The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut (Classic Reprint)


Book Description

Excerpt from The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut The following monograph is the outgrowth of three earlier and shorter essays. The first, "Church and State in Connecticut to 1818," was presented to Yale University as a doctor's thesis. The second, a briefer and more popularly written article, won the Straus prize offered in 1896 through Brown University by the Hon. Oscar S. Straus. The third, a paper containing additional matter, was so far approved by the American Historical Association as to receive honorable mention in the Justin Winsor prize competition of 1901. With such encouragement, it seemed as if the history of the development of religious liberty in Connecticut might serve a larger purpose than that of satisfying personal interest alone. In Connecticut such development was not marked, as so often elsewhere, by wild disorder, outrageous oppression, tyranny of classes, civil war, or by any great retrograde movement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




Disestablishment in Connecticut


Book Description

"Disestablishment of the state and church in Connecticut proved to be rich in political and religious history. For years religious dissenters decried the forced support of religion in the state. As the Republican Party gained more support from religious dissenters desiring religious liberty, a war between Federalists and Republicans, establishmentarians and disestablishmentarians, began. The war was not simply political, however, rather more of a religious war waged on political battlefields. Newspaper articles of the day reveal that both sides attempted to prove they were the defenders of true religion and the other the enemy. Federalists argued Republicans were Atheists, infidels and irreligious and that support of religion and the Gospel itself was vital and necessary; Republicans argued Federalists corrupted religion and that Christianity would be free to prosper under Republican rule. Through each political season and issue, starting in 1816 and ending in 1818 with the ratification of Connecticut's first state constitution, religion-Christianity-dominated the conversation. It was a significant factor and most vociferously contested aspect of the battle between Federalists and Republicans including the creation and ratification of the state's first state constituition." -abstract.




Original Discontents


Book Description

Primary documents illuminate the second Hartford Convention




List of Congregational Ecclesiastical Societies Established in Connecticut Before October 1818


Book Description

Excerpt from List of Congregational Ecclesiastical Societies Established in Connecticut Before October 1818: With Their Changes At first, liberty would be given by the General Assembly to set up a church in a town. Later, as the population of a town increased and spread, the Assembly upon petition would divide the town into two or more Societies, naming and carefully establishing the bounds of each, and give liberty for a church in each Society. Sometimes a Society would be located partly in each of two or more towns, where a center of settlement lay near a town line. Only in a few instances was the whole or any part of a Society established within the bounds of another Society. Occasionally a Society failed to receive a definite name from the Assembly when it was established; or sometimes one would come to be known by a name which was popularly applied to it, rather than by its official designation. Frequently Societies changed their location from one town to another, through the incorporation of new towns by the division of older towns. This would often result in the Society in the new town being designated by a new name, sometimes officially and more often unofficially. The different Societies in a town were often called by their numerical designation in the order of their establishment, as Second or Fifth Society, which designation would be changed by the division of the town. The result of all this is that it often seems impossible to fix upon the true legal name of a Society. It is often now impossible to tell from the record of the establishment of a Society from what Society or Societies it was set off. The date of the establishing of a Society differs in the majority of instances from that of the organization of the Church in that Society. Usually it is earlier, but occasionally later than that of the Church. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.










The Glorious Revolution and the Continuity of Law


Book Description

The Glorious Revolution and the Continuity of Law explores the relationship between law and revolution. Revolt - armed or not - is often viewed as the overthrow of legitimate rulers. Historical experience, however, shows that revolutions are frequently accompanied by the invocation rather than the repudiation of law. No example is clearer than that of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. At that time the unpopular but lawful Catholic king, James II, lost his throne and was replaced by his Protestant son-in-law and daughter, William of Orange and Mary, with James's attempt to recapture the throne thwarted at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. The revolutionaries had to negotiate two contradictory but intensely held convictions. The first was that the essential role of law in defining and regulating the activity of the state must be maintained. The second was that constitutional arrangements to limit the unilateral authority of the monarch and preserve an indispensable role for the houses of parliament in public decision-making had to be established. In the circumstances of 1688-89, the revolutionaries could not be faithful to the second without betraying the first. Their attempts to reconcile these conflicting objectives involved the frequent employment of legal rhetoric to justify their actions. In so doing, they necessarily used the word "law" in different ways. It could denote the specific rules of positive law; it could simply express devotion to the large political and social values that underlay the legal system; or it could do something in between. In 1688-89 it meant all those things to different participants at different times. This study adds a new dimension to the literature of the Glorious Revolution by describing, analyzing and elaborating this central paradox: the revolutionaries tried to break the rules of the constitution and, at the same time, be true to them.