The state's liquor prohibition law was a major political issues at the time, and Talbot was a strict prohibitionist. During this term he vetoed a bill that would have disbanded the state police, which were charged with the law's enforcement, and also vetoed a bill replacing prohibition with a licensing scheme. In the 1874 election, anti-prohibition Republicans joined with Democrats to elect William Gaston over Talbot by a narrow margin. The election marked a watershed in post-Civil War Massachusetts, since it was the first victory for a Democrat in that period, and exposed the state Republican Party's fractures on domestic affairs like prohibition. Talbot refused to run in 1875.