Connecticut in the Constitutional Convention

For an account of the Constitutional Convention that highlights Connecticut's role, turn to the nineteenth-century work by George Bancroft that dominated interpretation of the framing of the Constitution for a generation, History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882), 2 vols. Bancroft coined the phrase "Connecticut Compromise," but nobody reads him anymore. Unfortunately, too, his argument for Connecticut predominance was shattered by the discovery that a principal piece of his evidence--a supposed Roger Sherman document--was not what he had thought it was. See Hannis Taylor, "A Bancroftian Invention," Yale Law Journal 18 (December, 1908) 2:75-84.

Perhaps the best approach to this aspect of Connecticut history, after relevant chapters in recent general works and in comprehensive histories of Connecticut, is through biography. The "Biographies" section of this bibliography lists several works on each of the state's constitution makers: Oliver Ellsworth, William Samuel Johnson, and Roger Sherman. Collier's volume on Sherman contains the fullest published coverage of the subject. Dissertations by Jordan and Wachtell and Purcell's book, cited above, are also excellent. In addition, searchers can look at the following:

Boutell, Lewis Henry. "Roger Sherman and the Constitutional Convention." Annual Report of the American Historical Association (1893). Asserts Sherman's primacy in bringing about the Great Connecticut Compromise.

Gerlach, Larry R. "Toward a More Perfect Union: Connecticut, the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention." CHS Bulletin 34 (April, 1969) 3:65-78. Surveys the role of the Connecticut delegation in writing the Articles of Confederation and fashioning other precedent institutions of the later national government.

Hoar, George F. "The Connecticut Compromise." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 15 (October, 1902) 2:233-58. Hoar, a distinguished Massachusetts senator and grandson of Sherman, shares Boutell's views. Hoar writes in order to contest fellow Senator Henry Cabot Lodge's assertion that Ellsworth deserves most of the credit for the Compromise. Hoar wins hands down.

Jensen, Merrill. "The Ratification of the Constitution by Connecticut: Introduction," in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution. vol. III, edited by Merrill Jensen. Madison, Wisc.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1978. A seventeen-page essay that focuses on the economic controversies during the Confederation period introducing 275 pages of contemporaneous newspaper, pamphlet, and convention debate along with private correspondence and town meeting minutes. Includes brief biographies of twenty-two major political figures of the ear.

Jordan, Philip, ed. "Connecticut Anti-Federalism on the Eve of the Constitutional Convention, A Letter from Benjamin Gale to Erastus S. Wolcott, February 1787." CHS Bulletin 28 (January, 1963) 1:14-21. In this most significant document, Gale sets forth anti-national fears of a conspiracy against republicanism and local control.

Katz, Judith Maxen. "Connecticut Newspapers and the Constitutional Convention, 1786-1788." CHS Bulletin 30 (April, 1965) 2.

Lettieri, Ronald J. "Connecticut's 'Publius': Oliver Ellsworth, The Landholder Series, and the Fabric of Connecticut Republicanism." Connecticut History 23 (April, 1982):24-45. Theory, rhetoric, and strategy of ratification in 1787-88.

Smith, Dennis C. "The Appeal of a Virtuous Government, a Content Analysis of some Connecticut Newspapers during the Ratification Controversy." New Scholar 4 (1974):135-51.

Steiner, Bernard C. "Connecticut's Ratification of the Federal Constitution." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. New series (April, 1915). An excellent early piece.