How Connecticut became a state

On January 9, 1788, Connecticut was the fifth state to join the union. Connecticut has several nicknames, "The Nutmeg State" and also the "Constitution State". While the nickname has nothing to do with the United States Constitution, it does seem very appropriate, since a constitution has paid such a large place in the history of the state.

The Charter of the colony of Connecticut was issued in 1662. This was written up by three cities and called the Fundamental Orders. Connecticut was proud of their Independence and when the British rescinded the Charter, local men took matters into their own hands and stole the original document and hide it in the tree that became known as the Charter Oak. This tree stood for over 200 years until it was felled during a hurricane.

Connecticut was the only one of the original colonies to have a Colonial Governor who was in favor of independence from the Mother Country at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Connecticut luckily was not the site of any major battle during the war. Their contribution was to provide supplies and men.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, the central government had no authority to negotiate treaties or make economic decisions. All the states were pretty much doing their own thing. It became apparent within a few years that this was not working well and that if they didn't do something to make a strong central government the new country was going to end up being attacked. The economy of the entire country was in shambles. In February 1787 Congress approved a Constitutional Convention to help to address these issues.

Looking back from over two hundred years it is hard to imagine what a momentous occasion this was. No one had ever done anything like it before. What they were about to do was to design a form of government. It wasn't an easy thing to design either. We take for granted today the idea of a Senate and a House of Representative being checks and balances of each other. These two houses came out of a compromise in which Connecticut's Roger Sherman had a very large part.

What was going on was a battle between the large states and the small states. The large states naturally thought it was obvious that they should have more representation, the small states were not only suspicious of the motives of their larger brothers they were fearful of losing their autonomy. On June 11, 1787 , Roger Sherman stood up and proposed "That the proportion of suffrage in the 1st. branch should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or Senate, each State should have one vote and no more.

It took three more months for all the kinks to be ironed out but on September 17, 1787, the final draft was ready for the delegates to sign. Of the fifty-five delegates, thirty-nine signed, among them Connecticut's Roger Sherman. The second delegate Oliver Ellsworth had already gone home. In January Connecticut ratified the Constitution and became the fifth state to enter the new United States of America.