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85-444: A non-denominational moral philosophy replaced theology in many college curricula. Some colleges reformed their curricula to include natural philosophy (science), modern astronomy, and mathematics, and "new-model" American-style colleges were founded. Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis upon consent of the governed , equality under the law , liberty , republicanism and religious tolerance , as clearly expressed in

170-411: A religious denomination . Religious people of a non-denominational persuasion tend to be more open-minded in their views on various religious matters and rulings. Some converts towards non-denominational strains of thought have been influenced by disputes over traditional teachings in the previous institutions they attended. Nondenominationalism has also been used as a tool for introducing neutrality into

255-691: A brief dispute, New Haven decided to voluntarily join Connecticut in 1665. Today the city of New Haven still maintains Three Judges Cave on West Rock as a tribute to the judges who hid from Charles II's agents. Two years after the Connecticut Charter was granted, Charles II granted his brother, James-Duke of York, a Patent for a New York Colony. It extended from the Delaware River to the Connecticut River, thus creating

340-467: A civic and patriot ideal in which the personality was founded on property, perfected in citizenship but perpetually threatened by corruption; government figuring paradoxically as the principal source of corruption and operating through such means as patronage, faction, standing armies (opposed to the ideal of the militia), established churches (opposed to the Puritan and deist modes of American religion) and

425-702: A conflict with the Connecticut Charter. Edmund Andros was appointed the third governor of the English Colony of New York in 1674. Andros sailed to Connecticut in 1675 demanding that all undeeded land west of the Connecticut river be relinquished to James. Captain Bull, of the Connecticut Militia, refused his entry into the Colony. Andros returned to New York. 10 years later, James ascends the Throne with

510-846: A date for the triumph if not the end of the American Enlightenment. That new constitution overturned the 180-year-old "Standing Order" and The Connecticut Charter of 1662 , whose provisions dated back to the founding of the state in 1638 and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut . The new constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and disestablished the Congregational church . Concepts of freedom and modern democratic ideals were born in "Native American wigwams ” and found permanence in Voltaire's Huron . Between 1714 and 1818, an intellectual change took place in

595-708: A formal state constitutionw as adopted. In 1816, Connecticut was entirely in the control of the Federalist Party and the established Congregationalist Church. Connecticut was known as "the land of steady habits" for its custom of re-electing those in power until they died; the Democratic-Republican party had been organized in 1804, yet Connecticut remained one of the last holdouts of the Federalist party in America. Once Massachusetts passed

680-559: A law had been passed by the legislature in 1843 which recognized Jews ' right to worship, though these laws were largely ignored following large-scale Jewish and Catholic immigration in the last half of the 19th century. The reference to Christianity from the earlier constitution was deleted. After 1965, the Supreme Court of Errors' title was changed to the Connecticut Supreme Court . The executive obtained

765-404: A litigant was dissatisfied with the court's decision, he simply had to go to the legislature to request a review. This often led to circumstances where a representative or assistant sat in review of a case in which he was personally interested as an attorney, litigant, or friend of one of the parties. When it became too burdensome for the entire assembly to handle appeals, the Supreme Court of Errors

850-494: A member of some approved congregation". New Haven Colony was separate at the time, and their Fundamental Agreement (1639) states that "church members only shall be free burgesses". Voting rights were further limited under the Fundamental Orders. All males at least 21 years of age could become freemen (voters) if they met certain property qualifications. In order to vote, the citizen must own real estate assessed at

935-722: A new curriculum into Yale using Dummer's donated Enlightenment books. Johnson offered what he called "The New Learning", which included the works and ideas of Francis Bacon , John Locke , Isaac Newton , Robert Boyle , Copernicus , and literary works by Shakespeare , John Milton , and Joseph Addison . Enlightenment ideas were introduced to the colonists and diffused through Dissenter educational and religious networks in America. Enlightened Founding Fathers , especially Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson , James Madison and George Washington , fought for and eventually attained religious freedom for minority denominations. According to

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1020-589: A number of delegates equal to the number of representatives held in the Assembly. The convention convened in Hartford on 26 August 1818. As one of the first orders of business, a twenty-four man committee was appointed to prepare a draft constitution. The very next day, the committee returned with the Preamble and Bill of Rights. Their speed was not due to ingenuity. The draft was borrowed "almost verbatim" from

