The second great reform which emanated from this town and church, the schools established here, and the pure air of freedom which we breathe, was the doom of slavery, which was sounded when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” John Brown was born just over the line in Torrington in 1800,――no great distance from the Beecher Homestead. A man with a modern rifle, standing on the Grant farm, could have hit either the Beecher Homestead or the John Brown birthplace. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: “All through the conflict up and down, Marched Uncle Tom and old John Brown, One ghost, one form ideal; And which was false and which was true, And which was mightier of the two, The wisest sibyl never knew, For both alike were real.” The crowning victory of our Civil War will ever link the shores of the Appomattox with the Hills of Litchfield,――and to make the chain stronger, General Grant, though not born here, was descended from a family that for many years lived in and took a great interest in the affairs of this town. Fortunately for me, the history of the Litchfield Law School has been brought before you by a man we all honor and who did ample justice to the subject, but, as a loyal son of Litchfield and a lawyer, I am proud of the fact and wish no one to forget that here was established and carried on for many years not only the first law school in the English-speaking world, but one that has for all time impressed its methods on the legal profession. It is true that at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities law lectures were delivered before the establishment of the Litchfield Law School, but merely as a part of the polite education of a scholar. There was little attempt to teach the eternal principles of the law or their practical application. The influence of the Litchfield Law School was felt throughout the world, but of course most of all in our own country. Here the scholars both attended lectures and recited the lessons they had learned. This it was that distinguishes it as the first Law School, a school where lessons were taught. That Law School, Miss Pierce’s School, and the Morris Academy did much to educate our people. The late Chief Justice Seymour once said that when he entered Congress――as late as 1850――he was met and welcomed by over thirty members of the House, who had graduated at the Litchfield Law School or had married women who had graduated at Miss Pierce’s School. The Morris Academy, under the direction of Captain James Morris, a soldier who distinguished himself at the capture of Cornwallis, also added materially to the education, interest and influence of the community. Naturally all the ecclesiastical and religious sentiment of the community centered around the First Ecclesiastical Society, the Congregational Church, but as the inhabitants increased other churches were formed.