LAD#1: Mayflower Compact & Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1) What concepts are included in the Mayflower Compact?
That the colonists were settling in Northern Virginia in the name of their sovereign, King James, and in the name of God and advancing their Christian religion. By signing, they promised to come together and meet regularly to create government and laws to keep order, and that their duty was to their colony.

2) How does the Mayflower Compact reflect an attachment to both the "Old" and "New" worlds?
The colonists reference King James, their sovereign from England, but also mention "furthering" their Christian religion. They also swear submission to the colony and its future government.

3) How did the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut differ from the Mayflower Compact?
The Fundamental Orders are an actual document of government and laws whereas the Mayflower Compact was more of a promise to create a government and laws in the future. The Fundamental Orders also brought together three settlements (Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield) into a single commonwealth, where the Mayflower Compact only bounded together the people of a single settlement (Plymouth).

4) What prompted the colonists of Connecticut to take this approach to government, i.e.: use of a written Constitution?
In the Fundamental Orders it states that according to the word of God a government should be created beneath him in order to not only keep the peace and union of the people, but to "preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel".

5) In what significant way(s) does the Fundamental Orders reflect a fear of and safeguard against the usurping of power by one person or a chosen few?
The first Order dictates that there will be one governor, but six other Magistrates at all times, and for there to be an election held yearly. The second dictates that the people in those positions must be voted in by those qualified to vote. The fourth limits a person to being governor only once in two years, so that they cannot continually be in that position. Other Orders make sure that at all General Courts there are multiple people, including freemen acting as deputies to the settlements, present and able to check the power of the others. All of these limit the power of a single person, and the Fundamental Orders also give ways for the "freemen" of the colonies to fight back should the governor or magistrates fail to follow it.