hero of Danbury, James Hillhouse, the most public-spirited and generous of citizens; above all, Roger Sherman, the foremost man in New Haven, if not in the State, throughout one generation. It is safe to say that while he lived he was the head and front of every species of good work for his adopted home. Sherman, Wooster, and Hillhouse were interested, in 1771, in the movement toward the formation of a city, and, when the close of war afforded once more an opportunity for domestic improvement, Roger Sherman was the central figure around which the progressive elements in society clustered. Starting in life as an apprentice to a Massachusetts shoemaker, he became a member of the Connecticut Council, a Judge of the Superior Court, a member of the Revolutionary and Continental Congresses, wherein he belonged to the committee that reported the Declaration of Independence, a member of the United States Constitutional Convention, a Representative and afterward a Senator in Congress under the Constitution. Among the prominent leaders of that era, he enjoyed the rare honor of affixing his signature to the four most important documentary expressions of the new national unity, "The Address to the King," "The Declaration of Independence," "The Articles of Confederation," and "The Constitution." Throughout the latter part of his career he was dowered with "pluralities " like a mediæval prelate. At his death, in 1793, he was a United States Senator, a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut, and Mayor of the city of New Haven. To that infant city, indeed, he maintained a relation quite comparable to that which subsisted between the ancient town and its Governor, Theophilus Eaton. Mr. Sherman's unsympathetic character, however, could not command that universal allegiance which waited upon the Puritan patriarch.

FIRST PHASES OF CITY POLITICS.

The distinctions of Patriot and Tory intersected society and envenomed the neighborhood animosities. The town had

officially promised, as we have seen, to forgive and forget, but the diary of President Stiles shows how beneath the surface the poison rankled. A combination of interlopers, business men, and Tories, the latter probably actuated by political motives mainly, was most actively interested in the fortunes of the new city. Out of about six hundred adult males then living within the city limits, the selectmen certified that 343 were qualified' to be freemen. About onefourth of the latter number failed to take the oath, so that there were only 261 qualified citizens at the time of the first election, February 10, 1784. The poll for Mayor showed 249 votes, of which Roger Sherman received 125-just enough to elect him. Thomas Howell, deacon of the First Church, received 102 suffrages, while 22 freemen preferred Thomas Darling, who was probably the choice of the extreme Tories. Deacon Howell, who was, like Sherman, an interloper, was elected to be Senior Alderman. Three other Aldermen were named-viz.: Samuel Bishop, Deacon David Austin, and Isaac Beers, the bookseller. Provision was made, as the law required, for a City Clerk, two Sheriffs, a Treasurer, and for twenty Councilmen. About one hundred citizens completed the election of the latter on the third day (February 12), when the new officials were formally inducted into office. Inasmuch as the charter directed that the municipal year should begin in June, the forms of election were repeated on the following first of that month. On the day after the close of the February election, Dr. Stiles sketched a bird's-eye view of the political situation.

"The city-politics are founded in an endeavor silently to bring Tories into an equality and supremacy among the Whigs. The Episcopalians are all Tories but two, and all qualified on this occasion though despising Congress govern

1 See Prof. F. B. Dexter's excellent paper on New Haven in 1784. 2 Suffrage was limited to those who held personal estate worth at least £40, or real estate renting for £2 per annum. Loyalty to Great Britain might also be a cause for disfranchisement.

ment before; they may, perhaps, be forty voters. There may be twenty or thirty of Mr. Whittlesey's meeting added to these.' Perhaps one-third of the citizens may be hearty Tories, one-third Whigs, and one-third indifferent. Mixing up all together, the election has come out, Mayor and two Aldermen, Whigs; two Aldermen, Tories. Of the Common Council, five Whigs, five flexibles but in heart Whigs, eight Tories; Sheriffs and Treasurer, Whigs, but one flexible." Evidently the arrangement was not quite satisfactory to the "inflexible" President of Yale.

THE FIRST CHARTER.

