Civil government in the United States

Front matter

1 !■

Glass

Book ^

Chapter I. Taxation And Government

PAaii

" Too much taxes " . .1,2

What is taxation ? 3

Taxation and eminent domain . . . , , ^ 4

/What is government ? . . . , . c . 5

The " ship of state " . . . , , , . 5

" The government " . . . . . „ . . 6

Whatever else it may be, " the government " is the power which imposes taxes ....... 7

Difference between taxation and robbery .... 8

Sometimes taxation is robbery ...... 9

The study of history is full of practical lessons, and helpful

to those who would be good citizens . . . 9, 10

Perpetual vigilance is the price of liberty ... 11

Suggestive Questions and Directions . . 12-14 Bibliographical Note . . . . . 14, 15

CHAPTER 11.

THE TOWNSHIP.

§ 1. The Neio England Township.

The most ancient and simple form of government . . 16 New England settled by church congregations . . 16, 17 Policy of the early Massachusetts government as to land

XX CONTENTS.

Smallness of the farms ....... 18

Township and village ...,,.« 18 Social position of the settlers ...... 19

The town-meeting 19

Selectmen ; town-clerk ....... 20

Town-treasurer ; constables ; assessors of taxes and overseers of the poor . . • * • • • • • 21

Act of 1647 establishing public schools . . . .22

School committees 22, 23

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

town officers 23, 24

Calling the town-meeting ...... 24

Town, county, and state taxes 25

Poll-tax 25

Taxes on real-estate ; taxes on personal property . . 26 When and where taxes are assessed . . . . 26, 27

Tax-lists . .27

Cheating the government 28

The rate of taxation ........ 28

Undervaluation; the burden of taxation .... 29

The " magic-fund " delusion 30

Educational value of the town-meeting .... 31

By-laws 31

Power and responsibility ....... 32

There is nothing especially American, democratic, or meritorious about " rotation in office " . . . . .32

Town-meetings in ancient Greece and Rome . . .34 Clans ; the mark and the tun ...... 35

The Old-English township, the manor, and the parish 36, 37 The vestry-meeting ........ 37

Parish and vestry clerks; beadles, waywardens, hay wards, common-drivers, churchwardens, etc. . . . .38

Transition from the English parish to the New England township ......... 38, 39

Building of states out of smaller political units . . 39 Representation; shire-motes; Earl Simon's Parliament . 46 The township as the *^ unit of representation " in the shire-mote and in the General Court . . . . .41

Contrast with the Russian village-community which is not represented in the general government • . . . 42

CONTENTS. XXI

Suggestive Questions and Directions . . 43-46 Bibliographical Note 46, 47

CHAPTER in.

THE COUNTY.

Why do we have counties ? 48

Clans and tribes . 49

The English nation, like the American, grew out of the union of small states ...... 49, 50

Ealdorman and sheriff; shire-mote and county court 50, 51

The coroner, or " crown officer "..... 51, 52

Justices of the peace; the Quarter Sessions; the lord lieutenant 52

Decline of the English county ; beginnings of counties in Massachusetts ........ 53

§ 2. The Modern County in Massachusetts.

County commissioners, etc. ; shire-towns and court-houses 55 Justices of the peace, and trial justices .... 55, 56

The sheriff 56

Virginia sparsely settled ; extensive land grants to individuals 57, 58

Navigable rivers ; absence of towns ; slavery ... 58 Social position of the settlers ...... 59

Virginia parishes ; the vestry was a close corporation 59, 60 Powers of the vestry ....... 60

The county was the unit of representation . . . .61

The county court was virtually a close corporation . . 61, 62 The county-seat, or Court House . . . ... 62

Powers of the court ; the sheriff 63

The county-lieutenant ...=,.... 64 Contrast between old Virginia and old New England, in respect of local government ...... 64, 65 xxii CONTENTS.

