70.] [Footnote c: "Pitkin's History," p.

47.] [Footnote d: Constitution of 1638, p.

12.] In the laws of Connecticut, as well as in all those of New England, we find the germ and gradual development of that township independence which is the life and mainspring of American liberty at the present day.

The political existence of the majority of the nations of Europe commenced in the superior ranks of society, and was gradually and imperfectly communicated to the different members of the social body.
In America, on the other hand, it may be said that the township was organized before the county, the county before the State, the State before the Union.

In New England townships were completely and definitively constituted as early as 1650.