The Act of January 8, 1784, which was New Haven's first city charter, had incorporated the inhabitants of that portion of the town of New Haven which lay between the Quinnipiac and West Rivers, and between the Mill River meadows and the harbor, under the title, "The Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and Freemen of the City of New Haven." We have seen that twenty Councilmen were at first elected. The number of Councilmen was, however, a fluctuating quantity. Twenty was fixed by the charter as the maximum limit. The list was soon reduced to ten, it was increased to twelve, then to fourteen, and in 1853 the original membership was restored. The city legislature comprised the Councilmen, the Aldermen and the Mayor. Under the name of the Court of Common Council, it was empowered in general terms to regulate local affairs, to afford security to property and person, and to provide for the convenience of trade. The city was not divided into wards, so that the legislative body was not based upon a neighborhood constituency. The Aldermen were chosen, practically, as assistants to the Mayor, and the chief functions of both Mayor and Aldermen were

'Mr. Whittlesey was pastor of the First Church.

The text of the Act can be found in Conn. Private Acts, I. 406, and in the City Year-Book for the years 1876-78.

judicial. In conformity with venerable English usage, the City Court was the Mayor's court, wherein that official and the two Senior Aldermen presided. The other two Aldermen were Judges in reserve. The new City Court wielded a jurisdiction like that of the Court of Common Pleas in all civil causes originating within the bounds of the city, except such as concerned land-titles. At least one of the parties to a suit must be a resident of the city. The criminal jurisdiction of the court was confined to offenses against the city ordinances. Justices of the Peace for the town still dispensed the ordinary criminal justice. The Mayor and his four Aldermen bear a definite resemblance to the magistrate and deputies, the Reeve and Four, with whom New Haven started in 1639. The ancient institutional stock of the five elders clung tenaciously to the New Haven soil.

Finally, all the freemen, in full City-Meeting assembled, were the ultimate arbiters of all municipal questions. This purely democratic assembly alone could levy taxes, and elect officers. Its ratification was absolutely essential to every by-law enacted by the Mayor and Common Council. Even then no by-law was valid until it had been published for three weeks successively in "Some public newspaper, in or near said city." This arrangement seems sufficiently clumsy, but the most remarkable check yet remains. Any by-law of the city might be repealed within six months after enactment by any Superior Court holden in New Haven County, if the said Superior Court judged the by-law to be unreasonable or unjust.1

Such pains were taken to prevent arbitrary municipal rule; yet in one instance the charter itself trod closely upon vested privileges. The city was empowered to exchange or sell the

'The English "Municipal Corporations Act" of 1882 provides that an order of a borough-council for the payment of money may be taken to the High Court of Justice by writ of certiorari, and may there be wholly or partly disallowed or confirmed, with or without costs, as pleases the

court.

northwestern portion of the Green, in order to secure other land or highways, or another Green. These clauses were intended to notify the Proprietors' Committee that its authority over the public square was henceforth vested in the city, and that the proprietors could no longer vote away building-sites upon the Green. However, the remainder of the Green was confirmed as a common or public walk, to remain so forever, never liable to be laid out in highways or to be appropriated to any other purpose.

Jealousy of corporate action and the assertion of State legislative supremacy were distinctive features of this early charter. Public sentiment in 1784 regarded a city as a hotbed of aristocracy, and a single executive officer, whether local or national, as a possible Julius Cæsar. The successive obstacles to the full habilitation of a city ordinance, the ratification by the citizens, the three weeks' publication in a newspaper, and the possible veto by the Superior Court, would check in our day not only the centralization of power, but also the transaction of business. In 1784, "Thou shalt not go slowly" had not become an American eleventh commandment.

The State Legislature reserved to itself ample oversight in the affairs of the new municipality. The Mayor, although elected in the first instance by the people, held his office during the pleasure of the General Assembly-a reservation which tended to make him Mayor for life. This tenure of the Mayoralty endured until 1826-a period of forty-two years. During that time New Haven was ruled by four Mayors, two of whom died in office and three of whom enjoyed an aggregate term of thirty-eight years. During the forty-two years next ensuing after 1826, the city has elected eighteen different Mayors. Moreover, the election and tenure of Probate Judges were both subject, until 1851, to the General Assembly. In the personnel of the town government the establishment of the city wrought no change, and the functions of town officers were altered, if at all, in amount, but not in kind.