ABSTRACT
In the late nineteenth century, intemperance became the main issue of personal moral behaviour in politics; it was put there largely through the efforts of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. They pressed the view that a sober nation could be most effectively secured through legal prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquor. Since temperance linked the condition of the family, the designated sphere of female responsibility, with politics, the temperance crusade provided a major opportunity for religious women to expand their activities in the public world. One of the most formidable of them was Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) who rose rapidly in the W.C.T.U. from 1874 onwards and who linked her temperance activities to the politics of women's suffrage. She pursued both on essentially moral and religious grounds.
