The Creation and Subjugation of "Paddy the Drunkard"
Introduction
As one peruses Isaac T. Hopper's diary chronicling the Prison Association of New York's interaction with recently released convicts, it quickly becomes apparent that the composition of nineteenth century prisons was vastly different than that of today's prisons. The immigrants of the day, namely Irish, comprise a great number of the diary's approximate 760 entries. Many of the convictions mentioned, numbering near forty, are stated to be because of intemperance. This reflects the American climate of the times, as the growing momentum of the Temperance movement intersected with a mass influx of Irish immigrants. The massive new presence of a foreign culture alarmed many native-born Americans, which culminated in the rise of militant nativism seen in the creation of political parties like the Know-Nothings. These immigrants were portrayed as dull, drunk, and rambunctious and were therefore unworthy of American citizenship and aid. Why was this case? Were Irish immigrants really horrendous drunkards incapable of intellectual thought? Or were more sinister forces at play to paint them this way?
Irish Immigration to America
Irish immigration to the United States did not always flow in the massive torrents seen in the middle of the nineteenth century. Early migration occurred sporadically and did not feature the type of immigrant one would usually associate with Irish immigration. Irish immigrants prior to the nineteenth century were largely from the northern Irish province of Ulster, had marketable skills that provided them with prosperity, and were Protestant in faith. This, along with their relatively small numbers, allowed for them to meld with the native population quite seamlessly.[1] It was not until well into the nineteenth century that Irish immigrants began to resemble what one would now consider typical: poor, unskilled, and worst of all, Catholic.[2] The Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s would prompt the colossal inflow of this type of immigrant, much to the chagrin of native-born Americans.[3] This type of immigrant was not as easily dissolved in the existing population as previous forms. Their culture was too foreign and their faith too extreme. However, by the end of the century tensions began to ease as the second generation of Irish-Americans who were native born began to outnumber their foreign-born predecessors [4]
The 19th Century Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement of the nineteenth century can be seen as part of the wider social reform impulse that was characteristic of this period. This was an era of intense demographic, economic, and social change, and individuals reacted strongly in order to not feel left behind. The movement started out preaching a simple message – to avoid dangerous and uncouth drunkenness. The goal then evolved into an abstinence from hard liquor, like rum, whiskey, gin, bourbon, etc. The movement reached its final form when it radically called for the complete and total abstinence from all alcohol, even wine and beer. Additionally, many of the movement’s advocates believed immigrant groups, mostly the Irish and German, were especially guilty of the evils of intemperance.[5]
The movement is widely considered to have started in 1826, when the American Temperance Society was founded in Boston. Although not the first organization to have temperance as its core mission, it was the first of its kind to have wider significance as it affected change in its community. This year also featured the publication of the important work Sermons on Temperance by Reverend Lyman Beecher.[6] In its beginnings, the movement shied away from calling for total abstinence, knowing their fellow countrymen's fondness for imbibing. Instead, they pushed for moderation. However, by the 1840s, this practice had ceased. It was total abstinence and prohibition of the sale of alcohol or bust.[7] The first notable prohibition legislation occurred in 1851, when the Maine Liquor Law passed. It banned the sale of all alcohol except for medicinal purposes within state boundaries. As a result, Maine became the first "dry" state in the union. By 1855, twelve other states had follow suit. States that did not have prohibition laws were called "wet" states. However, the strides made in this movement were largely lost in the next coming decades as only five of the original thirteen dry states mentioned still had prohibition on record during the Civil War.[8]
By the 1840s...it was total abstinence and prohibition of the sale of alcohol or bust."
The Civil War put a temporary hold on a lot of the movement's efforts. Many, even leaders in the movement, were preoccupied by the conundrums brought up by the conflict like sectionalism and abolition. While the war definitely sidetracked the movement, there was still some life and activity to be found. Therefore, the movement survived the national struggle with a considerable amount of power still present, although it would take a few years until the movement regained its footing.[9]
It was in the postbellum years that the movement began to take a more aggressive stance, especially when women's organizations began to lead the charge around 1875.[10] Temperance advocates believed that liquor would corrupt even the most responsible elements of society and any imbibing would lead to a collapse of civic virtue, which was why they even denounced the most casual and elite of drinkers. This new clamorous attitude can be largely ascribed to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the country following the reunification of the states in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The dramatic social changes (evident in the rise in perceived social ailments like poverty, crime, and disease) stoked fear in the hearts of these prohibition proponents and they believed alcohol was the cause of these newly observable social ills, as they did not have the hindsight of history to tell them otherwise.[11]
Reverend Theodore Cuyler, president of the National Temperance Society, summed up the fear of the rapid social change of the postbellum that eventually focused in on immigrants when he said “temperance reform and the Christian Sabbath and intelligent freedom will not survive if our land shall keep open doors for all the godlessness and all the crime and all the reckless pauperism of the whole wide world.”[12]
Temperance as a Nativist Tool
As one can see, the Temperance movement was at its strongest when the amount of poor Catholic Irish immigrants was at its largest. This is not by coincidence.
