Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins Part 7

4. Show how old county names in England throw light on the county development.

5. Trace the growth of the English nation in accordance with the following outline:-- a. Each tribe and its leader, b. A powerful tribe and its leader.

c. The relation of a little kingdom to the s.h.i.+re.

d. The final union under one king.

e. The relative ages of the s.h.i.+re and the nation.

6. Give an account (1) of the s.h.i.+re-mote, (2) of the two kinds of representation in it, (3) of its presiding officers, and (4) of its two kinds of duties.

7. Let the pupil make written a.n.a.lyses or outlines of the following topics, to be used by him in presenting the topics orally, or to be pa.s.sed in to the teacher:-- a. What changes took place in the government of the s.h.i.+re after the Norman Conquest?

b. Trace the development of the coroner's office.

c. Give an account of the justices of the peace and the courts held by them.

d. Show what applications the English settlers in Ma.s.sachusetts made of their knowledge of the English county.

Section 2. The Modern County in Ma.s.sachusetts.

The modern county system of Ma.s.sachusetts may now be very briefly described. The county, like the town, is a corporation; it can hold property and sue or be sued. It builds the court-house and jail, and keeps them in repair. The town in which these buildings are placed is called, as in England, the s.h.i.+re town.

[Sidenote: County commissioners.]

In each county there are three commissioners, elected by the people.

Their term of service is three years, and one goes out each year.

These commissioners represent the county in law-suits, as the selectmen represent the town. They "apportion the county taxes among the towns;" "lay out, alter, and discontinue highways within the county;" "have charge of houses of correction;" and erect and keep in repair the county buildings.[6]

[Footnote 6: Martin's _Civil Government_, p. 197.]

[Sidenote: County treasurer.]

The revenues of the county are derived partly from taxation and partly from the payment of fines and costs in the courts. These revenues are received and disbursed by the county treasurer, who is elected by the people for a term of three years.

[Sidenote: Courts.]

The Superior Court of the state holds at least two sessions annually in each county, and tries civil and criminal causes. There is also in each county a probate 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 wills and doc.u.ments relating to the business of this court is in the hands of an officer known as the register of probate, who is elected by the people for a term of five years.

[Sidenote: s.h.i.+re town and court-house.]

To preserve the records of all land-t.i.tles and transfers of land within the county, all deeds and mortgages are registered in an office in the s.h.i.+re town, usually within or attached to the court The register of deeds is an officer elected by the people for a term of three years. In counties where there is much business there may be more than one.

[Sidenote: Justices of the peace.]

Justices of the peace are appointed by the governor for a term of seven years, and the appointment may be renewed. Their functions have been greatly curtailed, and now amount to little more than administering oaths, and in some cases issuing warrants and taking bail. They may join persons in marriage, and, when specially commissioned as "trial justices," have criminal jurisdiction over sundry petty offences.

[Sidenote: The Sheriff.]

The sheriff is elected by the people for a term of three years. He may appoint deputies, for whom he is responsible, to a.s.sist him in his work. He must attend all county courts, and the meetings of the county commissioners whenever required. He must inflict, either personally or by deputy, the sentence of the court, whether 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 the state militia; if the insurrection proves too formidable to be thus dealt with, the governor may in his behalf apply to the president of the United States for aid from the regular army. In this way the force that may be drawn upon, if necessary, for the suppression of disorder in a single locality, is practically unlimited and irresistible.

We have now obtained a clear outline view of the towns.h.i.+p and county in themselves and in their relation to one another, with an occasional glimpse of their relation to the state; in so far, at least, as such a view can be gained from a reference to the history of England and of Ma.s.sachusetts. 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 quicker pace, not because our subject becomes in any wise less important or less interesting, but because we have already marked out the ground and said things of general application which will not need to be said over again.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

Give an account of the modern county in Ma.s.sachusetts under the following heads:--

1. The county a corporation.

2. The county commissioners and their duties.

3. The county treasurer and his duties.

4. The courts held in a county.

5. The s.h.i.+re town and the court-house.

6. The register of deeds and his duties.

7. Justices of the peace and trial justices.

8. The sheriff and his duties.

9. The force at the sheriff's disposal to suppress disorder.

Section 3. _The Old Virginia County._

By common consent of historians, the two most distinctive and most characteristic lines of development which English forms of government have followed, in propagating themselves throughout the United States, are the two lines that have led through New England on the one hand and through Virginia on the other. We have seen what shape local government a.s.sumed in New England; let us now observe what shape it a.s.sumed in the Old Dominion.