Jefferson's opinion of township government . . .65

" Court-day " in old Virginia 65, 66

Virginia has been prolific in great leaders . , , QQ,, 67

Suggestive Questions and Directions . . 68-70 Bibliographical Note 70

CHAPTER IV.

township and county.

Parishes in South Carolina 71

The back country ; the " regulators " .... 72

The district system . 72, 73

The modern South Carolina county 73, 74

The counties are too large ....... 74

Tendency of the school district to develop into something

like a township 74

Local institutions in colonial Maryland ; the hundred . . 75 Clans ; brotherhoods, or phratries ; and tribes . . 75 Origin of the hundred ; the hundred court ; the high constable 76

Decay of the hundred ; hundred-meeting in Maryland . 77 The hundred in Delaware ; the levy court, or representative county assembly . . . . . . .78

The old Pennsylvania county ...... 78

Town-meetings in New York . ... . .79

The county board of supervisors ..... 79, 80

Westv/ard movement of population along parallels of latitude 81

Method of surveying the public lands . . . 81-83

Origin of townships in the West ..... 83

Formation of counties in the West .... 84, 85

Some effects of this system . . . . . . 85

The reservation of a section for public schools . . .86 In this reservation there were the germs of township government .....«•... 87

CONTENTS, xxiii

But at first the county system prevailed . . o 87, 88 Questions on the Text 88

§ 3. The Representative Township-County System in the West. The town-meeting in Michigan ...... 89

Conflict between township and county systems in Illinois 89/90

Effects of the Ordinance of 1787 90

Intense vitality of the township system . . . .91 County option and township option in Missouri, Nebraska,

Minnesota, and Dakota ...... 91, 92

Grades of township government in the West . . .92 An excellent result of the absence of centralization in the

United States 93

Effect of the self-governing school district in the South, in

preparing the way for the self-governing township . . 94 Woman-suffrage in the school district .... 94, 95

Suggestive Questions and Directions . . 96-98 Bibliographical Note . . . . . .98

CHAPTER V.

THE CITY.

Summary of the foregoing results ; township government is direct, county government is indirect ... 99

Representative government is necessitated in a county by the extent of territory, and in a city by the multitude of people 100, 101

Josiah Quincy's account of the Boston town-meeting in 1830 101, 102

Distinctions between towns and cities in America and in

England 102, 103

§ 2. Origin of English Boroughs and Cities.

Origin of the Chester s and casters in Roman camps . . 104

Coalescence of towns into fortified boroughs . . ^104, 105 The borough as a hundred ; it acquires a court . . . 105

The borough as a county ; it acquires a sheriff . 105, 106

XXIV CONTENTS.

Government of London under Henry 1 106

The guilds ; the town guild, and Guild Hall . . 106, 107 Government of London as perfected in the thirteenth century ; mayor, aldermen, and common council . . 107, 108 The city of London, and the metropolitan district . . 108 English cities vfexe for a long time the bulwarks of liberty 109 Simon de Montfort and the cities . . . . .110

Oligarchical abuses in English cities, beginning with the Tudor period . . . . . . . . 110

The Municipal Reform Act of 1835 Ill

Government of the city of New York before the Revolution Ill, 112

Changes after the Revolution ..... 112, 113 City government in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century 113, 114

The very tradition of good government was lacking in these

cities 114

§ 3. The Government of Cities in the United States.

Several features of our municipal governments . . 116, 117 In many cases they do not seem to work well . . 117, 118 Rapid growth of American cities ..... 119

Some consequences of this rapid growth .... 120

Wastefulness resulting from want of foresight . . . 121 Growth in complexity of government in cities . . 121, 122 Illustrated by list of municipal officers in Boston . 122, 123

How city government comes to be a mystery to the citizens, in some respects harder to understand than state and national government ....... 124

Dread of the " one-man power " has in many cases led to

scattering and weakening of responsibility . . . 125 Committees inefficient for executive purposes ; the " Circumlocution Office " 126

Alarming increase of city debts, and various attempts to

remedy the evil 127

Experience of New York with state interference in municipal affairs ; unsatisfactory results . . . 127-129