1105-406: A public square when the local populace is derived from a wide-ranging set of religious beliefs. This article about religious studies is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Connecticut Constitutional History#The Connecticut Charter of 1662 Connecticut is known as "The Constitution State". The origin of this title is uncertain, but the nickname is assumed to be

1190-584: A reference to the Fundamental Orders of 1638–39 which represent the framework for the first formal government written by a representative body in Connecticut. Connecticut's government has operated under the direction of five separate documents in its history. The Connecticut Colony at Hartford was governed by the Fundamental Orders, and the Quinnipiac Colony at New Haven had its own Constitution in The Fundamental Agreement of

1275-641: A rejection of prophecy, miracle, and revealed religion, resulting in an inclination toward deism among some major political leaders of the age. A non-denominational moral philosophy replaced theology in the college curricula at the nation's three leading colleges at the time. Yale College, now Yale University , and the College of William & Mary were reformed. The Presbyterian College of New Jersey, now Princeton University , and Harvard University , reformed their curricula to include natural philosophy ( science ), modern astronomy , and mathematics . Sources of

1360-459: A role as a Superior Court judge. Decisions of the court could no longer be appealed to the legislature. The constitution did not significantly change the role of the executive, and the branch remained relatively weak. The executive did become a constitutional and independent part of the government, however. The governor was no longer granted a seat in the legislature. He was granted the new power of veto, but any of his vetoes could be overruled by

1445-462: A significant power under the new constitution. The governor still does not enjoy the privilege of pardon , but the office was granted a more significant power of veto under the latest constitution. Instead of being able to be overridden by a second majority vote, the legislature now must muster two-thirds support in both houses to defeat a veto. Also of note, the 1965 Constitution includes a constitutional right to free public education . In addition,

1530-412: A simple majority vote from the Assembly. This made the veto power essentially useless since any bill would have to pass both houses by a majority anyway. The General Assembly retained the authority to nominate judges under the new constitution. This was not changed until 1880, when nomination powers were transferred to the governor. The legislative branch also experienced a few changes. The council

1615-399: A sixty to eighty percent majority for adoption of a new government. It seems that Croswell's well-received and powerful short sermon was efficacious; those in favor of a simple majority carried the vote by 81–80. Thus a single-vote margin passed the resolution vital to the future success of the constitution that disestablished the state church and separated church and state. Each town sent

1700-450: A state had actually been formed on the basis of the theory of representation did the full significance of this idea become clear. All later revolutionary movements have this same goal... This was the complete reversal of a principle. Until then, a king who ruled by the grace of God had been the center around which everything turned. Now the idea emerged that power should come from below... These two principles are like two opposite poles, and it

1785-423: A writ on the governor, again demanding the surrender of the charter; he finally went to Hartford with a band of soldiers on 31 October 1687. The historical accuracy of what followed is somewhat uncertain, but the commonly accepted version is that Andros met with the leaders of the colony one night at the meetinghouse, expecting them to relinquish the charter. They had it lying on a table, but they suddenly blew out

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1870-463: A yearly rental value of 40 shillings or own taxable property assessed at 40 pounds sterling. The governance of Connecticut developed over the roughly 180 years from the ideas presented by Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1638 to the Constitution of 1818. Connecticut's government had separation of powers as defined by the original Fundamental Orders of 1639, but with a strong single assembly. However,

1955-824: Is the conflict between them that determines the course of the modern world. In Europe the conflict between them had not yet taken on concrete form; with the French Revolution it did. The United States Declaration of Independence , which was primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The text of the second section of the Declaration of Independence reads: We hold these Truths to be self-evident , that all Men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights , that among these are Life, Liberty and

2040-474: The Dominion of New England , provoking the famous Charter Oak incident, and the office of governor was made stronger as a result. There were only nine Connecticut governors with an average of 10 years in office from the time of Robert Treat in 1689 to Jonathan Trumbull in 1776. Connecticut became known as "the land of steady habits" for re-electing the same men over and over. Various wars also strengthened

