USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I > Part 9
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CHAPTER VII CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS
T HE transference of the church headship in Eng- land from the Pope to the Sovereign under Henry VIII., the reversal by Queen Mary, and the final victory by the "Act of Suprem- acy" under Elizabeth, are universally known. It is equally familiar that Elizabeth, like her father, was as strongly opposed to every worshiper being his own Pope or settling his own ritual as to their accepting the Roman. Like Laud afterward, she could not believe there could be civil or- der "if conformity stopped at the church door"; and by the "Act of Conformity" all worship was to be conducted accord- ing to state forms and in parish churches only. The adoption of the "Articles of Religion" in 1562 completed the estab- lishment by law of the Church of England.
From this date we can trace the beginnings of that body, to become known as Separatists, which protested against the errors the Reformation in England had failed to remove, and which was opposed to the assumption of any power other than Christ as the head of the Church; they insisted upon worshipping God as their conscience might dictate and in conformity with their interpretation of His holy word. This sect at that period was undivided on the subject of baptism, and other questions that afterwards gave rise to various creeds. To the Separatists the Church was a spir- itual association, and therefore distinct from the world and its rulers, and in government followed the laws of Christ as chronicled in the New Testament. They claimed the right to form their own churches, to regulate their own affairs, and to choose their own ministers. These avowals of principles created enemies in the clergy of the established church, and also gave offense to those temporal rulers whose spiritual au- thority they ignored; this necessitated the holding of their
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meetings in secret, and subjected them to endless persecu- tions.
At this period the Separatists and the Roman Catholics were the only objectors to the Church established by law in England; but there were opponents to its ritual and its gov- ernment even within its own fold. This internal party of dis- senters were English reformers called Puritans, who returned to their native country after having been driven into exile by the persecutions of Mary and her Roman Catholic advisers. The Puritans were dissatisfied that the principles of the Ref- ormation had not been carried out in the constitution of the Church of England; although the majority quickly accept- ed the change from Catholicism, and hoped for further re- forms that were never instituted.
Thus the foundation of the Church of England created two other entirely distinct religious parties; the Puritans within the established church seeking its purification, and the Separatists or Pilgrims without its fold acknowledging only the supreme authority of God. This distinction is important: the Pilgrim contended for freedom of conscience and the dis- solution of Church and State; while on the other hand, the Puritans wished to change certain customs of the Established Church, which they considered should be directly under the control of their temporal rulers. The disciples of these two sects of the same nationality, to avoid persecutions and to find an asylum where they could worship God as their con- science dictated, were to become pioneers of a new country, and to lay the foundation of a civil constitution, the fun- damental principles of which were to be accepted as the gov- erning powers of a nation. None of these sweeping results were in their minds, however; they merely intended to create English municipalities of their desired type, where they could
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work out their system free from interference. This fact is answer enough to the dreary conventional fling that they claimed liberty and denied it to others; it would be as sensi- ble to blame a club for blackballing members whose avowed intention was to turn the older members out of doors. If people of different beliefs from theirs wished to live on this continent, and to have the sort of towns they preferred, let them settle and build where they would; surely there was room enough there any time in the seventeenth century. The men who came to the Puritan towns for no purpose but to break up a system contrary to that of the old country were not pioneers of liberty, but apostles of tyranny, actuated- on a milder scale-by precisely the same motives which led Louis XV. to refuse the Huguenots permission to emigrate to America ; and if the Quaker invasion must be classed differ- ently, it is difficult to class it much more favorably. To take advantage of the first emigrants' sacrifices and blood, come into the comfort and shelter of their foundations, and claim the right to destroy all that had made it worth while to erect them, the founders felt to be an outrage; and the very ag- nostic may find means of sympathizing with them. We are giving their view simply; there is another clamorously in evi- dence, but the first is by no means out of court. To say that the Puritans' claim was untenable is far from saying that it was either unnatural or unrighteous. Communities cannot, it is true, maintain themselves as private or sectarian clubs ; dwellers drawn in by trade or industry or otherwise have a right to use their influence in all legal ways to modify institu- tions they dislike. But this is different from a purposed im- migration to overthrow them; and the older members have at least the same right of resistance as the new ones of at- tack.
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The English emigrants, on their arrival in the infant set- tlements of New England, took an oath of allegiance by which they bound themselves not to leave the country if by so doing they weakened the resources of the colony. When the early settlers of the Connecticut Valley wished to remove to their new location, therefore, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the General Court of Massachusetts; and their request was granted only on the condition that they remain under the jurisdiction of that colony. There was no very des- perate tyranny in this, for the first few years of a small settle- ment on the edge of a wilderness of savagery. The Connec- ticut settlement was beyond the limits of the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which granted it a commission, investing for the term of one year certain individuals with judicial authority to administer corporal punishment, and im- prisonment for offences committed against the public good.
