Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins Part 2

6. Do railroad corporations exercise such a right? How do they succeed in getting land for their tracks?

7. In case of disagreement, how is a fair price determined for property taken by eminent domain?

8. What persons are prominent to-day in the government of your own town or city? Of your own county? Of your own state? Of the United States?

9. Who const.i.tute the government of the school to which you belong?

Does this question admit of more than one answer? Has the government of your school any power to tax the people to support the school?

10. What is the difference between a state and the government of a state?

11. Which is the more powerful branch of the English Parliament? Why?

12. Is it a misuse of the funds of a city to provide entertainments for the people July 4? To expend money in entertaining distinguished guests? To provide flowers, carriages, cigars, wines, etc., for such guests?

13. What is meant by subordinating public office to private ends? Cite instances from history.

14. What histories have you read? What one of them, if any, would you call a "child's history," or a "drum and trumpet" history? What one of them, if any, has impressed any lessons upon you?

15. Mention some principles that history has taught you.

16. Mention a few offices, and tell the sort of intelligence that is needed by the persons who hold them. What results might follow if such intelligence were lacking?

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

It is designed in the bibliographical notes to indicate some authorities to which reference may be made for greater detail than is possible in an elementary work like the present. It is believed that the notes will prove a help to teacher and pupil in special investigations, and to the reader who may wish to make selections from excellent sources for purposes of self-culture. It is hardly necessary to add that it is sometimes worth much to the student to know where valuable information may be obtained, even when it is not practicable to make immediate use of it.

Certain books should always be at the teacher's desk during the instruction in civil government, and as easily accessible as the large dictionary; as, for instance, the following: The General Statutes of the state, the manual or blue-book of the state legislature, and, if the school is in a city, the city charter and ordinances. It is also desirable to add to this list the statutes of the United States and a manual of Congress or of the general government. Manuals may be obtained through representatives in the state legislature and in Congress. They will answer nearly every purpose if they are not of the latest issue.

The _Statesman's Year Book_, published by Macmillan & Co., New York, every year, is exceedingly valuable for reference. Certain almanacs, particularly the comprehensive ones issued by the New York _Tribune_ and the New York _World_, are rich in state and national statistics, and so inexpensive as to be within everybody's means.

TAXATION AND GOVERNMENT.--As to the causes of the American revolution, see my _War of Independence_, Boston, 1889; and as to the weakness of the government of the United States before 1789, see my _Critical Period of American History_, Boston, 1888. As to the causes of the French revolution, see Paul Lacombe, _The Growth of a People_, N.Y., 1883, and the third volume of Kitchin's _History of France_, London, 1887; also Morse Stephens, _The French Revolution_, vol. i., N.Y., 1887; Taine, _The Ancient Regime_,--N.Y., 1876, and _The Revolution_, 2 vols., N.Y., 1880. The student may read with pleasure and profit d.i.c.kens's _Tale of Two Cities_. For the student familiar with French, an excellent book is Albert Babeau, _Le Village sous l'ancien Regime_, Paris, 1879; see also Tocqueville, _L'ancien Regime et la Revolution_, 7th ed., Paris, 1866.

There is a good sketch of the causes of the French revolution in the fifth volume of Leeky's _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, N.Y., 1887; see also Buckle's _History of Civilization_, chaps, xii.-xiv. There is no better commentary on my first chapter than the lurid history of France in the eighteenth century. The strong contrast to English and American history shows us most instructively what we have thus far escaped.

CHAPTER II.

THE TOWNs.h.i.+P.

Section 1. _The New England Towns.h.i.+p_.

Of the various kinds of government to be found in the United States, we may begin by considering that of the New England towns.h.i.+p. As we shall presently see, it is in principle of all known forms of government the oldest as well as the simplest. Let us observe how the New England towns.h.i.+p grew up.

[Sidenote: New England was settled by church congregations.]

