Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-03
THREE CONSTITUTIONS.

ah,a paper bv Professor Baldwin
 Before the Historical Soctesy-A
 Reception to the Connecticut Troops
 at ,he Recent Centennial-The Ftrst
 Constitution of Kepresentative Gov- ernment.
 Prof. Simeon E. Baldwin entertained 1aroe audience at the rooms of the Historical society in the old State House last evening He read paper on the early constitutions of Connecticut, which was full of interest to all | residents of the Nutmeg State. few of the things the professor said are as follows: This centennial week stamps the seal of an | tiouity in the constitution under which the | United States has grown to greatness, but the ! people of Connecticut feel an honest pride in ! recollectipg that they were free comm6 D. wealth hundred and fifty years before the | American nation came into being. l In the simple representative system, by which one branch of our legislature repre- sents towns and the other the people, we gave ! the earliest and best example in American history of that balance of power preserved in l the Congress of the United States, by Senate ! of equal States and House of Representa- tives proportioned to population. In the great parade which swept across 1 New York April 30 to celebrate the anniver- sary of the first inauguration of Washington l troops in line met with warmer greeting from | the assembled multitudes than the red coats ! of our Governors Guard. They spoke to all of the great days when there were no United States, when the scarlet uniform of the Brit~ | ish grenadier was the national uniform too | of the colonial soldiers, and when those who | wore it were ready to march to Bunker Hill | and fight for the liberties they had inherited ! from their fathers.
 | An American State is one of the best works \ of human hands; but there is something bet | ter It is that State that grew to be such ' oil hooSr fhokh has a ! tory of it's own before it was State; that has been ruled for centuries by men of it's ! own choice and laws of its own making; that has been in it's time f'free and independent ! State," and as such was one of the eleven | founders of the American union.
 Historians concede that the first written ! constitution of representative government, | ordained by men, was that agreed on by the I three towns of Windsor. Hartford and Weth- | ersield two hundred and fifty years ago. ' Never had a body of men deliberately met to \ form a social compact, with definite officers and prescribed rules and mode of govern | ment. until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on Jan. 14th, 163s-9. They claimed no warrant from human authority. "We," they say, s'asso- tiate and convyne ourselves to be as one pub lie State or commonwealth"
 The eleven fundamental ideas which were thus adopted provided for an annual election by ballot of governor and not less than SIX ether. magistrates, the latter to be chosen only from 8 list of persons put Tn nomination six months before at the previ- ous session of the legislature, at which the representatives from each town might nom1- nate two and the court might add others If thought fit. The legislature was to meet twice year, in the spring and fall, and each town could send three or four deputies, as 1t pleased, to be elected for each session by bal lot at town meetings. The Governor was the presiding officer and there was but single chamber. in the General Court was vested the supreme power Of the common wealth. It was to make laws, lay taxes, ad- init freemen, dispose of public lands, call all magistrates and inferior courts to account for any misdeeds, s'and also may deale in any other matter that concerns the good of the | Commonwealth excepte election of magls- | trates." There were several alterations of ! the constitution from time to time
 The Governor could not be elected for ! second term, immediately succeeding the | first. It became the custom to elect the | Governor of one year as Deputy Governor ! for the next, and at the expiration of that ! time, make him Governor again, and releeate ! his predecessor to the position of Deputy, usually continuing this attenuation between | the two men as long as they continued in life and health.
 The charter, granted by King Charles II, was received and joyfully accepted by the General court in 1662, and at once supplant- ed the Windsor Constitution. It has some- times been said that it only gave to it's pro- vision the stamp of authority, for few of them were essentially changed. But changes Il there were and not unimportant ones, and | thenceferth the charter was the expression of our Supreme law. It extended or confirmed the bounds of Connecticut to the sea on the south and to the South sea on the west. The colony of New Haven, thus ignored, when she abandoned the struggle for exis- tence three years later, brought none of her laws to add to those of the new government. The charter slightly increased the power of the governor. No General Assembly could be held without his presence, or that of the deputy governor. He was not as in the orig inal constitution given a casting vote in case of tie; but this power was very soon re-es-
 tablished by law found in our first printed
 code of statutes. The number of representa- tives which, by the constitution of 1889, might be four was under the charter restrict- ed to not exceeding two, and this, although the development of some of the towns into
 cities was looked en as not improbable.
 The charter seemed to me to contemplate
 the General Assembly proper as mainly an
 electoral body. The real management of the
 colony seems to me to have been meant to
 pass to the Governor and assistants.
 The charter of Charles II was so extraor-
 dinary in it's breadth of grant that the gen eral court might well call it, as they did many years later, their ''most precious in- Qerltance, WQllo the OIc6rS OL t1e cEOWu Ee- garded it with unfriendly eyes.
 Before the close of the seventeenth century another radical change was made. The legis- lature had met as one body until 16SS. After that it was divided by law into two houses. The governor, deputy governor and the as- sistants or council, as they were still called, met as the upper house in one apartment, the governor presiding.
 At the period of the Revolution other colo
 nies thought it necessary to frame constitu-
 ton for their independent government. Con- necticut had been so very independent of any
 foreign authority except in name, that she
 had nothing to do but to reject that. In 1894 the question whether we had con stitution or not was formally made political issue by an address issued by direction of convention of Democrats from about hun dred towns.
 The professor further related the discuss sions during the early years of the present century relative to the old charter, many as- serting that it was of the nature of 8 consti- tuition and others that it was not, the only constitution being in the acts of the legisla- ture.
 the present constitution were briefly review ed. Tue present constitution itself will be discussed in another paper. @ At the conclusion of the paper the presi- dent announced that at the regular meeting the third week in May MT. Howells of Albany. 16C0ublY 6lecCou A COIHCsOOuOAuB ACHOcE O4 the society, would read paper, probably on some period of the old French war. The Dorscht Concert. The complimentary concert which was to have been given by Dorscht lodge on next Sunday evening has been indefinitely post- poned.
 Am Ex-President to Attend. Ex-President Cleveland telegraphed to