FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. THE First Annual meeting of the Connecticut Temperance Society was held at New-Haven, in the Vestry of the North Church, May 19, 1830, at 3 o'clock, P. M. The following persons were chosen officers, for the year ensuing. PRESIDENT. Rev. JEREMIAH DAY, D. D. LL. D.. VICE PRESIDENTS. Rev. T. C. BROWNELL, D. D. LL. D. NEHEMIAH HUBBARD, Esq. Gen. STEPHEN F. PALMER, ELISHA STEARNS, Esq. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Rev. CALVIN CHAPIN, D. D. Rev. Prof. C. A. GOODRICH, SETH TERRY, Esq. Rev. SAMUEL MERWIN, Rev. JOEL H. LINDSLEY, SAMUEL J. HITCHCOCK, Esq. SECRETARY. Rev. JOHN MARSH. TREASURER. FRANCIS PARSONS, Esq. Voted, That Daniel Frost, Jr. Esq. be employed as an Agent for the Society for one year in the State. A public meeting was held in the Centre Church, in the evening.The meeting was opened with prayer by the President. The report of the Executive Committee was read by the Secretary. It was moved by the Hon. Timothy Pitkin, of Farmington, and seconded by Daniel Frost, Esq. of Canterbury, That the Report of the Executive Committee be accepted and printed. M101800 The Rev. Leonard Bacon of New-Haven, introduced the following resolution, which was seconded by R. M. Sherman, Esq. of Fairfield. Whereas, It has become evident that the moderate use of intoxicating liquors is the real and unfailing cause of that immoderate use which is the occasion of almost all the pauperism, the flagrant crimes, and premature deaths in the land; and which threatens to destroy our morals and our liberties Resolved, That it is incumbent upon all men who love their country, and love their race, to put a stop to the overflowing scourge, by an universal and entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks. The Hon. David Daggett of New-Haven, next introduced the following resolution, which was seconded by the Rev. J. Marsh, of Haddam : Resolved, That this Society contemplate with lively gratitude to Almighty God, the unparalleled success with which the efforts in behalf of Temperance have been blessed; and they exhort all the associations and individuals who have engaged in the work of reform, to still more strenuous exertions, that our country and the world may be delivered from one of the most desolating evils. Able and interesting addresses were made to a crowded and attentive auditory by Messrs. Pitkin, Frost, Sherman and Daggett. REPORT OF THE TREASURER. Connecticut Temperance Society, in account with F. Parsons, Treasurer, CR. 1829. May 20. By amount of contribution at first meeting, $18 58 Oct. 1. Donation of Seth Terry, Esq. 5 00 $23 58 Respectfully submitted, FRANCIS PARSONS, Treasurer. Hartford, May 12, 1830. REPORT: ALIFORNIA IN presenting their first Annual Report, the Executive Committee of the Connecticut Temperance Society would recognize, with fively gratitude, the divine hand in that work of reform, which has already sent happiness into the hearts of thousands, and which bids fair to deliver our country and the world from the most desolating evils. The Connecticut Temperance Society did not commence its operations until the community had been, in some good degree, awakened from their delusions. The American Temperance Society had been in existence two years; and by presenting to view, the disgusting statistics of Intemperance, and pointing to the yawning gulph into which our nation was plunging, bad excited extensively a spirit of anxiety and alarm in the considerate, humane, and patriotic. Bringing forward, at the same time, the only infallible antidote, entire abstinence from spirituous liquor as a drink for refreshment, or an auxiliary in labor, it had already raised up an army of many thousands, who had given their pledge for an exterminating war with Intemperance. Six State Societies also had been formed, auxiliary to the American Society, when the citizens of Connecticut set up their banner. Though far famed as the land of steady habits; though our Churches and Colleges and Schools shew to the traveller, that we are an enlightened and religious people; yet, in common with the rest of the nation, we were allured by the deceitful cup; and our distilleries and dram-shops were fast outstripping, in numbers and influence, all the establishments of religion and learning. Your Committee have endeavored to take a retrospective view, and to ascertain what was the actual condition of Connecticut, when the Temperance reformation commenced. They had no other means of finding the quantity of distilled spirit that was drank in the State, but to ascertain the quantity drank in particular towns, and apportion it among the whole population. In one of the most moral and regular towns in Litchfield County, whose population is 1586, they learnt that the amount of distilled spirits retailed, during the last ten years, had been 36,400 gallons. Allowing this to be the quantity actually consumed there, and it probably was, as it is not a market town, but a secluded agricultural region, the consumption was 3,640 gallons a year, and two and one-third gallons to each man, woman, and child. In a secluded distries in another town in the same County, devoted to iron furnaces, there were consumed, in 1828, by thirty-four families, 1,000 gallons, or twenty-nine gallons to each family. If each family consisted of six persons, the consumption was near five gallons to each individual. In a town in Middlesex County, containing 4,156 inhabitants, there were retailed, in 1825, 19,250 gallons, which, if consumed there, would be also near five gallons to each person. A gentleman of much research and