state is a remarkable fact in history. The manner in
which this was done in Connecticut, and the character of the
constitution there made in 1639, six years after the first
English settlement, render it a memorable event in the
development of American government.

As the Connecticut Constitution was not only the first
instrument of its kind, but also formed, in many respects, a
pattern for others which became the organic laws of American
States, so the first union of colonies, in 1643, is important
not alone as being the first, but also as foreshadowing the
later confederation and the final union of the States
themselves.

This model of an American union, following so closely upon the
earliest creation of an American civil constitution, is
concisely described by the great Chief Justice Marshall.

G. H. HOLLISTER

We read, in treatises upon elementary law, of a time antecedent to all
law, when men theoretically are 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 and upon the American soil became a recorded verity.

Here at last we are permitted to look on and see the foundations of a
political structure laid. We can count the workmen, 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 intellect and the moral nature
predominate over the more delicate 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 overpraised and others rashly