Civil Government in the United States Considered With Some Reference to Its Origins

Section 1. _the New England Township_.

The most ancient and simple form of government.

New England settled by church congregations.

Policy of the early Massachusetts government as to land grants.

Smallness of the farms

Township and village

Social position of the settlers

The town-meeting

Selectmen; town-clerk

Town-treasurer; constables; assessors of taxes and overseers of the poor

Act of 1647 establishing public schools

School committees

Field-drivers and pound-keepers; fence-viewers; other town officers

Calling the town-meeting

Town, county, and state taxes

Poll-tax

Taxes on real-estate; taxes on personal property

When and where taxes are assessed

Tax-lists

Cheating the government

The rate of taxation

Undervaluation; the burden of taxation

The "magic-fund" delusion

Educational value of the town-meeting

By-laws

Power and responsibility

There is nothing especially American, democratic, or meritorious about "rotation in office"

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 2. _origin of the Township_.

Town-meetings in ancient Greece and Rome

Clans; the mark and the tun

The Old-English township, the manor, and the parish

The vestry-meeting

Parish and vestry clerks; beadles, waywardens, haywards, common-drivers, churchwardens, etc.

Transition from the English parish to the New England township

Building of states out of smaller political units

Representation; shire-motes; Earl Simon's Parliament

The township as the "unit of representation" in the shire-mote and in the General Court

Contrast with the Russian village-community which is not represented in the general government

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER III.. The County.

THE COUNTY.

Section 1. The County in its Beginnings.

Why do we have counties?

Clans and tribes

The English nation, like the American, grew out of the union of small states

Ealdorman and sheriff; shire-mote and county court

The coroner, or "crown officer"

Justices of the peace; the Quarter Sessions; the lord lieutenant

Decline of the English county; beginnings of counties in Massachusetts

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 2. _the Modern County in Massachusetts_.

County commissioners, etc.; shire-towns and court-houses

Justices of the peace, and trial justices

The sheriff

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 3. _the Old Virginia County_.

Virginia sparsely settled; extensive land grants to individuals

Navigable rivers; absence of towns; slavery

Social position of the settlers

Virginia parishes; the vestry was a close corporation

Powers of the vestry

The county was the unit of representation

The county court was virtually a close corporation

The county-seat, or Court House

Powers of the court; the sheriff

The county-lieutenant

Contrast between old Virginia and old New England, in respect of local government

Jefferson's opinion of township government

"Court-day" in old Virginia

Virginia has been prolific in great leaders

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER IV.. Township and County.

TOWNSHIP AND COUNTY.

Section 1. Various Local Systems.

Parishes in South Carolina

The back country; the "regulators"

The district system

The modern South Carolina county

The counties are too large

Tendency of the school district to develop into something like a township

Local institutions in colonial Maryland; the hundred

Clans; brotherhoods, or phratries; and tribes

Origin of the hundred; the hundred court; the high constable

Decay of the hundred; hundred-meeting in Maryland

The hundred in Delaware; the levy court, or representative county assembly

The old Pennsylvania county

Town-meetings in New Tort

The county board of supervisors

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 2. _settlement of the Public Domain._

Westward movement of population along parallels of latitude

Method of surveying the public lands

Origin of townships in the West

Formation of counties in the West

Some effects of this system

The reservation of a section for public schools

In this reservation there were the germs of township government

But at first the county system prevailed

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 3. _the Representative Township-County System in the

West._

The town-meeting in Michigan

Conflict between township and county systems in Illinois

Effects of the Ordinance of 1787

Intense vitality of the township system

County option and township option in Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota

Grades of township government in the West

An excellent result of the absence of centralization in the United States

Effect of the self-governing school district in the South, in preparing the way for the self-governing township

Woman-suffrage in the school district

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER V.. The City.

THE CITY.

Section 1. Direct and Indirect Government.

