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

e County in i

treating of the township we began by sketching it in its fullest development, as seen in New Englan

l divided into counties (except that in Louisiana the corresponding divisions are nam

re is much truth in this. It is convenient. If it were not so, counties would not have survived, so as to make a part of our modern maps. Nevertheless, this is not the historic reason why we have the particular kind of subdivisions

y groups. Now when our English forefathers conquered Britain they settled there as clans and also as tribes. The clans became townships, and the tribes became shires or counties; that is to say, the names were applied first to the people and afterwards to the land they occupied. A few of the oldest county names in England still show this plainly. Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex were originally "East

Kent, and the North and South Folk were combined in a kingdom of East Anglia. In course of time numbers of shires combined into larger kingdoms, such as Northumbria, Mercia, and the West Saxons; and finally the king of the West Saxons became king of all England, and the several shires became subordinate parts or "shares" of the kingdom. In England, therefore, the shires are older than the nation. The shires were not made by dividing the nation, but the nation was made by uniting the shires. The English

iation, was probably som

lmers, Local Gov

h township. There were thus the germs of both the kind of representation that is seen in the House of Lords and the much more perfect kind that is seen in the House of Commons. After a while, as cities and boroughs grew in importance, they sent repr

king for the term of one year. This kept him strictly responsible to the king. It was the sheriff's duty to see that the county's share of the national taxes was duly collected and paid over to the national treasury. The sheriff also summoned juries and enforced the judgments of the courts, and if he met with resistance in so doing he was authorized to call out a force of men, known as the posse comitatus (i.e. power of the county), and overcome all opposition. Another county officer was the coroner, or crowner_,[4] so called because originally (in Alfred's time) he was appointed by the king, and was especially the crown officer in the county. Since the time of Edward I., however, coroners have been elected by th

Footnote 4: This form of the word, sometimes supposed to be a vu

o seize persons and hold them for ransom.[5] By the last of these statutes, in 1362, the justices of the peace in each county were to hold a court four times in the year. The powers of this court, which came to be known as the Quarter Sessions, were from time to time increased by act of parliament, until it quite supplanted the old county court. In modern times the Quarter Sessions has become an administrative body quite as much as a court. The justices, who r

Life and Times of Edwar

nistration of justice, and they brought with them coroners, sheriffs, and quarter sessions. In 1635 the General Court of Massachusetts appointed four towns-Boston, Cambridge, Salem, and Ipswich-as places where courts should be held quarterly. In 1643 the colony, which then included as much of New Hampshire as was settled, was divided into four "shires,"-Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk, the latter lying then to the northward and including the New Hampshire towns. The militia was then organized, perhaps without consciousness of the analogy, after a very old English fas

re appointed by the governo

NS ON T

he United States? Contrast the

he tribe hold to the c

the clans and the tr

es in England throw light

ibe and its leader, b. A powerful tribe and its leader. c. The relation of a little kingdom to

e two kinds of representation in it, (3) of its pre

written analyses or ou

ed by him in pre

be passed in t

k place in the gove

e Norman

elopment of the

f the justices of th

by

ns the English settlers

dge of the E

Modern County i

is a corporation; it can hold property and sue or be sued. It builds the court-house and jail, and kee

ut each year. These commissioners represent the county in law-suits, as the selectmen represent the town. They "apportion the county taxes among the towns;

tin's Civil Gove

nd partly from the payment of fines and costs in the courts. These revenues are received an

bate court with jurisdiction over all matters relating to wills, administration of estates, and appointment of guardians; it also acts as a court of insolvency. The custody of

eeds and mortgages are registered in an office in the shire town, usually within or attached to the court The register of deeds i

. Their functions have been greatly curtailed, and now amount to little more than administering oaths, and in some cases issuing warrants and taking

ether it be fine, imprisonment, or death. He is responsible for the preservation of the peace within the county, and to this end must pursue criminals and may arrest disorderly persons. If he meets with resistance he may call out the posse comitatus; if the resistance grows into insurrection he may apply to the governor and obtain the aid of t

n be gained from a reference to the history of England and of Massachusetts. We must next trace the development of local government in other parts of the United States; and in doing so we can advance at somewhat quicke

NS ON T

rn county in Massachusetts

courts held in a county. 5. The shire town and the court-house. 6. The register of deeds and his duties. 7. Justices of

The Old Vir

lowed, in propagating themselves throughout the United States, are the two lines that have led through New England on the one hand and through Vi

ater days gold drew settlers to California and sparsely Australia. They came not in organized groups or congregations, but as a multitude of individuals. Land was granted to individuals, and sometimes these grants were of enormous extent. John Bolling, who died in 1757, left an estate of

d County Government," in Johns Hopkins

e wharf, where a ship from England could unload its cargo of tools, cloth, or furniture, and receive a cargo of tobacco in return. As the planters were thus supplied with most of the necessaries of life, there was no occasion for the kind of trad

ter were sold into slavery for a limited term of years, and were known as "indentured white servants." So great was the demand for labour that it became customary to kidnap poor friendless wretches on the streets of seaport towns

ked off from the upper, on the other hand in Virginia there was an insurmountable distinction between the owners of plantations and the so-called "mean whites" or "white trash." This class was originally formed of men and women who had been indentured white servants, and was increased by

ody of ratepayers had assembled in vestry meeting, to enact by-laws and assess taxes, the course of development would have been like that of the New England town-meeting. But instead of this the vestry, which exercised the chief authority in the parish, was composed of twelve chosen men. This was not government by a primary assembly, it was representative government. At first the twelve vestrymen were elected b

nd acted as overseers of the poor. The minister presided in all vestry meetings. His salary was paid in tobacco, and in 1696 it was fixed by law at 16,000 pounds of tobacco yearly. In ma

light and were sustained by public sentiment. As Jefferson said, "The vestrymen are usually the most discreet farmers, so distributed through the parish that every part of it may be under the immediate eye of some one of them. They are w

d, Local Constitutiona

vol. i.