Thus were the political privileges of the first Connecti- cut settlers derived from Massachusetts, which government exacted a direct oath of allegiance to the Crown; but of course all rights were understood as subrogated to those of the Crown. These measures created among the settlers of Connecticut a desire to exercise similar political power; al- though their own experiences generated a much larger free- dom for the individual. They soon renounced their al- legiance to the Massachusetts Bay Colony; and forming an organization, the settlers established a government absolutely exempt from outside control. It is the first instance in Amer- ican history of the formation of a constitutional government on a purely independent basis.
The first General Court of the River Plantations was held April 26, 1636, at Newtown (soon after named Hartford) ; though no business of importance was transacted except a
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cautionary resolution forbidding the inhabitants to sell arms and ammunition to the Indians. At a second meeting in No- vember of the same year, Agawam was represented; that plantation being so far from the Massachusetts seat of gov- ernment that she was instructed to unite in joint commis- sion with the Connecticut plantations. The last General Court under the Massachusetts commission was held on Feb. 21, 1637, when the famous resolution was passed dep- recating the action of Massachusetts in ordering Endicott's expedition against the Pequots, and asking her for assistance to subdue the evils arising from this ill-advised campaign. The boundaries of the plantations were established and the present names of the towns adopted. Previous to this time, Hartford was known as Newtown, Windsor as Dorchester, and Wethersfield as Watertown.
The Massachusetts commission had provided that all free- men, in transplanting themselves to Connecticut, were to be considered an integral part of that town from which they emigrated, and in which they were to retain all the cor- poration rights granted them under the acts of the Massachu- setts General Court. The settlers had carried on separate town governments and exercised corporate powers ; although at the termination of the Massachusetts commission which was the first organic law of Connecticut, the mother towns still retained their prerogative rights.
Representatives to the first independent assembly held in Connecticut were elected under the Massachusetts statutes, for the reason that there was no Connecticut law authorizing the election. This was the special session held at Hartford, May 1, 1637, at which positive action was taken to prose- cute the Pequot War, and levy the necessary troops; and the promptness displayed is ample evidence of the independent
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spirit of its governing body, acting on no higher authority. That the yoke of Massachusetts had been completely thrown off, can have no better illustration than in comparing the resolutions passed by the last General Court operating under her commission, asking for assistance to prosecute the war, and the spirit evinced by the new body, in declaring war and making independent arrangements to carry it to a successful issue. Thus Connecticut in her infancy, a republic of but three hundred souls, displayed the traits of her maturity.
By the decree of the General Court, Agawam was obliged to furnish a quota of seven men for the Pequot war and pay her portion of the expenses; but there is no official record that she ever performed either of these obligations. Among the causes showing the necessity for a firmer union between the plantations was the defection of Agawam, which ad- dressed a petition to the Massachusetts Bay Colony asking permission to come under its jurisdiction. The settlers of the river towns realized that a constitution should be adopted to prevent secession from their number, and to bring their sep- arate governments under one independent confederation with an executive head.
At the General Court held April 5, 1638, eleven articles, known as the "Fundamental Orders," were adopted. Of the six magistrates forming a part of this Court, Hartford sent John Haynes and Thomas Welles; Windsor, Roger Ludlow and William Phelps; Wethersfield, John Plum and Matthew Mitchell. Of the eleven committeemen, George Hull, Cap- tain John Mason, Thomas Ford, and Thomas Marshall, were from Windsor; John Webster, John Talcott, John Steele, and Edward Hopkins, from Hartford; Andrew Ward, Thurston Raynor, and George Hubbard from Weth- ersfield. This was the first written constitution to be promul-
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gated in America, but there is no evidence that it was ever adopted by a direct vote of the people.
With a forecasting statesmanship excessively rare at the time, and the more remarkable among a people dominated by religious sentiment and headed by a clergyman, State and Church were severed; each was to exercise its own mission, and with it the fundamental power emanating directly from the people. The striking features of this remarkable docu- ment were, that there should be no taxation without repre- sentation ; that towns should be recognized as primary centers of government, though they relinquished part of their power to the General Court, as a guarantee for the future preserva- tion of the rest. The only supreme power mentioned is the Commonwealth, the existence of the King being totally ig- nored by the law-makers of Connecticut. Such was the oldest of American constitutions; it was to be the guide in the for- mation of those of her sister States, as well as a foundation for the system of representation, of the American Republic. To whose fertile brain, ready pen, and legal ability must we credit the production of this instrument, which has but lately received its full due ? In that assemblage of seventeen men, there was but one equipped by nature and education to per- form this task.
