Why is Connecticut Called the Constitution State?

@Tomislav - Although Washington DC has been the capital since 1800, the cities in which Congress met before Washington DC became the official capital were considered the nation's capital during whatever year Congress met there.

Surprisingly though after learning about Connecticut's constitution history, Connecticut was not one of the states in which Congress held its meetings, the primary states that held the meetings were of no surprise Pennsylvania and Maryland.

@Mammmood - Brilliant or not, both the Connecticut Constitution and the United States Constitution suffered from a fatal flaw in their inception – only white males were allowed to vote.

It would be almost another hundred years later, during the time of the Civil War, that all blacks would be allowed to vote.

It wouldn’t be until the early twentieth century that women would be allowed the right to vote. So while the Constitution is rightfully a great document, it is also a living document, one that needed to be refined so that it could properly guarantee rights to all citizens.

@dfoster85 - You're right; Americans like to think that they invented the idea of "freedom." Really, though, the colonists objected to the particular king and his particular government and felt they were being denied their rights as Englishmen.

I think the reason you hear so much about the Virginia constitution was that it had a Bill of Rights that really inspired the US Bill of Rights, written several years later. But Virginia's Bill of Rights (or maybe it was a Declaration) was based on England's 1689 Bill of Rights! They'd had a king they didn't much care for and wanted to make sure that kings in the future would mind their own business.

But there were some key differences. Most notably, the English Bill of Rights was intended partly to *codify* England's state religion and keep Roman Catholics off the throne. In contrast, Virginia's Declaration of Rights included a section on religious freedom, leading to the idea of separation between church and state.

What an exciting time in history! Were there any democracies or constitutions in other places before Connecticut?

Although our current state of government does not always adhere all too great with the original constitution ideals (which is good in some places - such as women obtaining the right to vote but not so good in others such as the taxation that goes on now - for example instead of being taxed one time on things we are taxed multiple times like on our cars and our houses), I still think we do pretty well considering the many different opinions and ideals of the people in the U.S.

But I digress; it is incredible to live in a country whose people I think still work and protest to keep our country a strong democracy.

What I am curious about now after knowing that the first constitution that was recognized as official was written in Connecticut is if Connecticut was ever looked at as the state where our nation's capital should be held and if Connecticut has built upon their first original constitution and made it the longest state constitution (since obviously they would have had a head start on the whole constitution thing).

This is an interesting history lesson. It’s fascinating to discover that the roots of the United States Constitution were found in a document written nearly 150 before, in the early Connecticut constitution.

I had always known that, as a matter of principle, our Constitution borrowed from some ideas in the English colonies, notably a desire for freedom of religion and assembly, as well as the idea of separation of church and state.

I didn’t realize, however, that the Constitution was over a hundred years in the making and had used a prototype document in its creation.

It makes sense, when you think about, however. The Constitution is a brilliant work. It’s not likely that all of its ideas, so clearly articulated, could have been hammered out in the Constitutional convention alone.

I always thought that maybe Connecticut had been the tenth state to ratify the US Constitution (meaning it then took effect) or something like that. I had no idea that's what the saying referred to! In history class, you hear a lot about the VA state constitution and not this one so much.

The idea of it having the first written constitution is particularly interesting because the English used the term "constitution" a lot more loosely. They didn't have a written constitution, but relied on a collection of laws, customs, etc. And the Magna Carta, of course!

What a lot of Americans don't realize is that the English considered themselves a "free people," as opposed to, for instance, the French. While a French king had nearly absolute power, the English king had to work with Parliament. And, of course, if you do the math, it was only a few years after this era that the Puritans in England, counterparts fo those in Massachusetts, decided they'd had enough of king, thank you very much, and cut Charles I's head off.