Fundamental Orders of Connecticut The
Fundamental Orders were adopted by the
Connecticut Colony council on January 14, 1639
OS (January 24, 1639
NS). The fundamental orders describe the government set up by the
Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers. They wanted the government to have access to the open ocean for trading. The Orders have the features of a written
constitution and are considered by some as the first written Constitution in the
Western tradition. Thus,
Connecticut earned its
nickname of
The Constitution State. Connecticut historian
John Fiske was the first to claim that the Fundamental Orders were the first written Constitution, a claim disputed by some modern historians. The orders were transcribed into the official
colony records by the colony's secretary
Thomas Welles. It was a Constitution the government that
Massachusetts had set up. However, this Order gave men more
voting rights and made more men eligible to run for elected positions.
Colonial law Originally, the first revision of the early laws and orders of Connecticut (the Code of 1650) was not printed. Prior to the revision of 1672, which was printed in 1675, the laws and orders of the General Court were promulgated only by manuscript copies.
Since 1818 , Revision of 1838 (published 1839). Since the famous constitution of 1818 was adopted, revisions to the
Connecticut General Statutes have occurred at intervals of a few years; although the first, that of 1821, was in force for a quarter of a century. In 1835, references to judicial decisions were printed for the first time; and some years afterwards, the Secretary began to publish separately the Private Acts, which in 1870 had accumulated to six volumes. The districts were rearranged in 1842; and in 1847, a commission consisting of Governor Dutton, Judge Waldo, and Francis Fellowes, was appointed to make a new revision, known as that of 1849; Dutton and Waldo, with David B. Booth, served again in the same way in 1864. This revision was known as that of 1865. Before many years had passed, the need of another revision was felt, and another commission was appointed to make a new revision, with the view to classifying, consolidating, and supplying omissions and giving notes and references according to its judgment. Many ancient titles which had become obsolete, as Concerning Slavery Taverners, and the like, were left out; many penalties and fines were changed because inadequate or expressed in antiquated terms; and by careful condensation, the whole mass of statues was abridged to a volume little larger than the previous one. This was the revision of 1875. ==Sources of law==