14 January 1639 A.D. “Fundamental Orders” Adopted—1st
Constitution Adopted, Hartford, CT
Editors. “1639 – In Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American
colonies, the “Fundamental Orders,” is adopted by representatives of
Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.” This Day in U.S.
Military History. N.d. Accessed 14 Jan 2015.
1639 – In Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American
colonies, the “Fundamental Orders,” is adopted by representatives of
Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford. The Dutch discovered the Connecticut
River in 1614, but English Puritans from Massachusetts largely accomplished
European settlement of the region. During the 1630s, they flocked to the
Connecticut valley from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in 1638
representatives from the three major Puritan settlements in Connecticut met to
set up a unified government for the new colony. Roger Ludlow, a lawyer, wrote
much of the Fundamental Orders, and presented a binding and compact frame of
government that put the welfare of the community above that of individuals. It
was also the first written constitution in the world to declare the modern idea
that “the foundation of authority is in the free consent of the people.” In
1662, the Charter of Connecticut superseded the Fundamental Orders; though the
majority of the original document’s laws and statutes remained in force until
1818.
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