View source for Lager Beer Riot

{{Short description|Series of riots in Chicago in 1855}}
{{redirect|Beer riot|the incidents in Bavaria|Beer riots in Bavaria}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title            = Lager Beer Riot
| partof           = 
| image            = Klinkel Hall In Chicago Lager Beer Riot Of 1855 Cropped.jpg
| image_size       = 
| caption          = Klinkel's Hall, a [[German American]]-owned drinking establishment, was involved in the Lager Beer Riot. Photograph circa 1854-1856.
| date             = April 21, 1855
| place            = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| coordinates      = 
| causes           = Closing taverns on Sundays and raising the cost of liquor licenses
| goals            = 
| methods          = 
| status           = 
| result           = 
| side1            = [[Germans|German]] and [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrants
| side2            = [[Chicago Police Department]]
| side3            = 
| leadfigures1     = 
| leadfigures2     = [[Mayor of Chicago|Mayor]] [[Levi Boone]]
| leadfigures3     = 
| howmany1         = 
| howmany2         = 
| howmany3         = 
| casualties1      = 
| casualties2      = 
| casualties3      = 
| fatalities       = 1
| injuries         =
| arrests          = 60
| detentions       =
| charged          =
| fined            =
| casualties_label = 
| notes            = 
| sidebox          = 
}}

[[File:Leviboone.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|In 1855, [[Chicago]] [[Mayor of Chicago|Mayor]] [[Levi Boone]], a [[Know Nothing|Nativist]] politician, renewed enforcement of an old [[local ordinance]] mandating that city [[taverns]] be closed on Sundays and led the city council to raise the cost of a [[liquor license]], which brought on the [[German American|German]] and [[Irish American]] immigrant protest known as Lager Beer Riot]]

The '''Lager Beer Riot''' occurred on April 21, 1855 in [[Chicago]], Illinois, and was the first major civil disturbance in the city. [[Mayor of Chicago|Mayor]] [[Levi Boone]], a [[Know Nothing|Nativist]] politician, renewed enforcement of an old [[local ordinance]] mandating that [[tavern]]s be closed on Sundays and led the city council to raise the cost of a [[liquor license]] from $50 per year to $300 per year, renewable quarterly.<ref name="eoc">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Einhorn | first = Robin | title = Lager Beer Riot | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 2004 | url = http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/703.html | access-date = 2007-07-04}}</ref> The move was seen as targeting [[Germany|German]] immigrants in particular and so caused a greater sense of community within the group.<ref name=":0" />

==Background==
Chicago's rapid growth in the 1840s and 1850s was largely because of German and Irish Catholic immigrants. Chicago was developing into an attractive opportunity for many immigrants.<ref>Mitrani, Sam. "The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850 - 1894." The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850 - 1894, University of Illinois Press, 2013, p. 14.</ref> Although the jobs that awaited the immigrant were often poor-paying wage based positions, opportunities were often more promising than that of their home country. The immigrants settled in their own neighborhoods, German immigrants congregating mainly on the North Side, across the Chicago River from City Hall and the older Protestant part of the city. The German settlers worked a six-day week, leaving Sunday as their primary day to socialize; much socialization took place in the small taverns that dotted the North Side of Chicago.<ref name="GregSmith"/> German-language newspapers, such as the [[Illinois Staats-Zeitung]] and social movements like the [[Turners]] and German craft unions gave the German population of Chicago a high degree of social and political cohesiveness.<ref>The German-American radical press: the shaping of a left political culture.... By Elliott Shore, Ken Fones-Wolf, James Philip Danky</ref> Additionally, the [[Forty-Eighters]] among them had previously used demonstrations as a political tool during the European revolutions of 1848.

