PREFACE IN the series of volumes bearing the title "The American State," to which this work is intended to serve as an introduction, there will be described in detail the manner in which the governmental agencies of this country-federal, state, and local-are organized and operated. The aim of the present essay is to prepare the way for this descriptive work by disclosing the constitutional character of the American State, explaining the status of its various territorial subdivisions, and indicating the extent of the powers of their several governments. In order to do this it has not been thought necessary or appropriate to prepare a comprehensive treatise upon United States constitutional law. Considered as but an introduction to the volumes that are to follow, it has been conceived that the scope of this study should not include more than a determination of the constitutional character of our complicated federal system, and a statement of the general principles in accordance with which the legal powers of its various governmental agencies are ascertained. The fact is therefore to be emphasized that no attempt is made in this volume even to enumerate the |