Connecticut

CONNECTICUT WAS INHABITED by Algonquian tribes for a long period before the Dutch established the first European settlement, with the first English settiers, [Page 135]arriving in 1633 from Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, settling at Windsor, and later, in 1636, at Hartford. In 1662, the English Connecticut Colony received a Royal Charter from King Charles II. This conflicted with the lands held by the Dutch, and also with neighboring states, but these were sorted out by the 1770s. As a self-governing colony, the governor, Jonathan Trumbull was elected annually 1769–84. During the American War of Independence much of the fighting took place in Connecticut, which was the only state that did not experience an internal revolution of its own, with the U.S. Constitution adopted in 1789.

Matthew Griswold had succeeded Trumbull as governor, and Samuel Huntington in turn succeeded him in 1786. During the Revolutionary War, Huntington, a keen Federalist, held the position of President of the United States in Congress Assembled. The Federalists came to dominate early Connecticut politics, with the next five governors all being drawn from their party. Two of these were sons of the first two governors, with Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. holding office 1809–11, and Roger Griswold governor 1811–12. A third Trumbull, Joseph, a grandson of Jonathan, Jr., was governor 1849–50.

In 1817, Connecticut elected Oliver Wolcott, Jr., son of the fourth Federalist governor Oliver Woolcott, Sr. who was a signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and grandson of Roger Woolcott who had been governor of the colony of Connecticut 1750–54. He had been the second U.S. secretary to the treasury, and on election as governor pronounced himself a Toleration Republican, holding office for 10 years. In 1818, he introduced a new constitution to replace the 1662 Charter which was considerably out of date, and largely irrelevant. John Samuel Peters, a National Republican, succeeded him, who in turn was succeeded by Henry W Edwards, a longtime politician from the Democratic Party. He was to serve two non-consecutive terms, 1833–34 and 1835–38. From the governorship of Edwards 1833–34, until that of Clark Bissell 1847–49, the governorship alternated between Democratic Party and Whig Party governors.

During the 1830s, African Americans attempted to get the right to vote were repulsed, but gradually they gained the franchise. In 1844, Roger Sherman Baldwin became governor of Connecticut, having risen to prominence over his legal defense of the African slaves on the ship Amistad in 1841. A brilliant lawyer, Baldwin had gone to Yale College (now Yale University) at the age of 14, graduating with high honors when he was 18-years-old. With most of the previous governors being lawyers, there were 69 people to hold office as governors of Connecticut (three held non-consecutive terms). Of the 38 who were not Republicans, 17 had studied at Yale. The first two governors both received honorary degrees from the college, as had Thomas Waller, and also Republican Joseph Hawley. Yale College became Yale University in 1887, with the name Yale College retained for the undergraduate school.

Baldwin's successor Isaac Toucey, after serving as governor of Connecticut, went on to become U.S. attorney general, and then U.S. secretary of the navy until 1861, when he was succeeded in that position by Gideon Welles. William T. Minor of the American Republican Party became governor 1855–57, and in 1857, Alexander H. Holley became the first Republican governor of the state. William A. Buckingham, who remained governor for eight years, the longest term in office since Oliver Wolcott Jr, succeeded him in 1858. His term in office covered the Civil War period, with Connecticut providing large numbers of soldiers for the Union Army. Buckingham later served a term as U.S. senator.

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