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FOOTPRINTS OF TIME:

AND A COMPLETE

.ANALYSIS

OF OUR 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 OF

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THE

FOOTPRINTS OF TIME:

AND A COMPLETE

.ANALYSIS

OF OUR 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 OF

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874 〜

BY R. T. ROOT,

and 1875

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

PREFACE.

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 divisions - the dependent parts of each kept in proper place— come in order, one after the other, before the mind, the structure, powers and working of each being fully explained.

The book is indeed a compilation, and the matter in large part from official sources, but collected from an astonishingly large number of books, all of which are not to be found even in the largest public libraries; but the labor required in gath

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