ON THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 149 
In the first place, 2¢ was the first written constitu- 
tion known to history that created a government. 
Secondly, tt makes no alluston to any sovereign 
beyond seas, nor to any source of authority whatever 
except the three towns themselves. 
_ Thirdly, tt created a state which was really a tiny 
federal republic, and it recognized the principle of 
federal equality by equality of representation among 
the towns, while at the same time it recognized popu- 
lar sovereignty by electing its governor and its Upper 
Flouse by a plurality vote. 
Fourthly, let me repeat, tt conferred upon the Gen- 
eval Court only such powers as were expressly granted. 
L[n these pecuharities we may see how largely zt served 
as a precedent for the Constitution of the United 
States.' 
1“ This is not the place for inquiring into the origin of written constitu- 
tions. Their precursors in a certain sense were the charters of medizval 
towns, and such documents as the Great Charter of 1215 by which the 
English sovereign was bound to respect sundry rights and liberties of his 
people. Our colonial charters were in a sense constitutions, and laws that 
infringed them could be set aside by the courts. By rare good fortune, 
aided by the consummate tact of the younger Winthrop, Connecticut 
obtained in 1662 such a charter, which confirmed her in the possession of 
her liberties. But these charters were always, in form at least, a grant of 
privileges from an overlord to a vassal, something given or bartered bya 
superior to an inferior. With the constitution which created Connecticut 
it was quite otherwise. You may read its eleven articles from beginning 
to end, and not learn from it that there was ever such a country as England 
or such a personage as the British sovereign. It is purely a contract, in 
accordance with which we the people of these three river towns propose to 
conduct our public affairs. Here is the form of government which com- 
mends itself to our judgment, and we hereby agree to obey it while we 
reserve the right to amend it. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, 
this document contains no theoretical phrases about liberty and equality, 
and it is all the more impressive for their absence. It does not deem it 
necessary to insist upon political freedom and upon equality before the law, 
but it takes them for granted and proceeds at once to business. Surely 
