OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, INCLUDING A TOPICAL AND TABULAR ARRANGEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. DESIGNED AS A CLASS-BOOK FOR THE USE OF GRAMMAR, HIGH, AND NORMAL OF LEARNING. BY CALVIN TOWNSEND, COUNSELOR-AT-LAW. NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY IVISON, PHINNEY, BLAKEMAN, & CO. CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & CO. JK251 T7 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by CALVIN TOWNSEND, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern THE analytic method of this work furnishes its chief claim to superiority over others as a text-book on civil government. The Constitution of the United States is our fundamental law. To understand this well is to understand the whole theory; and to analyze this is to analyze the entire American system. The principal aim, therefore, of this work is to present analytically the subject of civil government as administered in this country. The living, earnest teacher of to-day insists on a critical analysis of whatever subject he brings into the class-room. This has been the tendency of his profession for several years. A general acquaintance with miscellaneous and scattered facts bearing on his subject does not satisfy. He must get inside of things, and take his pupil with him. No work has been published, known to the author, pretending to give a topical and tabular arrangement of the principles of our government. Several authors have written with ability on civil government, having direct reference to the wants of the schoolroom; but they have not satisfied the instructor. Whether the present attempt shall add one more to the list of failures, time and the teacher will tell. The Constitution of the United States consists of a combination of powers granted and powers prohibited. Each of these classes of powers is divisible into general topics 887341 under general titles. Each of these is subdivisible into more specific topics, having more specific titles; and these last into others, and they into still; others, until the point of final analysis is gained. Example: The executive and judicial branches are each divisible and subdivisible into topics, the same as the legislative branch. The sub-titles at the extreme right, or several of them, may be divided also. Take, for instance, EligibiliTY. Its conditions are, 1st, Age; 2d, Citizenship; 3d, Inhabitancy; 4th, Official Disencumbrance. Also SENATE POWERS: 1st, Legislative; 2d, Executive; 3d, Elective; 4th, Judicial. Thus all the elements of kindred significance are grouped together in one table, under one common and appropriate title. For this purpose, paragraphs, sections, and clauses, whenever necessary, are severed from their original connections in the Constitution. Indeed, very little attention is paid to the original arrangement of the subjects of that document. The preceding example will give the teacher an idea of the manner in which lessons may be given by topics. Exhaustively grouping the sections and clauses of the Constitution itself must necessarily make thorough work at every step. Every element of the main subject, even to critical minuteness, will be clearly comprehended by the pupil. He will experience the scholarly satisfaction also, that something is completed every lesson. In the tabular arrangement of the sections and clauses of the Constitution, nothing is omitted or added; and, as far as possible, the precise language of that instrument is retained. Familiar and critical explanations of the Analysis, topic by topic, in the order of their arrangement, are given according to the views of the most eminent writers on constitutional law. Very little or no claim is laid by the author to originality of construction. In this, he acknowledges his entire indebtedness to the illustrious men who formed the Constitution, as their views appear in the Madison Papers and the Federalist; and to the profound |