Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/361

CONNECTICUT. limits and received in return the (q.v.). Emigration to the western lands, as well as to Vermont and New York, was active.

The passage of the Stamp Act was vigorously denounced by the General Assembly; in May, 1776 the Colony was declared released from its allegiance to England, and in October Connecticut was constituted an independent State. It contributed more than 30,000 men to the Revolutionary Army, and its Governor, Jonathan Trumbull, was one of Washington's most trusted advisers. In 1777 the British burned Danbury, and in 1779 pillaged New Haven. Forts Griswold and Trumbull, at New London, were taken on September 6, 1781, by Benedict Arnold, and the town was destroyed. In the framing of the Federal Constitution Connecticut took a prominent part, and to its delegates was due the adoption of that feature of the Constitution which provides for State representation in the Upper House of Congress and proportionate representation in the Lower. Connecticut was always a stronghold of federalism; it strongly opposed the War of 1812, and its Capitol was the meeting-place of the celebrated (q.v.). In 1818 a new constitution was framed. Church and State were separated, and the franchise was widely extended. The General Assembly was divided into a Senate and a House of Representatives. The conservative and theocratic character of the government became greatly modified as the State developed from an agricultural region into a commercial and industrial centre. The shrewdness of the Connecticut trader and the preëminent ingenuity of the Connecticut mechanic raised the State to a high degree of prosperity. During the Civil War Connecticut gave to the Union cause nearly 60,000 troops and the services of her great War Governor, Buckingham. Progress was rapid after the war. In the matter of public instruction the State took one of the foremost places in the Union, if not the foremost, devoting the entire proceeds from the sale of its public lands to the support of the free schools. In the readjustment, however, of the balance of political power in conformity with changed political conditions, no like spirit of progress was shown, and in 1901 the necessity of electoral reform was discussed at length in the press of the State. Representation in the Lower House being based on the old township divisions and not on population, it happened that great cities like New Haven and Bridgeport were dominated by rural communities with one-tenth their population. In many cases, a state of things prevailed not far removed from conditions in England before the Reform Bill of 1832. The agitation resulted in the calling of a constitutional convention, which met in January, 1902, and drew up a scheme of redistribution which was submitted to the people on June 16. The measure provided for one representative from every town with a population of less than 2000, two representatives for towns between 20,000 and 50,000, three for towns between 50,000 and 100,000, and four for all cities over 100,000, with one additional for every 50,000 inhabitants above that number. The effect of the measure would have been to deprive some towns of one representative each and to assign these to the large towns. The plan, however, satisfied neither the conservatives nor the advocates of reform, and was voted down. In national elections, Connecticut has been in general Federalist, Whig, and Republican; but it cast its vote for Monroe in 1820, for Van Buren in 1836, for Pierce in 1852, for Tilden in 1876, and for Cleveland in 1884, 1888, and 1892. In State elections it is doubtful.

Consult: Dwight, History of Connecticut (New York, 1841); Holister, The History of Connecticut (New Haven, 1855); Trumbull, The Colonial Records of Connecticut (Hartford, 1850-59); Levermore, The Republic of New Haven (Baltimore, 1886); Johnston, Connecticut (Boston, 1887), which contains a bibliography.  CONNECTICUT LAKES. A chain of four lakes in Coos County, N. H. (Map:, J 1). The ‘First’ or Connecticut Lake is five miles long, four miles wide, and 1619 feet above the sea. Four miles northeast is the ‘Second’ Lake, two and three-quarter miles long.