Elements of Civil Government Part 3

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.--The office of justice of the peace is one of dignity and importance. Justices can render great service to society by the proper discharge of their duties. They may have much to do with enforcing the law, and therefore the best men should be elected to this office.

ELECTION, TERM OF OFFICE.--Justices of the peace are usually elected by the qualified voters of the district. In some States the governor appoints them. The term of office is two, three, four, or even seven years, varying in different States.

DUTIES.--The duties of justices of the peace are princ.i.p.ally judicial, and their jurisdiction extends throughout the county. Upon the sworn statement of the person making complaint, they issue warrants for the arrest of offenders. With the aid of juries, they hold court for the trial of minor offences--such as the breach of the peace--punishable by fine or brief imprisonment. They sometimes try those charged with higher crimes, and acquit; or, if the proof is sufficient, remand the accused to trial by a higher court. This is called an examining trial.

They try civil suits where the amount involved does not exceed a fixed amount--fifty dollars in some States, and one hundred dollars in others--and prevent crime by requiring reckless persons to give security to keep the peace. Justices sometimes preside, instead of the coroner, at inquests, and in some States they have important duties as officers of the county.

CONSTABLE, ELECTION, TERM OF OFFICE.--There is usually one constable--in some States more--in each civil district. Constables, like the justices, are elected in most States; but in some they are appointed. The term of office is usually the same as that of the justice in the same State.

DUTIES.--The constable is termed a ministerial officer because it is his duty to minister to, or wait upon, the justice's court. He serves warrants, writs, and other processes of the justice, and sometimes those of higher courts. He preserves the public peace, makes arrests for its violation, and in some States collects the taxes apportioned to his civil district.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

1. In what respect does civil government differ from family or school government?

2. Why does the government of the civil district concern its people directly and others remotely?

3. What is meant by the civil unit? By what names is it known in the various States?

4. What are the three general cla.s.ses under which the civil unit may be considered?

5. Why can not free government exist without the right to vote?

6. Why should the people try to secure their rights through the law?

7. What is the purpose of the subdivision of a county into districts?

8. Define in general terms the rights and duties of the citizens of civil districts.

9. By what other names are justices of the peace sometimes called?

10. Why is the jurisdiction of a justice's court limited?

11. Who are the justices of this civil district?

12. When elected, and what is their term of office?

13. Who is constable of this district?

QUESTION FOR DEBATE.

_Resolved_, That the government of the civil district should have a legislative department.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOWNs.h.i.+P OR TOWN.

INTRODUCTION.--We have learned that in the Southern States the civil unit under various names may be described under the common name of the civil district; that in the New England States it is called the town, and in many of the Western States it is known as the towns.h.i.+p. As the powers and functions of the town and the towns.h.i.+p are the same in kind, differing only in extent, and as the two names are so often used, the one for the other, we shall consider both under the head of the towns.h.i.+p.

As a rule, the towns.h.i.+p possesses more extensive governmental functions in the Eastern than in the Western States, and in the West it possesses functions much more extensive than those of the civil district in the South. Many of the most important powers that belong to the county in the Southern States belong to the towns.h.i.+p in the Eastern and the Western States.

FORMATION.--In the Eastern States the towns.h.i.+ps were formed in the first settlement of the country, and afterward a number of towns.h.i.+ps were combined to form the county. In the Western States the towns.h.i.+ps were surveyed, and their boundaries marked, by agents of the general government, before the Territories became States of the Union. As a natural result, the towns.h.i.+ps of the Eastern States are irregular in shape and size, while those of the Western States have a regular form, each being about six miles square. In the Western States the towns.h.i.+p is usually composed of thirty-six sections, each section being one mile square, and containing six hundred and forty acres of land.

PURPOSES.--It is an old and true maxim that government should be brought as near the people as possible. This the towns.h.i.+p system does.

In our country all power resides in the people, and the towns.h.i.+p provides a convenient means of ascertaining their wishes and of executing their will. The farther away the government, the less will be the people's power; the nearer the government, the greater will be the people's power. The towns.h.i.+p system enables each community to attend to its own local affairs--a work which no other agency can do so well--to remove readily and speedily its local public grievances, and to obtain readily and speedily its local public needs.

CITIZENS.

The citizens of the towns.h.i.+p are the people living in it, whether native or foreigners who have become citizens. It exists for their benefit, to afford them a means of securing their rights and of redressing their wrongs. It is these persons that the law has in view when setting forth the privileges and immunities of citizens.h.i.+p.

RIGHTS.--All citizens of the towns.h.i.+p arc ent.i.tled to enjoy the rights of "life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness." The towns.h.i.+p government exists for the purpose of securing these rights to the people. All have equal claims to the fullest protection of the law. They may use their own property as they choose, and do whatever pleases them, so long as they do not interfere with the rights of others. Whenever one's act, speech, or property interferes with the rights of others, he falls under the censure of the law and becomes subject to its penalty.