The Tweed Ring in New York 129

The present is a period of experiments . . - . 130 The new government of Brooklyn .... 130-132 Necessity of separating municipal from national politics . 132

CONTENTS. XXV

Notion that the suffrage ought to be restricted ; evils

wrought by ignorant voters 133

Evils wrought by wealthy speculators ; testimony of the

Pennsylvania Municipal Commission .... 134 Dangers of a restricted suffrage ..... 134, 135 Baneful effects of mixing city politics with national politics 135, 136

The " spoils system " must be destroyed, root and branch ;

ballot reform also indispensable . . . . . 136

CHAPTER VI.

THE STATE.

Claims of Spain to the possession of North America . . 140 Claims of France and England .... 140, 141

The London and Plymouth Companies .... 141

Their common charter ....... 142

Dissolution of the two companies ..... 143

States formed in the three zones .... 143-145

Formation of representative governments ; House of Burgesses in Virginia ....... 145, 146

Company of Massachusetts Bay ..... 146

Transfer of the charter from England to Massachusetts 147

The General Court ; assistants and deputies . . 147, 148 Virtual independence of Massachusetts, and quarrels with the Crown ......... 148

New charter of Massachusetts in 1692 ; its liberties curtailed 149

Republican governments in Connecticut and Rhode Island 149 Counties palatine in England ; proprietary charter of Maryland 150,151

Proprietary charter of Pennsylvania ..... 152 Quarrels between Penns and Calverts ; Mason and Dixon's

line 152

Other proprietary governments ..... 152, 153 They generally became unpopular , . . . . 153 xxvi COJ^TENTS.

At the time of tlie Revolution there were three forms of colonial government : 1. Republican ; 2. Proprietary ; 3. Royal 154

(After 1692 the government of Massachusetts might be described as Semi-royal) ....... 154

In all three forms there was a representative assembly, which alone could impose taxes .... 154, 155

The governor's council was a kind of upper house . . 155

The colonial government was much like the English system in miniature ......... 155

The Americans never admitted the supremacy of parliament 156

Except in the regulation of maritime commerce . . . 157

In England there grew up the theory of the imperial supremacy of parliament 157

And the conflict between the British and American theories was precipitated by becoming involved in the political

schemes of George III . 158

§ 2. The Transition from Colonial to State Governments.

Dissolution of assemblies and parliaments .... 161

Committees of correspondence ; provincial congresses . 162 Provisional governments ; "governors " and "presidents '* 163 Origin of the senates ........ 164

Likenesses and differences between British and American systems . ... . . • • • • 165

Later modifications ......•• 166

Universal suffrage ........ 167

Separation between legislative and executive departments ; its advantages and disadvantages as compared with the European plan ....... 168. 169

In our system the independence of the executive is of vital importance ......... 169

The state executive ........ 169

The governor's functions : 1. Adviser of legislature ; 2. Commander of state militia ; 3. Royal prerogative of pardon ; 4. Veto power ...... 170, 171

Importance of the veto power as a safeguard against cor- . ruptiou ,,.-,..-,. 171

CONTENTS.

XXVll

In building the state, the local self-government was left unimpaired «... 172

Instructive contrast with France Some causes of French political incapacity . Vastness of the functions retained by the states in ican Union .......

Illustration from recent English history Independence of the state courts Constitution of the state courts .

Elective and appointive judges

Questions on the Text .

. 173

. 174:

the Amer-

175, 176 . 176,177

. 179 . 180, 181

181-185 . 185,186

CHAPTER VII.

written constitutions.

