In 1639, the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield created a single government. Their decision was inspired by a sermon from minister Thomas Hooker, who told his congregation that “the foundation of authority is laid firstly in the free consent of people.” The towns had been working together informally, but they wanted to form a more official system. The result was a set of written rules called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This was one of the first written constitutions in the American colonies.
The Orders explained how the new government would work. It created a General Court made up of a governor, deputies, and magistrates. These leaders would meet twice a year to make laws, choose officials, collect taxes, and solve problems in the colony. The towns kept their own local governments, but they sent representatives to the General Court. Leaders were chosen through regular elections. Only freemen—men who had taken an oath and been accepted by their towns—could vote. A person could not serve as governor for two years in a row.
Unlike other governments at the time, this one did not mention the king. Instead, it claimed its power came from the people living in the colony. As the document says, the towns joined together “to be as one Public State or Commonwealth” and to create “just and equal laws” for the good of the colony.
The Fundamental Orders gave the people of Connecticut a voice in how they were governed. It created a system where laws were made by elected leaders, not by a distant ruler. That idea would continue to grow across the colonies in the years that followed.
