dominion. There was an annual election of the governor, the deputy, magistrates, and other officers, by the freemen. The general court consisted of the governor, deputy, magistrates, and two deputies from each plantation;[1] and was declared to be "the supreme power, under God, of this independent dominion," and had authority "to declare, publish, and establish the laws of God, the Supreme Legislator, and to make and repeal orders for smaller matters, not particularly determined in Scripture, according to the general rules of righteousness; to order all affairs of war and peace, and all matters relative to the defending or fortifying the country; to receive and determine all appeals, civil or criminal, from any inferior courts, in which they are to proceed according to scripture light, and laws, and orders agreeing therewith."[2] Other courts were provided for; and Hutchinson observes, that their laws and proceedings varied in very few circumstances from Massachusetts, except, that they had no jury, either in civil nor criminal cases. All matters of facts were determined by the court.[3]
§ 86. Soon after the restoration of Charles the Second to the throne, the colony of Connecticut, aware of the doubtful nature of its title to the exercise of sovereignty, solicited and in April, 1662, obtained from that monarch a charter of government and territory.[4] The charter included within its limits the whole colony of New-Haven; and as this was done without the consent of the latter, resistance was made to the incorporation, until 1665, when both were indissolubly united,Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/114
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HISTORY OF THE COLONIES.
[BOOK I.