2125-532: The Earl of Shaftesbury , and Addison and Richard Steele in their Spectator , were a major influence on upper-class American colonists who sought to emulate European manners and learning. By far the most important French sources to the American Enlightenment were Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws and Emer de Vattel's Law of Nations . Both informed early American ideas of government and were major influences on

2210-550: The Thirteen Colonies that changed them from a largely distant backwater into a leader in various fields, moral philosophy, educational reform, religious revival, industrial technology, science, and, most notably, political philosophy, the roots of this change were homegrown. America saw a consensus on a "pursuit of happiness" based political structure based in large part on Native sources, however misunderstood. Attempts to reconcile science and religion sometimes resulted in

2295-518: The Toleration Party . In 1816, they held a convention and ran a slate of candidates. In 1817, they took control of the state Assembly (lower house), and elected Oliver Wolcott Jr. as Governor and Jonathan Ingersoll as Lieutenant-governor. In 1639, a year after the founding of the state, the Rev. Thomas Hooker had given a sermon that formed the basis of Fundamental Orders of Connecticut ,

2380-700: The United States Declaration of Independence . Among the foremost representatives of the American Enlightenment were presidents of colleges, including Puritan religious leaders Jonathan Edwards , Thomas Clap , and Ezra Stiles , Presbyterian minister and college president John Witherspoon , and Anglican moral philosophers Samuel Johnson and William Smith . Leading political thinkers were John Adams , James Madison , Thomas Paine , George Mason , James Wilson , Ethan Allen , and Alexander Hamilton , and polymaths Benjamin Franklin , and Thomas Jefferson . The term "American Enlightenment"

2465-480: The "father of English Deism". Non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination . The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism , Baháʼí Faith , Zoroastrianism , Unitarian Universalism , Neo-Paganism , Christianity , Islam , Judaism , Hinduism , Buddhism and Wicca . It stands in contrast with

2550-495: The "truest definition" of "natural religion" as being " The pursuit of happiness by the practice of reason and truth." The Virginia Declaration of Rights , which was written by George Mason and adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates on June 12, 1776, a few days before Jefferson's draft, in part, reads: That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights ... namely,

2635-552: The 1811 Religious Freedom Act, Connecticut was last state to effectively have an established state religion in practice and not just on paper; it also had the only Constitution going back to the days of the British Empire. In 1815, Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, and members of other dissident denominations to the established Congregationalist church combined with the Democratic-Republican party to form

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2720-512: The 1965 constitutional convention was reapportionment of the representatives in the lower legislative house. Assigning each town one or two representatives had resulted in grossly disproportional representation. Small rural towns enjoyed equal representation with large urban communities. Apart from this major change, a majority of the language from the 1818 Constitution was reaffirmed verbatim or almost verbatim in 1965. Non-Christians were finally granted official freedom of religion in 1965, although

2805-521: The American Enlightenment are many and vary according to time and place. As a result of an extensive book trade with Great Britain, the colonies were well acquainted with European literature almost contemporaneously. Early influences were English writers including James Harrington , Algernon Sidney , the Viscount Bolingbroke , John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon (especially the two's Cato's Letters ), and Joseph Addison (whose tragedy Cato

2890-528: The American Revolution, for Britain was increasingly seen as corrupt and hostile to republicanism, and a threat to the established liberties the Americans enjoyed. Leopold von Ranke , a leading German historian, in 1848 claims that American republicanism played a crucial role in the development of European liberalism: By abandoning English constitutionalism and creating a new republic based on

2975-499: The English Gothic revival by a decade. In the fields of literature, poetry, music, and drama some nascent artistic attempts were made, particularly in pre-war Philadelphia, but American (non-popular) culture in these fields was largely imitative of British culture for most of the period. American republicanism emphasized consent of the governed, riddance of the aristocracy , and resistance towards corruption. It represented

3060-530: The English government, and set sail for England on 23 July 1661. He proved successful in his mission, and the English attorney general approved a bill for incorporation of the Connecticut Charter. The document was returned to Connecticut after being officially sealed and registered, and was adopted by the General Court on 9 October 1662. The Connecticut Charter displaced the Fundamental Orders and became

