Third Thursday Presentation Douglas Arnold

Author and Historian Douglas Arnold gave a talk on the 1818 Constitutional Convention, and the political aftermath, including fiscal reform. In 1818, enough dissenters from the Congregational Church organized to unseat the Federalist Party (the traditional party of the Congregationalist) in Connecticut. Consequently, the newly empowered state republicans called for a constitutional Convention to overhaul the state’s government along more liberal lines. The republican aim was disestablishment of the Congregational Church and the establishment of the 1818 Constitution.