USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 7
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
her eyes were closed in death-I can not blame her that she was not endowed with a prophetic vision ; nor did the Puritans, whom she subjected to the rigors of a legislation for which she was to a degree responsible, though they complained of her severity, ever speak of her in terms of disrespect. She took counsel of the most profound scholars and revered pre- lates, as well as of that circle of glorious statesmen and phi- losophers that have made her name and era forever illustri- ous. Doubtless, she felt an honest solicitude to place the church upon its original basis, and doubtless many of her advisers offered up earnest prayers that they might be led in the right way. She, and those who acted under her, did much for Christianity and the Protestant faith-more than had been effected under any monarch who had gone before her. She believed that the church and state were united in holy bonds. Had she contented herself with suppressing factions ; could she have distinguished between those who hated and those who sought to reform the abuses of the established church-abuses not inherent in the church, but resulting from its alliance with the state, that have since been ' gradually acknowledged and reformed-she might have saved herself many cares, and her people many deep wrongs.
Conformity, even in points that had long been carefully evaded, a most rigid, punctilious conformity, was required .* Many of the most learned of the clergy, f alarmed at the dis- regard paid to the rights of individual conscience, fled in dis- may from their places, to avoid the most severe penalties. Some flew to foreign lands ; others took refuge in the forests and caverns, where it was a crime not only for them to preach, but for the people to listen. In 1583, a Court of High Commission was established, to search out and suppress non- conformities, clothed with powers the most revolting to the spirit of men brought up under the philosophic rule of the common law of England, pronounced by Lord Coke to be the " perfection of human reason." Under this anomaly, so foreign to the British constitution that Burleigh did not
* Neal's Puritans, i. 396.
+ Hallam's England, i. 270.
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scruple to liken it to the Spanish inquisition,* such outrages were practiced as would scarcely be credible, did not the blood of its victims cry out to us from the ground. Two men were hanged for distributing Brown's tract on the right of a free pulpit.t Ten years after that, Barrow and Green- wood were hanged at Tyburn for non-conformity. ¿ These violent coercive measures quickened the growth of Puritan- ism. At first comprising but a handful of obscure men, in a few years it numbered many thousands, and not a few names that have since made the world echo with their renown.
The union of England and Scotland, under James I., was hailed by the Puritans as the harbinger of religious liberty. But the king soon took more decided grounds against them than his predecessor had done. The number of clergymen who were "silenced, imprisoned, or exiled," in a single year, has been estimated as high as three hundred.|| Mad with the doctrine that attributed to kings a divine right, impatient of all opposition, this weak monarch evinced his hatred toward this now large and respectable portion of his subjects, by acts of severity, and language unworthy of a king.§ It is idle to attempt to deny these facts, authenticated as they are by vast treasuries of English record evidence. No less idle is it to reiterate the charge, equally false, that Episcopacy is wholly responsible for them. When will a day at last dawn upon us, of a light pure enough to dispel the mists of prejudice and bigotry that hang over the history of civil and religious lib- erty in England ? The puritans were the progressive party. They were impatient of the old order of things, just as the members of the established church under Elizabeth had them- selves a few years before been opposed to the order of things then existing. Both these parties were in their turn perse- cuted. Each in its turn was denominated radical and incen-
* Hallam's England, i. 271-273; Strype's Whitgift, 157.
+ Strype's Annals, iii. 186 ; Fuller's Church History, b. ix. 169.
# Strype's Whitgift, 414; Neal's Puritans, i. 526, 527.
I Calderwood, Neal, &c.
§ Barlow's Sum and Substance of the Conf. at Hampden Court, 83.
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diary ; and each persecution, though inflamed by religious zeal, was essentially political. The English mind, as a whole, was not then prepared for entire freedom of conscience. Those who were in power were timid and solicitous. They deemed every step taken by the popular party as an en- croachment upon their own limits, that they were called upon to check, or allow themselves ultimately to be sup- planted. It was a struggle between conservatism, fortifying and defending herself, and progress, advancing to drive her from her position. The outrages committed against the puri- tans in the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I., on the one hand, and the shocking vindication of them on the other, by the iron-handed protector-a vindication revolting, as well from the blood that stained its grim features, as from the insults so shamelessly offered to the most ancient monu- ments of British glory, and the destruction of the most sacred temples and shrines-evince alike the wild fermentation out of which civil and religious liberty were at last to come. Both these parties, when dominant, were overbearing and cruel ; when in the minority, were sadly oppressed. Each was partly right and partly wrong; and those writers furnish but a poor commentary upon human progress, and wretched evidence of that freedom of conscience which is the boast of our age, who at this day can find in any party of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries an expression of their ideal, either of loveliness or perfection.
