OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
UNITS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
When the first colonists of America undertook to organize governments for their local settlements, they naturally adopted forms with which they had been familiar in England. There were two such forms which met their needs, the TOWN, OR TOWNSHIP, AND THE COUNTY. These have remained to this day the chief units of our local government.
THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN
Geographical conditions were such in New England that the colonists settled in compact communities. There the township, or town, was adopted as the more convenient unit. It included a central village and the neighboring farming region with irregular boundaries. It is still the unit of local government throughout rural New England, and in many communities that have grown to the proportion of cities. It has been said of the New England town government that it is "the fullest and most perfect example of local self-government either then or now in existence … . The state might fall to pieces, and the town would still supply all the wants of everyday government." [Footnote: Henry Cabot Lodge, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA, p. 414.]
THE TOWN MEETING
The chief feature of the New England town government is the TOWN MEETING, which is an assemblage of the voters of the town at the town hall (formerly often at the church), the regular annual town meeting being held in the spring or autumn, and special meetings as necessary. These meetings are called by the SELECTMEN (see below) by means of a WARRANT which contains a statement of the business to be transacted. At the annual meeting, reports are heard from the officers of the preceding year, officers for the new year are elected, by-laws (town laws) are enacted, taxes are levied and appropriations made for the various purposes of government. It is direct self-government.
NEW ENGLAND TOWN OFFICERS
Among the officers elected by the town meeting are the selectmen, varying in number from three to nine, who have charge of the town property and are responsible to the town meeting for the conduct of the town's business; a town clerk, who keeps the town records, issues marriage licenses, registers births and deaths, and performs other clerical services; an assessor of taxes; a treasurer; several constables, who have police duties, execute warrants issued by the selectmen and by the justices of the peace, and sometimes act as tax collectors; school committeemen; overseers of the poor; members of the board of health and of other boards for public service. In some of the New England states the justices of the peace, who are not strictly town officers, are elected by the town meeting.