When people from England first came to dwell in the wilderness of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, they settled in groups upon small irregular-shaped patches of land, which soon came to be known as towns.h.i.+ps. There were several reasons why they settled thus in small groups, instead of scattering about over the country and carving out broad estates for themselves. In the first place, their princ.i.p.al reason for coming to New England was their dissatisfaction with the way in which church affairs were managed in the old country. They wished to bring about a reform in the church, in such wise that the members of a congregation should have more voice than formerly in the church-government, and that the minister of each congregation should be more independent than formerly of the bishop and of the civil government. They also wished to abolish sundry rites and customs of the church of which they had come to disapprove. Finding the resistance to their reforms quite formidable in England, and having some reason to fear that they might be themselves crushed in the struggle, they crossed the ocean in order to carry out their ideas in a new and remote country where they might be comparatively secure from interference. Hence it was quite natural that they should come in congregations, led by their favourite ministers,--such men, for example, as Higginson and Cotton, Hooker and Davenport. When such men, famous in England for their bold preaching and imperiled thereby, decided to move to America, a considerable number of their paris.h.i.+oners would decide to accompany them, and similarly minded members of neighbouring churches would leave their own pastor and join in the migration. Such a group of people, arriving on the coast of Ma.s.sachusetts, would naturally select some convenient locality, where they might build their houses near together and all go to the same church.

[Sidenote: Land grants.]

This migration, therefore, was a movement, not of individuals or of separate families, but of church-congregations, and it continued to be so as the settlers made their way inland and westward. The first river towns of Connecticut were founded by congregations coming from Dorchester, Cambridge, and Watertown. This kind of settlement was favoured by the government of Ma.s.sachusetts, which made grants of land, not to individuals but to companies of people who wished to live together and attend the same church.

In the second place, the soil of New England was not favourable to the cultivation of great quant.i.ties of staple articles, such as rice or tobacco, so that there was nothing to tempt people to undertake extensive plantations.

[Sidenote: Small farms.]

Most of the people lived on small farms, each family raising but little more than enough food for its own support; and the small size of the farms made it possible to have a good many in a compact neighbourhood. It appeared also that towns could be more easily defended against the Indians than scattered plantations; and this doubtless helped to keep people together, although if there had been any strong inducement for solitary pioneers to plunge into the great woods, as in later years so often happened at the West, it is not likely that any dread of the savages would have hindered them.

[Sidenote: Towns.h.i.+p and village.]

[Sidenote: Social positions of settlers.]

Thus the early settlers of New England came to live in towns.h.i.+ps. A towns.h.i.+p would consist of about as many farms as could be disposed within convenient distance from the meeting-house, where all the inhabitants, young and old, gathered every Sunday, coming on horseback or afoot. The meeting-house was thus centrally situated, and near it was the town pasture or "common," with the school-house and the block-house, or rude fortress for defence against the Indians. For the latter building some commanding position was apt to be selected, and hence we so often find the old village streets of New England running along elevated ridges or climbing over beetling hilltops. Around the meeting-house and common the dwellings gradually cl.u.s.tered into a village, and after a while the tavern, store, and town-house made their appearance.

Among the people who thus tilled the farms and built up the villages of New England, the differences in what we should call social position, though noticeable, were not extreme. While in England some had been esquires or country magistrates, or "lords of the manor,"--a phrase which does not mean a member of the peerage, but a landed proprietor with dependent tenants[1]; some had been yeomen, or persons holding farms by some free kind of tenure; some had been artisans or tradesmen in cities. All had for many generations been more or less accustomed to self-government and to public meetings for discussing local affairs.

That self-government, especially as far as church matters were concerned, they were stoutly bent upon maintaining and extending.

Indeed, that was what they had crossed the ocean for. Under these circ.u.mstances they developed a kind of government which we may describe in the present tense, for its methods are pretty much the same to-day that they were two centuries ago.

[Footnote 1: Compare the Scottish "laird."]

[Sidenote: The town-meeting.]

In a New England towns.h.i.+p the people directly govern themselves; the government is the people, or, to speak with entire precision, it is all the male inhabitants of one-and-twenty years of age and upwards.

The people tax themselves. Once each year, usually in March but sometimes as early as February or as late as April, a "town-meeting"

is held, at which all the grown men of the towns.h.i.+p are expected to be present and to vote, while any one may introduce motions or take part in the discussion. In early times there was a fine for non-attendance, but at is no longer the case; it is supposed that a due regard to his own interests will induce every man to come.

The town-meeting is held in the town-house, but at first it used to be held in the church, which was thus a "meeting-house" for civil as well as ecclesiastical purposes. At the town-meeting measures relating to the administration of town affairs are discussed and adopted or rejected; appropriations are made for the public expenses of the town, or in other words the amount of the town taxes for the year is determined; and town officers are elected for the year. Let us first enumerate these officers.

[Sidenote: Selectmen.]

The princ.i.p.al executive magistrates of the town are the selectmen.

