Maine was the first state in the Union to enact a law for prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. An act for restricting the sale of such liquors was passed in 1846; the first prohibitory act was passed, largely through the influence of Neal Dow, in 1851; this was frequently amended; and in 1884 an amendment to the constitution was adopted which declares the manufacture of intoxicating liquors and their sale, except "for medicinal and mechanical purposes and the arts," forever prohibited. By the law enacted for enforcing this prohibition the governor and council appoint a state liquor commissioner from whom alone the selectmen of a town, the mayor or aldermen of a city, are authorized to receive the liquors which may be sold within the exceptions named in the amendment, and the selectmen, mayor or aldermen appoint an agent who alone is authorized to sell any of these liquors within their jurisdiction and who is forbidden to sell any whatever to minors, Indians, soldiers and drunkards. But the law labours under the disadvantage of all laws not vigorously sustained by general public sentiment, and is grossly violated. For the most part it is executed to the degree demanded by local sentiment in the several municipalities, thus operating in practice much the same as a "local option" law. The law looks to checking the demand by preventing the supply; and since habitual reliance on the stringency of law tends to the neglect of other influences for the removal of evils from the community, the citizens seem to absolve themselves from personal responsibility, both for the execution of the law and for the existence of the evil itself. There has been a strong movement for the repeal of the law, and the question of prohibition has long been an important one in state politics. The death penalty was abolished in Maine in 1876, restored in 1883, and again abolished in 1887.