Lyman Beecher was an influential clergyman and Presbyterian minister who held very strong opinions. When he attended Yale, he was influenced by college’s president, Timothy Dwight, a congregationalist minister, who believed Americans should not stray from their traditional Puritan roots and that the fabric of society was threatened by enlightenment radicalism and Deists. Beecher adopted many of Dwight’s ideas and they shaped his philosophy that one should pursue a highly religious life and gody social order.
When Beecher first became a minister in 1799 he he established a reputation as a moral reformer. He was strongly against “intemperance”, or excessive drinking, which sometimes occurred during formal clergy meetings and saw it as a major