CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF NEBRASKA. I-UNITED STATES LAND SURVEY. The study of the origin of such divisions as states and territories belongs to civil government of the United States. The growth of civil institutions, the long development from the family to the state, cannot here be traced. The subject of civil government in Nebraska treats only of the peculiarities of this State, and may properly begin with the Federal land surveys within our borders. Mr. Fiske has show' the various divisions of land for purposes of government, both in the eastern and in the western states. It is the latter that especially concerns Nebraska. In the colonies no order was followed in county lines or in the limits of smaller districts. A settler marked off his land by means of cuts on trees, by stones, streams, and the like, and there was no uniformity in the shape of the farms. The boundaries of each man's land, of townships, and of counties, in such states as Kentucky, were thus very crooked. Disputes over boundaries have occupied a great deal of time in the states where there was no system in marking and surveying land. The old 1 John Fiske, Civil Government of the U. S., 71-88. NING OF U.S. plan is called the system of "metes and bounds." But an excellent system of boundaries has been BEGIN. adopted for all the unsettled territory since acquired by the nation. By a law of the old Continental Congress in 1785, 1785 a plan of surveys was begun which used meridians and parallels as standards. The "first principal meridian" was drawn northward from VEYS, the Ohio River, 84° 51' west of Greenwich, and afterwards became the western boundary of Ohio. As the name implies, a principal meridian is one SIXTH PAL ME that is made as a standard for all north and south lines that are surveyed in the part of the country where it runs. As the public surveys were made further and further west, new meridians were established at intervals across the country, until the twenty-fourth was located near the Pacific coast. The "sixth principal meridian" is the one PRINCI. which concerns Nebraska. It runs RIDIAN through this State and Kansas at longitude 97° 22′ west of Greenwich, forming in Nebraska the western boundary of Jefferson, Saline, Seward, Butler, Stanton, and Wayne counties. On either side of it are guide meridians, fortyeight miles apart, one east and seven west within the State. This interval of forty-eight miles is further divided by seven intervening meridians, and the resulting eight strips of land six miles wide are called ranges. They are numbered both east and west, beginning at the principal meridians. The last range in the southState is numbered "xviii. RANGES eastern part of the Base lines are parallels east", and in the extreme western part the numbers reach "lvii. west". of latitude used as standards. Such a line for the surveys in Kansas and Nebraska is the fortieth parallel, the common boundary between LINES the two states. North of this, at interPARAL- vals of twenty-four miles, other lines are surveyed called guide parallels, the intervening land being divided into strips six miles wide. The ranges are thus cut into squares meas BASE GUIDE LELS uring six miles on the side, which are numbered northward in every range, beginning at GRES- the southern boundary. They are called CON SIONAL SHIPS TOWN- congressional townships, or sometimes geographical townships, to distinguish them The whole State, ex from organized townships. FIG. 2. NUMBERING OF SECTIONS IN A TOWNSHIP. FIG. 3. ONE SECTION, WITH MINOR DIVISIONS. cept on the large rivers, would be divided into townships of uniform size if the meridians were |