Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins. Fiske John
political tricksters thrive as pigs fatten upon corn. In point of fact no such government, armed with a magic fund of its own, has ever existed upon the earth. No government has ever yet used any money for public purposes which it did not first take from its own people—unless when it may have plundered it from some other people in victorious warfare.
The inhabitant of a New England town is perpetually reminded that "the Government" is "the People." Although he may think loosely about the government of his state or the still more remote government at Washington, he is kept pretty close to the facts where local affairs are concerned, and in this there is a political training of no small value.
[Sidenote: Educational value of the town-meeting.] In the kind of discussion which it provokes, in the necessity of facing argument with argument and of keeping one's temper under control, the town-meeting is the best political training school in existence. Its educational value is far higher than that of the newspaper, which, in spite of its many merits as a diffuser of information, is very apt to do its best to bemuddle and sophisticate plain facts. The period when town-meetings ware most important from the wide scope of their transactions was the period of earnest and sometimes stormy discussion that ushered in our Revolutionary war. Country towns were then of more importance relatively than now; one country town—Boston—was at the same time a great political centre; and its meetings were presided over and addressed by men of commanding ability, among whom Samuel Adams, "the man of the town-meeting," was foremost[3]. In those days great principles of government were discussed with a wealth of knowledge and stated with masterly skill in town-meeting.
[Footnote 3: The phrase is Professor Hosmer's: see his Samuel Adams, the Man of the Town Meeting, in "Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies," vol. II. no. iv.; also his Samuel Adams, in "American Statesmen" series; Boston, 1885.]
[Sidenote: By-laws.] The town-meeting is to a very limited extent a legislative body; it can make sundry regulations for the management of its local affairs. Such regulations are known by a very ancient name, "by-laws." By is an Old Norse word meaning "town," and it appears in the names of such towns as Derby and Whitby in the part of England overrun by the Danes in the ninth and tenth centuries. By-laws are town laws[4].
[Footnote 4: In modern usage the roles and regulations of clubs, learned societies, and other associations, are also called by-laws.]
[Sidenote: Power and responsibility.] In the selectmen and various special officers the town has an executive department; and here let us observe that, while these officials are kept strictly accountable to the people, they are entrusted with very considerable authority. Things are not so arranged that an officer can plead that he has failed in his duty from lack of power. There is ample power, joined with complete responsibility. This is especially to be noticed in the case of the selectmen. They must often be called upon to exercise a wide discretion in what they do, yet this excites no serious popular distrust or jealousy. The annual election affords an easy means of dropping an unsatisfactory officer. But in practice nothing has been more common than for the same persons to be reelected as selectmen or constables or town-clerks for year after year, as long as they are able or willing to serve. The notion that there is anything peculiarly American or democratic in what is known as "rotation in office" is therefore not sustained by the practice of the New England town, which is the most complete democracy in the world. It is the most perfect exhibition of what President Lincoln called "government of the people by the people and for the people."
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.
1. What reason exists for beginning the study of government with that of the New England township?
2. Give the origin of the township in New England according to the following analysis:—
a. Settlement in groups.
b. The chief reason for coming to New England.
c. The leaders of the groups.
d. The favouring action of the Massachusetts government.
e. Small farms.
f. Defence against the Indians.
g. The limits of a township.
h. The village within the township.
3. What was the social standing of the first settlers?
4. What training had they received in self-government?
5. Who do the governing in a New England township?
6. Give an account of the town-meeting in accordance with the following analysis:—
a. The name of the meeting. b. The time for holding it. c. The place for holding it. d. The persons who take part in it. e. The sort of business done in it.
7. Give an account of the selectmen:—
a. Their number. b. The reason for an odd number. c. Their duties.
8. When public schools were established by Massachusetts in 1647, what reasons were assigned for the law?
9. What classes or grades of schools were then established?
10. What are the duties of the Massachusetts school committee?
11. What is the term of service of teachers in that state?
12. What are the duties of the following officers?—
a. Field-drivers. b. Pound-keepers. c. Fence-viewers. d. Surveyors of lumber. e. Measurers of wood. f. Sealers of weights and measures.
13. What are the duties of the following officers?—
a. The town-clerk. b. The treasurer. c. Constables. d. Assessors. e. Overseers of the poor.
14. Describe a warrant for a town-meeting.
15. For what other purposes than those of the town are taxes raised?
16. Explain the following:—
a. The poll-tax. b. The tax on personal property, c. The tax on real estate.
17. What kinds of real estate are exempted from taxation, and why?
18. What kinds of personal property are exempted, and why?
19. Where must the several kinds of taxes be assessed and paid? Illustrate.
20. If a person changes his residence from one town in the state to another before May 1, what consequences about taxes might follow?
21. How do the assessors ascertain the property for which one should be taxed?
22. What difficulties beset the taxation of personal property?
23. Mention a common practice in assigning values to property. What is the effect on the tax-rate? Illustrate.
24. How do high taxes operate as a burden?
25. Describe a delusion from which people who directly govern themselves are practically free.
26. What is the educational value of the town-meeting?
27. What are by-laws? Explain the phrase.
28. What of the power and responsibility of selectmen?
Section 2. Origin of the Township.
[Sidenote: Town-meetings in Greece and Rome.] It was said above that government by town-meeting is in principle the oldest form of government known in the world. The student of ancient history is familiar with the comitia of the Romans and the ecclesia of the Greeks. These were popular assemblies, held in those soft climates in the open air, usually in the market-place—the Roman forum, the Greek agora. The government carried on in them was a more or less qualified democracy. In the palmy days of Athens it was a pure democracy. The assemblies which in the Athenian market-place declared war against Syracuse, or condemned Socrates to death, were quite like New England town-meetings, except that they exercised greater powers because there was no state government above them.
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