The puritans then were driven to the alternative of giving up their own mode of worship, and taking oaths that were repugnant to their views of right; they must renounce all political honors and emoluments, all prospects of social ad- vancement for themselves and for their children who held to the same belief, and remain in England the scoff of those who found it popular to deride them, or they must cast about them for a retreat, not straightened and accessible like the forests and caves of their native island, where in vain they had sought to hide themselves, but remote and open for the em- ployment of their faculties as well as for the exercise of their
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CAUSES OF THE EMIGRATION.
religious rites. Some of them fled to Germany, some to Holland, and lingered there till this species of self exile be- came too painful to be borne. Then, one after another, sur- rounded by his little flock, many a clergyman, who had been nursed in the bosom of Oxford or Cambridge, who had long sat under the bowers of the manse and eaten of the fruits that grew upon the pleasant glebe, who had quickened his steps as he walked, when the sweet tones of his church bell warned him that the child waited at the font to be signed with the mystic sign, made ready to go to a wild, remote country, where he might be free from oaths save such as he should prescribe for himself, where he might pray and wor- ship by no formularies save such as he might choose.
Right or wrong, this was the leading motive. But other motives doubtless operated with greater or less force upon many of the emigrants. The mind of the old world was then turned toward the new. The various rumors that were rife in England with regard to the illimitable extent of this terri- tory, washed by the waves of the Atlantic and the South Sea, as they vaguely denominated the Pacific ocean, from its very vastness, took a strong hold of the imagination ; and these pu- ritans, stern and practical as they were, did not escape the contagion. There were also stories of exciting adventure to stimulate the desires of the young-visions of wealth, from rich acres tamed to the possession and uses of man, or from the furs of wild animals, floated in the dreams of the prudent and money-loving. To deny that the puritans alone were free from the promptings of motives such as these, is to claim for them what they never arrogated to themselves. They were modest men, too earnest in the belief that they were sinners, ever to affix to themselves the attributes of God.
After their arrival here, they sought (why should they not ?) to avail themselves of the resources of nature. Hence, urged by no necessity, but simply to better their condition, the fathers of Connecticut left the Massachusetts for the alluvial meadows where they finally established themselves.
I have thought it best to premise thus much upon the
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
causes that led to the settlement of Connecticut, before in- troducing to the reader's notice her first written constitution, that was adopted at a general convention of all the planters at Hartford, on the 14th of January, 1639.
We read in treatises upon elementary law, of a time ante- cedent to all law, when men are theoretically said to have met together and surrendered a part of their rights for a more secure enjoyment of the remainder. Hence, we are told, human governments date their origin. This dream of the enthusiast as applied to ages past, in Connecticut for the first time upon the American soil became a recorded verity. Here, at least, we are permitted to look on and see the foun- dations of a political structure laid. We can count the work- men, and we have become familiar with the features of the master builders. We see that they are most of them men of a new type. Bold men they are, who have cut loose from old associations, old prejudices, old forms; men who will take the opinions of no man, unless he can back them up with strong reasons; clear-sighted, sinewy men, in whom the in- tellect and the moral nature predominate over the more deli- cate traits that mark an advanced stage of social life. Such men as these will not, however, in their zeal to cast off old dominions, be solicitous to free themselves and their posterity from all restraint ; for no people are less given up to the sway of unbridled passions. Indeed, they have made it a main part of their business in life to subdue their passions. Laws, therefore, they must and will have, and laws that, whatever else they lack, will not want the merit of being fresh and original.
As it has been, and still is, a much debated question, what kind of men they were-some having over praised, and others rashly blamed them-let us, without bigotry, try if we can not look at them through a medium that shall render them to us in all their essential characteristics as they were. That medium is afforded us by the written constitution that they made of their own free will for their own government. This is said to give the best portrait of any people; though in a
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THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
[1639.]
nation that has been long maturing, the compromise between the past and present, written upon almost every page of its history, can not have failed in some degree to make the like- ness dim. Yet, of such a people as we are describing, who may be said to have no past-who live not so much in the present as in the future, and who forge as with one stroke the constitution that is to be a basis of their laws-are we not provided with a mirror that reflects every lineament with the true disposition of light and shade ? If it is a stern, it is yet a truthful mirror. It flatters neither those who made it nor those blear-eyed maskers, who, forgetful of their own dis- torted visages, look in askance, and are able to see nothing to admire in the sober, bright-eyed faces of their fathers who gaze down upon them from the olden time.
