Civil Government in the United States | Page 6

assessed
Tax-lists
Cheating the government
The rate of taxation
Undervaluation; the burden of taxation
The "magic-fund" delusion
Educational value of the town-meeting
By-laws
Power and responsibility
There is nothing especially American, democratic, or meritorious about "rotation in office"
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 2. Origin of the Township.
Town-meetings in ancient Greece and Rome
Clans; the mark and the tun The Old-English township, the manor, and the parish
The vestry-meeting
Parish and vestry clerks; beadles, waywardens, haywards, common-drivers, churchwardens, etc.
Transition from the English parish to the New England township
Building of states out of smaller political units
Representation; shire-motes; Earl Simon's Parliament
The township as the "unit of representation" in the shire-mote and in the General Court
Contrast with the Russian village-community which is not represented in the general government
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


CHAPTER III.
THE COUNTY.
Section 1. The County in its Beginnings.
Why do we have counties?
Clans and tribes
The English nation, like the American, grew out of the union of small states
Ealdorman and sheriff; shire-mote and county court
The coroner, or "crown officer"
Justices of the peace; the Quarter Sessions; the lord lieutenant
Decline of the English county; beginnings of counties in Massachusetts
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 2. The Modern County in Massachusetts.
County commissioners, etc.; shire-towns and court-houses
Justices of the peace, and trial justices
The sheriff
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 3. The Old Virginia County.
Virginia sparsely settled; extensive land grants to individuals
Navigable rivers; absence of towns; slavery
Social position of the settlers
Virginia parishes; the vestry was a close corporation
Powers of the vestry
The county was the unit of representation
The county court was virtually a close corporation
The county-seat, or Court House
Powers of the court; the sheriff
The county-lieutenant
Contrast between old Virginia and old New England, in respect of local government
Jefferson's opinion of township government
"Court-day" in old Virginia
Virginia has been prolific in great leaders
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


CHAPTER IV.
TOWNSHIP AND COUNTY.
Section 1. _Various Local Systems._
Parishes in South Carolina
The back country; the "regulators"
The district system
The modern South Carolina county
The counties are too large
Tendency of the school district to develop into something like a township
Local institutions in colonial Maryland; the hundred
Clans; brotherhoods, or phratries; and tribes
Origin of the hundred; the hundred court; the high constable
Decay of the hundred; hundred-meeting in Maryland
The hundred in Delaware; the levy court, or representative county assembly
The old Pennsylvania county
Town-meetings in New Tort
The county board of supervisors
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 2. _Settlement of the Public Domain._
Westward movement of population along parallels of latitude
Method of surveying the public lands
Origin of townships in the West
Formation of counties in the West
Some effects of this system
The reservation of a section for public schools
In this reservation there were the germs of township government
But at first the county system prevailed
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 3. _The Representative Township-County System in the West._
The town-meeting in Michigan
Conflict between township and county systems in Illinois
Effects of the Ordinance of 1787
Intense vitality of the township system
County option and township option in Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota
Grades of township government in the West
An excellent result of the absence of centralization in the United States
Effect of the self-governing school district in the South, in preparing the way for the self-governing township
Woman-suffrage in the school district
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


CHAPTER V.
THE CITY.
Section 1. _Direct and Indirect Government._
Summary of the foregoing results; township government is direct, county government is indirect
Representative government is necessitated in a county by the extent of territory, and in a city by the multitude of people
Josiah Quincy's account of the Boston town-meeting in 1830
Distinctions between towns and cities in America and in England
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 2. _Origin of English Boroughs and Cities._
Origin of the chesters and casters in Roman camps
Coalescence of towns into fortified boroughs
The borough as a hundred; it acquires a court
The borough as a county; it acquires a sheriff
Government of London under Henry I
The guilds; the town guild, and Guild Hall
Government of London as perfected in the thirteenth century; mayor, aldermen, and common council
The city of London, and the metropolitan district
English cities were for a long time the bulwarks of liberty
Simon de Montfort and the cities
Oligarchical abuses in English cities, beginning with the Tudor period
The Municipal Reform Act of 1835
Government of the city of New York before the Revolution
Changes after the Revolution
City government in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century
The very tradition of good government was lacking in these cities
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
Section 3. The Government of Cities in the United States.
Several features of our municipal governments
In many cases they do not seem to work well
Rapid growth of American cities
Some consequences of this rapid growth
Wastefulness resulting from want of foresight
Growth in complexity of government in cities
Illustrated by list of municipal officers in Boston.
How city government comes to be a mystery to the citizens, in some respects harder to understand than state and national government
Dread of the "one-man power" has in many cases led to scattering and weakening of responsibility
Committees inefficient for executive purposes; the "Circumlocution Office"
Alarming increase of city debts, and various attempts to remedy the evil
Experience