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THE
FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT
January
14, 1639
On
March 3, 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts instituted
a provisional government for those resolved to reside
on the River of Connecticut. Windor, Hartford and Wethersfield
formed this voluntary compact for self-government on
January 14, 1639. Provisions dealing with religion are
excerpted below.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
Forasmuch
as it hath pleased Allmighty God by the wise disposition
of his divine providence so to order and dispose of things
that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford
and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and
upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto
adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered
together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace
and union of such a people there should be an orderly and
decent Government established according to God, to order
and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons
as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin
ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and
do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be
adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination
and Confederation together, to maintain and preserve the
liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which
we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches,
which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced
amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and
governed accordinbg to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees
as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth:
1. It
is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall be
yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the one the second
Thursday in April, the other the second Thursday in September
following; the first shall be called the Court of Election,
wherein shall be yearly chosen from time to time, so many
Magistrates and other public Officers as shall be found
requisite: Whereof one to be chosen Governor for the year
ensuing and until another be chosen, and no other Magistrate
to be chosen for more than one year: provided always there
be six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and
sworn according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall
have the power to administer justice according to the Laws
here established, and for want thereof, according to the
Rule of the Word of God; which choice shall be made by all
that are admitted freemen and have taken the Oath of Fidelity,
and do cohabit within this Jurisdiction having been admitted
Inhabitants by the major part of the Town wherein they live
or the major part of such as shall be then present.
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* * *
4. It
is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that no person be chosen
Governor above once in two years, and that the Governor
be always a member of some approved Congregation, and formerly
of the Magistracy within this Jurisdiction; and that all
the Magistrates, Freemen of this Commonwealth; and that
no Magistrate or other public officer shall execute any
part of his or their office before they are severally sworn,
which shall be done in the face of the court if they be
present, and in case of absence by some deputed for that
purpose.
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* * *
14th January 1639 the 11 Orders above said are voted.
Source:
The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters,
and Other Organic Laws of the United States 249-51 (Ben
Berley Poore ed., 2d ed. 1878).
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