3145-641: The Founding Fathers, the United States should be a country where peoples of all faiths could live in peace and mutual benefit. Madison summed up this ideal in 1792 saying, "Conscience is the most sacred of all property." A switch away from established religion to religious tolerance was one of the distinguishing features of the era from 1775 to 1818. The ratification of the Connecticut Constitution in 1818 has been proposed as

3230-555: The General Assembly, although it continued to enjoy dominance over the executive and judiciary until 1818. After the 1698 split, the General Assembly consisted of the houses of the Council and the Assembly. The council was the more powerful of the two houses, consisting of the governor and lieutenant governor ex officio and 12 elected assistants. The 12 assistants were not elected from particular jurisdictions, but represented

3315-554: The General Court of Connecticut declared itself dissolved, but Andros's reign ended after The Glorious Revolution took place in England in November 1688. He was deposed from power shortly after. Connecticut was left with several options on how to restart its government. Some advocated direct ties to the crown with a royal government, while others lobbied for drafting a completely new charter, but Connecticut finally opted to return to

3400-788: The General Court, while freemen were stripped of this ability. The colony's borders were to be Narragansett Bay on the east and Massachusetts on the north, while its southwestern boundary was expanded to the "South Sea on the West", meaning the Pacific Ocean. Connecticut's borders never approached this limitation, but the Charter did place the separate New Haven Colony within its jurisdiction. Several judges who had sentenced Charles I to death had subsequently been given refuge in New Haven, and Charles II may have been exacting revenge. After

3485-487: The New Haven Colony which was signed on 4 June 1639. In 1662, King Charles II of England granted governmental authority and a royal charter to the Connecticut colonies. These two documents laid the groundwork for the state's government but lacked characteristics of what is generally thought of as a constitution. Separate branches of government did not exist during this period, and the General Assembly acted as

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3570-683: The U.S. Constitution. Voltaire's histories were widely read but seldom cited. Noah Webster used Rousseau's educational ideas of child development to structure his famous Speller. The writings of German Samuel Pufendorf were commonly cited by American writers. Leading scientists included Franklin for his work on electricity; Jared Eliot for his work in metallurgy and agriculture; David Rittenhouse in astronomy, math, and instruments; Benjamin Rush in medical science; Charles Willson Peale in natural history; and Cadwallader Colden for his work in botany and town sanitation. Colden's daughter, Jane Colden ,

3655-613: The candles and threw the room into darkness; when the lights were reignited, it had vanished. Joseph Wadsworth fled with the document and hid it in an oak tree on the Wyllys estate, and this tree became known as the Charter Oak , a famous landmark in Connecticut. The precise details of this account have never been confirmed, but it is certain that Andros never got his hands on the charter. Despite this accomplishment, Andros briefly succeeded in forcing Connecticut to succumb to his rule, and

3740-415: The central rallying cries in support of a new constitution. The English Parliament restored the monarchy in 1660, and King Charles II assumed the English throne. Connecticut had never been officially recognized as a colony by the English government, so the General Court determined that the independence of Connecticut must be legitimized. Governor John Winthrop Jr. was sent as an emissary to negotiate with

3825-425: The college of Yale University in Connecticut. They were received by a post-graduate student Samuel Johnson , who studied them. He found that they contradicted his Puritan learning. He wrote that, "All this was like a flood of day to his low state of mind", and that he found himself as if "emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day". Two years later in 1716 as a tutor, Johnson introduced

3910-399: The colony elected its own governor and appointed its own judges, rather than having a royally appointed governor. It changed over the next 50 years into a bicameral legislature with a strong governor and a more independent judiciary. The legislative body was the General Court, which began as a one-house legislature that wielded supreme authority. The General Court split in 1698 and was renamed

3995-451: The constitution that Mississippi had created a year earlier in 1817. After the remainder of the constitution was drafted, the convention approved the document by a two-to-one margin on 16 September 1818. The voters were given three weeks to consider the proposed constitution. A vote was held on October 5. A small majority cast their ballots in favor of the constitution, with the resolution passing 13,918 to 12,364. The ultimate vote proved

