Essentials of civil government, United States and Wisconsin

Preface

In these pages as much of the subject of civil government is presented as we may reasonably expect pupils in the public schools to master. No attempt has been made to write an exhaustive treatise, and unimportant matter has been omitted.

It is assumed that pupils who use this book have some knowledge of United States history, and that they have formed the dictionary habit. Every new subject presents to the pupil a new set of terms; hence, if wisely taught, it will enlarge and enrich the stock of words at his command. Care should be taken to have the pupils learn the meaning of all terms not already in his vocabulary. To illustrate, take the first few paragraphs on pages 11 and 12. These words occur: promulgated, delegates, convention, assumed, league, judiciary, ratified, adopted, amendment, legalize, income, domestic tranquility, posterity, ordain, granted, vested. Most of these words are not familiar to the student, and he must learn their meaning; some of them are technical terms peculiar to the subject and others are words in general use but beyond the pupil's present vocabulary. The dictionary must be used by the student every day, and the teacher's insistence from the first that no word shall be passed whose meaning is not clearly understood will insure increased interest in the study as the subject unfolds.

A book of the scope olrtfiis text should treat local government both in the city and in the country districts.

4 PREFACE

The chapter on the City of Milwaukee can be used by pupils in other cities as illustrative of the government of the larger cities of Wisconsin, and the teacher can indicate the points in which it differs from any particular city in which this text is used.

Acknowledgment is due a number of prominent school men who read the proofs and made suggestions which have been incorporated in the text. The chapter on How to Run a Public Meeting is based on an article contributed to the Western Teacher by a thorough student of parliamentary practice, Principal G. M. Morrissey, of Chilton, Wisconsin. S. Y. G.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

The Home is the simplest form of government. Obedience to parents in order that all may live together in harmony is the basis of home government.

The Village, Town or City includes many homes and the land around them. In such a unit some central authority is necessary so that no family shall interfere with the peace, comfort or safety of the community, also to provide at public expense and care for certain conveniences, such as schools, water supply, sewers, sidewalks, streets, a fire department, etc., which are of use to all the people.

Among primitive peoples some one man, recognized as a leader, lays down laws to be obeyed and settles disputes between individuals. In most civilized communities laws for a village, town or city are made by men elected by the people, and quarrels are settled by another set of men chosen by the people or appointed by those who are thus chosen.

The State or Nation is the highest form of government, and is made up of all communities lying within its limits. The government of a state or nation decides what matters each village, town or city may manage for itself, and also makes general laws which apply to all the villages, towns, cities and other units of local government within its limits. The officers of a state or nation have control of such public conveniences and institutions as railways, canals, forest reserves, prisons, asylums, public education, postoffices, lighthouses, harbors and forts. They carry on business with other nations, maintain an army and navy, and control all matters pertaining to currency and coinage.

The words state and nation are synonymous. In the United States, however, the word state has a peculiar and restricted meaning. The powers ordinarily exercised by a state or nation are in this country divided between the governments of the several States on the one hand and the Federal government on the other.

Democratic and Monarchical Government. A government, the responsible officers of which should be elected by the people would be called a democracy; but there are no such governments anywhere, except in very limited areas and for a few simple functions of government. The governments which are most nearly democratic are those of Switzerland, Great Britain (the kingdom, not the empire), and some of the state governments of the United States. A democracy in which the people rule through representatives whom they choose by vote is called a republic.

A democracy is very different from a monarchy, where one man makes the laws and acts for the nation and the people have little voice in the government. Just as there are no pure democracies so also there are no absolute monarchies, for even those that are absolute in form and theory are in practice tempered by the fear of revolution.

These two kinds of national government, differing widely in form, have been established for the same reasons, viz., to keep people from infringing on the rights of others, and because certain matters must be managed for the benefit of the group as a whole. In addition to these two legitimate reasons for the existence of governments there is a third which is productive of much evil, viz., the selfish ambition of the governing classes in some countries, which leads them to look upon governments as existing primarily for the benefit of the rulers and of strong nations. But for this attitude of rulers and strong nations most of the expense for armies and navies could be saved. In monarchies where this view of the purpose of government .prevails, the ruling class is a hereditary nobility known as an aristocracy; in republics it is a wealthy class known as a plutocracy. In either case the community is heavily taxed, directly or indirectly, for the enrichment of the ruling class.

