Connecticut Supreme Court History
Volume II (2007)

THE ORIGINS OF CONNECTICUT’S CONSTITUTION OF 1818:
A REVIEW ESSAY ON NEW DOCUMENTARY SOURCES

Donald W. Rogers

Abstract

As in most states, the documentary record of Connecticut’s early constitutional evolution has been sparse. Until today, the Connecticut Public Records have promulgated the enactments of the state’s charter-based General Assembly only down through 1815. Now, with the publication of Volumes XVIII (1816-1817) and XIX (1818) of The Public Records of the State of Connecticut, edited by Douglas M. Arnold, and with the release of Original Discontents: Commentaries on the Creation of Connecticut’s Constitution of 1818, compiled by Emeritus Professors Richard Buel, Jr. (Wesleyan University) and George J. Willauer (Connecticut College) of The Acorn Club, the public record on Connecticut’s 1818 Constitution will be more complete. Indeed, the documentary materials presented by these new volumes will likely stimulate fresh thinking about the 1818 Constitution’s founding and “original meaning.”

With the publication of new volumes of the Public Records and Original Discontents, lawyers and scholars can now reevaluate these differing perspectives on Connecticut’s Constitution of 1818, particularly in regard to the historical origins of that constitutional transformation, the composition of the reform coalition, and the kind of changes that the new government of 1818 actually brought about. In the way of new evidence, the Public Records offer transcriptions of the Connecticut General Assembly’s legislative enactments based on the official manuscript record of the Assembly’s acts, resolutions and appointments archived at the Connecticut State Library, and they include the text of other pertinent documents, such as speeches, debates and drafts of the Constitution of 1818. Both of the new volumes of the Public Records begin with up-to-date Introductions by Douglas Arnold that place the work of the General Assembly and constitutional convention in historical context. Footnotes and bibliographic notes will offer researchers a solid guide to the scholarly literature. Buel’s and Willauer’s Original Discontents provides an invaluable supplement to Volume XVIII by illuminating the emerging political struggle more explicitly.

This essay, in addition to describing the new volumes, adds interpretive commentary to place these works in historiographical context.
 

 Connecticut Supreme Court History, Vol. II | Publications