Connecticut Supreme Court History
Volume II (2007)

ORIGINAL DISCONTENTS

Richard Buel Jr.

Abstract

The Acorn Club publication Original Discontents reprints twenty-four selections of political commentary bearing on Connecticut’s Constitution of 1818. All but one selection appeared in Connecticut newspapers and excerpts from the one exception—The Politics of Connecticut (1817), by George H. Richards—were serialized in the Hartford Times. Newspapers rather than pamphlets dominated the political culture of Connecticut after the War of 1812, because the author of a pamphlet usually paid for its publication while newspapers published political commentary gratis when they agreed with it.

The anthology covers the controversy over calling a constitutional convention, what kind of constitution the convention should draft, and the merits of the convention’s handiwork. Most of the commentary on these issues appeared in seven of the state’s fifteen newspapers during the twenty-month period covered.

The essays that appear in the anthology were selected to represent the important points of view that surfaced during the constitutional debate. In addition to the twenty-four separate essays, the anthology also includes the texts of the Fundamental Orders, the Charter of 1662, and the Constitution of 1818 for the reader’s reference. The general introduction to Original Discontents provides an historical context for understanding the controversy. It departs from past treatments of the Constitution of 1818 in stressing the larger national and international developments shaping Connecticut’s political evolution. A slightly expanded, lightly annotated version of the introduction is reproduced in this issue of Connecticut Supreme Court History.

Connecticut Supreme Court History, Vol. II | Publications