In some States of the American Union, towns and school districts have a democratic form of government ; and all the state governments are representative democracies, that is, republics, in form, and most of them are so in fact. But our general government is very much like a limited monarchy and contains in its form nothing democratic except the method of choosing the two houses of the legislative department of the government. The election of the President has become popular, although the form adopted originally contemplated a different method. But the President when elected is practically a limited monarch entrusted with greater power than any European monarch, with the exception of the German Kaiser and the Sultan of Turkey. In all the administrative branches of our Federal government, there is no trace of democracy. The officers from the lowest to the highest are appointed, not elected. These include all judges, postmasters, marshals, customs officers, etc., in all more than four hundred thousand officers. In the operation of all its functions our Federal government is similar to a monarchy, limited in some measure by laws made by a body called Congress, both branches of which are chosen by popular vote.

An Empire is a group of nations or communities including a relatively strong one to which the others are subordinate and subject. The subject people included in an empire do not have all the rights and privileges that subjects or citizens in the dominant state possess. The ruler of an empire may be called by any name, as Emperor, King, Consul, President, Sultan, etc.

In this country we live under two governments, the State and the Federal. These differ in certain features that should be clearly understood.

1. Nearly all the officers of the Federal government hold their positions by appointment, not by election. The only ones that are elected by the people are the members of the two houses of Congress, the President and the Vice-President, a total of only 537 that are chosen by the people.

On the other hand, the officers who administer the State governments are nearly all elected by the people, and they aggregate a much larger number than the Federal

CIVIL GOVERNMENT V

officers. Governors, legislators, judges, sheriffs, mayors, aldermen, township officers, school directors, etc., are elected by the people. When, therefore, we say that in this country the people elect their own officers, we refer to the State governments, not to the Federal government. 1

2. The State governments differ widely and fundamentally in their nature from the Federal government. This difference is clearly stated by Mr. James Bryce as follows :

"The powers vested in the States are all of them original and inherent powers. Hence they are prima facie unlimited, and if a question arises as to any particular power, it is presumed to be enjoyed by the State, unless it can be shown to have been taken away by the Federal Constitution; or, in other words, a State is not deemed to be subject to any restriction which the Constitution has not distinctly imposed.

"The powers granted to the national government are delegated powers, enumerated in and defined by the instrument [the Federal Constitution] which has created the Union. Hence the rule that when a question arises whether the national government possesses a particular power, proof must be given that the power w^as positively granted. If not granted, it is not possessed, because the

1 The framers of the Federal Constitution, with very few exceptions, distrusted the people, did not believe in popular government, and favored government by the minority. They framed a system as far removed from the popular type as it was possible to make it with any hope of having it adopted even by the small number of people at that time having the right of voting; the voters were the property holders — about one in thirty of the population. The people have only recently begun to change the Federal Constitution to the popular or democratic type.

Union is an artificial creation whose government can do nothing but what the people have by the Constitution conferred. The presumption is therefore against the national government in such a case, just as it is for the State in a like case.

"That is to say, the authority of the State is an inherent, not a delegated, authority. It has all the powers which any independent government can have, except such as it can be affirmatively shown to have stripped itself of, while the Federal government has only such powers as it can be affirmatively shown to have received." [From The American Commonwealth, Chapters XXVII and XXXVI.]

1. What is the basis of home government?

2. State two reasons why government is necessary.

3. What is a state or nation?

4. Define democracy, monarchy, republic, aristocracy and plutocracy.

5. How many officers of our Federal government are there?

6. How many of our Federal government officers are elected by the people?

7. What is an empire?

8. What are the two chief points of difference between our Federal government and our State governments?

9. In this country we live under two governments; which is the more democratic?

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Legislative Power

We shall now examine the Constitution of the United States, the instrument which created our Federal government, to learn what its provisions are and how the governmental machinery operates.

The Declaration of Independence was adopted and promulgated at Philadelphia July 4, 1776, and signed August 2 by the delegates to the Continental Congress, which was simply a convention representing the thirteen British Colonies south of Canada. It declared these Colonies to be free and independent States. It assumed charge of the Continental armies and of the foreign relations of the new States until it gave place to the Federal Congress (established by the Articles of Confederation among the States), which met in 1781.

The Articles of Confederation formed a league, but not a government proper, since they did not provide for a Federal Executive or a Federal Judiciary, and their acts, to be binding, had to be ratified by the several States acting individually.

