Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-14
THE ETRsT COMMONWEALTH.
Its Scheme was First Set Forth by Sir
Harry Vano.

From Edwin D. Msads address in The Ola South ms
II was Sir Harry vane whom Cromwell always
found in his way when he tried to be too
despotic. ''The Lord deliver me from Sir
Harry vans," you remember he said when he
went down TO whitehall and cleared out the
Bump parliament And in 1856, when Crom-
wen had again dissolved parliament, and un-
dertook TO rule alone, vane published tract
sharply criticising him. This tract, entitled "A
Healing Question" ID famous, however, not 20
much for it, criticism Of Cromw0 as for the
way in which II proposed new cons Tuition for
England. Cromwells constitution, the "In-
strument Of government" had been drawn up
by council Of state, which had been appointed
in hurried and somewhat arbitrary way. vane
proposed that . constitution should be framed
by general convention chosen for the purpose
by the whole people-"exactly the way" says
an English scholar, (which, more than . GEN.
after was adopted By %sshnssSn and hi:
vane's," says an American scholar, develops
and illustrates-perhaps it may safely be said
for the first time-the idea of O written consti-
tuition, or body of fundamental laws. by which
the government itself is to be controlled, re-
ton, to be agreed upon in the beginning, by
which the people fix the boundaries within
which their own legislative and civil power
shall be confined, constitutes the great peculi-
arity Of the governments, federal and state,
within the American Union"
But the American scholar, like the En-
glish scholar, is wrong in saying that Vane
develops and illustrates, for the first time
in history, the idea Of a written constitution.
That honor belongs, not to Old England, but
to New England. Fifteen years before Crom-
wells instrument Of Government was
framed in England and eighteen years be-
fore Vane wrote his Healing Question" on
Jan. IA, 1888 IN. s., Jan. "a, 1881, q general
assembly Of the planters of the three towns Of
Hartford, Wethersfeld, and Windsor, which
then constituted the whole of the little colony
of Connecticut, met at Hartford and conjoined
themselves to be lone public state or common
wealth, for the purposes Of maintaining and
preserving the liberty and purity Of the gospel,
conduct of civil affairs according to law"
There is no mention or hint Of royal authority
or any superior authority whatever in the
paper which they framed; but the tone
throughout is that of independent freemen.
COURT any s e's ness S ps.s ss
series of orders, securing to the
towns certain powers not to be assumed by the
general government. All these privileges be-
longed to the towns already, and the new orders,
as one of the historians observes. .'are much
more like the first ten amendments to the Con-
stitution Of the United States, bill of rights,
originating in the jealousy of the political
units. Indeed" he says, there is hardly
step in the proceedings in Connecticut, in 1888,
which does not tempt one to digress into the
evident. parallels in the action on the national
stage $50 years later"-that is. the adoption Of
our national constitution in 17S3.
This constitution of Connecticut was really
the first written constitution known in history.
"Here, says the historian, lis the first practi-
cal assertion of the right Of the people not only
to choose but to limit the powers OF their
rulers; an assertion which lies at the foundation
OF the American system. 1t is on the banks of
the Connecticut, under the mighty preaching Of
Thomas Hooker and in the constitution to
which he gave life, if not form, that we draw
the first breath of that atmosphere which is
now so familiar to u.s." trust that all of you
who are to hear these lectures on the growth of
our constitution may read these old ''funda-
mental orders of Connecticut" and l wish
especially that you might all learn more of
Thomas Hooker, one of the most far-seeing
men our country ever had and the truest dem
ocrat of the time in which he lived, save Sir
Harry Vane alone.
The famous compact signed by the Pilgrim
Fathers in the cabin of the Maydower, in 1920,
just before they landed at Plymouth by which
they combined themselves into ''civil body
politic' and promised obedience to such Just
and equal laws as they might frame from time
to time cannot. perhaps, be called a constitu-
ton in the strictest sense, but was a great step
toward a constitution, and was a great work for
the first day Of England in America. 1t Gre
ated state, and a democratic state. 1t took
the first step toward independence, while it
looked reverently back toward the old home
have already dwelt upon the signifi-
canoe Of the way in which the Pilgrim
Fathers, driven out of England, begin this
compact, with which they begin their life
in this new world, with warm professions of
allegiance to England's king. Old England.
whose kings and bishops drove them out, is
proud of them to-day, and counts them as
truly her children as Shakespeare and Milton
and Vane. As the American walks the cor
ridors and halls of the parliament house at
Westminster, he pays no great heed to the
painted kings upon the painted windows and
cares little for the gilded throne in the gilded
house Of lords. The speakers chair in the COM
mons does not stir him most, nor the white
form of Hampden that stands silent at the
door, but his heart beats fastest where, among
great scenes from English history painted on
the walls, the tragedies and triumphs of the
days of Puritanism and Of the Revolution.
found New England. England will not let that
scene go as part of American history only,
but claims it now as one Of the proudest scenes
in her own history, too. 1t is a bud of promise
/ said. when first saw it there. Shall not its
full unfolding be some great reunion Of the
English race, a prelude to the federation of the
world2 Let that picture there in the parlia-
ment house at Westminster stay always in your
mind, TO remind you Of the England in you.
Let the picture Of the signing of the compact
on the Mayfower stay with it to remind you Of
progress and greater freedom. That, take it,
is what America-New England, now tempered
that, take it, is what America stands for.