They are three, five, seven, or nine in number, according to the size of the town and the amount of public business to be transacted. The odd number insures a majority decision in case of any difference of opinion among them. They have the general management of the public business. They issue warrants for the holding of town-meetings, and they can call such a meeting at any time during the year when there seems to be need for it, but the warrant must always specify the subjects which are to be discussed and acted on at the meeting. The selectmen also lay out highways, grant licenses, and impanel jurors; they may act as health officers and issue orders regarding sewerage, the abatement of nuisances, or the isolation of contagious diseases; in many cases they act as a.s.sessors of taxes, and as overseers of the poor. They are the proper persons to listen to complaints if anything goes wrong in the town. In county matters and state matters they speak for the town, and if it is a party to a law-suit they represent it in court; for the New England town is a legal corporation, and as such can hold property, and sue and be sued. In a certain sense the selectmen may be said to be "the government" of the town during the intervals between the town-meetings.

[Sidenote: Town-clerk.]

An officer no less important than the selectmen is the town-clerk. He keeps the record of all votes pa.s.sed in the town-meetings. He also records the names of candidates and the number of votes for each in the election of state and county officers. He records the births, marriages, and deaths in the towns.h.i.+p, and issues certificates to persons who declare an intention of marriage. He likewise keeps on record accurate descriptions of the position and bounds of public roads; and, in short, has general charge of all matters of town-record.

[Sidenote: Town-treasurer.]

Every town has also its treasurer, who receives and takes care of the money coming in from the taxpayers, or whatever money belongs to the town. Out of this money he pays the public expenses. He must keep a strict account of his receipts and payments, and make a report of them each year.

[Sidenote: Constables.]

Every town has one or more constables, who serve warrants from the selectmen and writs from the law courts. They pursue criminals and take them to jail. They summon jurors. In many towns they serve as collectors of taxes, but in many other towns a special officer is chosen for that purpose. When a person, fails to pay his taxes, after a specified time the collector has authority to seize upon his property and sell it at auction, paying the tax and costs out of the proceeds of the sale, and handing over the balance to the owner. In some cases, where no property can be found and there is reason to believe that the delinquent is not acting in good faith, he can be arrested and kept in prison until the tax and costs are paid, or until he is released by the proper legal methods.

[Sidenote: a.s.sessors of taxes and overseers of the poor.]

Where the duties of the selectmen are likely to be too numerous, the town may choose three or more a.s.sessors of taxes to prepare the tax lists; and three or more overseers of the poor, to regulate the management of the village almshouse and confer with other towns upon such questions as often arise concerning the settlement and maintenance of homeless paupers.

[Sidenote: Public schools.]

Every town has its school committee. In 1647 the legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts enacted a law with the following preamble: "It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers; to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord a.s.sisting our endeavours;" it was therefore ordered that every towns.h.i.+p containing fifty families or householders should forthwith set up a school in which children might be taught to read and write, and that every towns.h.i.+p containing one hundred families or householders should set up a school in which boys might be fitted for entering Harvard College. Even before this statute, several towns, as for instance Roxbury and Dedham, had begun to appropriate money for free schools; and these were the beginnings of a system of public education which has come to be adopted throughout the United States.

[Sidenote: School committees.]

The school committee exercises powers of such a character as to make it a body of great importance. The term of service of the members is three years, one third being chosen annually. The number of members must therefore be some multiple of three. The slow change in the members.h.i.+p of the board insures that a large proportion of the members shall always be familiar with the duties of the place. The school committee must visit all the public schools at least once a month, and make a report to the town every year. It is for them to decide what text-books are to be used. They examine candidates for the position of teacher and issue certificates to those whom they select. The certificate is issued in duplicate, and one copy is handed to the selectmen as a warrant that the teacher is ent.i.tled to receive a salary. Teachers are appointed for a term of one year, but where their work is satisfactory the appointments are usually renewed year after year. A recent act in Ma.s.sachusetts _permits_ the appointment of teachers to serve during good behaviour, but few boards have as yet availed themselves of this law. If the amount of work to be done seems to require it, the committee appoints a superintendent of schools. He is a sort of lieutenant of the school committee, and under its general direction carries on the detailed work of supervision.

Other town officers are the surveyors of highways, who are responsible for keeping the roads and bridges in repair; field-drivers and pound-keepers; fence-viewers; surveyors of lumber, measurers of wood, and sealers of weights and measures.