custom-houses; the only tax-gatherer seen by the mass of citizens was a state officer; and the only evidences of the Federal power's activity which then came under the notice of the multitude of citizens were in the benefits they received from post-offices, light-houses, and the survey of wild lands.

373. A state government has the exclusive authority to maintain peace and order within its limits, to punish crimes, except those committed against.the United States or against the laws of nations; to appoint the police and maintain the prisons; to regulate the tenure of lands and the rules of inheritance. It has charge of education and the public health; it creates and regulates all corporations, such as railroad and insurance companies, within its limits; it declares who of its citizens shall vote; it may regulate the sale of liquors and poisons, and abolish nuisances. In all these matters, and others of the same kind, the state has jurisdiction and power, to the exclusion of the Federal Government; and the Governor, the state Courts, and the state Legislature have abundant power to perform all their duties.

374. For instance, though the Federal Government has the right and power to punish resistance to or violation of its own laws any where within the national limits, it has no right to interfere in case of a riot or insurrection against the state authorities, until these, in a formal and prescribed manner, call on it for aid. If you remember what you read in Section VIII. about the meaning and advantages of decentralization and local self-government, you will easily comprehend the reasons for such a division of power, and perceive that it is not arbitrary, or fancifully made.

375. Within the state there are a number of political subdivisions: the county, township, and school-district, and the city and ward; all these are created and may be changed by the state Legislature, and to each a part of the work of government is assigned by the state constitution and in accordance with custom, which varies somewhat in different states. A city ward is the equivalent of a township; but cities are with us governed by a charter granted by the state Legislat

ure, while county governments are usually prescribed in a state constitution. There is no reason for this difference; and the practice of granting special charters to cities has been the cause of much ignorant and mischievous legislation, and of wide-spread corruption. A city government needs to be somewhat differently constituted from that of a county; but there is no reason why all the cities of a state should not exist under a single charter, carefully drawn.

376. The table which you will find on the next page will give you a summary view of the different political subdivisions recognized in our system, with their duties and officers. You will see how we proceed, step by step, from the smallest political division, where the people act directly upon measures which most immediately concern their daily lives, to the largest, to which general powers only are intrusted, having reference solely to the welfare and security of the whole nation. Take notice that by this division of powers and duties, first, government is made less cumbrous, and is therefore likely to be more efficient and economical; second, that as the power of a subdivision becomes more formidable, it is less intimately brought in contact with the people-thus the state government does not concern itself with roads, and the Federal Government has no charge of schools or the police; third, that thus the people are accustomed as much as possible to act directly upon their local and private interests, leaving only matters of more extended interest to the charge of the more distant and necessarily representative governments, as the state and the Federal authorities. Thus political education and the spirit of independence are maintained.

XXXVI.

OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

377. In all the constitutions, Federal and state, the people have reserved to themselves certain rights and immunities, which none of their governments are allowed to interfere with; and it is important that you should understand these.

378. As an American citizen, you are a free man; and no one has a right to enslave your person, except for crime, of which you must first be convicted, upon a fair trial in open court; or to take from you your property, except by due process of law.

379. You have a right to believe what you please; to worship God as you please; to express your opinions on all subjects freely (but you may be punished for libelous attacks on your fellow-men); to print what you please (with the same restriction); to assemble with whom you please, for lawful and proper objects; to petition the state or Federal Government for redress of grievances.

380. You have a right to be arrested only for cause mentioned in a proper and legal warrant, served by an authorized officer of the law, who must show you his authority.

381. You have a right to be released on bail, unless charged with a capital crime; and to be produced before the nearest court, on a writ of habeas corpus, in order that that court shall decide whether your arrest and confinement were properly made, and for sufficiently probable cause.

382. You have a right to a speedy trial by jury, to be confronted with the witnesses against you, to engage a competent person for your defense, and to know at once and definitely, before your arrest, what you are charged with.

383. You have a right to appeal to the proper court for

protection to your person and property; and if the constituted authorities fail to protect you, you have a right to damages for their neglect.

384. You have a right to be secure in your house against searches by officers of the law, except on proper warrant, which must first be shown you, and for sufficient cause.

385. You have a right to keep and bear arms, but not, in most of our states, to carry them concealed upon your per

son.

386. You have a right to sue for damages any officer of the law who arrests or tries you in an unlawful manner.

387. These are the sacred and inalienable rights of all American citizens, and no constitution or law can deprive him of them. They make him secure against unjust or usurping rulers, and against unscrupulous attacks from a fellow-citizen. They enable the citizen to be safe against injustice, or to obtain, by summary or immediate methods, redress against unjust attacks. They are possessed by all the people-women and children as well as men.

XXXVII.

OF THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

388. If you have political rights of which, even by your own will, you can not divest yourself, and which are therefore properly called inalienable, so you have political duties which also you can not justly neglect or lay aside.

389. It is your duty as an American citizen to obey the laws, even if they are, in your belief, unjust or unwise. General Grant once shrewdly said that the best way to procure the repeal of an unjust or unwise law was to rigorously enforce it. It is your right to expose the folly or injustice of a law, to demand its repeal, and to try to get a majority to repeal it. But while it remains a law, you are to obey it.

390. It is your duty, if you are of age and a man, to vote