“There was a movement of life into this part of Connecticut, the meaning and result of which will be brought before you by those who have studied it in its details, and can describe it with local color. Without repeating or anticipating their words, I may venture to ask you to think of the difference which a little more than seventy years had made in the motives that swayed men’s minds, and the impressions that were made on them by the new lands which they occupied. One thinks of the stern resolve, both political and ecclesiastical, which sent Hooker and his company on their long walk through the wilderness till they came to the river and crossed it into a strange land, with a determination like that of the father of the faithful when he crossed the great river of the eastern world; and then one questions whether they admired the beauty of the meadows, and one feels sure that when they climbed the hills and looked down into the more beautiful valley of the Tunxis, they were drawn by it to travel still further west. One follows in mind the military instinct which saw the importance of the control of the Connecticut River, and built a fort at its mouth, and levied dues on traffic and transportation, and laid out streets for the houses of people of quality who were expected to come to dwell there. And one thinks of the surprises which befell those who sailed slowly along the shore of the Sound, looking into inlet and bay, and finding at the Fair Haven a place where they might build a city after the pattern of the heavenly Jerusalem, and in it dwell and get gain.