Summary of the foregoing results; township government is direct, county government is indirect

Representative government is necessitated in a county by the extent of territory, and in a city by the multitude of people

Josiah Quincy's account of the Boston town-meeting in 1830

Distinctions between towns and cities in America and in England

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 2. _origin of English Boroughs and Cities._

Origin of the chesters and casters in Roman camps

Coalescence of towns into fortified boroughs

The borough as a hundred; it acquires a court

The borough as a county; it acquires a sheriff

Government of London under Henry I

The guilds; the town guild, and Guild Hall

Government of London as perfected in the thirteenth century; mayor, aldermen, and common council

The city of London, and the metropolitan district

English cities were for a long time the bulwarks of liberty

Simon de Montfort and the cities

Oligarchical abuses in English cities, beginning with the Tudor period

The Municipal Reform Act of 1835

Government of the city of New York before the Revolution

Changes after the Revolution

City government in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century

The very tradition of good government was lacking in these cities

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 3. _the Government of Cities in the United States_.

Several features of our municipal governments

In many cases they do not seem to work well

Rapid growth of American cities

Some consequences of this rapid growth

Wastefulness resulting from want of foresight

Growth in complexity of government in cities

Illustrated by list of municipal officers in Boston.

How city government comes to be a mystery to the citizens, in some respects harder to understand than state and national government

Dread of the "one-man power" has in many cases led to scattering and weakening of responsibility

Committees inefficient for executive purposes; the "Circumlocution Office"

Alarming increase of city debts, and various attempts to remedy the evil

Experience of New York with state interference in municipal affairs; unsatisfactory results

The Tweed Ring in New York

The present is a period of experiments

The new government of Brooklyn

Necessity of separating municipal from national politics

Notion that the suffrage ought to be restricted; evils wrought by ignorant voters

Evils wrought by wealthy speculators; testimony of the Pennsylvania Municipal Commission

Dangers of a restricted suffrage

Baneful effects of mixing city politics with national politics

The "spoils system" must be destroyed, root and branch; ballot reform also indispensable

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER VI.. The State.

THE STATE.

Section 1. The Colonial Governments.

Claims of Spain to the possession of North America

Claims of France and England

The London and Plymouth Companies

Their common charter

Dissolution of the two companies

States formed in the three zones

Formation of representative governments; House of Burgesses in Virginia

Company of Massachusetts Bay

Transfer of the charter from England to Massachusetts

The General Court; assistants and deputies

Virtual independence of Massachusetts, and quarrels with the Crown

New charter of Massachusetts in 1692; its liberties curtailed

Republican governments in Connecticut and Rhode Island

Counties palatine in England; proprietary charter of Maryland

Proprietary charter of Pennsylvania

Quarrels between Penns and Calverts; Mason and Dixon's line

Other proprietary governments

They generally became unpopular

At the time of the Revolution there were three forms of colonial government: 1. Republican; 2. Proprietary; 3. Royal

(After 1692 the government of Massachusetts might be described as Semi-royal)

In all three forms there was a representative assembly, which alone could impose taxes

The governor's council was a kind of upper house

The colonial government was much like the English system in miniature

The Americans never admitted the supremacy of parliament

Except in the regulation of maritime commerce

In England there grew up the theory of the imperial supremacy of parliament

And the conflict between the British and American theories was precipitated by becoming involved in the political schemes of George III.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 2. _the Transition From Colonial to State Governments._

Dissolution of assemblies and parliaments

Committees of correspondence; provincial congresses

Provisional governments; "governors" and "presidents"

Origin of the senates

Likenesses and differences between British and American systems

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

Section 3. _the State Governments_.

Later modifications

Universal suffrage

Separation between legislative and executive departments; its advantages and disadvantages as compared with the European plan

In our system the independence of the executive is of vital importance

The state executive

The governor's functions: 1. Adviser of legislature; 2. Commander of state militia; 3. Royal prerogative of pardon; 4. Veto power

Importance of the veto power as a safeguard against corruption In building the state, the local self-government was left unimpaired

Instructive contrast with France

Some causes of French political incapacity

Vastness of the functions retained by the states in the American Union

Illustration from recent English history

Independence of the state courts

Constitution of the state courts

Elective and appointive judges

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER VII.. Written Constitutions.

WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS.

In the American state there is a power above the legislature

Germs of the idea of a written constitution

Development of the idea of contract in Roman law; mediaeval charters

The "Great Charter" (1215)

The Bill of Rights (1689)

Foreshadowing of the American idea by Sir Harry Vane (1666)

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