‘The Gilded Age’: What Was The Temperance Movement? All About Ada’s New Cause

The Gilded Age Season 3 premiere shows us just how much has changed in the Van Rhijn house since the dramatic revelations of Season 2. Fans of the HBO hit will recall that Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) was conned out of the family fortune, leaving Aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski) ruined. However, Aunt Ada (Cynthia Nixon) conveniently discovers that her late husband Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard) was secretly wealthy, leaving the soft-hearted widow in control of the household’s fortunes.

So what’s the first thing Aunt Ada does to ruffle Aunt Agnes’s feathers? She hosts a temperance fundraiser in the house. The temperance movement, of course, fought for alcohol to be outlawed from society.

“Ada is a very ardent Christian, and if she believes that drinking is a sin, she believes all these people are going to hell, and she wants to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Cynthia Nixon told DECIDER.

Temperance is kind of a hilariously on-point cause for the soft Aunt Ada to champion in this time period. It was not only trendy for Christian women of Ada’s ilk, but it would eventually prove to be an incredibly foolish idea. Temperance would lead to Prohibition, which led to the black market-fueled gang wars of the 1920s and ’30s. (Similarly, it tracks that the shrewd Aunt Agnes would be all about suffrage, aka women’s right to vote.)

So what exactly was the temperance movement? Here’s what you need to know about Aunt Ada’s latest favorite craze…

What Was the Temperance Movement in The Gilded Age?

The temperance movement was a moral and political trend wherein followers advocated for “temperance” when it came to alcohol consumption. The idea was that booze was a scourge on society, poor for people’s health, and the cause of domestic abuse, petty crime, and worse. Those who advocated for Temperance wanted to see a national ban on alcohol.

Temperance became a pet cause amongst several Protestant Christian communities in the 19th century. By the time of the Gilded Age, aka the 1870s-1890s, it had become a massive movement. Its popularity, particularly amongst society women, eventually led to the 18th Amendment in 1920, aka Prohibition.

The Prohibition era ran from 1920-1933. It was a time in American history where alcohol was technically illegal, which ironically led to more crime and worse drinking habits. Prohibition saw the rise of speakeasies, gang violence, and strong homemade spirits, like moonshine. The 18th Amendment would eventually be repealed because it was honestly a really bad idea. The more society represses something enjoyable, like alcohol, the more people will resort to wild means to attain it.

Essentially, temperance is the perfect cause for poor, sweet Ada to champion. It’s an idea that makes good moral sense on the surface, but the actual banning of alcohol would have a dangerous ripple effect on society, creating even more pain and turmoil.

While Ada is not the kind of person to think that far ahead, Aunt Agnes and the rest of the Van Rhijns clearly are.