Fundemental Orders Of Connectitcut

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the Constitutional Government

Reviewing the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the eight American Perspectives, I picked number five, which is the Constitutional government that closely resembled the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. I felt that this American Perspective best correlates with the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were established on January 14, 1639. Three men helped write the Orders and they were, Thomas Hooker, John Haynes and Roger Ludlow.

Thomas Hooker felt strongly about his own beliefs because of his persecution from the Church of England. Thomas said, "It's the freedom of man to make their own decisions in politics and religion" (p14162). Fearing punishment in England, he left and stayed in Holland for three years, then came to Massachusetts. While in Massachusetts he preached the sermon and had his own views on how a system of government should operate. He disliked the government system in Massachusetts, he thought it was too narrow, so Thomas left and went to Connecticut.

Thomas Hooker's deep desire was to have a government based on the free will of the people.

In 1693, the Fundamental orders were written and put into use. The Fundamental orders consisted of a preamble and eleven orders of laws. The fundamental orders governed the whole state. The three biggest towns that sent government representatives to each meeting were Hartsfield, Wethersford and Windsor. Hartford was the city where the assemblies took place.

Some examples of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were, they held government meetings called assemblies twice a year, one in the spring and the fall. Voting for office was done by writing down whom you wanted to nominate for a position. Whoever had the greatest number of votes won the election. No one could be nominated into a position outside of the general court of elections; I feel this was very important because it made the voting and nominating fair and consistent. No person could be chosen for governor twice in a row. No person could exercise their position until sworn into office in a court of law. Tax order was established to where they could tax the towns, then a committee would be chosen to figure what would be the appropriate tax or how much to tax.

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut paved a trail that helped shape our government as it is today. Charles Borgead said, "the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was the first written Constitution of modern democracy" (p.486). The Fundamental Orders gave political rights to free men. People that were

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