146 CONNECTICUT’S INFLUENCE 
satisfaction of anybody who could use a sextant. If 
they chose to set up for themselves, Massachusetts 
could find no reasonable ground upon which to oppose 
them. Moreover, it was distinctly bad policy for Mas- 
sachusetts to be too exigent in such a matter, or to 
make the Connecticut seceders her enemies. Massa- 
chusetts was playing a part of extraordinary boldness 
with reference to the British government. It took all 
the skill and resources of one of the most daring and 
sagacious statesmen that ever lived (and such John 
Winthrop certainly was) to steer that ship safely among 
the breakers that threatened her, and to quarrel with 
such worthy friends as the men of Connecticut, except 
for some most imperative and flagrant cause, would be 
the height of folly. 
Thus left quite free to act for themselves, the three 
river towns almost from the beginning behaved as an 
independent community. In May, 1637, a legislature 
called a General Court was assembled at Hartford. A 
committee of three from each town, meeting at Hart- 
ford, elected six magistrates and administered to them 
an oath of office. The government thus established 
superseded the commission from Massachusetts, and it 
is worth noting that it derived its authority directly 
from the three towns. In the nine deputies we have 
the germ of the representative assembly, and in the six 
elected magistrates we have the analogue of the Mas- 
sachusetts council of assistants. 
The relations of the towns, however, needed better 
definition, and on the 14th of January, 1639, a conven- 
tion met at Hartford which framed and adopted a 
written constitution, creating the commonwealth of 
Connecticut. The name of this written constitution 
