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CONNECTICUT.

The Connecticut Constitution. John Fiske, in "The Beginnings of New England," tells the story of the adoption of the Connecticut Constitution. "On the 14th of January, 1639, all the freemen of the three towns assembled at Hartford and adopted a written constitution, in which the hand of the great preacher (Hooker) is clearly discernible. It is worthy of

64. Connecticut. -- The colony of Massachusetts Bay grew rapidly during the first few years after the settlement of Boston. Within five years there were thirty towns on or near the coast that sent their representatives to the General Court to make laws. Some of the immigrants began to object to the law which refused the right to vote to those who were not members of the Puritan Church. Desiring to form communities where all should have the franchise, some of the towns decided to move to new localities. The fertile valley of the Connecticut River presented strong attractions, and during the years 1635 and 1636 settlements were made along this river. The towns of Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge) moved in a body, and formed the villages afterwards called Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. These were the first English settlements of importance within the present limits of Connecticut, and the colony obtained its name from that of the river, upon whose banks these towns were built.

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note that this document contains none of the conventional references to a 'dread sovereign' or a 'gracious king,' nor the slightest allusion to the British or any government outside of Connecticut itself, nor does it prescribe any condition of church-membership for the right of suffrage. It was the first written constitution known to history, that created a government, and it marked the beginnings of American democracy, of which Thomas Hooker deserves more than any other man to be called the father. The government of the United States to-day is in lineal descent more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of any the other thirteen States.

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65. New Haven. While the newly arrived immigrants from Massachusetts were becoming settled in the valley of the ticut, the beginnings of another colony were made. A pa of settlers arriving in Boston in 1637 decided to seek a place where they might form a colony of their own, and not simply ~ town in Massachusetts. Under the leadership of Rev. John Da port they left Boston, and sailed around Cape Cod, past the entrance to Narragansett Bay, and landed at the mouth of the Quinnipiack River in 1638. This Indian name was changed to New Haven, and a rival colony to Connecticut was begun. The growth, however, was slow, and many, intending to settle here, were led to join the

towns on the Connecticut, because of their greater religious liberty. The two colonies grew side by side, until the Connecticut charter was received in 1662 (¶ 185), which was followed in 1664 by the union of the two, under the name of the larger. The colony, and later the State, of Connecticut, gave proof of its double origin by having two capitals, Hartford and New Haven, until the year 1873.

RHODE ISLAND.

66. Providence. Religious persecution drove the Pilgrims to Plymouth, and also the Puritans to Salem and Boston. Religious

Roger Williams, in a le ́ter written about 1671, speaks thus of his winter's flight: "When I was unkindly, and unchristianly, as I believe, driven from my house, and land, and wife, and children, in the midst of a New England winter, now about thirty-five years past, at Salem, that ever honored governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote to me to steer my course to the Narragansett Bay and Indians, for many high and heavenly ends, encourageing me, from the freeness of the place from any English claims and patents. I took his prudent motion as a hint and a voice from God, and, waiving all other thoughts and motions, I steered my course from Salemthough in winter snow, which I yet feel unto these parts, wherein I may say Peniel, that is, I have seen the face of God."

liberty was not understood by the Englishmen of the seventeenth century; those who had fled from religious oppression quickly became themselves persecutors for religion's sake. One of the ministers of the town of Salem, unable to accept all of the beliefs and practices with which he was surrounded, began to preach and write against them. This man was Roger Williams, who had arrived in Boston in 1631. The General Court determined to investigate his new doctrines, and as a result Roger Williams was banished from the country (181). Unwilling to be carried back to England, he fled alone into the wilderness. This was in midwinter, and he sojourned among the Indians, being "tossed," as he said, "for fourteen weeks, not knowing what bed or bread did mean." At length, having been joined by a few companions, he crossed the Seekonk River, and in 1636 decided to build a town, to which he gave the name of Providence. Here, at the northern end of Narragansett Bay, was established a colony which allowed perfect religious liberty.

67. Rhode Island. Another leader of a religious sect, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, was banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay in the year 1638. A home was made by her followers on an island in Narragansett Bay, at a place called Aquidneck. The

towns of Newport and Portsmouth sprang up on this island of Rhode Island, and the colony of Rhode Island was thus begun.

This continued on friendly terms with its neighbor at Providence, until a charter was obtained in 1644, which incorporated the colony of "Rhode Island

and Providence Plantations." Under another charter, received in 1663, the government was carried on until near the middle of the present century. To-day Rhode Island is the only State having two capitals, and holds sessions of its legislature each year at Providence and Newport.

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Roger Williams's Monument, Providence, R. I.

68. New England.—Thus, in the year 1638, there had been established in New England seven distinct colonies. New Hampshire, which remained a separate colony for most of its history; Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, which were united in 1691; Connecticut and New Haven, which continued apart until 1665; and Rhode Island and Providence, which were joined in 1644. After the year 1691, New England contained four colonies, with the boundaries nearly as at present, except that Maine continued a part of Massachusetts until it became a State in 1820 (447) and that Vermont was claimed by New Hampshire and New York until it was admitted to the Union in 1791 (1402).

Miles Standish's Sword.

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CHAPTER X.

NEW YORK.

69. The Dutch. On the west coast of the continent of Europe, directly across the British Channel from England, lies the country of Holland. This is the kingdom which was the famous Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century. During the sixteenth century, the Protestant faith took strong hold of the prosperous and educated people of the Netherlands, and a long and terrible war with the king of Spain followed. For eighty years they fought the most powerful king in the world, and yet were able, at the same time, to advance in prosperity, and to become the greatest commercial nation of the time. While the English were making their first permanent settlements in America, the Dutch Republic was driving the Spanish and the Portuguese from the ocean, and building up a trade with India and the East.

70. Henry Hudson. -The Dutch were not content with the long journey around the south of Africa, and determined to send an expedition to seek for a more direct route. Accordingly, in 1609, the Dutch East India Company directed Henry Hudson to make an expedition toward the north, and to find a way to China. Hudson was an Englishman, though in the employ of the Dutch, and had made two similar attempts before this time. He first tried to find a passage north of Europe, and then set sail for the west; after traversing the coast from Newfoundland. to the Delaware, he passed through the Narrows between Staten Island and Long Island. Pleased with the beauty of the bay, as well as with its excellence as a harbor, Hudson sailed up the river, past the Palisades, almost to the mouth of the Mohawk River. He decided that he had not found the northwest passage through America, and returned to Holland to report the result of his voyages. The magnificent river received his name, as well as the great bay in British America, to which he afterward went, and where he lost his life.

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