Norwich bulletin., 1919-05-10
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT

have deemed {. disproportionate {, share of public authority. For few years in the era of the Revolution, from IT'S to 1zSs, it was subject to no constitutional restraints. From | I1S9 to ISIS it was subject to few. {, From ISIS to 1918 it was subject to many. Thirty-siX times in that cen i tucy we have amended our consutu l ton; and nearly half of all the | changes thus wrought have trenched in some way on the powers of the l general assembly.
 Change is the n<p4.~ on of vital | jty,' declared he. By frequei changes tne lSv.---,i %.scsnply or Connecticut has been Kept abreast Of the general world movement towards higher ideals or legal right and so- cial good. We have examined many propositions put forward es calcu- lated to advance them, which after close scrutiny have been finally re- jected, One oa these it is especially fitting to remember on this occa- sion. It is that respecting the iIli- tiative and the referendum. Connecticut invented the referen dunn. but she has confined it to the consideration of changes in her con- stitution. She has not adopted the initiative, and it is because she has preferred to abide by the original form Of Anglo Saxon government 1 that ill which the people speak by l their chosen represen tttivezs, med
 ing face to face for discussion and
 deliberation.
 Connecticut is 8 state which has,
 from the first made haste slowly. She 1 is rightly called the Land of Steady
 Habits Her legislation has often l been tentative. She has experimented before coming to final decision. In
 the words of one of her foremost his I torians. Seldom has any advance been made until the experience Of a temp orary act had explored the way and found it safe
 Things are not always what they i seem. Epictetus, ill his discourse on com batting scInblances, says: Be not hurried away by excitement but say 1 "Semblance, wait for me a little. Let me see what you arc and what you represent. Let me try you''
 Such rule has been the philoso-
 phy of Connecticut legislation.
 Before Rousseau's Time.
 Rousseau, in his Social Contract says that the legislative power is the heart of the state.' If he had knowr when writing that treatise that more
 than a hundred years before. on the banks of the Connecticut, a new com. 1 monwealth had been set up by social contract, he would have been glad te find his theories supported in the new
 world. The freemen of Connection
 had indeed made their legislature tht
 heart of their government.
 They had considered an election tt
 it to be so great an honor that nc nrln chr, iSl1 I,;
 candidate. It was to be presumed
 they though, that the best men would
 be chosen because they were the best Until the close of the eighteenth cn , tury 6 nomination to either house 0 the general assembly was neve sought
 After quotations from old-time think CTS on this matters, and mention 0 ; several instances in which men wer { continually reelected without effort on their part. he said.
 Public opinion no longer support any such rule of political conduct l ] could only be suitable for a small an
 homogeneous state, in which men 0 } any special prominence were person l ally known to a large proportion c | the inhabitants, and re- elections wer | usual.
 D Turning to the defeat of new princi 3 iples proposed at the constitutions
 1 convention of 1902, he said:
 Il ''The preamble Of our constitutio , 1 states that the people of Connecticu have ordained it in order more ef : fectualIy to define, secure and perpet
 uate the liberties, rights and privileg
 es which they have derived from the : ancestors The convention propose Il to substitute for this declaration { . purpose these words: Desiring 1 T perpetuate the liberties. rights a'1 } tprivileges which they have derive $ from their ancestors.
 'The heavy majority by which i
 proposed constitution was voted dow
 indicates for one thing that the pee
 pie were rot anxious for new defin
 tions or new securities. They Wel e content. with the old ones The y were willing 10 let the general a. ,0 >embly go on in it's ancient cours
 with ali it's amplitude of scope. Tho knew the periis of close definitions what is or may be law. They Wantt u no securities against unwise legisl; ton except such as their courts l.; = always been found adequate to SUI 1l u ply.
 IL ''Thc iandmarks~in the history of Il ,e general assembly Of Connecticut q II it's division into two separate lious 'd in TBS: the change from scmi-anHI
 al to annual sessions and the strict lg limitation of it's powers, by the ado s. ton Of the constitution a. hundred al )! twenty years later: their further r 'h duction after 40 years by the fou se teentn amendment to the constitute