The Portland Rum Riot, also called the Maine Law Riot, was a brief but violent period of civil unrest that occurred in Portland, Maine on June 2, 1855 in response to the Maine law which prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol in the state the year before.
Read more about Portland Rum Riot: History
Famous quotes containing the words portland, rum and/or riot:
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“There’s nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms
As rum and true religion.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The bowl will ensnare and enchant
men who crouch by the hearth
till they want
but the riot of stars in the night;
those who dwell far inland
will seek ships.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)