The "wet" forces did not give up the Prohibition debate after the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. They immediately set their sights on repealing Prohibition, despite the difficulty that would be involved. Repealing a constitutional amendment required two-thirds congressional support, a feat that had never been achieved in U.S. history. The votes of only thirteen states in the nation could block the measure. That was considerably less support than was required to pass the Eighteenth Amendment. The prospect was so daunting, in fact, that "dry" forces let their guard down. Prohibition advocates were overconfident in the power of the law that repeal appeared impossible.

As Prohibition wore on crime and corruption increased. Even die-hard prohibitionists like evangelist Billy Sunday saw that the laws were causing more problems than they were solving. Some prohibitionists advocated modifying the law, but this effort split dry forces, many of...