Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition

by James Alton James; Albert Hart Sanford

The County in New England.—Because the people lived in towns and could most easily regulate their affairs through the machinery of town government, they had no counties whatever at first; but these were soon established, though merely for judicial purposes. The governor appointed justices who held court in each county.

The leading features of New England local government, then, were (1) its democratic character, seen particularly in the town meeting; and (2) the fact that nearly all local affairs were managed by the town government, leaving but one important function, and that judicial in its nature, for the county.

The Settlement of Virginia.—In the colony of Virginia we find conditions that bring about entirely different results in the organization and workings of local government. Here the settlers were not bound by religious or other ties into compact social bodies as the Puritans were. Natural conditions in Virginia made it better for the settlers to live apart, so that nearly all their attempts to form cities and towns failed. The cultivation of tobacco, of course, explains this to a large extent. The fertile soil and the ease of raising this product led to the formation of large plantations. The broad rivers made progress into the interior remarkably easy; and there seemed little necessity for towns as shipping ports, because ocean vessels could stop at the private wharves of the various plantations. The rich planters were most prominent in the social and political life of the colony, and local government fell under their control.

The Importance of the County.—Now, of the various local organizations to which the Virginians had been accustomed in England, the one best suited to their condition in the colony was the county. So they copied the English county and made it their chief organ of local government. The principal governing body was the county court, composed of justices appointed at first by the governor of the colony. The court had both legislative and judicial functions. It managed such matters as roads, licenses, and taxation; it also tried civil and criminal cases. Other county officers were the sheriff and the lieutenant, the latter being commander of the militia.

The Parish and the Vestry.—That part of the Virginia local government which corresponded to the New England town was the parish; but it is apparent that few functions remained to be exercised in this, their smallest political organization. The counties were generally composed of several parishes. The governing body of each was the vestry; it had charge of church affairs and of poor relief. The members of the vestry and also the justices of the county court were not elected by the people, as the town officers were in New England. On the contrary, both the vestry and the county court filled vacancies in their own number, without popular election.

This fact serves to illustrate the general truth that local government was democratic in New England and aristocratic in Virginia; in the former colony the mass of voters took part most actively in local government, while in the latter a few men constituted the ruling class. This does not mean that local affairs in Virginia were badly managed, for the leading men were on the whole intelligent and public-spirited; and in the years of the Revolution they were among the foremost in the defense of American liberties. In New England, however, it was noticeable that the mass of voters were intelligent and understood the practical management of political affairs—a result which doubtless came largely from their training in the town meeting.

The Three Types of Local Organization.—We have now seen that in New England the town had the most important functions of local government, and this is called, therefore, the town type; while in Virginia the county had the greater share of governing powers, and there we find the county type. Virginia influenced the colonies that lay south of her, so that the county type was found also in the Carolinas and Georgia. In the middle colonies there existed both counties and towns, and here there was a much more equal division of powers between these organizations. Hence we call theirs the mixed or township-county type of local government.

Local Government in the West.—The people who migrated to the new States west of the Alleghenies carried with them the forms of local government which have just been described as growing up in the colonies. This statement needs some modification, for nowhere in the West was the pure town type adopted. Everywhere in the North we find the mixed type, while the Southern States have, in general, the county type. In the latter the county commissioners, elected at large or from precincts, together with other county officers, exercise most of the local powers of government.

Two Forms in the North.—In the greater number of the States that have the mixed type, the county is governed by a board of commissioners elected by either of the methods just mentioned as prevailing in the South. In a few States (such as Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin), the county board is composed of supervisors, who represent the towns, villages, and wards of the county. Here we find the town meeting, copied after that of New England or New York, and the town government has more functions than in those States where commissioners compose the town board.

Local Self-Government.—Such is the way in which local government has come about in the various States of the Union. Rooted in the systems that Englishmen have developed through the centuries, adapted to the new life and the peculiar conditions of the colonial period, it has spread with the population throughout the land. The management of local affairs by the people and their chosen representatives is a sound principle of government which holds a firm place in every part of our country.