ntatives sat not for parishes, but for counties. The difference is very significant. As the political life of New England was in a manner built up out of the political life of the towns, so the political life of Virginia was built up out of the political life of the counties. This was partly because the vast plantations were not grouped about a compact village nucleus like the small farms at the North, and partly because there was not in Virginia that Puritan theory of the

ces of the peace, and their court was the counterpart of the Quarter Sessions in England. They were appointed by the governor, but it was customary for them to nominate candidates for the governor to appoint, so th

towns that have grown up in such spots often retain these names to the present day. Such names occur commonly in Virginia, West Virginia, and South Carolina, very rarely in Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Ohio, and nowhere else in the United States.[9] Their number has diminished from the tendency to omit the phrase "Court House," leaving the

e number of cases is in Va. 38, W. Va. 13,

reading and thinning of single settlements originally intended to be cities and named accordingly. Hen

bridges and highways, and for this purpose divided the county into "precincts," and appointed annually for each precinct a highway surveyor. The court also seems to have appointed constables, one for each precinct. The justices could themselves act as coroners, but annually two or more coroners for each parish were appointed by the governor. As we have seen that the parish taxes-so much for salaries of minister and clerk, so much for car

xecuting the judgments of the court, but he was also county treasurer and collector, and thus exercised powers almost as great as those of the sheriff in England in the twelfth century. He also presided over elections for representatives to the legislature. It is interesting to observe how this very important offic

ward Channing, o

s, and because it was not convenient for the men to go many miles from home in assembling for purposes of drill, the county was subdivided into military districts, each with its company, according to rules laid down by the governor. The military command in each county was vested in the county lieutenant, an officer answering in many respe

ore the Revolution, see Howard, Local Const. Hist. of the U.S., vol. i. pp

een local government in Virginia an

being superadded for certain purposes, chiefly judicial; while in Virginia the management was chiefly in t

hile in Virginia, though some of them were nominally appointed by the governor, yet in practice they generally contrived

e New England system than under the Virginia system. Jefferson said, "Those wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of

Jefferson's Wo

14: Id.,

though Virginia had not the town-meeting, it had its familiar court-day, which was a holiday for all the country-side, especially in the fall and spring. From all directions came in the people on horseback, in wagons, and afoot. On the court-house green assembled, in indiscriminate co

conflicted with those of the people. This perpetual antagonism to the governor, who represented British imperial interference with American local self-government, was an excellent schooling in political liberty, alike for Virginia and for Massachusetts. When the stress of the Revolution came, these two leading colonies cordially supported each other, and their political characteristics were reflected in the kind of achievements for which each was especially distinguished. The Virginia system, concentrating the administration of local affairs in the hands of a

15: Ingle,

NS ON T

more sparsely settle

e built up more slowly in Vi

at demand for labo

tion of classes

f society thus develop

d in New

ia parish in its earl

rom which it was

vestry became a

osen as vestrymen, and

n the colonial legislature with that of Massac

, showing in particular how i

e history wrapped up in

chief powers of

assessment of t

re the sher

ation and command of the

rginia and that in New England (1) as to the management o

think of the principle

ent in Virginia of the N

value of this fre

berty before the Revolution did Vi

essive feature of th

ressive feature of

UESTIONS AND

nties are there

ce them if the

county do

sions. Are they s

its bo

teresting in the meanin

ns and cities d

Is it conveniently situate

g, note the uses to which it is put, and r

ter how old, and answer t

ecorded? I

be easy fo

re

d such a rec

at of

e of such

of work mus

stan

f such records

es for the public should

ions should be

hould th

rather than the

the deed by which the

n of the

title did the fi

t? Was the first owne

text to lead pupils to see the common-sense basis of an important county institution, and thereaf

r city? 12. How do its cases compare in ma

nd is prosecuted, who

is sued for debt, who

s a crimin

is a civi

the defendant in the forme

defendant in the latter case,

e or a sin? May it

to the vast numbers who are

of the courts if they choose? Is it

people that you know to being

e of a jail? Is this p

ur town, whose immediate duty would it be to quell it? Suppo

ng to enforce the laws? What is the attitude of good citizenship if the la

osal of his property? Suppose he leaves no will, what troubles are possible? Whose duty is it t

xecutor? What is

en? If property is left to such children, are they free to us

wards county expenses? How does this amount compa

nization of your

towns to do themselves the work

*

RAPHICA

eated in connection with the township in several of the boo

ACHUSETTS. There is a good account i

account is in J.H.U. Studies, III., ii.-iii

eachers and pupils will find Dole's Talks about