[Sidenote: Virginia spa.r.s.ely settled.]

The first point to be noticed in the early settlement of Virginia is that people did not live so near together as in New England. This was because tobacco, cultivated on large estates, was a source of wealth.

Tobacco drew settlers to Virginia as in later days gold drew settlers to California and spa.r.s.ely Australia. They came not in organized groups or congregations, but as a mult.i.tude 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 40,000 acres, and this is not mentioned as an extraordinary amount of land for one man to own.[7] From an early period it was customary to keep these great estates together by entailing them, and this continued until entails were abolished in 1776 through the influence of Thomas Jefferson.

[Footnote 7: Edward Channing, "Town and County Government," in _Johns Hopkins University Studies_, vol. ii. p. 467.]

[Sidenote: Absence of towns.]

A glance at the map of Virginia shows to what a remarkable degree it is intersected by navigable rivers. This fact made it possible for plantations, even at a long distance from the coast, to have each its own private wharf, where a s.h.i.+p 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 trade that builds up towns. Even in comparatively recent times the development of town life in Virginia has been very slow. In 1880, out of 246 cities and towns in the United States with a population exceeding 10,000, there were only six in Virginia.

[Sidenote: Slavery]

The cultivation of tobacco upon large estates caused a great demand for cheap labour, and this was supplied partly by bringing negro slaves from Africa, partly by bringing criminals from English jails. The latter 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 in England and s.h.i.+p them off to Virginia to be sold into servitude. At first these white servants were more numerous than the negroes, but before the end of the seventeenth century the blacks had come to be much the more numerous.

[Sidenote: Social position of settlers.]

In this rural community the owners of plantations came from the same cla.s.ses of society as the settlers of New England; they were for the most part country squires and yeomen. But while in New England there was no lower cla.s.s or society sharply marked 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 cla.s.s was originally formed of men and women who had been indentured white servants, and was increased by such s.h.i.+ftless people as now and then found their way to the colony, but could not win estates or obtain social recognition. With such a sharp division between cla.s.ses, an aristocratic type of society was developed in Virginia as naturally as a democratic type was developed in New England.

[Sidenote: Virginia parishes.]

[Sidenote: The vestry of a close corporation.]

In Virginia there were no town-meetings. The distances between plantations cooperated with the distinction between cla.s.ses to prevent the growth of such an inst.i.tution. The English parish, with its churchwardens and vestry and clerk, was reproduced in Virginia under the same name, but with some noteworthy peculiarities. If the whole body of ratepayers had a.s.sembled in vestry meeting, to enact by-laws and a.s.sess 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 a.s.sembly, it was representative government. At first the twelve vestrymen were elected by the people of the parish, and thus resembled the selectmen of New England; but after a while "they obtained the power of filling vacancies in their own number," so that they became what is called a "close corporation," and the people had nothing to do with choosing them. Strictly speaking, that was not representative government; it was a step on the road that leads towards oligarchical or despotic government.

[Sidenote: Powers of the vestry.]

It was the vestry, thus const.i.tuted, that apportioned the parish taxes, appointed the churchwardens, presented the minister for induction into office, and 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 many parishes the churchwardens were the collectors of the parish taxes. The other officers, such as the s.e.xton and the parish clerk, were appointed either by the minister or by the vestry.

With the local government thus administered, we see that the larger part of the people had little directly to do. Nevertheless in these small neighbourhoods government was in full sight of the people. Its proceedings went on in broad daylight 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 well acquainted with the details and economy of private life, and they find sufficient inducements to execute their charge well, in their philanthropy, in the approbation of their neighbours, and the distinction which that gives them." [8]

[Footnote 8: See Howard, _Local Const.i.tutional History of the United States_, vol. i. p. 122.]

[Sidenote: The county was the unit of representation.]

The difference, however, between the New England towns.h.i.+p and the Virginia parish, in respect of self-government, was striking enough.

We have now to note a further difference. In New England, as we have seen, the towns.h.i.+p was the unit of representation in the colonial legislature; but in Virginia the parish was not the unit of representation. The county was that unit. In the colonial legislature of Virginia the representatives 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 church according to which each congregation is a self-governing democracy. The conditions which made the New England town-meeting were absent. The only alternative was some kind of representative government, and for this the county was a small enough area. The county in Virginia was much smaller than in Ma.s.sachusetts or Connecticut. In a few instances the county consisted of only a single parish; in some cases it was divided into two parishes, but oftener into three or more.