Ebook History of Connecticut Baptist State Convention

As early as 1674 some Baptist preachers of Rhode Island had begun to preach and immerse their converts within the borders of Connecticut. The towns of Groton and Waterford were the scene of such missionary work. Strenuous opposition was made to these movements by the ministers of the "Standing Order," and measures were taken to put a stop to such incursions.

The basis of government of the state did not contain a single provision authorizing the legislature to enact any religious laws, or establish any form of religion or religious test; and properly speaking the attempt to bind these upon the colony was in itself a usurpation. It was only by a sort of preemption right, or squatter sovereignty that the Congregationalists had established themselves as the so-called "Standing Order."

Yet the legislature, by general acts wholly void of constitutional sanction had empowered the town authorities to prescribe rules and regulations for public worship, and for the raising of parish rates for the support of the same. In Connecticut the right of suffrage was not confined to church members, yet these were so largely in the majority that they had everything their own way.