The preamble of this constitution begins by reciting the fact that its authors are, " under Almighty God," inhabitants and residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, upon " the river Connecticut." It also states that, in consonance with the word of God, in order to maintain the peace and union of such a people, it is necessary that "there should be an orderly and decent government established" that shall " dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons." "We do therefore," say they, "associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth." They add, further, that the first object aimed at by them, is to preserve the liberty and the purity of the gospel and the discipline of their own churches ; and, in the second place, to govern their civil affairs, by such rules as their written constitution and the laws enacted under its authority shall prescribe. To provide for these two objects, the liberty of the gospel, as they under- stood it, and the regulation of their own civil affairs, they sought to embody in the form of distinct decrees, substan- tially the following provisions :
1. That there shall be every year two general assemblies or courts, one on the second Thursday of April, the other on the second Thursday of September: that the one held in April, shall be called the Court of Election, wherein shall be
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annually chosen the magistrates, (one of whom shall be the governor,) and other public officers, who are to administer justice according to the laws here established ; and where there are no laws provided, to do it in accordance with the laws of God ; and that these rulers shall be elected by all the freemen within the limits of the commonwealth, who have been admitted inhabitants of the towns where they severally live, and who have taken the oath of fidelity to the new state ; and that they shall all meet at one place to hold this election.
2. It is provided that after the voters have all met and are ready to proceed to an election, the first officer to be chosen shall be a governor, and after him a body of magistrates and other officers. Every voter is to bring in, to those appointed to receive it, a piece of paper with the name of him whom he would have for governor written upon it, and he that has the greatest number of papers with his name written upon them, was to be governor for that year. The other magis- trates were elected in the following manner. The names of all the candidates were first given to the secretary for the time being, and written down by him, in the order in which they were given ; the secretary was then to read the list over aloud and severally nominate each person whose name was so written down, in its order, in a distinct voice, so that all the citizen voters could hear it. As each name was read, they were to vote by ballot, either for or against it, as they liked ; those who voted in favor of the nominee, did it by writing his name upon the ballot-those who voted against him, simply gave in a blank ballot; and those only were elected whose names were written upon a majority of all the paper ballots handed in under each nomination. These papers were to be received and counted by sworn officers, appointed by the court for that purpose. Six magistrates, besides the governor, were to be elected in this way. If they failed to elect so many by a majority vote, then the requisite number was to be filled up, by taking the names of those who had received the highest number of votes.
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THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
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3. The men thus to be nominated and balloted for were to be propounded at some general court, held before the court of election, the deputies of each town having the privilege of nominating any two whom they chose. Other nomina- tions might be made by the court.
4. No person could be chosen governor oftener than once in two years. It was requisite that this officer should be a member of an approved congregation, and that he should be taken from the magistrates of the commonwealth. But no qualification was required in a candidate for the magistracy, except that he should be chosen from the freemen. Both governor and magistrates were required to take a solemn oath of office.
5. To this court of election the several towns were to send their deputies, and after the elections were over, the court was to proceed, as at other courts, to make laws, or do what- ever was necessary to further the interests of the com- monwealth.
6. These two regular courts were to be convened by the governor himself, or by his secretary by sending out a war- rant to the constables of every town, a month at least before the day of session. In times of danger or public exigency, the governor and a majority of the magistrates, might order the secretary to summon a court, with fourteen days notice, or even less, if the case required it, taking care to state their reasons for so doing to the deputies when they met. If, on the other hand, the governor should neglect to call the regu- lar courts, or, with the major part of the magistrates, should fail to convene such special ones as were needed, then the freemen, or a major part of them, were required to petition them to do it. If this did not serve, then the freemen, or a majority of them, were clothed with the power to order the constables to summon the court-after which they might meet, choose a moderator, and do any act that it was lawful for the regular courts to do.
7. On receiving the warrants for these general courts, the constables of each town were to give immediate notice to the
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freemen, either at a public gathering or by going from house to house, that at a given place and time they should meet to elect deputies to the General Court, about to convene, and " to agitate the affairs of the commonwealth." These depu- ties were to be chosen by vote of the electors of the town who had taken the oath of fidelity ; and no man not a free- man was eligible to the office of deputy. The deputies were to be chosen by a major vote of all the freemen present, who were to make their choice by written paper ballots-each voter giving in as many papers as there were deputies to be chosen, with a single name written on each paper. The names of the deputies when chosen were indorsed by the constables, on the back of their respective warrants, and re- turned into court.
8. The three towns of the commonwealth were each to have the privilege of sending four deputies to the General Court. If other towns were afterwards added to the jurisdic- tion, the number of their deputies was to be fixed by the court. The deputies represented the towns, and could bind them by their votes in all legislative matters.
9. The deputies had power to meet after they were chosen, and before the session of the General Court, to consult for the . public good, and to examine whether those who had been re- turned as members of their own body, were legally elected. If they found any who were not so elected, they might seclude them from their assembly, and return their names to the court, with their reasons for so doing. The court, on finding these reasons valid, could issue orders for a new elec- tion, and impose a fine upon such men as had falsely thrust themselves upon the towns as candidates.
