CONNECTICUT (ante), (from the Indian name of the river, Quon-ek-ta-kot, mean ing " long river"); one of the original 13 states. The region was first explored by the Dutch from New Amsterdam (New York), but they made no settlement until 1633, when they built a fort called the " house of hope," on the site of the present city of Hartford, purchasing the land from the Indians. An English patent covering all the territory n. and s. from some distance above Montreal to near Philadelphia, and running from the Atlantic ocean westward an indefinite distance to the " great south sea," had been granted in 1620 to the New England proprietors, and these proprietors in 1631 made a grant of ter ritory 120 m. wide along the coast from Narragansett river s. toward Virginia and w. to the Pacific. When the English undertook to settle in 1633, the Dutch threatened war, but finally sold them the " house of hope," and Connecticut became freely opened to the New Englanders, who made their first permanent stand at Wethersfield in 1634, though a small party of them had previously established a trading-house at Windsor. In 1638. Rev. John Davenport led a company of emigrants and settled at New Haven, and very soon there were white settlements at Hartford, Windsor, Saybrook, and some other places. In 1637, the new towns threw off the New England government and set up for themselves, and the next year the New Haven colony joined the others. In the same year there was a short war with the Pequot Indians, who were defeated, and the tribe completely broken up. In 1662, a new charter was granted to John Winthrop by Charles IL. and very soon all the settlements were united under one government, New Haven, however, standing out for a considerable period. We should mention that as early as 1639, a constitution had been adopted at Hartford, now referred to as "the first one written out as a complete form or civil order in the new world, and embody ing all the essential features of the constitutions of the American states, and of the republic itself, as they exist at the present day." tinder this constitution, until 1661, the only recognized authority was the supreme power of the commonwealth, and the people were practically independent. The charter granted by Charles II. was so near to our system of government that no important changes were needed when Connecti cut became a member of the union—in fact, the organic law of the first settlers was not much altered until the adoption of a new constitution by the state in 1818. James II. made strenuous efforts to revoke all the New England charters, and in 1687, sir Edmund Andros, whom James had made governor of all New England and New York, appeared in Hartford during the session of the assembly and demanded the desired document; but upon search it was not to be found, and is believed to have been hidden away in the hollow of a tree which was famous afterward as the "charter oak." James was
driven from the throne in 1689, and the Connecticut colonial government renewed its complete authority.
From the union of the early settlements until 1701, Hartford was the seat of govern ment; after that New Haven shared the honor; and the law making both state capitals continued until 1874, the legislature meeting twice in each year, in May in one city and in Oct. in the other, until 1818, and then yearly in the cities alternately until 1874, when, by vote of the people, Hartford was made the legal capital. The colony was active in the early Indian and the French wars, and among the most zealous in the war of the revolution, its legislature having early in June, 1776, instructed its delegates in the continental congress to propose, in substance, the famous declaration that was made on the 4th of July. The settlers of Connecticut were mainly Puritans, and had all the religious earnestness of their age. Though they did not go to the extreme of burning witches and persecuting Quakers, their laws were strict, of which occasion was taken to attribute to them the whimsical code known as the "blue laws," a code which never existed except in a malignant history written by Samuel Peters, an Epis copal minister who adhered to the tories during the revolution. During the revolu tion, gen. Washington relied much upon Jonathan Trumbull, then governor of the colony, a wise and excellent counselor, whom Washington addressed as "Brother Jona ' Reminiscences of the original grants to Connecticut long remained. The exten sion westward to the "great southern ocean," gave Connecticut a strip of land 60 xn. wide to the Pacific; and these claims were recognized in western New York and northern Ohio, but long before the land became of great value, amicable arrangements were made and the claims of Connecticut were relinquished. The portion in Ohio was over 3,600,000 acres, and is still known as the "western reserve." During the second war with Great Britain, Connecticut was the stronghold of those who opposed the war, and the "Hartford convention," held by leading federalists, led to the downfall of the party, and the name of the assembly was for half a century used as an opprobrious term. It is now generally conceded that this opprobrium was without just cause. In the rebellion, Connecticut did her full share for the support of the government, fur nishing 50,000 men, and contributing money freely.