The Temperance movement was largely made up of individuals of Protestant faith and of native origin. They advertised the campaign as the fight of God against the saloon.[13] Originally, the movement aimed to promote drinking in moderation as to promote more productivity amongst workers. As previously stated, this changed in the 1840s when total abstinence was promoted instead.[14] At this time, temperance began to instead take on the mantle of promoting the Anglo-Saxon Protestant race and distinguishing it from the newly arrived racially inferior immigrants from foreign lands.[15] This is seen in how the Maine Law, the first to prohibit alcohol at an institutional level, passed at the conclusion of the Famine years in 1851, when Irish immigration was reaching its peak.
Irish immigrants were the target of the movement because of their great size and political might. They represented a clear threat to the status quo in politics. Nowhere was this more clear than in New York City, where Isaac T. Hopper conducted much of his business for the Prison Association of New York. Although somewhat after his time, Tammany Hall was a political machine within the foreigner-friendly Democratic Party that used Irish immigrants to bolster its ranks. The Irish even assumed control of the powerful machine with the death of legendary boss William Tweed in 1871, right around when the temperance movement began to be revived.[16]
A big part of the organization and effectiveness of the machine were saloons, which served as community centers and polling stations. Notably, a majority of the saloons were run by the Irish themselves. Without the saloons, the Irish could not have possessed the domination of the New York City politics as they did.[17] Therefore, while temperance movement advocates genuinely wanted a more sober and moral society, their targeted use of rhetoric against Irish immigrants was clearly a concerted effort to check the foreign influence on their nation.
Connections to Isaac T. Hopper's Diary
In Isaac T. Hopper's diary, there are numerous mentions of Irish immigrants being charged for intemperance, intoxication, or being a common drunkard. In total, near 40 individuals of Irish origin were charged with one of these crimes. They are listed, with the page number(s) they are mentioned on, below:
- William Meighan, volume 1 pages 6, 9, 11
- John Sweeney, volume 1 pages 10, 11
- George Harris, volume 1 page 16
- Margaret McDermot, volume 1 pages 16-17
- John Dillon, volume 1 pages 38, 64
- James Gleason, volume 1 page 46
- James Thompson, volume 1 page 49
- William Stewart, volume 1 page 57
- Matthew Tenpenny, volume 1 page 59
- John Quin, volume 1, pages 59, 62
- James Hayes, volume 1 page 60
- Hugh Gaynor, volume 1 page 62
- David Curry, volume 1 pages 65, 66, 67
- Henry McGill, volume 1 pages 81, 84
- Cornelius Sullivan, volume 1, page 82, 84
- John Cannon, volume 1 page 83
- Patrick Collins, volume 1 page 84
- Rice, volume 1 page 130
- Patrick Timmons, volume 2, page 10
- Briget Colnan, volume 2 page 14
- Jeremiah Foley, volume 2 page 15
- James Gilbert, volume 2 pages 17, 25
- Mary Mahony, volume 2 page 110
- Mary Flinn, volume 2 page 125
- Sarah Cavenaugh, volume 2 page 229
- Ann Garvey, volume 2 page 275
- Jane Travor, volume 2 page 305
- Isabella Price, volume 2 pages 313-314
- Ann McAdam, volume 2 page 321
- Rosanna Allen, volume 2 page 322
- Bridget Kelly, volume 2 page 324
- Ann Knott, volume 2 page 327
- Margaret O'Brien, volume 2 page 329
- Ann White, volume 2 page 330
- Sarah Hughes, volume 2 page 331
- Bridget O'Neil, volume 2 page 334
- Mary O'Brien, volume 2 page 335
Conclusion
Isaac T. Hopper's diary for the Prison Association of New York provides modern historians with a snapshot of what the criminal justice system looked like during the middle of the nineteenth century. Through examination of the types of people being convicted of crimes, one sees that the composition was very different from the composition of today's prisons. One ethnic group that was disproportionately represented in prisons of the time in particular were Irish immigrants, as discussed throughout the course of this article. Most of these individuals were charged with intemperance-related crimes, as alcohol consumption was viewed in a different, more negative light in this era. Irish immigrants were associated with problematic intemperance because of nativist fears that they would adversely impact the United States and their own political power would be eclipsed.