In 1787. a Constitutional Convention prepared a Constitution, which was adopted by most of the States in the following year, and within about three years by all of them. The Constitution established a central government for the United States, which went into effect in 1789 among the States which had then ratified it. Seventeen Amendments have been added to the Constitution, and the States have been increased to the number of fortyeight.

The introductory paragraph of the Constitution, which states the purpose of that instrument, is called the Preamble.

PREAMBLE

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I. Section 1. — All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Eepresentatives.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Section 2. — 1. The House of Eepresentatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

By electors in each State are meant those who can vote. In some States there are many citizens who have the right to vote on certain subjects and for certain officers but who do not have the right to vote for members of the legislature. Each State in determining what class of its citizens may vote for the most numerous branch of its legislature determines who may vote for members of the House of Eepresentatives. These qualifications are not uniform in the several States. Some States require United States citizenship, some require a property qualification, others make requirements as to education; in some States women may vote. The laws of some of the southern States are so worded as to exclude most of the Xegroes from the suffrage. 2

2. No person shall be a Eepresentative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

3. Eepresentatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.

"Three-fifths of all other persons" referred to the slaves of former days. Thus, if a State had 40,000 white people and 60,000 slaves, it was considered to have 76,000 population for the purpose of enumeration. This was

2 Louisiana requires property and educational qualifications, but exempts from these requirements all whose fathers were voters in 1867 or previous to that date. This is called the "grandfather clause" and was designed to prevent Negroes from voting.

changed by the Fourteenth Amendment, so that all persons except Indians not taxed are now included in ' the enumeration.

In the first Congress of the United States there was one Kepresentative for each 30,000 of population. The ratio is changed each ten years. Congress determines each ten years how many members there shall be in the House of Eepresentatives. The total population is then divided by this number ; 'the quotient is called the ratio of representation. To each State whose population is not greater than this "ratio" one Kepresentative is assigned.

The enumeration is called a census, and it now includes much more than a report of the number of people. Their age, sex and nationality are reported ; also facts concerning wealth, taxation, manufactures, agriculture, commerce, etc., are included.

After the census of 1910 Congress decided that the number of Eepresentatives should be 433. Dividing the population of the United States by 433 gives a quotient of 212,407. This is called the ratio of representation. When a new State comes into the Union, its population is divided by the ratio of representation at the time, and the quotient indicates the number of Eepresentatives to which it is entitled; but whatever its population may be, each State has at least one Kepresentative. 3

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

3 Since 1910 Arizona and New Mexico were admitted, each with one Kepresentative, making the total number of members in the lower house 435.

5. The House of Kepresentatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

The "Executive Authority" is the Governor of the State: he does not have authority to fill vacancies in the House, but merely to "issue writs of election/" that is, to announce that an election will be held.

The office of the Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives 4 is a very important one, because he need recognize no one to speak before the House whom he does not wish to recognize. Formerly he had the appointment of all committees, but that rule has been changed. Because of the abuse of the great power formerly vested in the Speaker, the scope of his authority has been greatly curtailed. The House now elects its Standing Committees.

THE SEXATE

[Section 3.—1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years;] 5 and each Senator shall have one vote.

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth year ; so that one-third may be chosen every second year; [and if vacancies happen, by resignation or

* The presiding officer of the House is called the ' ' Speaker, ' ; although he does very little speaking. He is the chairman of the House.

otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.] 5

3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be president of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.

When Senators from a new State are admitted to the Senate, they are assigned by lot, one to each of the two classes having the least number. Thus it might happen at the outset that one Senator would hold his office only two years, and the other only four years. Both Senators from a State do not go out of office at the same time.

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. -When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office and dis-

5 These provisions are now obsolete. See the Seventeenth Amendment.

qualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit, under the United States; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.

