Sunday, January 14, 2024

January 14th– The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

 No music tonight

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Summary: A lot of God, and I did not need to know that much about the selection of delegates in 17th century Connecticut.

Commentary: Short and dry today, so not a ton to say. The one thing that was interesting is the requirement that the Governor must be a member of an "approved congregation." One, we obviously don't have religious requirements for office anymore. Two, how do you get your congregation approved? Seems like a good way to create a pseudo-dynasty. Just only approve a very limited subset of congregations.

I looked up a few other early charters, constitutions, etc. for comparison. PA mentions God some, but much less. It explicitly says that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ should be eligible, with no other stipulations. Criminals explicitly get the right to witnesses and council. You still get to pass down your estate if you commit suicide (destroying yourself through melancholy). It's much closer to a modern constitution or whatever, with rights, etc. than the Connecticut one, which is more procedural (but also 75 years older, so probably not fair). The Mayflower Compact is only one paragraph long, more like a preamble to a longer document. 

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