Litchfield enquirer., 1876-06-22
OUR sEMl-cENTENNIAL.
i926--t876

Fifty years ago, Tuesday, on the 2Oth of June, 1926. this paper issued it's first number, and it has been published con- tinuously, every week, from that day to this. It started under the name of the Litchfield County Post, and was owned and edited by Mir. s. s. Smith, from whose salutatory we quote the following paragraphs:
 The COUNTY Posr is intended to con tain a correct summary of the proceed iues of our National and State Legisla- lures, occasionally accompanied with such remarks as the subject may seem to re- uuire:-a concise account of pressing events both foreign and domestic, especially those relating to the political concerns of the world:-- notices of the various Relig. ious and benevolent objects of the day, embracing some of the most interesting intelligence from different missionary sta tions; remarks npon current literature of the day:-and all such important infor- nation relative to agriculture, manufac' lures, and the other great interests of the County, as the state of the public mind may reasonably expect, and our own ln- dustry enable us to rnish;-intersper sed with anecdote, and other miscellane. ous readings calculated to amuse the aged and instruct the young. {.
 As to politics. the editor will pursue straitforward independent course,- ,-he will be subservient to no mau or set of men,-and will acknowledge no party, but the great party 'our country" The po- litical storm which so lately swept over our otherwise happy country, and which loI s~k1 ho fooIincv 0f our nature, arraying neighbor against neiRhbor, and brother against brother, end thus destroying that harmony and peace which our religion inculcates, and our laws would maintain, is happily pass ed away.-To endeavor to re-kindle this party strife is dishonest, being in direct violation of the first principles of society, intended only to gratify some selfish, pri- vate end. and therefore deserves the rep- rotation of every we'll wisher to his coun- trv.-And to contend about names mere ly, is puerlle, altogether unworthy of highminded republicans, business for such only as flourish best where political integrity and virtue blushingly retires from the field of noise and strife.
 The COUNTY PosT will be in the strict est and broadest sense of the word entire ly Republican, warmly devoted to our political institutions, and firmly attached to our present general administration; and although it will be the endeavor of the editor to disseminate such intelli- gence as will be calculated to perpetuate these institutions in their purity and vir- tue, he will fearlessly oppose unwarranta- Nble assumptions of power on the one hand and unbridled licentiousness on the oth- CT.
 We know nothing of Mr.. Smith except that there is small note outstanding against him in the hands of one of his successors in the editorial chair on which a good deal of interest must have by this time accumulated, and that he subse- quently became minister. The fact that he was both editor and parson accounts for the undue accumulation of interest on the obligation in question, so fully, that we hope no one will think ill of him or the great enterprise he started because of it. We give below the succession of editors as developed by 8 careful examination oi files, confident that there is not single break in the apostolic line between the present incumbent and the original Smith