&colid=7&id=1091557147718750
(accessed December 25, 2013).
In A Temperance Bowling Alley, for the Maine Law,
William Withington describes the success of Maine’s temperance law and how
other states should follow in Maine’s footsteps. William Withington was from Jackson, Michigan
and was a Civil War officer, republican
state representative, senator, and owned a manufacturing company called the
Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company. Being a fairly successful and important and
most likely educated man, Withington is a fairly reliable source. His ultimate political agenda is unknown
which could cause this source to be unreliable to some degree. In this source, Withington is trying to
convince other states to adopt similar temperance laws as Maine. He asks for women to help and says the laws
and the movement will benefit them. He
wants alcohol to stop “ruling” the country as it had been during the early 19th
century. The country’s alcohol
consumption was extremely high causing many problems in society, especially domestic
violence against women. Withington feels
that the temperance movement is like a bowling game. Maine has gotten the ball rolling and other
states need to all follow until the game ends. Withington is very passionate and uses rhyming
and the bowling analogy to convince other states and especially the “ladies” to
continue the temperance movement until all states follow Maine’s lead.
