DESCRIBING THE VARIOUS FORMS OF GOVERNMENT-LOCAL, BY EDWARD SCHWINN, A.M. SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL OF MT. AIRY SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA AND W. WESLEY STEVENSON, A.M. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE NORTHEAST HIGH SCHOOL, COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. PREFACE. MEN seek after liberty, and find it only in being well governed. The highest liberty, therefore, is in the best government: a government wisely planned and faithfully administered. The people of the United States when ordaining and establishing the Constitution were actuated by a desire to secure to themselves and their posterity the blessings of liberty. We are now enjoying in a large measure the civil and religious freedom which our system of government is so happily adapted to secure. Whether these will be enjoyed by our posterity will depend largely upon what shall be done to qualify the rising generation of American youth for the duties and responsibilities of freemen. In a system of government like ours, where the popular will is paramount and sovereign, and where by virtue of the system itself every male citizen enjoys the privilege of suffrage, each individual is confronted with grave responsibilities. Political privilege begets political responsibility, and a citizen who enjoys the one must assume the other, or, in his capacity as a citizen, be unpardonably delinquent. In a very few years the destinies of the republic will be committed to those who are now receiving instruction in the schools. How important, then, that the course of instruction should embrace the study of Civil Government. In theory ours is a government of the people; and that it may be such in fact, the people must know how to govern. The right of self-government can be valuable only as it is exercised intelligently. In order that the very object of free government may not be defeated and the people become their own oppressors, they must know how to exercise the rights of citizenship intelligently. To the public schools and the many excellent private institutions of learning we must look for citizens qualified for the business of self-government. A knowledge of our political institutions is essential to the greatest good of all; and, therefore, the study of Civil Government should form a part of every well-ordered course of study. A desire to furnish a text-book suitable for class use has been the leading aim of the authors, who, in sending forth this work, indulge the hope that it may prove a blessing to American youths, by preparing them for the efficient and honorable discharge of the responsible duties of citizenship. THE AUTHORS. PHILADELPHIA, February 27, 1901. 4 |