Roger Ludlow was an English lawyer of excellent family, kin to the democrat and regicide Edmund Ludlow. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he was made an Assistant, and re- tained the office four years. But he was not democratic in his personal sentiments : he bitterly opposed transferring the election of governor from the magistrates to the freemen, and declared that in that case "we should have no government" -which reminds one strikingly of the Duke of Wellington's question "how the King's government was to be carried on"
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if the Reform Bill were passed. Still, others thought and said the same thing, and the freemen were used to this sentiment. Ludlow's abilities were respected, and he was made deputy-governor in 1635. He hoped to be governor the next year; but John Haynes was preferred to him. He was incensed at the evidences of a "slate" having been pre- pared, and with his usual uncalculating hot temper, de- nounced the election as void. The freemen punished this outbreak by dropping him from the magistracy; but the Gen- eral Court tried to soothe him by appointing him one of its military committee, practically the military dictators of the colony-a position of honor. He was out of temper, how- ever, removed to Windsor the same year-doubtless for high- er position,-and was the first lawyer of the river towns. His name heads the roll of the five who held the first court of Connecticut, before it had a constitution of its own, and he may be called the first acting governor. At the first elec- tion held under the "Fundamental Orders," he was elected deputy-governor; but his former opponent Haynes had fol- lowed the colony from Massachusetts, had been eagerly wel- comed and his name placed above Ludlow's on the roll of magistrates, and he was chosen governor. If Ludlow was disappointed, as is probable enough, he had learned discre- tion, and made no sign. He remained in Connecticut, and did it a service of the first value when in 1646 he prepared a digest or codification of her crude laws, which was re- corded in each town. As a result of later events, probably feeling fretted by the parish politics of the little colony, and glad to return to the main stream of events, he left Connecti- cut and passed his latter years in Holyhead, Wales; though there is a tradition that he returned to Virginia to take charge of his brother's property as trustee.
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We append a copy of the constitution under which Connec- ticut was governed for nearly two hundred years.
THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF CONNECTICUT.
THE "FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS"; 1638-9.
Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence so to order and dis- pose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Conectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to main- tain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Common- wealth; and do for ourselves and our Successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Com- bination and Confederation together, to maintain and pre- serve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now prac- ticed amongst us; as also in our Civil Affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders, and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed, as fol- loweth :-
1. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the one the sec- ond Thursday in April, the other the second Thursday in
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September following; the first shall be called the Court of Election, wherein shall be yearly chosen from time to time so many Magistrates and other public Officers as shall be found requisite : Whereof one to be chosen Governor for the year ensuing and until another be chosen, and no other Mag- istrate to be chosen for more than one year; provided always, there be six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have power to administer justice according to the Laws here established, and for want thereof, according to the rule of the Word of God; which choice shall be made by all that are admitted freemen and have taken the Oath of Fidelity, and do cohabit within this Jurisdiction (having been admit- ted Inhabitants by the major part of the Town wherein they live) * or the major part of such as shall be then present.
2. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Election of the aforesaid Magistrates shall be on this manner : every person present and qualified for choice shall bring in (to the persons deputed to receive them) one single paper with the name of him written in it whom he desires to have Governor, and he that hath the greatest number of papers shall be Gov- ernor for that year. And the rest of the Magistrates or pub- lic Officers to be chosen in this manner : the Secretary for the time being shall first read the names of all that are to be put to choice and then shall severally nominate them distinctly, and every one that would have the person nominated to be chosen shall bring in one single paper written upon, and he that would not have him chosen shall bring in a blank: and every one that hath more written papers than blanks shall be a Magistrate for that year; which papers shall be received
* This clause was interlined in a different handwriting, and is of a later date. It was adopted by the General Court of November, 1643.
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and told by one or more that shall be then chosen by the court and sworn to be faithful therein; but in case there should not be six chosen as aforesaid, besides the Governor, out of those which are nominated, then he or they which have the most written papers shall be a Magistrate or Magistrates for the ensuing year, to make up the aforesaid number.
3. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Secre- tary shall not nominate any person, nor shall any person be chosen newly into the Magistracy, which was not propound- ed in some General Court before, to be nominated the next Election ; and to that end it shall be lawful for each of the Towns aforesaid by their deputies to nominate any two whom they conceive fit to be put to election ; and the Court may add so many more as they judge requisite.
4. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that no person be chosen Governor above once in two years, and that the Governor be always a member of some approved congrega- tion, and formerly of the Magistracy within this Jurisdiction ; and all the Magistrates, Freemen of this Commonwealth : and that no Magistrate or other public officer shall execute any part of his or their office before they are severally sworn, which shall be done in the face of the court if they be present, and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose.
5. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that to the afore- said Court of Election the several Towns shall send their deputies, and when the Elections are ended they may pro- ceed in any public service as at other Courts. Also the other General Court in September shall be for making of laws, and any other public occasion, which concerns the good of the Commonwealth.
6. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Gover- nor shall, either by himself or by the secretary, send out sum-
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mons to the constables of every Town for the calling of these two standing Courts, one month at least before their several times : And also if the Governor and the greatest part of the Magistrates see cause upon any special occasion to call a General Court, they may give order to the Secretary so to do within fourteen days' warning : and if urgent necessity so require, upon a shorter notice, giving sufficient grounds for it to the deputies when they meet, or else be questioned for the same; and if the Governor and major part of Magistrates shall either neglect or refuse to call the two General standing Courts or either of them, as also at other times when the occasions of the Commonwealth require, the Freemen there- of, or the major part of them, shall petition to them so to do; if then it be either denied or neglected, the said Freemen, or the major part of them, shall have power to give order to the Constables of the several Towns to do the same, and so may meet together, and choose to themselves a Moderator, and may proceed to do any act of power which any other General Court may.
7. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that after there are warrants given out for any of the said General Courts, the Constable or Constables of each Town shall forthwith give notice distinctly to the inhabitants of the same, in some public assembly or by going or sending from house to house, that at a place and time by him or them limited and set, they meet and assemble themselves together to elect and choose certain deputies to be at the General Court then following to agitate the affairs of the Commonwealth; which said depu- ties shall be chosen by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the several Towns and have taken the oath of fidelity; provided that none be chosen a Deputy for any General Court which is not a Freeman of this Commonwealth.
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The aforesaid deputies shall be chosen in manner follow- ing : every person that is present and qualified as before ex- pressed, shall bring the names of such, written in several pa- pers, as they desire to have chosen for that employment, and these three or four, more or less, being the number agreed on to be chosen for that time, that have greatest number of papers written for them shall be deputies for that Court ; whose names shall be endorsed on the back side of the war- rant and returned into the Court, with the constable or con- stables' hand unto the same.
8. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield shall have power, each Town, to send four of their Freemen as their deputies to every General Court ; and whatsoever other Towns shall be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall send so many deputies as the Court shall judge meet, a reasonable proportion to the num- ber of Freemen that are in the said Towns being to be at- tended therein; which deputies shall have the power of the whole Town to give their votes and allowance to all such laws and orders as may be for the public good, and unto which the said towns are to be bound.
9. It is Ordered and decreed, that the deputies thus chosen shall have power and liberty to appoint a time and a place of meeting together before any General Court, to advise and consult of all such things as may concern the good of the pub- lic, as also to examine their own Elections, whether accord- ing to the order, and if they or the greatest part of them find any election to be illegal they may seclude such for pres- ent from their meeting, and return the same and their rea- sons to the Court; and if it prove true, the Court may fine the party or parties so intruding, and the Town, if they see cause, and give out a warrant to go to a new election in a
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legal way, either in part or in whole. Also the said deputies shall have power to fine any that shall be disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due time or place according to appointment; and they may return the said fines into the Court if it be refused to be paid, and the Treasurer to take notice of it, and to eshceat or levy the same as he doth other fines.
IO. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that every Gen- eral Court, except such as through neglect of the Governor and the greatest part of Magistrates the Freemen themselves do call, shall consist of the Governor, or some one chosen to moderate the Court, and four other Magistrates at least, with the major part of the deputies of the several Towns legally chosen; and in case the Freemen, or major part of them, through neglect or refusal of the Governor and major part of the magistrates, shall call a Court, it shall consist of the major part of Freeman that are present or their deputies, with a Moderator chosen by them: In which said General Courts shall consist the supreme power of the Common- wealth, and they only shall have power to make laws or re- peal them to grant levies, to admit of Freemen, dispose of lands undisposed of, to several Towns or persons, and also shall have power to call either court or Magistrate or any other person whatsoever into question for any misdemeanor, and may for just causes displace or deal otherwise according to the nature of the offence; and also may deal in any other matter that concerns the good of this Commonwealth, except election of Magistrates, which shall be done by the whole body of Freemen.
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