The "Course in Civil Government" is an abridgment of "The Government of the People of the United States." Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by ELDREDGE & BROTHER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 31 MAY199 HERTZ ALL that is sacred in life is inseparably bound up with government. Its nature is complex; it implies rights and duties; it involves human lives and activities; its organization is required of the whole people; its administration is committed to their representatives. Popular government is of slow growth. Why it began, how it began, how it grew, and what it has become during the first century of the existence of the United States, constitute the story of politics which appeals with irresistible force to American citizens. Political knowledge is also slowly gained. It cannot be gathered from newspapers, nor from public speeches, nor from the talk of the street; only the formal treatise can set it forth in its unity and show the close sympathy between all human interests and the government under which they prosper. The story of the Government of the people of the United States has its beginning far away across the sea, and the story of political rights in England has its sequel in the story of political rights in America. Nor have these rights been accidental acquisitions: they are the fruits of American experience, growing out of the instincts, the character and the attainments of the Anglo-Saxon race in this country. 3 The Nation is the chief theme; the political people as a unit are the government. From savage life to the life of the Nation is the transition in human history which constitutes civilization. Unlike some nations, the United States is almost without traditions. It may be said that our traditions may be found in the original documents. So close are we to the days of our origin, that it is possible for us to study our institutions at first hand. Each State in the Union presents some peculiar civil features, and the teacher of civil government may use with profit the constitution of the State, the charter of the city, the ordinance of the town, the laws of the Assembly, or the act of Congress as fundamental authorities in the study of government. The meaning of a state paper may be explained in a simple manner, and be understood in its essential nature even by quite young persons. There is a freshness also in thus taking studies of government from the source of the stream. The papers printed in Part IV. will suggest others that may be used as collateral reading for the class. The Government is presented in its historical, in its legal, in its political and in its economic relations. The chapter on "The Four Groups of Rights" is a departure in works of this kind, but I am confident that the time has come when the methods of political study pursued in the leading schools of history and political science may be pursued in the other schools of the United States. The Federal and the State Constitutions cannot be examined critically in a book of this kind. In all interpretations of constitutions I have followed the language of the Supreme Court. As no person could construct the actual Government under which we live by reading any of the |