4080-435: The convergence of classical republicanism and English republicanism (of 17th century Commonwealth men and 18th century English Country Whigs ). In the decades before the American Revolution (1776), the intellectual and political leaders of the colonies studied history intently, looking for guides or models for good (and bad) government. They especially followed the development of republican ideas in England. Pocock explains

4165-468: The courts occurred in 1815, when Peter Lung was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Lung filed a petition with the General Assembly, and they overturned his conviction. The court retried him, convicted him again—and promptly executed him. Lung's Case outraged all Connecticut judges, most notably Chief Justice Zephaniah Swift, who spoke out for judicial independence in a pamphlet the following year. Establishment of an independent judiciary became one of

4250-471: The death of his childless brother Charles II. James II creates a new colony by combining 7 colonies into the Dominion of New England . The Dominion includes all the Atlantic Colonies from New Jersey to New Hampshire. Sir Edmund Andros is appointed Governor. In 1686, he demands that the 7 Colonies Surrender their Charters; all are null and void. Connecticut ignores the initial request. Andros serves

4335-426: The enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Both the moderate Enlightenment and a radical or revolutionary Enlightenment were reactions against the authoritarianism , irrationality, and obscurantism of the established churches. Philosophers such as Voltaire depicted organized religion as hostile to the development of reason and

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4420-467: The first state Constitution. Since then, an "Anniversary Election Sermon" was given at the Center Church in Hartford to celebrate the fusion of church and state. A procession of militia, assemblymen, and clerics from all over the state would move through Hartford; then a prominent cleric would preach a political sermon to the assembly. One measure of the event's importance is the attention given to

4505-522: The future." After reaching this conclusion, the colony petitioned the monarchy for approval of their return to operation under the charter. In the meantime, New York Governor Benjamin Fletcher attempted to claim military authority over Connecticut. John Winthrop's son Fitz John went as the emissary to England as his father had done more than 30 years earlier in 1661, and he was successful in his mission. The Attorney General and Solicitor General reported to

4590-410: The governing authority for the colony. Its practical effect was minimal on the government, however, and Connecticut continued to operate much as it had under the Fundamental Orders. The Charter did incorporate a few noteworthy changes. All colonists in Connecticut were given "all liberties and immunities" of the realm of England. The governor was granted the additional authority to convene a session of

4675-527: The importance of requiring only a simple majority's approval, for a sixty or eighty percent requirement would not have been met. As a result of the new constitution, the Congregational Church was finally disestablished, although Christianity remained the constitutionally favored religion. Newly received voting rights were also solidified, as the convention provided constitutional rights to vote for all white males who paid taxes or had served in

4760-533: The intellectual sources in the United States: The Whig canon and the neo-Harringtonians, John Milton , James Harrington and Sidney , Trenchard , Gordon and Bolingbroke , together with the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance masters of the tradition as far as Montesquieu , formed the authoritative literature of this culture; and its values and concepts were those with which we have grown familiar:

4845-525: The king that the charter remained valid, and the king ratified it on 19 April 1694. This represented the end of serious challenges to Connecticut's autonomy. The General Assembly formally approved the Declaration of Independence with the other colonies, especially since its own Roger Sherman had helped to draft it. The legislature declared in its resolution that Connecticut's government "shall continue to be as established by Charter received from Charles

4930-457: The main purposes of the Fundamental Orders was to formalize the relationship among these settlements. The foundation of the Fundamental Orders incorporated the religious background of the colony's founders. They called for "an orderly and decent government according to God" in attempts to pursue "the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus " and stipulated that "the Governor be always

5015-423: The militia. With the 1818 Constitution, separation of powers was finally brought to Connecticut government. The word "white" was also codified as a voting requirement. An independent judiciary was approved. Both Supreme and Superior Court judges were now given life tenure to the age of seventy (this was changed to eight years in 1856). The Supreme Court of Errors was reduced to five judges, with each judge retaining

5100-501: The most recent constitution has provided a mechanism to convene future constitutional conventions if necessary. The Constitution of 1965 remains the supreme authority in Connecticut today. It represents the fourth distinct document in state history laying out the mechanics for its form of government. Connecticut is known as the Constitution State because of its early adoption of the Fundamental Orders in 1639, thought to be

