Connecticut. Under this
constitution they passed, it is true, some quaint laws, that sometimes
provoke a smile, and, in those who are unmindful of the age in which
they lived, sometimes a sneer.

I shall speak of these laws in order, I hope with honesty and not too
much partiality. It may be proper to say here, however, that for one law
that has been passed in Connecticut of a bigoted or intolerant
character, a diligent explorer into the English court records or
statute-books for evidences of bigotry and revolting cruelty could find
twenty in England. "Kings have been dethroned," says Bancroft, the
eloquent American historian, "recalled, dethroned again, and so many
constitutions framed or formed, stifled or subverted, that memory may
despair of a complete catalogue; but the people of Connecticut have
found no reason to deviate essentially from the government as
established by their fathers. History has ever celebrated the
commanders of armies on which victory has been entailed, the heroes who
have won laurels in scenes of carnage and rapine. Has it no place for
the founders of states, the wise legislators who struck the rock in the
wilderness, and the waters of liberty gushed forth in copious and
perennial fountains?"

JOHN MARSHALL

About this period many evidences were given of a general combination of
the neighboring Indians against the settlements of New England; and
apprehensions were also entertained of hostility from the Dutch of
Manhadoes. A sense of impending danger suggested the policy of forming a
confederacy of the sister-colonies for their mutual defence. And so
confirmed had the habit of self-government become since the attention of
England was absorbed in her domestic dissensions that it was not thought
necessary to consult the parent state on this important measure. After
mature deliberation articles of confederation were digested; and in May,
1643, they were conclusively adopted.

By them "The United Colonies of New England"--Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut, and New Haven--entered into a firm and perpetual league,
offensive and defensive.

Each colony retained a distinct and separate jurisdiction; no two
colonies could join in one jurisdiction without the consent of the
whole; and no other colony could be received into the confederacy
without the like consent.

The charge of all wars was to be borne by the colonies respectively, in
proportion to the male inhabitants of each between sixt