The President," Vice-President, and other civil officers may be removed from office by impeachment. 6

If a civil officer is thought to have committed treason, felony, or other high crime, the House appoints a committee to try the case before the Senate. This process is called impeachment. President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868, but lacked one vote of being convicted. 7

ELECTION OF CONGRESSMEN

Section Jf. — 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Eepresentatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.

o Both Senators and Eepresentatives are Congressmen ; but in general usage the word ' ' Congressman ' ? is applied only to members of the lower. House. The first woman elected to Congress was Miss Jeannette Bankin, of Montana; she is called a " Congresswoman. ' '

" When President Johnson was tried there was no Vice-President, and at that time the presidential succession was Vice-President, President pro tern, of the Senate, Speaker of the House. Senator Wade, of Ohio, was President pro tern, of the Senate. The propriety of his participating in the trial was questioned, as he would become President in case of a conviction. It was argued that his participation as a member of the court to decide the case would be a violation of the spirit and intent of the Constitution. But he insisted on his legal right as a member of the Senate, took part in the trial, and voted for conviction. One more vote would have convicted President Johnson, and Senator Wade would have become President.

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Congress has fixed by law the time for electing Representatives. It is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of the even years. 8,

A Representative's term of office and salary begin on the fourth of March following the election. But unless a special session is called Representatives do not participate in the making of laws for thirteen months after they are elected. This is a weakness in our form of government; it operates as a check on the will of the people. A party may remain in power more than a year after it has been repudiated by the people. In Great Britain the government responds much more quickly to the people's will; when a new Parliament is elected the members enter at once upon their official duties.

Until recently, the time and manner in which the State Legislatures should elect United States Senators were prescribed in detail by a law of Congress, but that law is now void ; the Seventeenth Amendment, adopted in 1913, provides for the election of Senators by popular vote.

s When this law was passed, Congress exempted from its operation those States in which the date of the election was fixed by the State constitution. In forty -six States, the time is now uniform as above noted; but in Vermont the election is held on the first Tuesday in September, and in Maine on the second Monday of September.

POWERS AND DUTIES COMMON TO BOTH HOUSES

Section 5. — 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members; and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide.

2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.

3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

The power of each House to decide who may be seated as members is absolute, and is sometimes exercised arbitrarily without any regard to facts, law or justice. A majority may and sometimes does decide contested cases in favor of the contestant who did not receive a majority of the votes in his State or district, and from their decision there is no appeal. A majority vote is all that is necessary to exclude a member, that is, to decide that he shall not be admitted.

If a member is expelled from either House, he may be re-elected and return to it.

The journal of Congress is called the Congressional Record. It contains the names of Representatives and Senators, the members of the standing committees, and the speeches and proceedings of the day. It is printed daily during the session of Congress. 9

These are the several methods of voting which are followed in Congress :

(a) Viva voce vote.

(b) Division of the House, the members rising to vote.

(c) Counting by tellers.

(d) By yeas and nays, given on a call of the roll.

A call for the yeas and says is sometimes made by members who desire to consume time in order to block some matter of legislation. 10 Delaying legislation by such methods is called "filibusterins:."

• 9 Not all the speeches printed in the Becord are actually delivered. A weak, dull or tedious speaker may get " leave to print, ' ' or to " extend his remarks in the Becord. ' ' This saves the other members the discomfort of being bored, and enables the member thus shut off to send his "speech' ' in printed form to the folks at home. See the dictionary for the derivation of the word buncombe.

10 In some South American countries the vote by yeas and nays is taken by use of an electric appliance, each member merely touching a button on his desk. The apparatus records the votes on a wall tablet. The vote of the whole body can thus be taken almost instantaneously. The method will probably soon become universal in legislative bodies; it saves time and prevents one method of " filibustering. ' ' In 1917, an electric voting apparatus was installed in the Wisconsin Assembly chamber; by means of it a vote can be taken and recorded in less than one minute.

Section 6. — 1. The Senators and Eepresentatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

2. N~o Senator or Kepresentative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

The clause providing that members may not be arrested except in the cases specified was intended as a safeguard against possible detention from the sessions on fictitious charges made for political purposes.

The pay of a Member of either House of Congress is $7,500.00 per annum and mileage at the rate of 20 cents a mile each way, coming and going by the usually traveled route between his home and Washington, for every session. In addition to this pay, he receives $125.00 per session for stationery, an office room in which to work, and $1,200 a year for a Secretary. He has the "franking privilege," or free use of the mails for official business.

The Speaker and the President of the Senate receive each $12,000. a year.

22 ESSENTIALS OE

The various committees of Congress have special rooms for work, and are allowed to have clerks, whose salaries are paid by the Government.

THE PASSING OF BILLS

Section 7. — 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills.

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Eepresentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who 'shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered : and, if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But, in all such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by veas and navs : and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundavs excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner a« if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return : in which case it shall not