5185-718: The next year. Croswell was a former Federalist crusading journalist who had been sued for seditious libel by the Jefferson-party in New York in the famous People v. Croswell case. He had entirely abandoned politics for religion; he was now the Rector of the large and influential Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven . But he did not give the expected triumphant political sermon, or yet another standard election sermon of

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5270-413: The nine Superior Court judges acted as the Supreme Court of Errors when all of them sat together. This created a judicial body, but the General Assembly still retained the power to reverse decisions of the court. It also resulted in the constant situation of a Superior Court judge sitting in review of a case over which he had presided at the trial level. A notorious instance of legislative interference with

5355-659: The orders in June 1638. The Council completed its efforts by the beginning of 1639, and the Fundamental Orders became the cornerstone of government in Connecticut soon after. Connecticut was founded by Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1635 and 1636. The first settlers founded three towns on the Connecticut River in Windsor , Wethersfield , and Hartford, Connecticut , and one of

5440-422: The population moved to jobs in commerce or manufacturing rather than agriculture. Even more significantly, the General Assembly also called for a constitutional convention that year. The most important ballot cast in the General Assembly was the vote on whether only a simple majority of the legislature would be required to approve whatever constitution was ultimately drafted. Many favored requiring anywhere from

5525-533: The position of the governor, who organized the militia. The governorship was an extremely important role during the American Revolutionary War due to its responsibility as commander-in-chief of the state militia. Perhaps the least influential branch of government under the Fundamental Orders was the judiciary. Until 1818, the legislative branch was the court of final resort in the state, holding appellate jurisdiction over all lower courts. If

5610-430: The position, each serving a two-year term and then rotating back to the role of lieutenant governor. The primary responsibilities of the governor were as an official statesman and a member of the legislature. Before the split into two houses, the governor acted as the moderator of the General Court. Afterwards, he held the spot on the council. In 1667, King James II sent Sir Edmund Andros to take control as governor of

5695-469: The progress of science and incapable of verification. An alternative religion was deism , the philosophical belief in a deity based on reason, rather than religious revelation or dogma. It was a popular perception among the philosophes , who adopted deistic attitudes to varying degrees. Deism greatly influenced the thought of intellectuals and Founding Fathers, including Adams, Franklin, perhaps Washington and especially Jefferson. The most articulate exponent

5780-482: The promotion of a monied interest—though the formulation of this last concept was somewhat hindered by the keen desire for readily available paper credit common in colonies of settlement. A neoclassical politics provided both the ethos of the elites and the rhetoric of the upwardly mobile, and accounts for the singular cultural and intellectual homogeneity of the Founding Fathers and their generation. The commitment of most Americans to these republican values made inevitable

5865-442: The pursuit of Happiness . Many historians find that the origin of the famous phrase "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" derives from Locke's position that "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions." Others suggest that Jefferson took the phrase from Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. Others note that William Wollaston 's 1722 book The Religion of Nature Delineated describes

5950-523: The rights of the individual, the North Americans introduced a new force in the world. Ideas spread most rapidly when they have found adequate concrete expression. Thus republicanism entered our Romanic/Germanic world... Up to this point, the conviction had prevailed in Europe that monarchy best served the interests of the nation. Now the idea spread that the nation should govern itself. But only after

6035-532: The second, King of England, so far as an adherence to the same will be consistent with an absolute independence of this State on the Crown of Great Britain ". Even in independence, Connecticut wished to remain governed in accordance with King Charles' Charter. Eleven of the Thirteen Colonies had drafted state constitutions by 1786, but Connecticut elected to continue operation under the Charter. Connecticut forged ahead under this scheme of government until 1818, when

6120-469: The sometimes long-winded sermons; President Ezra Stiles of Yale preached one in 1783 that lasted five hours and was 99 pages when printed. Governor Wolcott knew that the Toleration Party would soon have the votes to take a slim majority in the upper house, after the spring elections of 1818. He asked Episcopalian Rev. Harry Croswell to give the politically important Anniversary Election Sermon

6205-399: The sort that had been delivered since almost the founding of Connecticut in 1638. Instead, he gave an Election sermon in the spring of 1818 that strongly insisted on the total separation of church and state. Croswell's sermon had strong and immediate impact. It was ordered printed in an unprecedented four editions around the state. Croswell had been a newspaper editor during a time when paper