As in much of the rest of the country, nativist distrust of Catholic influence produced a backlash in the form of the "Know-Nothing" movement. In the election of 1854, the [[Temperance Party]] candidate, Amos Throop, lost by a margin of nearly 20% to [[Isaac Lawrence Milliken]].<ref>{{cite web | last = Walker | first = Thomas | title = Chicago Mayor 1854 | work = Our Campaigns | date = 2008-11-04 | url = http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=486033 | access-date = 2012-06-06}}</ref> Nevertheless, after winning the election, Milliken declared himself in favor of temperance as well.<ref>{{cite book | last = Miller | first = Richard Lawrence | title = Lincoln and His World: The Path to the Presidency, 1854-1860 | publisher = McFarland Press | year = 2012 | location = Jefferson, NC | pages = 64 | isbn = 978-0786459292}}</ref> Milliken lost the following year to Levi Boone, the [[Know Nothing|American Party]] candidate. Levi Boone ran on an anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic platform of the Know-Nothing Party, which garnered him enough support to win the election. The Know-Nothing Party nationally had been feeding off the swell of nationalist sentiments brewing in the nation in the 1840s and 1850s.<ref>Levine, Bruce. (2001). Conservatism, Nativism, and Slavery: Thomas R. Whitney and the Origins of the Know-Nothing Party. The Journal of American History. Vol 88, no 2, 455-488.
</ref> In his inauguration speech, Mayor Boone stated, "I cannot be blind to the existence in our midst of a powerful politico-religious organization, all its members owing, and its chief officers bound under an oath of allegiance to the temporal, as well as the spiritual supremacy of a foreign despot."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/history/ct-know-nothing-party-lager-beer-riot-per-flashback-jm-20150925-story.html|title=Chicago's Lager Beer Riot proved immigrants' power|first=Ron|last=Grossman|website=chicagotribune.com|date=25 September 2015 }}</ref> Associated with his fear of foreigners, Boone, a [[Baptists|Baptist]] and [[temperance movement in Illinois|temperance]] advocate, believed that the Sabbath was profaned by having drinking establishments open on Sunday.<ref name="BooneSpeech">[https://www.chipublib.org/mayor-levi-day-boone-inaugural-address-1855/ Inauguration Speech of Levi D. Boone]</ref> However, the temperance movement was seen in the eyes of immigrants as a means of control used by the elites to further control the working class. Although Boone's actions were in anticipation of Illinois enacting a [[Maine law]] by referendum that would prohibit the sale of alcohol for recreational purposes, the referendum failed in June 1855, by a statewide vote of 54% to 46%. The following year, after Boone was turned out of office, the prohibition was repealed.

Before 1853, Chicago had only "a small force of armed municipal officers." The Cook County sheriff's office was largely responsible for policing the city, whose constable system "was modeled on the colonial and English systems."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894|last=Mitrani|first=Sam|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2013|page=16}}</ref>  Lacking any distinction of their own, elected town constables and night watchmen contributed to the protection of the city.<ref name=":1" /> In response to the inadequacy of the constable system, a police department separate and distinct from municipal courts was established in 1853.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894|last=Mitrani|first=Sam|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2013|isbn=9780252038068|pages=19}}</ref> All eighty men who comprised the newly formed Chicago Police department were native born.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Chicago Police Department|last=Flinn|first=John J.|publisher=AMS Press|year=1973|location=New York, NY|pages=70–71}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=June 2019}}

==Events==
Despite the renewed enforcement of Chicago's liquor ordinance, tavern owners continued to sell beer on Sundays. That resulted in over 200 Germans being arrested in violation of both the license and the Sunday ordinances. The numerous arrests led to the scheduling of a test case for the 21st of April. Saloon keepers "decided to unite for defense and resistance, [and] contributed toward a common fund and counsel to represent all."<ref>Flinn, John J. (1973). History of the Chicago Police. AMS Press Inc. p. 74
</ref>

