The national Prohibition Party was formally organized at a mass convention in Chicago in 1869, giving large-scale political structure to a movement that had been notable in the United States since the early years of the nineteenth century. The party's central mission was to eliminate the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It later added other planks, including women's suffrage and currency reform, but prohibition remained its preeminent focus.
The work of the party was largely carried on through state committees, which worked both to build up voter support for the prohibition movement and to develop state-level slates of Prohibition Party candidates. The Minnesota state committee put forward its first slate of candidates in 1871, and continued to develop its organization after that. The Minnesota organization consisted of both a general Prohibition State Committee and a smaller, more powerful Minnesota Prohibition Executive Committee. Although the state organization was very active through 1919, it lost much of its force during and after the national 1919-1933 experiment with prohibition, and ceased as an active political organization.
From the guide to the Prohibition Party records, 1876-1919., (Minnesota Historical Society)
