The Constitution of 1818

The Constitution of 1818 served, with many amendments, as Connecticut's fundamental governing document for nearly a century and a half, until the state's one-man/one-vote decision, Butterworth v. Dempsey, forced the writing of a new constitution in 1965. The relevant primary source is Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates Convened at Hartford, August 26th, 1818 for the Purpose of Forming a Constitution of Civil Government for the People of the State of Connecticut (Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainard: printed by order of the General Assembly, 1873). The most detailed and probably most accurate narrative account of the Convention is another one printed at the direction of the General Assembly, presumably in relation to the Constitutional Convention of 1902, by J. Hammond Trumbull, distinguished Connecticut bibliographer who left the manuscript at his death in 1897. It is Historical Notes on the Constitution of Connecticut and on the Constitutional Convention of 1818 (Hartford: The State, 1901). This work deals in particular with the "Origin and Progress of the Movement which resulted in the Convention of 1818 and the Adoption of the Present Constitution.” It is a very useful little pamphlet of sixty-two pages.

In "The Unconstitutional Period of Connecticut History," Connecticut Bar Journal 14 (January, 1940) 1:22-34, William M. Maltbie, then chief justice of the State Supreme Court, surveys the period 1776 to 1818 and maintains that the Declaration of Independence upset the Charter of 1662 and that thus there was in fact no constitution during that period just as the Jeffersonians and Tolerationists contended in the early nineteenth century. Maltbie was perhaps responding to an earlier piece by E. F. Humphrey, "Connecticut's First Constitution," Connecticut Bar Journal 13 (January, 1939) 1:44-51, in which Humphrey argues that the Fundamental Orders, the Charter of 1662, and the Constitution of 1818 constituted a continuous constitutional base.

Alan W. Brownsword, in "The Constitution of 1818 and Political Afterthoughts, 1800-1840," CHS Bulletin 30 (January, 1965) 1:1-10, written in the aftermath of Butterworth v. Dempsey, points out that the two elements of the 1818 constitution which became most controversial were districting for state senatorial elections and the mechanics of the ballot. The piece is drawn from his dissertation, cited below. See also John J. Reardon, "Religious and Other Factors in the Defeat of the Standing Order," annotated in the "Religion" section, below.

On the politics that led up to the writing of the Constitution of 1818, there is a fairly extensive literature, which has been cited in various other contexts. Use the index at the back of this book to find full citations and annotations for the following works:

Brownsword, Alan William. "Connecticut Political Patterns, 1817-1828"

Morse, Jarvis M. Under the Constitution of 1818

Purcell, Richard J. Connecticut in Transition

Stamps, Norman L. "Political Parties in Connecticut 1789-1819"

Shumway, Floyd M. "Early New Haven and its Leadership"

Thomas, Edmund B. "Politics in the Land of Steady Habits: Connecticut's First Political Party System, 1789-1820"

See also: Weisbrod, Carol. "On Evidences and Intentions: The More Proof, The More Doubt," Connecticut Law Review 18 (Summer, 1986) 4:803-25.  This is a discussion of the problems involved in discovering the "original intent" of the framers of the 1818 disestablishment clause and later religious aspects of Connecticut statutes. The conclusion is that historical investigation tends to complicate rather than clarify the intention of the framers -- at least in respect to the religion clauses of the Connecticut Constitution. The piece is significant in that it demonstrates that despite the diversity of opinion about the relationship of religion and government in 1818 and the decades following, few in Connecticut believed that government ought to be neutral towards religion generally and Christianity in particular.