accuracy, has informed your Committee, that about 178,000 gallons have been retailed annually, by licensed retailers, in the County of Hartford, exclusive of the city, to a population of 41,303, which would be four and one-quarter gallons to each man, woman, and child. But as many of that population obtain their supplies in the city and at the distilleries, the consumption must have been considerably more. From these and other facts which have come to their knowledge, your Committee have reason to believe, that the general calculation of four and a half gallons to each individual in the United States, will hold true of Connecticut; consequently, that her population of 275,248 consumed annually 1,238,616 gallons; which, at 62 1-2 cents a gallon, would be $782,894 95-a sum more than sufficient to sustain our civil rulers and religious teachers. and a tax paid nearly in proportion to the poverty of the inhabitants. In the State, there were one or two rum distilleries, about ten large gin and whiskey distilleries, and a great number of small gin and cider distilleries. These were chiefly in Hartford County. Their number there was not far from 300. The quantity of liquor distilled in that County, was estimated at 300,000 gallons a year. In some towns, gin and brandy formed the staple. In 1827, there were in the State, 1,026 licensed retailers, and about 400 taverners. Allowing 350 distillers, and supposing there were in the State, 45,000 families, every twenty-fifth family in Connecticut was engaged in furnishing the intoxicating cup to the rest of the population. Of the effects of this flood of intoxicating liquor, drank in the State, your Committee can present no adequate report. Just reports may be made of dollars and cents, but not of human suffering, crime, and pollution. If, as has been calculated, one out of every forty in the most temperate portions of New-England, was a confirmed drunkard, Connecticut, allowing her to be that portion, had 6,881 ruined individuals, carrying sorrow, wounds, and babblings into as many families, and inflicting anguish upon the hearts of at least 30,000 relatives. But the evil was probably greater. In nine parishes or school societies in Hartford County, there have been recently found, upon investigation, 594 drunkards. This would give 2,005 for the County, or one to every 24 of the population. Further, -On the most favorable calculation, if one out of every ten inebriates die annually, 688 here fell, year after year, on this small spot of earth, into the grave of the drunkard. And another wretched portion of our fellow-citizens, little better than dead, have been reported to your Committee, by high Medical authority, as destroyed by ardent spirits. These are, one third of all our maniacs. Hundreds of individuals it had reduced, in this land of plenty, to the most abject poverty. A physician, who explored the County of Middlesex, to ascertain the connexion between ardent spirits and extreme pauperism, reported to your Committee, that of 172 town paupers, in that County, 114 were reduced to beggary, and cast upon the charity of the public by their own intemperance, or the intemperance of their friends. Of 33 debtors confined in Litchfield jail, in one year, 17, it is reported, were confirmed drunkards, eight occasional drunkards, and only seven temperate men. A communication from a town in Hartford County states, "No single instance of abject poverty, here, unless connected with Intemperance." Another, from another County says, "17 out of 19 of our paupers were reduced by Intemperance. Their support costs us 677 dollars a year. Of 80 dollars abated last year, 50 were on the polls and estates of the intemperate." Another, "Not an instance of real pauperism and distress from poverty among us, but what proceeded from Intemperance. Were it not for this vice, we should scarce need a poor house." It occasioned, also, most of the flagrant crimes committed in the State. In reply to an inquiry made by your Committee, of Capt. Pillsbury, the late excellent Warden of our State-Prison, how many of his 167 prisoners were led to the commission of crime by ardent spirits, he writes, "I have been almost ready to say, the whole, without an exception; and they will generally admit this to be the case. And I do verily believe, that more than three-fourths were acknowledged by the world to be intemperate." He also adds, "Some have acknowledged to me, with tears, that they had never felt the temptation so strong as to be induced to commit crime, (thus punishable,) except when under the influence of liquor." For the prosecution of offenders, whose crimes could be traced to Intemperance, the able report on an Asylum for the Intemperate, says, the State has paid 20,000 dollars yearly, and the towns, unquestionably, 10,000 more. For the support of her paupers reduced by Intemperance, the State has paid, annually, from 5 to 10,000 dollars, and the towns not far from 30,000. The sum of 5,666 dollars has also been paid in a year in the State, for the maintenance of insane persons, whose insanity has been occasioned by strong drink. Thus Connecticut has been called by tax or by public institutions, to pay not less than 70,000 dollars a year for the relief of misfortunes and the suppression of crimes occasioned by ardent spirits, nearly as much as we raise each year from the school fund, so deservedly the pride and glory of the State. Besides these appalling results, your Committee have been assured by the medical faculty, that a vast many cases of premature death have been occasioned, without drunkenness, by ardent spirits; 19 in a year, |