From 1855 to 1903 the liquor law was essentially prohibitory, but in the latter year an act licensing the traffic was passed.
Wholesale and retail trade flourished all along the coast in defiance of prohibitory laws.
A law prohibiting drunkenness (1835) was followed in 1838 by a licence law and in 1839 by a law prohibiting the importation of spirits and taxing wines fifty cents a gallon; in 1840 another prohibitory law was enacted; but licence laws soon made the sale of liquor common.
The circulation of The Daily Tribune was never proportionately great - its advocacy of a protective tariff, prohibitory liquor legislation and other peculiarities, repelling a large support which it might otherwise have commanded in New York.
He practised and pertinaciously advocated total abstinence from spirituous liquors, but did not regard prohibitory laws as always wise.