End of a (Republican) era

The end of the alcohol ban in Rockport, MA, this week (a ban dating from the 1850s) marks the end of an era in the Republican Party's history.

We Civil War readers tend to look at the Republicans as a one-issue organization - the issue, slavery - whereas it amalgamated the temperance movement, the suffragettes, anti-Masons, and nativists as well.

The present day "rock-ribbed Republicans" who run that town have now let go of that - and a piece of their history.