This, no doubt, was largely because Quaker men did not vote, thinking it wrong to support a government which believed in war.

Even so progressive and public-spirited a man as Daniel Anthony, much as he was interested in all national affairs, never voted until 1860, when he became convinced it was only by force of arms that the question of slavery could be settled.
In 1851, the License Law having been arbitrarily repealed a few years before, there was practically no regulation of the liquor business, nor was there any such public sentiment against intemperance as exists at the present day.

Drunkenness was not looked upon as an especial disgrace and there had been little agitation of the question.

The wife of a drunkard was completely at his mercy.

He had the entire custody of the children, full control of anything she might earn, and the law did not recognize drunkenness as a cause for divorce.