152 CONNECTICUT’S INFLUENCE 
Now these infant towns did not at the first moment 
form themselves into a commonwealth, but they re- 
tained each its autonomy like the towns of ancient 
Greece, and each of these independent towns was little 
else than an independent congregation. All over New 
England the town was practically equivalent to the 
parish. In point of fact it was the English parish 
brought across the ocean and self-governing, without 
any subjection to a bishop. But nowhere perhaps 
was the identification of Church and State in the 
affairs of the town so complete as in these little 
communities on the banks of the Sound. In June of 
1639, less than half a year after the constitution of 
Connecticut, the planters of New Haven held a meet- 
ing in Robert Newman’s lately finished barn, and 
agreed upon a constitution for New Haven. Mr. 
Davenport began by preaching a sermon from the text 
“Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn 
out her seven pillars.” After the sermon six funda- 
mental orders were submitted to the meeting and 
adopted by a show of hands. The general purport of 
these orders was that only church members could vote 
and hold office. Even in that gathering of saints such 
a rule would disfranchise many, and it was not adopted 
without some opposition. It was then provided that 
all the freemen (that is, church members) should 
Saye and his friends, and in the next year a colony planted at the mouth of 
Pequot River was afterward called New London, and the name of the river 
was changed to Thames. Apparently Connecticut had an eye to the main 
chance, or, in modern parlance, to the keys of empire; at all events, she 
had no notion of being debarred from access to salt water, and while she 
seized the mouths of the three great rivers, she claimed the inheritance of 
the Pequots, including all the lands where that domineering tribe had ever 
exacted tribute.” 
