When Connecticut Ratified the Bill of Rights in 1939

When Connecticut Ratified the Bill of Rights in 1939

Connecticut has had a leading role in America’s constitutional history.   It may have had the first written constitution, hence its nickname, “The Constitution State,” as coined by 19th century historian John Fiske, and officially decreed by the state General Assembly in 1959.   On Jan. 14, 1639, colonists from Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield — inspired by a sermon preached by Thomas Hooker, who founded the colony nearly three years earlier …