10. Every regular general court was to consist of the gov- ernor and at least four other magistrates, with the major part of the deputies chosen from the several towns. But if any court happened to be called by the freemen, through the default of the governor and magistrates, that court was to consist of a majority of the freemen present, or their deputies, and a moderator, chosen by them. In the General Court was lodged
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the " supreme power of the commonwealth." In this court, the governor or moderator had power to command liberty of speech, to silence all disorders, and to put all questions that were to be made the subject of legislative action, but not to vote himself, unless the court was equally divided, when he was to give the casting vote. But he could not adjourn or dissolve the court without the major vote of the members. Taxes also were to be ordered by the court ; and when they had agreed on the sum to be raised, a committee was to be appointed of an equal number of men from each town to decide what part of that sum each town should pay .*
This first written constitution of the new world was simple in its terms, comprehensive in its policy, methodical in its ar- rangement, beautiful in its adaptation of parts to a whole, of means to an end. Compare it with any of the constitutions of the old world then existing. I say nothing of those libels upon human nature, the so-called constitutions of the continent of Europe-compare it reverently, as children speak of a father's roof, with that venerated structure, the British constitution. How complex is the architecture of the latter ! here exhibiting the clumsy handiwork of the Saxon, there, the more graceful touch of later conquerors ; the whole colossal pile, magnificent with turrets and towers, and deco- rated with armorial devices and inscriptions, written in a lan- guage not only dead, but never native to the island ; all eloquent, indeed, with the spirit of ages past, yet haunted with the cry of suffering humanity, and the clanking of chains that come up from its subterranean dungeons. Mark, too, the rifts and seams in its gray walls-traces of convul- sion and revolution. Proud as it is, its very splendor shows the marks of a barbarous age. Its tapestry speaks a language dissonant to the ears of freemen. It tells of exclusive privi- leges, of divine rights, not in the people, but in the king, of primogeniture, of conformities, of prescriptions, of serfs and lords, of attainder that dries up like a leprosy the fountains of inheritable blood ; and lastly, it discourses of the rights of
* J. Hammond Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 20.
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British subjects, in eloquent language, but sometimes with qualifications that startle the ears of men who have tasted the sweets of a more enlarged liberty. Such was the spirit of the British constitution, and code of the seventeenth century. I do not blame it, that it was not better ; perhaps it could not then have been improved without risk. Improvement in an old state, is the work of time. But I have a right to speak with pride of the more advanced freedom of our own.
The constitution of Connecticut sets out with the practi- cal recognition of the doctrine, that all ultimate power is lodged with the people. The body of the people is the body politic. From the people flow the fountains of law and justice. The governor, and the other magistrates, the depu- ties themselves, are but a kind of committee, with delegated powers to act for the free planters. Elected from their num- ber, they must spend their short official term in the discharge of the trust, and then descend to their old level of citizen voters. Here are to be no interminable parliaments. The majority of the General Court can adjourn it at will. Nor is there to be an indefinite prorogation of the legislature at the will of a single man. Let the governor and magistrates look to it. If they do not call a general court, the planters will take the matter into their own hands, and meet in a body to take care of their neglected interests.
One of the most striking features in this new, and at that time strange document, is, that it will tolerate no rotten-borough system. Every deputy, who goes to the legislature, is to go from his own town, and is to be a free planter of that town. In this way he will know what is the will of his constituents, and what their wants are.
This paper has another remarkable trait. There is to be no taxation without representation in Connecticut. The towns, too, are recognized as independent municipalities. They are the primary centres of power, older than the con- stitution-the makers and builders of the State. They have given up to the State a part of their corporate powers, as they received them from the free planters, that they may
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have a safer guarantee for the keeping of the rest. What- ever they have not given up, they hold in absolute right.
How strange, too, that, in defining so carefully and astutely the limits of the government, these constitution makers should have forgotten the king. One would not suppose, that those who indited this paper were even aware of the existence of titled majesty beyond what belonged to the King of kings. They mention no supreme power, save that of the common- wealth, which speaks and acts through the General Court .*
Such was the constitution of Connecticut. I have said it was the oldest of the American constitutions. More than this, I might say, it is the mother of them all. It has been modified in different states to suit the circumstances of the people, and the size of their respective territories; but the representative system peculiar to the American republics, was first unfolded by Ludlow, (who probably drafted the con- stitution of Connecticut,) and by Hooker, Haynes, Wolcott, Steele, Sherman, Stone, and the other far-sighted men of the colony, who must have advised and counseled to do, what they and all the people in the three towns met together in a mass to sanction and adopt as their own. Let me not be understood to say, that I consider the framers of this paper perfect legislators, or in all respects free from bigotry and in- tolerance. How could they throw off in a moment the shackles of custom and old opinion ? They saw more than two centuries beyond their own era. England herself at this day has only approximated, without reaching, the elevated table-
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