This analysis has been supported throughout this article, as high immigration occurred simultaneously with greater instances of temperance activism many times throughout the nineteenth century. Additionally, New York City's nativist resentment of Irish immigrants and their political power further backs this conclusion of deliberate association of the Irish with intemperance. Irish political power was strongest in this city, seen in the prominence and might of the political machine Tammany Hall. Tammany relied on saloons for organization and gathering its constituents together. Therefore, as previously discussed, attacks on Irish drinking habits were also strikes against their political influence. Without Hopper's entries on the Irish immigrants charged with intemperance, one would not have been made aware of this reality of the time. It is similar to modern day happenings, where groups of people who threaten the"true America" are unfairly persecuted.
Footnotes
[1] Timothy J. Meagher, The Columbia Guide to Irish American History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 42.
[2] Ibid., 43.
[3] Ibid., 62 and 83.
[4] Ibid., 95.
[5] James P. Byrne, Philip Coleman, and Jason King, eds., Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, vol. 1, 2 vols. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 54-55.
[6] Eugene O. Porter, "An Outline of the Temperance Movement," The Historian 7, no. 1 (Autumn 1944): 55, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1944.tb01073.x.
[7] Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Drinking in America: A History (New York: Free Press, 1987), 70-71.
[8] Eugene O. Porter, "An Outline of the Temperance Movement," The Historian 7, no. 1 (Autumn 1944): 60, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1944.tb01073.x.
[9] Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Drinking in America: A History (New York: Free Press, 1987), 93.
[10] Eugene O. Porter, "An Outline of the Temperance Movement," The Historian 7, no. 1 (Autumn 1944): 64, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1944.tb01073.x.
[11] Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 71.
[12] Rev. T. W. Cuyler, President of the National Temperance Society, in National Temperance Advocate (June, 1891) 26:91.
[13] Philip McGowan, "The Intemperate Irish in American Reform Literature," Irish Journal of American Studies 4 (1995): 50-52, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30003330.
[14] James P. Byrne, Philip Coleman, and Jason King, eds., Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, vol. 1, 2 vols. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 54-55.
[15] Philip McGowan, "The Intemperate Irish in American Reform Literature," Irish Journal of American Studies 4 (1995): 54,
[16] James P. Byrne, Philip Coleman, and Jason King, eds., Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, vol. 1, 2 vols. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 31-33.
[17] W. J. Rorabaugh, "Rising Democratic Spirits: Immigrants, Temperance, and Tammany Hall, 1854-1860," Civil War History 22, no. 2 (June 1976): 141-146, doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.1976.0047.
Sources
Bennett, David Harry. The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Bouchard, Kelley. "When Maine Went Dry." Press Herald. October 02, 2011. https://www.pressherald.com/2011/10/02/when-maine-went-dry_2011-10-02/.
Byrne, James P., Philip Coleman, and Jason King, eds. Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008.
Forker, Martin. "The Use of the 'cartoonist's Armoury' in Manipulating Public Opinion: Anti-Irish Imagery in 19th Century British and American Periodicals." Journal of Irish Studies 27 (2012): 58-71. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41932626.
Knobel, Dale T. ""Celtic Exodus": The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of American Racial Nationalism." Radharc 2 (November 2001): 3-25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25122316.
Lee, Joseph, and Marion R. Casey. Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
Lender, Mark Edward, and James Kirby Martin. Drinking in America: A History. New York: Free Press, 1987.
McCaffrey, Lawrence John. Irish Catholic Diaspora in America. Catholic University of America Press, 1997.
McGowan, Philip. "The Intemperate Irish in American Reform Literature." Irish Journal of American Studies 4 (1995): 49-66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30003330.
Meagher, Timothy J. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Porter, Eugene O. "An Outline of the Temperance Movement." The Historian 7, no. 1 (Autumn 1944): 54-67. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1944.tb01073.x.
Rev. T. W. Cuyler, President of the National Temperance Society, in National Temperance Advocate (June, 1891) 26:91.
Rorabaugh, W. J. "Rising Democratic Spirits: Immigrants, Temperance, and Tammany Hall, 1854-1860." Civil War History 22, no. 2 (June 1976): 138-57. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.1976.0047.
Shannon, William V. The American Irish: A Political and Social Portrait. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.
Tichenor, Daniel J. Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.