Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-05

realized in Connecticut than in the Old Bay colony. The town was independent, the people supreme. The church in it's organic form did not rule the state; the state did not rule the church. They were officially Independent, yet mutually de pendent The same town meeting would transact business relating to both town, and church, but it was done by the mutu- al consent of the freemen who were, for the most part, citizens of dual common wealth. They held membership in state and church, and hence exercised authority in both. It was not until the number of non-church members increased that they were obliged to conform their practice to their theory. Men who voted financial support to the church desired 8 voice in the ecclesiastical management of the church, and as membership was condi- tional on moral fitness, men were denied this voice who could not satisfy the con- ditions. They sought to make wider the door opening into religious privileges. This demand necessitated readjustment and the remedy was inherent in the polity of the colony. It is in the first written constitution of Connecticut that we find the germs of our civil liberty, and in this document is seen the genius and spirit of Hooker as a leader.
 On the 31st of May, 1888, at Hartford, seven months prior to the framing of this constitution, Mr. Hooker preached ser mon in which he gave utterance to the | very principles which afterward appeared | in this state document.
 Let me state these principles in the Ian ! guage in which they are preserved: 'The | choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by Gods own allowance" "The | privilege of election must be exercised ac- cording to the blessed will and law of God" | "They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power also to set the bounds and limits of the power and place unto which they call them"
 The reason stated is sBecause the foun-
 dation of authority is laid firstly in the
 free consent of the people"
 It was concerning this discourse that Dr.
 Bacon said: '"That sermon by Thomas
 Hooker from the pulpit of the First church in Hartford is the earliest known sugges,
 not by royal charter nor by con
 cession from any previously exist
 ing government, but by the people them
 selves-a primary and supreme law by
 which the government is constituted ano
 which not only provides for the free choice
 of magistrates by the people, but alst
 sets the bounds and limitations of power | and place to which each magistrate Il | called" And Johnson asserts that 'It il
 on the banks of Connecticut, under thu
 mighty preaching of Thomas Hooker ant
 in the constitution to which he gave life
 if not form, that we draw the first breatl | of that atmosphere which is not so familia;
 to us. The birthplace of American democ
 racy is Hartford"
 Not long after this sermon was preached
 the constitution was framed and adopted
 whichegave definite shape to the civil polit.. | of the state, and which suggested the ea
 sential features of the civil polity of tn ! nation. Every American commonwealth is unde
 some measure of obligation to Connection
 for testing and preserving the principle
 of popular government, and the state Q Connecticut must acknowledge that whatever corrections, notifications, en | largements have been made during the las
 two hundred and fifty years in the appl cation of these civic principles to tn changed conditions of life, the germins } principals themselves sprang out of colle nial days, out of the town of Hartford and out of the head and heart of Thoma Hooker.
 Let Connecticut be the last to forget thi !, | op1 hia earvioo