In the American state there is a power above the legislature 187

Germs of the idea of a written constitution .... 188 Development of the idea of contract in Roman law ; mediaeval charters ...<..... 188

The " Great Charter " (1215) 189

The Bill of Rights (1689) 190

Foreshadowing of the American idea by Sir Harry Vane

(1656) » , 191

The Mayflower compact (1620) . . . ' . .192 The " Fundamental Orders " of Connecticut (1639) . 192, 193 Germinal development of the colonial charter toward the modern state constitution . . . . . .193

Abnormal development of some recent state constitutions,

encroaching upon the legislature 194

The process of amending constitutions . . . = 195

The Swiss " Referendum " 196

Questions on the Text ..... 196-198 Suggestive Questions and Directions . 198, 199 Bibliographical Note ...... 200 xxvin

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FEDERAL UNION.

Circumstances favourable to the union of the colonies . 201 The New England Confederacy (1643-84) . . . .202 Albany Congress (1754) ; Stamp Act Congress (1765) ; Committees of Correspondence (1772-75) . . . 203

The Continental Congress (1774-89) 204

The several states were never at any time sovereign states 205 The Articles of Confederation ...... 205

Nature and powers of the Continental Congress . . 206, 207 It could not impose taxes, and therefore was not fully endowed with sovereignty ...... 207

Decline of the Continental Congress ..... 208

Weakness of the sentiment of union ; anarchical tendencies 208, 209

The Federal Convention (1787) 209-211

The House of Representatives

The three fifths compromise ....

The Connecticut compromise

The Senate .......

Electoral districts ; the " Gerrymander " . The election at large .....

Time of assenqi|)ling . . . » .

Privileges of members .....

The Speaker . . .

Impeachment in England ; in the United States

The president's veto power ....

The title of « President " . . . .

The electoral college .....

The twelfth amendment ....

The electoral commission (1877) Provisions against a lapse of the presidency

212-214 . 213

. 214

. 215

216, 217

. 218

. 219 . 220

. 220 . 221

. 222 223, 224

. 224 225, 226

. 227

. 228

228, 229

CONTENTS. xxix

Original purpose of the electoral college not fulfilled . . 229 Electors formerly chosen in many states by districts ; now always on a general ticket ...... 230

« Minority presidents " 230,231

Advantages of the electoral system ..... 231 Nomination of candidates by congressional caucus (1800-24) 232 Nominating conventions ; the " primary " ; the district convention ; the national convention ..... 233

. 234

234, 235

. 235

. 236

. 237

. 238

. 239

. 240

240-243

Qualifications for the presidency ; the term of office Powers and duties of the president .

The president's message .....

Executive departments ; the cabinet The secretary of state .....

Diplomatic and consular service The secretary of the treasury ....

The other departments .....

Questions on the Text ....

Difference between confederation and federal union . 243

Powers granted to Congress ...... 244

The " Elastic Clause " 245

Powers denied to the states . . . . . . 245

Evils of an inconvertible paper currency . . . 245, 246

Powers denied to Congress 247

Bills of attainder 247

Intercitizenship ; mode of making amendments . . . 248 Questions on the Text .... 249, 250

§ 5. The Federal Judiciary.

Need for a federal judiciary ...... 250

Federal courts and judges ..... 250, 251

District attorneys and marshals ...... 251

The federal jurisdiction . . . . . . 251, 252

§ 6. Territorial Government.

The Northwest Territory and the Ordinance of 1787 . 253

Other territories and their government .... 254

XXX CONTENTS.

§ 7. Ratification and Amendments.

Provisions for ratification 253

Concessions to slavery . . . . , , . 255

Demand for a bill of rights 25d

The first ten amendments , 256

§ 8. ^ Few Words about Politics.

Federal taxation ........ 257

Hamilton's policy ; excise ; tariff .... 258, 259

Origin of American political parties ; strict and loose construction of the Elastic Clause ..... 259

Tariff, Internal Improvements, and National Bank . . 260 Civil Service reform ....... 261

Origin of the " spoils system " in the state politics of New

York and Pennsylvania 262

« Rotation in office ; " the Crawford Act . . . . 262 How the " spoils system " was made national . r . 263

The Civil Service Act of 1883 264

The Australian ballot ........ 265

The English system of accounting for election expenses . 266

Suggestive Questions and Directions . 269-271 Bibliographical Note ..... 272-277