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more curious, and at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now present to the world is to be found.
Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650.[1]
The legislators of Connecticut[2] begin with the penal laws, and, strange to say, they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ.
“Whosoever shall worship any other God than the Lord,” says the preamble of the Code, “shall surely be put to death.” This is followed by ten or twelve enactments of the same kind, copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery[3], and rape were punished with death; an outrage offered by a son to his parents was to be expiated by the same penalty. The legislation of a rude and half-
- ↑ Code of 1650, p. 28. Hartford, 1830.
- ↑ See also in Hutchinson's History, vol. i. pp. 435. 456, the analysis of the penal code adopted in 1648 by the colony of Massachusetts: this code is drawn up on the same principles as that of Connecticut.
- ↑ Adultery was also punished with death by the law of Massachusetts; and Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 441., says that several persons actually suffered for this crime. He quotes a curious anecdote on this subject, which occurred in the year 1663. A married woman had had criminal intercourse with a young man; her husband died, and she married the lover. Several years had elapsed, when the public began to suspect the previous intercourse of this couple: they were thrown into prison, put upon trial, and very narrowly escaped capital punishment.
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