Note 6 — Chapter II
John D. (John Davidson) Godman translation
The people of Connecticut are not more litigious than those of the other states, nor are lawyers more plentiful among them, or live more at the people’s expense. The members of the legal profession are as honourable, and as liberal, in this country, as in any part of the world, and the frequency of law suits which has induced the unfounded charge of litigiousness against the people of America, is not to be ascribed to their natural disposition, but to the confusion and uncertainty of the laws which the Normans introduced into England, and the English into this country. The fathers of this complicated code, the Normans, were stigmatized in France, before the Revolution, as a litigious people, and this character was produced by the same cause. In England, the excess of litigation is prevented by measures which we do not wish to see introduced among us. High and heavy taxes upon legal proceedings, effectually protect the rich against the litigation of the poor, and prevent the latter from entertaining suits against each other. The evil, however, has reached to such a height, that the government themselves are setting on foot a revision of the whole legal system. We have amended it here in a considerable degree; but much remains yet to be done, and will be done, by prudent and gradual steps, so that we may not be obliged, at a future day, like our brethren of England, to tear up the whole edifice from its foundation.
As to the excessive familiarity which is supposed to exist in some parts of New England and particularly in Connecticut, between young people before marriage, it has been at all times greatly exaggerated. However dangerous the custom alluded to might be considered in other countries, it is certain that in Connecticut, it seldom led to criminal intercourse, and when it did, the mischief was speedily repaired by the legal union of the parties. At present the custom has entirely disappeared, or if it ever exist, it is confined to the very lowest class of society. There is not a people on earth more truly moral and religious, than the people of that state, and illegitimate children are not more numerous in it proportionally, than in the other parts of the union.—D.