Being a Supplement to Bryce's "American Commonwealth," Abridged Edition FOR USE IN HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES BY FREDERICK H. CLARK HEAD OF HISTORY DEPARTMENT, LOWELL HIGH SCHOOL New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1908 All rights reserved HAYWARD COLLEGE LIBRARY ALDERT BUSHNELL HART DEC 5 1923 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped October, 1899. Reprinted April, Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. INTRODUCTION THERE is great need- never so urgent as at this moment - that our public schools should afford more and better instruction in the true principles of democracy. A new and loftier ideal as to the aim and character of such instruction must be set up. The very existence of the free public school, whether of primary, secondary, or university grade, is evidence that American sentiment recognizes the fact that the state must educate her children as a safeguard to herself. Yet it is remarkable that very small space, relatively to other studies in the curriculum, has hitherto been assigned to the study of history, civics, or civil government,― the subjects, of course, which are best fitted to give the youth some direct training for the duties of citizenship. Moreover, such instruction as has been given has commonly been of the poorest sort. Too often the teacher has at best but a vague conception of the nature or of the possibilities of the task he is undertaking. With few exceptions, text-books are radically defective. The discussion is meagre and fragmentary; little effort is made to give adequate criticism or comparison; and the proper apparatus to develop right methods is lacking. It is indeed high time that stronger meat were put before the pupils of the secondary school. In history, especially, the text-book maker and the teacher have |