Fundamental Orders Of Connecticut example essay topic

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) Direct Democracy... A New Beginning In search of more fertile land and greater political and religious freedom, English settlers left the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630's and established three settlements along the banks of the Connecticut River: Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. These Puritan (Congregationalist) settlements formed the core of the Connecticut Colony. In 1638, Reverend Thomas Hooker, chief founder of Hartford, preached a powerful sermon urging settlers to take a more active role in governing themselves than they had in the Bay Colony.

He boldly proclaimed that the authority to govern lies "firstly, in the free consent of the people... As God has given us liberty, let us take it". Inspired by Hooker's vision, the Connecticut Colony adopted a set of Fundamental Orders in 1639. It stands as the first known written constitution embodying the principle of self-government, recognizing the right of the people both to vote directly for their officials and to limit their powers. Even though "the people" did not mean everyone-only "Godly adult males who owned property" could vote-the adoption of these Orders marked the beginning of representative government in Connecticut and embodied the spirit of constitutionalism so basic to American democracy. Because of this unique early history, Connecticut came to be called "The Constitution State".

The Mayflower Compact served as a model for the other small New England colonies. Roger Williams and his followers, who dissented from the strict Puritanism of Massachusetts, fled that colony in search of greater religious freedom and founded Providence (later Rhode Island) on the basis of a mutual compact. Three years later the Connecticut River towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wether field joined together to create a government patterned after that of Massachusetts. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut provided for a governor, deputy governor and magistrates to meet with an assembly, or general court, elected by the people. The general court not only possessed all lawmaking authority, but stood supreme over the governor. By far the most ambitious of all the compacts, the Fundamental Orders resembled in many ways a modern constitution, setting out a particular scheme of government and defining the powers and authority of its components.

But where a true constitution is superior to the agencies it establishes, and can only be amended by the people, the Connecticut assembly could, on its own, amend the Fundamental Orders. Not until much later would the Americans distinguish between a supreme organic law and ordinary legislative enactments..