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In the South, the settlers were country gentlemen, who in England had been accustomed to the county govern ment. These likewise found the nature of their adopted country best suited to the form of local government nder which they had lived; namely, that of the county. Agriculture being the main pursuit, they lived widely scattered on large plantations; and the towns were few and at great distances apart. The county, therefore, became the unit of local government rather than the township, and to this day, as stated before, the township in the Southern States has fewer powers of local government than it has in any other part of the Union.

In the Middle States, the original population in its nationality was more mixed than either that of New England or of the South. The township here has neither the independence of the town in New England nor the dependence of the township in the South. Pennsylvania especially was settled by numerous nationalities. Several nations, the Swedes, the Hollanders, the English, the Germans, and soon after the Scotch-Irish, engaged in the first settlements. In religion the differences were still more numerous. The variety of people, religions, nations and languages was something wonderful.

There is no record of the formation of the first township. Penn had the right in his charter to erect towns and cities, and to lay out townships. The three original counties-Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks-were probably planned in England. The townships were laid out after the settlement had been made; and their extent and their rights had to be adapted to all this Babel of tongues. Philadelphia and its suburbs from 1701 to 1854, when all were consolidated, furnish a good example of the formation of local governments in Pennsylvania. "Dis

tricts," "boroughs" and "townships" arose and grew through those years, until there were twenty-eight of them, all separ: ted from one another and all separated from Philadelphia; some near, others far off; some thickly inhabited, others sparsely, consisting entirely of farms. At the time of Penn's return to England, 1684, the province of Pennsylvania included twenty-two townshipseach possessing a liberal share of freedom in the management of its own affairs.

The Importance of the Township.-The township is small, just as a brick or a stone is small compared with the structure of which it is a part. But without the brick or the stone, the building could not stand. So without the township, without this little self-governing community, our Republic can not endure. It was in the management of the affairs of the township that Penn's settlers learned the art of self-government, and acquired that love for independence which helped to give birth to the immortal document of July 4, 1776. To this day our Presidents, Governors, Congressmen, Legislators, Judges, learn their first lessons of republican government in their own communities. Washington was a public surveyor; Lincoln, a postmaster; Johnson, an alderman; Cleveland, a sheriff.

The Character of Township Government.-Since the township is so important to the State and the Nation, its If its management should be of a high character. people elect men to office who are dishonest, inefficient and immoral, the whole government-State and National-will suffer with it. Half-baked bricks and disintegrated stones in the foundation will cause the entire superstructure sooner or later to fall to the ground. The treasurer of a school district should be as honest as the

State treasurer; the justice of the peace should have as good common sense as the judge of the supreme court; the constable should be as fearless in the pursuit of lawbreakers as the adjutant-general. The best citizens in a community, irrespective of party, creed or rank, should govern it; otherwise it will be misgoverned.

Our Debt to the Township.-We owe the township a patriotic devotion-not a devotion simply to its "rocks and rills," its "woods and templed hills," but to its laws, its property and its public benefits. The protection which it gives to our lives and homes should gain our affection. We should be so devoted to it that we never steal another man's horse or burn another man's barn. We should be so public-spirited that, when we see a big stone in the road or a banana peel on the sidewalk, we remove it for the safety of others. We should take a part in everything pertaining to the township's welfare; for its welfare is our welfare. When a new school house is needed in a distant corner of the township we should advocate its erection as earnestly as we would if it were for our own children. In this way, by practicing the art of government in a small sphere within our reach, we become true patriots. We learn to love order and fairness and to demand our rights from others and to recognize our duties toward them. To know all this and to practice it is patriotism in the highest sense.

A Township's Powers.-A township in Pennsylvania is a corporation, and it can therefore sue and be sued. It can buy and sell, and borrow money for schools, roads, and other public purposes. It lays two taxes, the road tax and the school tax; and in counties with no county poor house, it also lays a tax for the support of the poor. New townships can be formed by a majority of the voters

in the territory to be organized into a new township. Permission to take such a vote must be obtained from the court by the voters living in the proposed new township.

The statement that the township lays a school tax needs some qualification. Strictly speaking, it is not the township but the school district that lays the school tax and controls the public schools. Nearly everywhere in the State, the township and the school district are coextensive, and therefore no distinction is commonly made between the two. But where an independent district exists, it is necessarily a part of a township or of more than one township. The only legislative body that a township has is the board of supervisors.

The County.-The county is a division of the State, and is composed of a number of townships; where boroughs and cities exist, these also are parts of the county. One county-Philadelphia-is composed entirely of the wards. of a city. Everything that the county does through its officers must be authorized by the laws of the State. It may be termed the agent of the State to carry out the laws of the State in the territory which it covers. There are certain duties which are common to all the townships of a county; such as, the care of the poor, the settlement of disputes, the punishment of criminals, the protection of life and property, and others. These duties are performed by the county as the agent or organ of the State.

The three departments of government-legislative, executive and judicial—are not distinct in the local institutions created within the State except in cities and boroughs, where we have the council, the mayor or burgess, and the magistrate, alderman or justice. In the county, the board of commissioners has a few legislative powers; the executive functions are not all vested in one person;

the sheriff is the chief executive officer; the courts are the judicial department.

The State. The State is composed of counties; but this is only an artificial division. The State is a unit, which can not be divided into two or more States, or joined to another State, "without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress" of the United States. Certain interests are alike in every local division of the State. Laws for the safety of life and property are needed everywhere; disturbances arise which require a trained soldiery to suppress; business, banking, manufacturing, education, transportation, etc., must be regulated. All these general interests are directed by the State. The power which is required to direct these local affairs common to every community, is brought together in one place at the State capital. It is centralized in the State govermment. This union of power is the State.

The United States.-The United States is a union of all the States into a nation. The States are held together by the Constitution, adopted in 1787, in Philadelphia. This instrument has its authority from the States which are united under it. But the people constitute the State. The Constitution of the United States is an agreement of the people in the Union that all the States shall be put under one government, which is called the National government. The preamble of the Constitution begins with "We, the People of the United States," not with, "We, the States of the United States." The Union, therefore, is something in which every man, woman and child in this country has an interest. The best way to protect our interest in it is to work for good government at home.

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