Our Government - How it Grew, What it Does , and How It Does It

Boston: Ginn and Company, 1887. First Edition . Hard Back. Good/No Dust Jacket. 5" x 7 1/2. 238 Pages Indexed. Blue boards with gold lettering to spine. There is a penciled number "85" on the title page. No other marks and interior text pages are tight, bright, and white. A child who has been well instructed in geography knows already something about a school district and other local governments around him; he has some knowledge of the state and of the United States. This book is designed to extend the knowledge of all these institutions and teach something of their relations to each other. The civil institutions of our entire system are so related that no one of them can be thoroughly understood without a knowledge of all. The institutions directly affecting the citizen in his ordinary civil relations are those chiefly of the state and the local governments within it. Many useful lessons in civil government may be learned from the state alone; yet the action of the state is in some cases conditioned upon the action of the general government. On the other hand, to limit instruction in civil government to the Constitution of the United States presents more serious difficulties. The Constitution assumes the existence of the states and provides for a supplementary government. It cannot be rightly understood without a knowledge of the states. To attempt to teach the Federal Constitution without this knowledge results naturally in the teaching of error. Contents in Four Parts: Historical and Introduction, Matters Chiefly Local, Administration of Justice, Federal Executive Business, and Constitutions. There are 34 Chapters plus Appendix Articles of Confederation and Constitution of the United States.