CHAPTER II.

THE TOWNSHIP.

§1. The New England Township.

Or the various kinds of government to be found in the United States, we may begin by considering that of the New England township. As we shall presently see, it is in principle of all known forms of government the oldest as well as the simplest. Let us observe how the New England township grew up.

When people from England first came to dwell in the wilderness of Massachusetts Bay, they settled in groups upon small irregular-shaped patches of land, which soon came to be known as townships. There were several reasons why they settled thus in small groups, instead of scattering about over the country and carving out broad estates for themselves. In the

New England was settled by church congregations.

first place, their principal reason for coming to New England was their dissatisfaction with the way in which church affairs were managed in the old country. They wished to bring about a reform in the church, in such wise that the members of a congregation should have more voice than formerly in the church-government, and that the minister of each congregation should be more independent than formerly of the bishop and of the civil government. They also wished to abolish sundry rites and customs of the church of which they

had come to disapprove. Finding the resistance to their reforms quite formidable in England, and having some reason to fear that they might be themselves crushed in the struggle, they crossed the ocean in order to carry out their ideas in a new and remote country where they might be comparatively secure from interference. Hence it was quite natural that they should come in congregations, led by their favourite ministers, such men, for example, as Higginson and Cotton, Hooker and Davenport. When such men, famous in England for their bold preaching and imperilled thereby, decided to move to America, a considerable number of their parishioners would decide to accompany them, and similarly minded members of neighbouring churches would leave their own pastor and join in the migration. Such a group of people, arriving on the coast of Massachusetts, would naturally select some convenient locality, where they might build their houses near together and all go to the same church.

This migration, therefore, was a movement, not of individuals or of separate families, but of churchcongregations, and it continued to be so as the settlers made their way inland and westward. The first river towns of Connecticut were founded by congregations coming from Dorchester, Cambridge, and Watertown. This kind of settlement was favoured by the government of Massachusetts, which made grants Land grants. of land, not to individuals but to companies

of people who wished to live together and attend the same church.

In the second place, the soil of New England was not favourable to the cultivation of great quantities of staple articles, such as rice or tobacco, so that there was nothing to tempt people to undertake exten

Small farms.

sive plantations. Most of the people lived on small farms, each family raising but little more than enough food for its own support; and the small size of the farms made it possible to have a good many in a compact neighbourhood. It appeared also that towns could be more easily defended against the Indians than scattered plantations; and this doubtless helped to keep people together, although if there had been any strong inducement for solitary pioneers to plunge into the great woods, as in later years so often happened at the West, it is not likely that any dread of the savages would have hindered them.

Thus the early settlers of New England came to live in townships. A township would consist of about as many farms as could be disposed within convenient distance from the meeting-house, where all the inhabtants, young and old, gathered every Sunday, coming on horseback or afoot. The meeting-house was thus centrally situated, and near it was the town

Township

and village.

66 pasture or common," with the school-house and the block-house, or rude fortress for defence against the Indians. For the latter building some commanding position was apt to be selected, and hence we so often find the old village streets of New England running along elevated ridges or climbing over beetling hilltops. Around the meeting-house and common the dwellings gradually clustered into a village, and after a while the tavern, store, and townhouse made their appearance.

Among the people who thus tilled the farms and built up the villages of New England, the differences in what we should call social position, though noticeable, were not extreme. While in England some had been esquires or country magistrates, or "lords of the manor," a phrase which does not mean a member

of the peerage, but a landed proprietor with dependent tenants;1 some had been yeomen, or persons holding farms by some free kind of tenure; some Social posi

tlers.

had been artisans or tradesmen in cities. tion of setAll had for many generations been more or less accustomed to self-government and to public meetings for discussing local affairs. That self-govern

ment, especially as far as church matters were concerned, they were stoutly bent upon maintaining and extending. Indeed, that was what they had crossed the ocean for. Under these circumstances they developed a kind of government which we may describe in the present tense, for its methods are pretty much the same to-day that they were two centuries ago.

In a New England township the people directly govern themselves; the government is the people, or, to speak with entire precision, it is all the male inhabitants of one-and-twenty years of age and upwards. The people tax themselves. Once each year, usually in March but sometimes as early as February or as late as April, a "town-meeting" is held, at The townwhich all the grown men of the township are meeting. expected to be present and to vote, while any one may introduce motions or take part in the discussion. In early times there was a fine for non-attendance, but that is no longer the case; it is supposed that a due regard to his own interests will induce every man to come.

The town-meeting is held in the town-house, but at first it used to be held in the church, which was thus a "meeting-house " for civil as well as ecclesiastical purposes. At the town-meeting measures relating to the administration of town affairs are discussed and adopted or rejected; appropriations are made for the public expenses of the town, or in other words the 1 Compare the Scottish "laird."

amount of the town taxes for the year is determined; and town officers are elected for the year. Let us first enumerate these officers.

The principal executive magistrates of the town are the selectmen. They are three, five, seven, or nine in number, according to the size of the town and the amount of public business to be transacted. The odd number insures a majority decision in case of any difference of opinion among them. They have the general management of the public business. Selectmen. They issue warrants for the holding of townmeetings, and they can call such a meeting at any time during the year when there seems to be need for it, but the warrant must always specify the subjects which are to be discussed and acted on at the meeting. The selectmen also lay out highways, grant licenses, and impanel jurors; they may act as health officers and issue orders regarding sewerage, the abatement of nuisances, or the isolation of contagious diseases; in many cases they act as assessors of taxes, and as overseers of the poor. They are the proper persons to listen to complaints if anything goes wrong in the town. In county matters and state matters they speak for the town, and if it is a party to a law-suit they represent it in court; for the New England town is a legal corporation, and as such can hold property, and sue and be sued. In a certain sense the selectmen may be said to be "the government" of the town during the intervals between the town-meetings.

Town-clerk.

An officer no less important than the selectmen is the town-clerk. He keeps the record of all votes passed in the town-meetings. He also records the names of candidates and the number of votes for each in the election of state and county officers. He records the births, marriages,