that of New England; possibly, it is in some ways a better one, the supervisors sitting, each for his township, on the county board, like the ancient reeves in the shire-moot. As regards the great purposes which local self-government may serve, aside from the convenient despatch of business, to evoke, namely, from the individual citizens who are forced to administer it, a vivid interest in public concerns, and to impart to them an education which above all things the freeman requires, — the system is efficient. Upon the map, the great State of Illinois extends, blocked out in its counties, with something of the square precision of a chess-board. In the game which must always go forward in a society between the spirit of civilization on the one hand, and the forces of anarchy and disorder on the other, it is cheering to feel that on so fair a field as this at least there can be little doubt as to which shall receive checkmate. The Township-County system of the Northwest. The condition of self-government in the West need not be set forth at greater length. It is at its best estate in the Township-County system of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. It is in least satisfactory form in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas, where the County system prevails, and self-government is not brought vigorously home to the individual man through a well-developed township environment. As new States have been constituted, and as the older States have gone forward in their growth, various intermediate types have been presented. By a law of 1879, for instance, in Missouri, the same option was offered to the counties to take, if they With a 11.x input from Wastem and Central New York and the maven farther east-in great part dhectly on ladiestly, a New England stream At ones upon doning the wil the sender Šoved that tenaciona cinging to the town of with Grayson wrote to Madison. A statesman, perhaps too soon forgotten, of New England birth. influenced powerfully the development of Michigan,-Lewis Cass. As territorial governor, from 1813 to 1831, he used his large powers, in the important forming years, to make vigorous everywhere local self-government. "In proportion," said he, "as government recedes from the people, it becomes liable to abuse. Whatever authority can be conveniently exercised in primy nassemblies can be deposited there with safety. They furnish practical schools for the consideration of political subjects, and no one can revert to the history of our Revolutionary struggle, without being Lochy History of the Eighteenth Century, I, p. 387. De Tocqueville De la Democratie on Amérique, I, p. 423. *Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1st Series, V, p. 9. E. W. Bemis. sensible that to their operation we are indebted for much of the energy, unanimity, and intelligence which were displayed by our people at that important crisis. These institutions have elsewhere produced the most beneficial effects upon the character of communities and upon the general course of public measures.” 1 Michigan was the first State of the West to adopt the town-meeting, but certain noteworthy changes mark the transferrence. In New England of the seventeenth century scarcely any two towns were exactly alike, though the general type was the same. The new towns of the West, however, are duplicates of one another. The Western town-meeting has lost some of the attributes of the primitive moot. Popular enthusiasm is less pronounced in it: it has become a commonplace business-meeting, the ancient democratic elements having yielded in part to a representative plan. Of the officials whom it elects, the highest is the supervisor; and in every county the township supervisors uniting, form the County Board, which possesses large administrative functions. In this form of procedure, the precedent of New York in 1705 is followed; and in this we find in its best estate the Township-County or Compromise system. We need not be sorry, thinks Professor Howard, that the more democratic way has thus yielded in part to "the more efficient and less demonstrative methods of representative government. Its powers are commensurate with the needs of a more fully developed society, and there is no reason to regret that the exces 1 Quoted by E. W. Bemis: Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1st Series, V, p. 12. sive publicity and obtrusive functionalism of primitive New England have not been perpetuated."1 By 1827, before its admission to the Union, Michigan had definitely fixed its Township-County organization in which she has been followed since by Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. "In the States of this group," says Howard, "localism finds its freest expression: the town-meeting possesses powers commensurate with the requirements of modern life;2 the primitive and proper nexus between scir and tunscipe is restored; the township is under the county, but represented there. The County Board of Supervisors is the old scir-moot over again. The Township-County system of the Northwest is one of the most perfect products of the English mind, worthy to become, as it may not improbably become, the prevailing type in the United States." 3 Let us glance for a moment at the career of still another great commonwealth which has come into being, like Michigan, in that vast North In Illinois. west Territory of a century ago, — Illinois.1 Like Michigan, its first white population was French, whose characteristics at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Fort Chartres were no doubt the same as at Detroit. In 1778, the Northwest Territory was conquered by Virginia, in a military enterprise quite independent of the Continental Congress, from the Eng 1 Local Self-Government in the United States, I, p. 162. 2 A New Englander cannot help feeling that the Western town-meeting has lost far too much of the character of its prototype of the Eastern States, whatever its gains may have been. 8 Local Self-Government in the United States, I, p. 158. 4 Albert Shaw: Local Government in Illinois, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1st Series, III. lish, who had enjoyed a brief period of possession. The enterprise and courage shown in the conquest by Major George Rogers Clarke, the commander of the force, were paralleled by the magnanimity with which, for the sake of the public peace and welfare, Virginia again resigned her acquisition, that it might become the possession of the United States. Illinois, however, had received a distinct Virginia impress, which became more marked as time went on, the population which flowed in being almost exclusively from Virginia and her child, Kentucky, with some infusion from North Carolina. In 1809, Illinois became a Territory, its present limits being defined; in 1818, a State, the settlements thus far being almost entirely in the southern part, and the organization after the southern or County system. The entire administration in each one of the fifteen counties into which the State had been divided was given to three commissioners, elected by the people, to whom the people surrendered all public management, with little or no oversight of their own. But Congress had taken a step which led to important results. In surveying the public domain, Congress had caused the lands to be divided into sections six miles square, to which were given the name of townships. In each township a square mile of land was set off for a school fund, the township becoming a body corporate and politic for school purposes, authorized to maintain schools, and officers necessary for their administration. The Illinois township was at first far enough from the New England township, being in many cases quite uninhabited; but there is much in a name. As popula |