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the row of selectmen, with their brown, solid farmer faces, stood the Moderator, a vigorous man in the forties, six straight feet in height, colonel of the county regiment of militia, of a term's experience in the General Court, thus conversant with parliamentary law, a quick and energetic presiding officer.1

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"It was indeed an arena. The south village was growing faster than the Street,' and there were rumors of efforts to be made to move the town-hall from its old place, which aroused great wrath; and both south village and 'Street' took it hard that part of the men of the districts to the north had favored a proposition to be set off to an adjoining town. The weak side of human nature came out as well as the strong in the numerous jealousies and bickerings. Following the carefully arranged programme or warrant, from which there could be no departure, because ample warning must be given of every measure proposed, item after item was considered, a change here in the course of the highway to the shire town; how much should be raised by taxes; the apportionment of money among the school districts; what bounty the town would pay its quota of troops for the war; a new wing for the poor-house; whether there should be a bridge at the west ford. Now and theu came a touch of humor, as when the young h year, were elected fiel place of the ancient l for the time being ruling as regards Moderator,' cried o

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twang in his voice like that of a well-played jew'sharp, ‘if it's in awrder, I'd jest like to inquire the price of cawn at Cheapside.' It was an effective reductio ad absurdum. A rustic Cicero, in a town not far off, whom for some reason the physicians of the village had displeased, once filled up a lull in the proceedings with, 'Mr. Moderator, I move that a dwelling be erected in the centre of the graveyard in which the doctors of the town be required to reside, that they may have always under their eyes the fruits of their labors.'

"The talkers were sometimes fluent, sometimes stumbling and awkward. The richest man in the town, at the same time the town-treasurer, was usually a silent looker-on. His son, however, president of the county agricultural society, an enterprising farmer, whose team was the handsomest, whose oxen the fattest, whose crops the heaviest, was in speech forceful and eloquent, with an energetic word to say on every question. But he was scarcely more prominent in the discussions than the poor broom-corn raisers, whose tax was only a few dollars. There was the intrigue of certain free-thinkers to oust the ministers from the school-committee, the manoeuvring of the factions to get hold of the German colony, a body of immigrants lately imported into the factory village to the north. These sat in a solid mass to one side while the proceedings went on in an unknown tongue, without previous training for such work, voting this way or that, according to the direction of two or three leaders.

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Watching it all, one could see how perfect a democracy it was. Things were often done far enough from

the best way. Unwise or doubtful men were put in office, important projects stinted by niggardly appropriations, unworthy prejudices allowed to interfere with wise enterprises. Business was sometimes blocked by angry disputes over petty questions. Yet in the main the result was good. This was especially to be noted, how thoroughly the public spirit of those who took part was stimulated, and how well they were trained to self-reliance, intelligence of various kinds, and love for freedom. The rough blacksmith or shoemaker, who had his say as to what should be the restriction about the keeping of dogs, or the pasturing of sheep on the western hills, spoke his mind in homely fashion enough, and possibly recommended some course not the wisest. That he could do so, however, helped his self-respect, caused him to take a deeper interest in affairs beyond himself, than if things were managed without a right on his part to interfere; and this gain in self-respect, public spirit, self-reliance, to the blacksmith and shoemaker is worth far more than a mere smooth or cheap carrying-on of affairs."

Is there anything more valuable among AngloSaxon institutions than this same ancient popular moot, this old-fashioned New England town-meet- Tributes to its ing? What a list of important men can be cited who have declared in the strongest terms that tongue can utter, their conviction of its preciousness! 1

value.

1 John Stuart Mill: Representative Government, p. 64, etc. De Tocqueville: De la Démocratie en Amérique, I, p. 96, etc. J. Toulmin Smith: Local Self-Government and Centralization, p. 29, etc. May: Constitutional History of England, II, p. 460. Bluntschli: quoted by H. B. Adams, Germanic Origin of New England Towns. Jefferson: to

CHAPTER XVII.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN POLITY.

1789-1890.

WHILE in the empire of England, Anglo-Saxon freedom has thus been adapting itself in throes almost revolutionary to the conditions of the nineteenth century, how has it fared in America? The thirteen States of 1789 have become in one hundred years forty-four; in population, area, resources of every kind, the Union has multiplied to a wonderful degree. As to constitutional changes, what have we to note?

The great federal instrument stands substantially unchanged. The few amendments, famous though some of them are, wrought out at such of the Federal Cost of blood and treasure, call for no

Permanence

Constitution. notice in the present discussion. The clauses of the Constitution have been regarded with a veneration ever deepening, until it has become almost superstitious; to think of meddling with its provisions is, in the general view, almost an impiety. As regards the separate commonwealths, while each one of the forty-four has its peculiarities,1 the general resemblance is close. A tendency legislatures. to greater elaborateness in the written con

Distrust of

1 See Henry Hitchcock: American State Constitutions, Putnams, 1887.

stitutions is to be noted, as new States have been added one by one, proceeding so far that in the more recent instruments a provision for minute details exists in strong contrast with the older documents. This circumstance is due to a growing distrust, in the States, of the legislatures; delegates in so many cases prove inefficient, corrupt, or in some way false to their trust, that the people think fit more and more to tie their hands. Undoubtedly this deepening dissatisfaction with legislatures, Congress itself as well as those of lower rank, is a circumstance full of ill omen. If the representative body is a failure, then is Anglo-Saxon freedom a failure, and the sooner we recur to the system of Strafford or Richard II, the better. The ideas of those historic figures are by no means yet obsolete among English-speaking men.1 Is Anglo-Saxon freedom no longer well adapted to English-speaking men? What can be said about the condition of the primordial cell of our body-politic?

may have

Condition of the primordial cell of an Anglo-Saxon

polity, the popular moot.

In our human bodies, if the cellular tissue is healthy, the physician is sure all will ultimately go well. Bones may be broken, sinews sprained, a blast of malaria caused an ague, or improper food dyspepsia. Various kinds of deep-seated trouble may exist, acute and even chronic; but if the primordial cell everywhere is sound, the patient will survive. The proper primordial cell of an AngloSaxon body-politic is local self-government by a consensus of individual freemen; in other words, the

1 See Traill: Life of Strafford, 1889, p. 204, etc., and notice of the same in London "Saturday Review," November 9, 1889.

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