82
in New England. The more we descend toward the south, the less active does the business of the township or parish become; the number of magistrates, of functions, and of rights, decreases; the population exercises a less immediate influence on affairs; town meetings are less frequent, and the subjects of debates less numerous. The power of the elected magistrate is augmented, and that of the elector diminished, while the public spirit of the local communities is less awakened and less influential.[1]
These differences may be perceived to a certain extent in the state of New York; they are very sensible in Pennsylvania; but they become less striking as we advance to the northwest. The majority of the emigrants who settle in the northwestern states are natives of New England, and they carry the habits of their mother-country with them into that which they adopt. A township in Ohio is by no means dissimilar from a township in Massachusetts.
We have seen that in Massachusetts the principal part of the public administration lies in the township. It forms the common centre of the interests and affections of the citizens. But this ceases to be the case as we descend to states in which knowledge is less generally diffused, and where the township consequently offers fewer guarantees of a wise and active administration. As we leave New England, therefore, we find that the importance of the town is gradually transferred to the county, which becomes the centre of administration, and the intermediate power between the government and the citizen. In Massachusetts the business of the town is conducted by the court of sessions, which is composed of a quorum named by the governor and his council; but the county has no representative assembly, and its expenditure is voted by the national legislature. In the great state of New York, on the contrary, and in those of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the inhabitants of each county choose a certain number of representatives, who constitute the assembly of the county.[2] The county assembly has the
- ↑
For details see Revised Statutes of the state of New York, part I., chap, xi., vol.
i., pp. 336-364, entitled, “Of the Powers, Duties, and Privileges of Towns.”
See in the digest of the laws of Pennsylvania, the words, Assessors, Collector, Constables, Overseer of the Poor, Supervisors of Highways; and in the acts of a general nature of the state of Ohio, the act of 25th February, 1834, relating to townships, p. 412; beside the peculiar dispositions relating to divers town officers, such as township's clerk, trustees, overseers of the poor, fence-viewers, appraisers of property, township's treasurer, constables, supervisor of highways.
- ↑ See the Revised Statutes of the state of New York, Part I. chap. xi., vol. i., p.