All male inhabitants born in the United States, and foreigners who have become citizens, who have resided within the State, county, and towns.h.i.+p the time required by law, are ent.i.tled to vote at all towns.h.i.+p, county, state, and national elections. Several States require ability to read, or the payment of poll-tax, as a qualification to vote; a few permit the subjects of foreign countries to vote; and in some States women are permitted to vote in school elections or in all elections. Lunatics, idiots, paupers, and persons convicted of certain high crimes are disfranchised; that is, are not permitted to vote. The right of suffrage is one of great power and value, being the basis of all free government, and is jealously guarded by the laws of the land.

DUTIES.--The people have extensive rights and they have equally extensive duties. Each citizen has rights that others must respect.

It is the duty of each to observe and regard the rights of all other persons; and when he does not, the law interferes by its officers and deprives him of his own rights by fine or imprisonment, and in some instances by a still more severe penalty. It is the duty of the people to love and serve the country; to be good citizens; to labor for the public good; to obey the law, and to a.s.sist the officers in its enforcement.

It is the duty of the qualified voters to give the towns.h.i.+p good government by electing good officers. A vote cast for a bad man or a bad measure is an attack upon the rights of every person in the community. The power of suffrage is held for the public good; but it is used for the public injury when incompetent or unfaithful men are elected to office. Good government and the happiness and prosperity of the country depend upon an honest and intelligent vote.

GOVERNMENT.

The towns.h.i.+p government possesses legislative, judicial, and executive functions. It has a legislative department to make local laws, a judicial department to apply the laws to particular cases, and an executive department to enforce these and other laws. The three functions are of nearly equal prominence in the Eastern States, but in the West the executive function is more prominent than the legislative and the judicial.

CORPORATE POWER.--Each towns.h.i.+p is a corporation; that is, in any business affair it may act as a single person. In its corporate capacity it can sue and be sued; borrow money; buy, rent, and sell property for public purposes. When it is said that the towns.h.i.+p possesses these powers, it is meant that the people of the towns.h.i.+p, acting as a single political body, possess them.

OFFICERS.--The officers of the towns.h.i.+p are more numerous, and their functions are more extensive than those of the civil district. Many officers are the same in name, and others have the same duties as those of the county in the Southern States.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT; THE PEOPLE.--In the Eastern States the legislative department of the towns.h.i.+p government has more extensive functions than in the West. In the New England States most local affairs belong to the towns.h.i.+p government, and the county is of minor importance. In these and a few other States the people make their own local laws instead of delegating this power to representatives. The electors of the towns.h.i.+p meet annually at a fixed place, upon a day appointed by law, discuss questions of public concern, elect the towns.h.i.+p officers, levy towns.h.i.+p taxes, make appropriations of money for public purposes, fix the salaries and hear the reports of officers, and decide upon a course of action for the coming year. Thus the people themselves, or more strictly speaking, the qualified voters, are the government. In some States special town meetings may be called for special purposes. The town meeting places local public affairs under the direct control of the people, and thus gives them a personal interest in the government, and makes them feel a personal responsibility for its acts. Another benefit of the system is that it trains the people to deal with political matters, and so prepares them to act intelligently in all the affairs of the State and the nation.

In the Western States the county government is more important, and towns.h.i.+p legislation is confined to a narrow range. In power and importance the towns.h.i.+p of most Western States is intermediate between the town of the East and the civil district of the South.

SELECTMEN OR TRUSTEES.--The legislative power of the towns.h.i.+p is vested in the trustees, town council, or selectmen, as they are variously termed. The number of trustees or selectmen is not the same in all parts of the Union, being fixed at three in most States of the West, and varying in New England with the wishes of the electors. The trustees, councilmen, or selectmen are elected by the qualified voters of the towns.h.i.+p for a term of one, two, or three years, varying in different States. They are the legal guardians of the public interests of the towns.h.i.+p, and make laws or ordinances, sometimes called by-laws, expressly pertaining to the local wants of the community, and to a limited extent may levy taxes.

In some States, especially those of the East, the princ.i.p.al duties of the trustees or selectmen are executive. They divide the towns.h.i.+p into road districts; open roads on pet.i.tion; select jurors; build and repair bridges and town halls, where the expenditure is small; act as judges of elections; purchase and care for cemeteries; have charge of the poor not in the county charge; and act for the towns.h.i.+p in its corporate capacity. If any thing goes wrong in the public affairs of the town, complaint is made to these officers.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.--Most of the public affairs of the towns.h.i.+p, as well as of all other governments, pertain to the executive department.

Its duties are far more extensive, and its officers are more numerous, than those of the other departments. The executive officers of the towns.h.i.+p are the clerk, the treasurer, the school directors, the a.s.sessor, the supervisors, and the constables. In most States all these officers are elected by the qualified voters; but in some the clerk, the treasurer, and the constables are elected by the town council.

CLERK.--The clerk of the towns.h.i.+p is clerk of the trustees, council, or selectmen, and in some States of the school board. He attends the meetings of the trustees, and makes a careful record of the proceedings. He keeps the poll-lists and other legal papers of the towns.h.i.+p, administers oaths, and notifies officers of their election.

In the New England States, and some others, he keeps a record of the marriages, births, and deaths, calls the town meeting to order, reads the warrant under which it is held, presides until a moderator is chosen, and then acts as clerk of the meeting.