The Temperance Society on campus was created as part of the larger nineteenth century temperance movement in the United States, which promoted limiting the consumption of alcohol. Not a long-lasting student organization, but one to which most of the student body belonged during its time, the Temperance Society was in existence on the Washington Campus at least by 1835, but was gone soon thereafter. In 1884, the Tablet reported that the College was asked in a speech by the Secretary of the [Episcopal] Church Temperance Society to consider a campus branch association to work in conjunction with the town association. Students were polled for their opinions on the matter and the Secretary's request was met with a report stating, “as there was nothing for an organization of that kind to do in college, it would not be advisable to form one.”

The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 57.

Trinity Tablet, 03/08/1884.

Catalogue of Washington College (Officers and Students, Course of Study), 1834-1835.