6290-460: The state as a whole. The Assembly varied in number up to 200 members, with each town sending one or two representatives. Initially, the position of governor was somewhat symbolic. The executive had no power of pardon and no ability to veto bills passed by the General Assembly. Under the Fundamental Orders, the maximum term for the governor was two years, and he could not succeed himself. For many years, John Haynes and Edward Hopkins took turns with

6375-428: The status quo. The government under the Charter was reinstated, including the reinstatement of all leaders previously in place before the interruption. In May 1689, the General Court issued a declaration that "all the laws of this colony formerly made, according to the Charter, and Courts constituted in this colony for administration of justice as they were before the late interruption, shall be of full force and virtue for

6460-495: The supreme authority. The current state constitution was implemented in 1965; it absorbed the majority of its 1818 predecessor and incorporated a handful of important modifications. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted on 14 January 1639, and the document has been referred to as the world's first written constitution. At the urging of influential preacher Thomas Hooker , the Connecticut legislative body (or General Court) began secret committee meetings to discuss drafting

6545-497: Was Thomas Paine , whose The Age of Reason was written in France and soon reached the United States. Paine was highly controversial; when Jefferson was attacked for his deism in the 1800 election , Democratic-Republican politicians took pains to distance their candidate from Paine. Unitarianism and Deism were strongly connected, the former being brought to America by Joseph Priestley . Samuel Johnson called Lord Edward Herbert

6630-411: Was coined in the post- World War II era and was not used in the 18th century when English speakers commonly referred to a process of becoming "enlightened." Various dates for the American Enlightenment have been proposed, including 1750–1820, 1765–1815, and 1688–1815. One more precise start date proposed is 1714, when a collection of Enlightenment books by Jeremiah Dummer were donated to the library of

6715-416: Was created in 1784. Instead of being composed of the entire assembly, only the members of the Council sat as the Supreme Court of Errors. This change failed to alleviate many of the conflict of interest problems inherent in the appellate process. Under political pressure, the General Assembly changed the makeup of the Supreme Court of Errors in 1806. Members of the Council no longer sat on the court; instead,

6800-551: Was extremely popular). A particularly important English legal writer was William Blackstone , whose Commentaries on the Laws of England served as a major influence on the American Founders and is a key source in the development Anglo-American common law . Although Locke's Two Treatises of Government has long been cited as a major influence on American thinkers, historians David Lundberg and Henry F. May demonstrate that Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding

6885-426: Was far more widely read than were his political Treatises . The Scottish Enlightenment also influenced American thinkers. David Hume 's Essays and his History of England were widely read in the colonies, and Hume's political thought had a particular influence on Madison and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution . Francis Hutcheson 's ideas of ethics, along with notions of civility and politeness developed by

6970-432: Was held in Hartford in 1902 for reapportionment, but the proposed constitution was rejected by voters. Many amendments were added over the years, but the Constitution of 1818 remained in operation until 1965. There was also a Constitution of 1955, but it merely incorporated prior amendments into the main body of the constitution. Connecticut currently operates under the constitution passed in 1965. The primary purpose of

7055-592: Was renamed the Senate. By constitutional mandate, half the legislative sessions were to take place in Hartford with the other half convening in New Haven . Surprisingly, the method in which towns were assigned a number of representatives was left unchanged. Each town predating the constitution retained two representatives in the lower house regardless of population, with the exception of several newer towns which were granted one vote. A state constitutional convention

7140-455: Was scarce and space was tight; his sermon was only 11 pages when printed, or about 30 minutes long when preached. The General Assembly met just after the unusually short Anniversary Election Sermon was delivered and made a significant change to voting rights in Connecticut. All white males who paid taxes or served in the militia were deemed eligible to vote. This eliminated the previous property requirements that had grown onerous, as more of

7225-648: Was the first female botanist working in America. Benjamin Thompson was a leading scientist, especially in the field of heat. After 1780, the Federal style of American Architecture began to diverge from the Georgian style and became a uniquely American genre. In 1813, Ithiel Town designed the first Gothic-style church in North America, Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut , predating

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