Prohibition uses. Alcohol consumption was never illegal under federal law. Nationwide Prohibition did not begin in the United States until January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The 18th amendment was ratified in 1919, and was repealed in December 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment. Concern over excessive alcohol consumption began during the American colonial era, when fines were imposed for drunken behavior and for selling liquor without a license. In the eighteenth century, when drinking was a part of everyday American life, Protestant religious groups, especially the Methodists, and health reformers, including
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution therefore, suppress it without the interposition of Congress ... Congress, and Congress only [under the Constitution without a Second Amendment], can call forth the militia." Legal historian Paul Finkelman disputes Hartmann's claim that the Second Amendment was adopted to protect slave patrols, arguing that Hartmann's claim is "factually incorrect and misleading" and that there is no historical evidence for this assertion. James Madison's initial proposal for a bill of rights was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, during the first session of Congress. The initial proposed passage relating to arms was: On July