Remembering the ‘Father of Prohibition’: The lasting power of reputation

“Who, in God’s name, would waste a perfectly good
bullet, a knife thrust or even a cup of ‘hemlock’ on such an infinitely despicable
specimen of the genus vermin as Andrew J. Volstead?”

That’s just one example of the hate mail received by the man known as the “Father of Prohibition.”

Andrew Volstead was a Republican congressman from Minnesota who wrote the law that confiscated beer, wine, and liquor in America.

Known as the Volstead Law, the act went into effect one
hundred years ago this week. It was enacted to enforce the Eighteenth
Amendment, which was ratified a year earlier. The lawmaker spent the rest of
his life trying to shed the reputation his act conferred upon him.

Volstead wanted to be remembered for accomplishments like a landmark farm co-op bill which allowed associations of farmers to collectively market their products. But, as the Washington Post notes, “‘Father of Prohibition’ had a better ring to it than father of the Co-Operative Marketing Associations Act of 1922.”

The lawmaker did not volunteer his services to produce the
act that became associated with him. As chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, it was his job to write it.

The hate mail soon began arriving in droves. As did the
death threats.

The congressman was defeated in the 1922 election, just two
years after his Act took effect. A 1971 profile of him said he “lived as a
self-sacrifice to Prohibition” and died in 1947 “embittered”
about his legacy as a “caricature of the Dry movement.”

The lasting power of reputation

As Andrew J. Volstead reminds us, we cannot write our own
legacy. No matter what we believe we have achieved in this life, we cannot
control what people say about us when we are gone.

However, we can write our legacy in eternity.

When we are faithful to serve Jesus with the resources he
has entrusted to us, we will hear him say one day, “Well done, good and
faithful servant”…