THE CITIZEN'S MANUAL OF GOVERNMENT AND LAW: COMPRISING HE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT; A PRAC OF NATIONS; AND A SUMMARY OF PARLIA BY ANDREW W. YOUNG, AUTHOR OF "SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT," FIRST LESSONS IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT," NEW EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED. New-York: H. DAYTON, PUBLISHER, 107 NASSAU STREET. INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS-DAYTON & ASHER. 1859. Entered according to An cours, in the year 1858, by In the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the Northern District of New York PREFACE. To preserve and transmit the blessings of civil and relig ious freedom, is the declared object of the people of the United States, in establishing their present form of government. The question, Will our liberties endure? has ever been one of deep solicitude to every true American patriot; a question to which different answers have been formed by different minds. It is generally conceded, that no other system of government ever devised, is so well adapted to secure the objects for which all just governments are instituted, as our own. Its excellence alone, however, can not insure its duration, The grand element of its strength, is the public virtue and intelligence. Hence, the only well-founded hope of permanent political prosperity, lies in a general and an efficient system of education. Education is an interest of high importance to the people under any form of government; but it is more especially so in this country, where the people are not only in theory the source of power, but in practice are actually called upon to take an efficient part in constituting and administering the government. The exercise of political power ought to be directed by an enlightened judgment. The right of suffrage can scarcely be esteemed a privilege to him who is incapable of exercising it with discretion. While the constitution gives as much weight to the vote of the uninformed and ignorant, as to that of the well-instructed and ir telligent citizen, the sources of information should be as numerous and as widely extended as possible. In accordance with this sentiment, much has been done in this country to diffuse the benefits of useful knowledge. Improved systems of education have been established, and provision has been made, in every state, to instruct the people at the public expense. And to increase the efficiency of the schools, many useful sciences, not formerly taught, have been introduced. It is admitted, however, that the course of instruction is still materially defective. It does not sufficiently contemplate our youth as soon to become invested with the powers and privileges of freemen. To qualify them expressly for the discharge of their political duties, is not, to any considerable extent, made a special object of school instruction. Even in most of our seminaries, the science of civil government either finds no place in the course of study, or is regarded only as of secondary importance. The study of the Grecian and Roman antiquities, in many academies, supersedes the study of the principles of our own government. The constitutions, laws, manners and customs of Greece and Rome, are made subjects of regular study, while the study of the practical subjects of our own constitutional law, and the principles of our civil jurisprudence, which are applicable to the common concerns of life, is not admitted as a part of the academic course! A similar defect exists in our common schools. To gratify a pride of learning, or a taste for philosophical inquiry, some of the more abstruse and speculative sciences are introduced, to the exclusion of those which subserve the practical purposes of life. For the same reasons, or from a wrong estimate of its relative importance, the study of government is kept out of the primary schools, in which nineteen-twentieths of our citizens receive all their education. Some |