Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins Part 9

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS.

1. How many counties are there in your state?

2. Name and place them if the number is small.

3. In what county do you live?

4. Give its dimensions. Are they satisfactory? Why?

5. Give its boundaries.

6. Is there anything interesting in the meaning or origin of its name?

7. How many towns and cities does it contain?

8. What is the county seat? Is it conveniently situated? Reasons for thinking so?

9. If convenient, visit any county building, note the uses to which it is put, and report such facts as may be thus found out.

10. Obtain a deed, no matter how old, and answer these questions about it:--

a. Is it recorded? If so, where?

b. Would it be easy for you to find the record?

c. Why should such a record be kept?

d. What officer has charge of such records?

e. What sort of work must he and his a.s.sistants do?

f. The place of such records is called what?

g. What sort of facilities for the public should such a place have? What safety precautions should be observed there?

h. Why should the county keep such records rather than the city or the town?

i. Is there a record of the deed by which the preceding owner came into possession of the property?

j. What sort of t.i.tle did the first owner have? Is there any record of it? Was the first owner Indian or European?

(The teacher might obtain a deed and base a cla.s.s exercise upon it. It is easy with a deed for a text to lead pupils to see the common-sense basis of an important county inst.i.tution, and thereafter to give very sensible views as to what it should be, even if it is not fully known what it is.)

11. Is there a local court for your town or city? 12. How do its cases compare in magnitude with those tried at the county seat?

13. If a man steals and is prosecuted, who becomes the plaintiff?

14. If a man owes and is sued for debt, who becomes the plaintiff?

15. What is a criminal action?

16. What is a civil action?

17. What is the result to the defendant in the former case, if he is convicted?

18. What is the result to the defendant in the latter case, if the decision is against him?

19. Is lying a crime or a sin? May it ever become a crime?

20. Are courts of any service to the vast numbers who are never brought before them? Why?

21. May good citizens always keep out of the courts if they choose? Is it their duty always to keep out of them?

22. Is there any aversion among people that you know to being brought before the courts? Why?

23. What is the purpose of a jail? Is this purpose realized in fact?

24. Should a disturbance of a serious nature break out in your town, whose immediate duty would it be to quell it? Suppose this duty should prove too difficult to perform, then what?

25. What is the att.i.tude of good citizens.h.i.+p towards officers who are trying to enforce the laws? What is the att.i.tude of good citizens.h.i.+p if the laws are not satisfactory or if the officers are indiscreet in enforcing them?

26. Suppose a man of property dies and leaves a will, what troubles are possible about the disposal of his property? Suppose he leaves no will, what troubles are possible? Whose duty is it to exercise control over such matters and hold people up to legal and honourable conduct in them?

27. What is an executor? What is an administrator?

28. If parents die, whose duty is it to care for their children? If property is left to such children, are they free to use it as they please? What has the county to do with such cases?

29. How much does your town or city contribute towards county expenses? How does this amount compare with that raised by other towns in the county?

30. Give the organization of your county government.

31. Would it be better for the towns to do themselves the work now done for them by the county?

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

Section 1. THE COUNTY IN ITS BEGINNINGS. This subject is treated in connection with the towns.h.i.+p in several of the books above mentioned.

See especially Howard, _Local Const. Hist._

Section 2. THE MODERN COUNTY IN Ma.s.sACHUSETTS. There is a good account in Martin's _Text Book_ above mentioned.

Section 3. THE OLD VIRGINIA COUNTY. The best account is in _J.H.U.

Studies_, III., ii.-iii. Edward Ingle, _Virginia Local Inst.i.tutions._

In dealing with the questions on page 69, both teachers and pupils will find Dole's _Talks about Law_ (Boston, 1887) extremely valuable and helpful.

CHAPTER IV.