Following the usual custom of our Puritan forefathers, the original proprietors here built a church and then a school house. From those two sources,――that church and that school――it is not claiming too much to say there emanated two of the greatest reforms the world has ever known. The temperance movement, which has culminated in the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and which has now been declared by the Supreme Court at Washington a binding feature throughout the length and breadth of our land, seems to have been initiated here. It has been stated that the very first Temperance Society in the world originated in an organization in Litchfield by an association of our citizens in May, 1789, and a quite thorough examination of the subject would seem to verify the truth of this statement. There certainly was a noble collection of gentlemen here at that time who did all they could to push forward the temperance reform. The splendid results did not fully appear until the settlement of Dr. Lyman Beecher who――though his attack in the first instance was from a different angle, and directed toward the clergymen themselves――did perhaps for that very reason the most effective work. Dr. Beecher’s attention was first called to the temperance question through his attendance on the Convocation of Ministers at the adjoining towns of Plymouth and Sharon. He was shocked both at the amount of liquor consumed and its effect on the ministers themselves. It was his fervent zeal, his sermons and advocacy of the cause that resulted in the abolition of liquor in ministerial circles, and called the attention of good citizens the world over to the evils of intemperance. The Massachusetts Temperance Society, one of the best conducted and strongest in the country, is said to have been the direct result of this Litchfield movement, having been incorporated just a year after Dr. Beecher’s philippic. Among the many lessons of the late war, none have impressed the people more than that in a certain sense we are our brother’s keeper,――that rum and thrift do not travel together――that “Dutch” courage cannot compare with moral courage. Think of this, my fellow-citizens! Within the records of yonder Court House there is a receipt showing that my own grandfather――when High Sheriff of this county――purchased with the money of the State seven gallons of rum for the refreshment of five of the highest judicial officers of the State during five days’ session of the Court of Errors! More than a quart per judge per day! Is it to be wondered at that some of their opinions at times seemed muddled?