OT: Bouncing Pickles
- Thread starter HuskyNan
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The Storied History behind Connecticut’s Nicknames - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project
Though Connecticut’s official nickname is the “Constitution State,” it has been known by many names throughout the centuries.
connecticuthistory.org
"Finally, in 1959, the state’s General Assembly voted to make one nickname official. Since then, the title “Constitution State” has paid tribute to our colonial history, alluding to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, considered one of the first written documents of its kind. To add credibility to the name, Simeon E. Baldwin, a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, said, “Never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth, with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government, until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638-39.”"
“Connecticut was designated the Constitution State by the General Assembly in 1959. As early as the 19th Century, John Fiske, a popular historian from Connecticut made the claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/1639 were the first written constitution in history.
Bald Husky
four score
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I know we are the Constitution State because long ago my dad, who was a music teacher and national composer, was commissioned by the state to write a state song. I can't remember which one it is, but I know that for a fact.
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What was wrong with the blue laws? Everyone could go to Railroad Salvage on Sundays and look for bargains.
Bigboote
That's big-boo-TAY
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I thought this was going to be a discussion of some new sport or something.
How about spitting rice? When I was trying to improve my embouchure for the flute, my teacher told me that one way both to strengthen and evaluate the strength of my embouchure was to spit grains of rice. (It's not spitting because there isn't any spittle involved, it's more like blowing.) The farther the rice goes, the stronger your embouchure. Mine is actually pretty sloppy now, I should do some more rice spitting.
How about spitting rice? When I was trying to improve my embouchure for the flute, my teacher told me that one way both to strengthen and evaluate the strength of my embouchure was to spit grains of rice. (It's not spitting because there isn't any spittle involved, it's more like blowing.) The farther the rice goes, the stronger your embouchure. Mine is actually pretty sloppy now, I should do some more rice spitting.
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HuskyNan,
I'm reluctant to discuss this topic on this forum but I will anyway because you asked the question and I'd like to help you & others to see a different and perhaps more accurate perspective.
The truth is that the Constitution that's being referred to by our license plates may very well be the great Constitution of the USA and not the fundamental orders at all.
If you want to know why I will provide the link to a short article that explains more about it.
It's because of the "Great Connecticut Compromise" that created a bicameral legislature consisting of the US House & Senate. This was the compromise that protected the power of the small states making them equal to the larger states in the US Senate. The compromise was proposed by the delegates from CT and the US Constitution might have never been passed without it, nor the nation born in its present form.
The article mentions that the fundamental orders were loosely based on a document from Massachusetts, therefore are not the same Constitution being referred to by our license plates that were authorized to include the slogan in 1973, just a few years before the nation's bicentennial.
Please read the article carefully to the end where it states:
Calling the Fundamental Orders “the first written constitution of modern democracy,” and Hartford, therefore “the birthplace of American democracy,” required jingoistic historians to ignore both the Orders’ derivation from Massachusetts’s governmental model and the fact that Connecticut still barred many people from the franchise. It is not surprising then that former state historian Albert van Dusen called the Orders’ description as a constitution “uncertain,” and Yale Professor Charles M. Andrews rejected the Orders’ “constitutionalism” altogether. For generations of Connecticut residents, however, the belief that the Fundamental Orders (or at least the Connecticut compromise) made ours the Constitution State remains rooted in our psyches and our culture. And that, in a way, could be said to represent Yankee ingenuity at its most creative.
Creative License, or Fundamental Fact? - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project
Investigating Connecticut's claim to be "The Constitution State."
connecticuthistory.org
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