Fundamental Orders—The Other Constitution

Happy Constitution Day, Connecticut!  What?  You say Constitution Day is in September?  You think I’m mad?  Not really—January 14th is the 373rd anniversary of the first ever written constitution in the world…and it was Connecticut’s.

In 1614, the Dutch were interested in establishing trading posts in the Hudson Bay area.  Adriaen Block was hired to investigate and trade for furs.  He was the first  European to explore the Connecticut River. 

 The 1630s brought three communities of Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Led by Thomas Hooker, they had come to feel increasingly shut out from the government that had been established by the other communities in Massachusetts. They also wanted to increase their land holdings, and were feeling a bit cramped and crowded in Massachusetts. Hooker led them to the land of the Connecticut River Valley.   By 1638, they had settled in Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford. Representatives from the communities met in Hartford to set up a unified government for a new colony.

Roger Ludlowe 

In 1639, lawyer Roger Ludlow, the only trained attorney of the colony, presented the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.  This constitution was the first ever written constitution framed by a body of men for their own government.  It stated that the sovereign power rested with the freeman, there was no mention of a king.

The document contained eleven Orders.  The first Order called for the holding of two general courts or assemblies, one to be held in April, and the other in the month of September.  In April, elections were held by the freemen of the colony for Governor and six magistrates.  Freeman status was not easy to come by. Only those with substantial property interested were allowed to cast their ballots.

Puritans saw no separation of church and state.  They felt this constitution was an outgrowth of their religious convictions, and thus they had no tolerance for “non-believers” a.k.a. anyone with beliefs unlike their own. They also held a dim view of vagabonds or undesirables.  The trick was they had no standardized religious oath or testing to restrict participation in the government.

The Fundamental Orders carry out these philosophies. The introduction, or preamble calls for an "orderly and decent government according to God" to preserve "liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus," to maintain discipline in the churches, and to be guided by "laws, rules, orders and decrees" in civil affairs.

The main purpose of the Fundamental Orders was, of course to formalize the union of the three Puritan communities. The towns were now in compact. This began the commonwealth of Connecticut.

The Orders were the law of the land until 1662 when they were superseded by the Charter of Connecticut. However, many of the laws and statues of the Orders remained until 1818 when the General Assembly established a new Constitution.