Robin Einhorn argues that the scheduling of such an event, "in effect, scheduled the riot."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/703.html |title= Lager Beer Riot |last= Einhorn |first= Robin |website= Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher= Chicago Historical Society |access-date= 2017-09-23}}</ref> Protesters clashed with [[police]] near the [[Cook County, Illinois|Cook County]] Court House. Waves of angry immigrants stormed the downtown area. "As the marchers, coming from the north with fife and drum, approached the Chicago River at Clark Street,"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/history/ct-know-nothing-party-lager-beer-riot-per-flashback-jm-20150925-story.html | title = Chicago's Lager Beer Riot proved immigrants' power | last = Grossman | first = Ron | date = 25 September 2015 | website = ChicagoTribune.com | publisher = Chicago Tribune | access-date = 26 September 2017 }}</ref> the mayor ordered the [[swing bridges]] opened to stop further waves of protestors from crossing the river. This left some trapped on the bridges, police then fired shots at protesters stuck on the [[Clark Street Bridge]] over the [[Chicago River]].<ref name="GregSmith">{{cite web | last = Smith | first = Gregg | title = The Chicago Beer Riots | publisher = Beer History.com | url = http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/greggsmith5.shtml | access-date = 2007-07-04}}</ref> A policeman named George W. Hunt was shot in the arm by a rioter named Peter Martin. Martin was then killed by police, and Hunt's arm had to be amputated.<ref name="remin">{{cite book | last = Gale | first = Edwin O. | title = Reminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157159 | publisher = Revell | year = 1902 | location = Chicago | pages = [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157159/page/n430 386]}}</ref><ref name="Mark">{{cite book | last = Mark | first = Norman | title = Mayors, Madams and Madmen | url = https://archive.org/details/mayorsmadamsmadm00mark | url-access = registration | publisher = Chicago Review Press | year = 1979 | location = Chicago | pages = [https://archive.org/details/mayorsmadamsmadm00mark/page/41 41]| isbn = 978-0-914090-69-4 }}</ref> Rumors flew throughout the city that more protesters were killed. There is no evidence to support that, but loaded cannons set on the public square contributed to those rumors.<ref name="remin" />

== Outcomes ==
The Lager Beer Riot lead to a compromise in which the city council lowered the liquor license fee from $300 to $100. The council decided not to release those already imprisoned for not paying the $300 fee, but most of those arrested during the riot were released and not charged.<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 24</ref>

The Lager Beer Riot illustrated the risk German immigrants were willing to bear to protect German saloon owners who they perceived as leaders of their community. The mayor's temperance policy thus united German property owners, who could have been a natural ally of the mayor because of their strong interest in order, with working-class German immigrants.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894 (Working Class in American History)|last=Mitrani|first=Sam|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2013|isbn=9780252038068|pages=33}}</ref>

In addition to the economic implications of the riot, there were compelling socio-cultural reasons for German immigrants to protest the newly instated ordinance. Mitrani posits that, "To the German and Irish immigrants, drinking beer on Sundays was an orderly and habitual way to spend their one day off.... Yet on a deeper level, this clash over drinking marked the opening salvo in a struggle over how the new class of wage workers would spend their time."<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 15</ref> The riot over beer represents a larger issue of a nativist approach to control the immigrant working class. Drinking, particularly on Sundays, was considered unacceptable. Closing taverns on Sundays and raising the cost of liquor licenses was a way to enforce what was considered acceptable behavior.

While the new policies were an attempt to control the immigrant class, the events of the riot proved to be a call for a new type of order. Within a week of the riot, a committee was formed and worked with the city government to pass a series of reforms that ultimately resulted in the reorganization of the Chicago Police Department.<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 16</ref>

The lasting effects of such a traumatic event would influence Chicago for decades to come. Tensions continued to increase between those who advocated temperance and those who enjoyed the pastime. According to Sam Mitrani, "the bulk of those arrested [had] working-class occupations...[and] the only arrestees who were not part of or tied to [Chicago's] growing working class were four ministers, eight doctors, and four lawyers."<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* [[List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States]]
* [[Germans in Chicago]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* "[http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/kul/mag/deu/chi/ges/en7201182.htm The Chicago Lager Beer Riots]" ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140504142908/http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/kul/mag/deu/chi/ges/en7201182.htm Archive]). [[Goethe Institute]]. ([http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/kul/mag/deu/chi/ges/de7201182.htm German version], [https://web.archive.org/web/20140504142831/http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/kul/mag/deu/chi/ges/de7201182.htm Archive])

{{Illinois riots}}
{{Riots in the United States (1607–1865)}}

[[Category:1855 in Illinois]]
[[Category:1855 riots]]
[[Category:German-American culture in Chicago]]
[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in Chicago]]
[[Category:Alcohol in the United States]]
[[Category:German-American history]]
[[Category:April 1855]]