The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-08
CONSTITUTION OF 1889.
Address by the Rev. Frederic w. Per
 kins.

kins.
 The Rev. Frederic w. Perkins, the pastor of the Church of the Redeemer UniversalisD, Hartford, lectured in the church Friday afternoon in the Charter Oak course, which is being given for the benefit of pupils of the High and Grammar schools. There was a large audience present. Before the lecture the audience sang America i'll ac- cordance with the custom observed at the lectures.
 MT. Perkins said that every American knew that constitution was associated effort based on written compact. Why is it worth while to consider the constitution of Connecticut? The con- stitution of 1889 is the first written doc- ument creating government The compact agreed to in the Mayfiower did not make laws; it did not create gov ernment. Neither did the Magma Charta of King John create govern ment. The Connecticut constitution is aso the first cons itution based on pop u ar suffrage. The birthplace Of Amer iean democracy is Hartford. Political principles live first in ideas and are af rewards enacted in written laws. The reverse was attempted in France, and to-day the government of France is in a precarious condition. The French people even tried to destroy the calan dar, and said: eve will begin at the year one" They made mistake in closing their eyes to the Iast. MT. Perkins referred to the colony of Mas sachusetts, and said that Massachu- sets was not democracy. Massachu- setts changed from an aristocracy and oligarchy to a democracy. MT. Per kins said that John Winthrop, the ideal Mas achusetts Puritan, wrote 10 Thom- as Hooker that the lest rart of he peo- pie was the least. The system of elect ing the president is the survival of the vii tory won by Alexander Hamilton. wh sa Tolitical ideas were similar to those of John Winthrop. The Rev. John Cotton of Massachusetts was the pope of Massachusetts, though he Would dCsrise the name, yet he was one in spitit-said he despis d democ acy. In Massachusetts the suffrage was con- fined to members of the church. Mas sachusetts was not a democracy be- cause it's charter did not low it to be- cCme such The Mas achusetts cor.pa. ny was organized by peopl living in LoGdon, and was a trading company. The company sent out with John Endi- colt was nothing more than a body of servants.
 The men who came to Connecticut from Massachusetts left the latter col ony because of their opposition to the Hooker was their natural leader. Con- condition that existed there. Thomas nectlcut was governed between 1636 and 1889 by commission from Massachu- setts. The Connecticut people accepted the commission from Massachusetts not because they conceded the right ef Massachusetts, but because it was a convenient government to have. The new government in Connecticut was set up without ripple of discussion There were no records left. In Janua- ry 1G39, the people formed the new con- stitution. He quoted from a sermon preached by Thomas Hooker in which the great founder stated that the choice of magistrates was vested in the peo- pie by Gods own allowance, The statements of the people of Connecticut contravened the principles in the Mas sachusetts government, and Thomas Hooker had Massachusetts in his minds eye when he preached his ser mon. The constitution of Come ticut antagonized three principles in the Massachusetts government. Popular elections. and universal suffrage for all practical purposes, were characteristics of the Connecticut constitution. The towns were to s,nd deputies to the gen eral court. It provided also that in the event of the governor forgetting to Or der elections the towns had the right 10 choose their deputies, governor or no governor. Not a single allusion was made to King Charles The constitu- ton was as rebellious as the Declara- ton of Independence The people of Connecticut did not go around adver- Using the fact that they were rebels The Connecticut Yankee is shrewd and is not in the habit of putting his head in a hornets nest when there was any way of getting around it. The constr. tuition provided for popular government as against the classes. There was nc class having reserved rights. It is enough to make Connecticut mans heart throb to think of those men say ing, when democracy was a heresy, that there was more wisdom and virtue in the people at large than in any individ- ual.
 He did not care to go into the Gues- tion whether the state founded the towns or the towns founded the state It seemed to him to be a legal question The fact was, however, that the people founded the towns and state side by side. From the very beginning the state was recognized.