1840: Abraham Lincoln speaks about hemp prohibition

1840: Abraham Lincoln speaks about hemp prohibition

Abraham Lincoln who became the 16th President of the United States in March 1861 grew up in a poor family and was mostly self-educated.

He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts to be elected to the United States Senate.

In December 1840 Abraham Lincoln says the following about prohibition in his speech to the Illinois House of Representatives:

“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”[1]

1. LINCOLN, Abraham, PRENTICE BASLER, Roy, SANDBURG, Carl (2001): Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches And Writings. Da Capo Press.

Research and text © Hempshopper Amsterdam.