Fundamental Orders Of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut colony council on January 14, 1639 OS (January 24, 1639 NS). The orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers.
It has the features of a written constitution, and is considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition, and thus earned Connecticut its nickname of The Constitution State. John Fiske, a Connecticut historian, was the first to claim that the Fundamental Orders were the first written Constitution, a claim disputed by some modern historians. The orders were transcribed into the official colony records by the colony's secretary Thomas Welles. It was a Constitution for the colonial government of Hartford and was similar to the government Massachusetts had set up. However, this Order gave men more voting rights and made more men eligible to run for elected positions.
Read more about Fundamental Orders Of Connecticut: History, Individual Rights
Famous quotes containing the words fundamental and/or orders:
“Each [side in this war] looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.”
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