PURPOSES.--The State keeps power near the people, and thus makes them more secure in their liberty. "The powers not granted to the United States, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people." If the whole country were a single republic without State divisions, power would be withdrawn from the people and become centralized in the national government.
Our political system leaves the various functions of government to the smallest political communities that can perform them efficiently. The county has charge of all public interests that can be managed by it as well as by the State. Many public affairs, such as popular education,[1] private corporations, and the organization of the smaller political divisions, can be better managed by the State than by the National Government, and are therefore properly left to the State's direction.
Parts of the country widely separated differ in climate and soil, giving rise to different industries and occupations, which require different laws, made and administered by different States. The State serves as a convenient basis for the apportionment of members of both houses of Congress, and State institutions preserve and develop the local individuality and self-reliance of the people.
FUNCTIONS.--The functions of the State are very extensive, including the greater part of those acts of government which preserve society by affording security to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.
The State government touches the citizens at most points; that is, all those laws that concern the body of the people in their ordinary daily life are made and enforced by the State, or by the smaller political divisions of the State, acting under the State's directions. Officers discharge their duties, arrests are made, courts are held, offenders are punished, justice is meted out, and taxes are collected, by the authority of the State.
The National Government has similar functions to perform in every part of the country, but they are far less frequent than those of the State.
INSTITUTIONS.--The State maintains a number of charitable and other institutions for the public welfare. It makes appropriations of land or money for the support of asylums, prisons, reformatories, scientific institutions, schools, colleges, and universities. The support of these institutions, the payment of salaries, the administration of justice, and the conduct of other public interests, involve large annual expenditures, often amounting to several millions of dollars.
CITIZENS.
The citizens of a State are the people who live in it, whether natives of the United States, or foreigners who have been adopted. Persons who are citizens of the United States are thereby citizens of the State in which they reside. They have all the rights that freemen can possess, and enjoy a larger freedom than do the people of any other country.
The legal voters, often called electors, are the male citizens who have resided in the State, the county, and the township, or voting precinct, the time required by law to entitle them to vote. The length of residence required in the State varies, being two years in some, six months in others, and one year in most States. Several States permit citizens of foreign countries to vote, and a few permit women to vote.