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THE

FOOTPRINTS OF TIME:

AND A COMPLETE

ANALYSIS

OF THE AMERICAN

SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

WITH A

CONCISE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION,
THE RELATION OF THE OLD WORLD TO THE FREE
INSTITUTIONS OF THE NEW; THE ESTABLISHMENT

AND GROWTH CF THE ENGLISH COLONIES

AND OF THE UNITED STATES

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874

BY R. T. ROOT,

and 1875
and 1881.

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

JK 246 € 2. 1981

PREFACE.

66

It is the object of this book to supply the means of forming an accurate idea of the American government. The author has adopted the proposition that the highest style of government is one of the people, by the people, and for the people," and believes that a constant progress, commencing in the earliest times, has reached its full development in the Great Republic. He therefore traces THE FOOTPRINTS OF TIME through all history; notes the gradual unfolding of institutions, the rise and fall of empires, the causes that produced and destroyed the ancient republics, and the origin of the forces that give so much more strength and stability to modern civilization. All this he considers essential to a correct appreciation of the wonderful events of our age and country.

He then proceeds to a close and clear analysis of the whole structure of the government. Each general division, with its sub-divisions, is examined in detail, but successively; so that a definite picture of it, with all its branches, operations, and relations to other parts, stands before the mind as a sharply defined whole. The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial divisionsthe dependent parts of each kept in proper place-come in order, one after the other, the structure, powers and workings of each being fully explained.

The great demand for the book has rendered it necessary to recast the plates, and experience suggesting various changes, especially after the taking of the Tenth Census, an extensive revision of the text was entered on. The larger part of the book has been re-written, and while its fundamental features remain the same the detail has been very much changed. The character

of the English people and the colonial policy of their government are dwelt on; the chief features of the Constitution of the United States, the causes which made it what it is, and the policy which has been pursued by the government in applying it are clearly developed.

The Analysis of all the Branches and Departments of the existing Government, and of the subordinate divisions of each branch has been made anew from careful studies of them as conducted at the present time. A more full account of many subjects now especially interesting to the people of the United States has been given, as the Postal, Financial and Public Land Systems, and many others. The Third Part has been largely rearranged and re-named to bring out the special significance of the States and all forms of Local Government in the American System.

Important data and tables from the Tenth Census have been inserted; the political and chronological Histories of the United States have been revised and united to furnish a complete view of the more important events and current interests of the century of national existence. It is believed that nothing of importance is now omitted from the account of the origin of free popular government, of constitutional principles, of the structure and working of American Institutions, or of the events that have been of most importance during each Presidential term. This wide range of view is made very clear and definite while sufficiently complete to meet all the ordinary purposes of the student and the citizen.

INTRODUCTION.

No intelligent American citizen can review without exultation the history of the United States during the century that commenced with the fourth of March, 1791. The First Congress under the present Constitution came to an end on that day. The new Institutions and Government had been fairly organized, the difficulties and dangers of a nation young and poor had been surmounted, the keynotes of public policy had been struck, and the future looked very hopeful. Yet it can scarcely be supposed that any one, on that day, dared to prophesy all the success that was found to be realized one hundred years later. The men of that generation had been far wiser than they knew, and very little of their work was afterwards found to be ill-done. They may justly be considered to have settled all the questions then really possible of solution with a soundness and breadth of judgment that belongs to the highest range of statesmanship.

In the course of the nineteenth century the more enlightened countries of the civilized world have expressed the highest possible appreciation of the policy of the American people by introducing into their political systems the fundamental principle of the Constitution of the United States, viz.: that the Will of the People, legally expressed, is the Law of the Land. However variously or imperfectly this principle may as yet have been developed in the National Constitutions adopted by different countries during the century, they all tacitly concur in acknowledging that the American theory is the true solution of

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