THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE POOR LAW OF CONNECTICUT BY EDWARD WARREN CAPEN, B.A. SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY New York 1905 PREFACE As the title indicates, the aim of this study of the Poor Law of Connecticut is merely to trace its development from its beginnings in the early colonial period to its present form; from the simple provisions of the seventeenth century to the complicated and elaborate statutes of the twentieth. No attempt has been made to relate this growth to the social, economic, and industrial history of the colony and state. This is a crowning excellence of the great History of the English Poor Law by Sir G. Nicholls, but, important and necessary as such treatment is for the full understanding of poor laws, the more modest undertaking is embodied in this monograph. Nor has much been said about the practical working of the laws. A study of the administration of the public charities of Connecticut must be left to another time or to other hands. Except for the last half-century, this will always be a task requiring diligent research, for the state library possesses only a fraction of the public documents of the state previous to 1850. Some years ago, through carelessness or ignorance of their value, all these earlier documents were destroyed to make room for what was deemed of greater importance. This lamentable blunder, which to the historian seems almost an unpardonable crime, makes a study of the administrative side of the law one of extreme difficulty, for it is to reports that one naturally turns for light on this subject. It is a pleasure to add that the present state librarian is doing all in his power to make good this loss, and may in time succeed in securing 5] 5 |