Hundred county. Almost everywhere in England, by the reign of Elizabeth, the hundred had fallen into decay. It is curious that its name and some of its peculiarities should have been brought to America, and should in one state have remained to the present day. Some of the early settlements in Virginia were called hundreds, but they were practically nothing more than parishes, and the name soon became obsolete, except upon the map, where we still see, for example, Bermuda Hundred. But in Maryland the hundred flourished and became the political unit, like the township in New England. The hundred was the militia district, and the district for the assessment of taxes. In the earliest times it was also the representative district; delegates to the colonial legislature sat for hundreds. But in 1654 this was changed, meetings in and representatives were elected by counties. The officers of the Maryland hundred were the high constable, the commander of militia, the tobaccoviewer, the overseer of roads, and the assessor of taxes. The last-mentioned officer was elected by the people, the others were all appointed by the governor. The hundred had also its assembly of all the people, which was in many respects like the New England townmeeting. These hundred-meetings enacted by-laws, levied taxes, appointed committees, and often exhibited a vigorous political life. But after the Revolution they fell into disuse, and in 1824 the hundred became extinct in Maryland; its organization was swallowed up in that of the county. Maryland. In Delaware, however, the hundred remains to this day. There it is simply an imperfectly developed township, but its relations with the county, The hundred as they have stood with but little change since 1743, are very interesting. Each hundred used in Delaware. to choose its own assessor of taxes, and every year in the month of November the assessors from all the hundreds used to meet in the county court-house, along with three or more justices of the peace and eight grand jurors, and assess the taxes for the ensuing year. A month later they assembled again, to hear complaints from persons who considered themselves overtaxed; and having disposed of this business, they proceeded to appoint collectors, one for each hundred. This county assembly was known as the "court of levy and appeal," or more briefly as the levy court. It appointed the county treasurer, the road commissioners, and the overseers of the tive county poor. Since 1793 the levy court has been composed of special commissioners chosen by popular vote, but its essential character has not been altered. As a thoroughly representative body, it reminds one of the county courts of the Plantagenet period. The levy court, or representa assembly. The old nia county. We next come to the great middle colonies, Pennsylvania and New York. The most noteworthy feature of local government in Pennsylvania was the Pennsylva- general election of county officers by popular vote. The county was the unit of representation in the colonial legislature, and on election days the people of the county elected at the same time their sheriffs, coroners, assessors, and county commissioners. In this respect Pennsylvania furnished a model which has been followed by most of the states since the Revolution, as regards the county governments. It is also to be noted that before the Revolution, as Pennsylvania increased in population, the townships began to participate in the work of government, each township choosing its overseers of the poor, highway surveyors, and inspectors of elections.1 1 Town-meetings were not quite unknown in Pennsylvania; York. New York had from the very beginning the rudiments of an excellent system of local self-government. The Dutch villages had their assemblies, which under the English rule were developed into town- Town-meetmeetings, though with less ample powers ings in New than those of New England. The governing body of the New York town consisted of the con stable and eight overseers, who answered in most respects to the selectmen of New England. Four of the overseers were elected each year in town-meeting, and one of the retiring overseers was at the same time elected constable. In course of time the elective offices came to include assessors and collectors, town clerk, highway surveyors, fence-viewers, poundmasters, and overseers of the poor. At first the townmeetings seem to have been held only for the election of officers, but they acquired to a limited extent the power of levying taxes and enacting by-laws. In 1703 a law was passed requiring each town to elect yearly an officer to be known as the "supervisor," The county whose duty was "to compute, ascertain, ex- board of su amine, oversee, and allow the contingent, publick, and necessary charges" of the county.2 For this purpose the supervisors met once a year at the county town. The principle was the same as that of the levy court in Delaware. This board of supervisors was a strictly representative government, and formed a strong contrast to the close corporation by which county affairs were administered in Virginia. The New York system is of especial interest, because it has powerfully influenced the development of local institutions throughout the Northwest. pervisors. see W. P. Holcomb, "Pennsylvania Boroughs," J. H. U. Studies, IV., iv. 2 Howard, Local Const. Hist., i. 111. QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT. 1. Describe the early local government of eastern South Carolina. 2. Describe the early local government of western South Carolina. 3. Explain the difference. 4. What effort was made in 1768 to put a stop to lynch law? 5. What difficulties arose from the attempted adjustment of 1768 ? 6. What compromises were made between the two sections down to the time of the Civil War ? 7. What changes have been made in local government since the Civil War? 8. Mention a peculiarity of the South Carolina county. 9. Compare its size with that of counties in other states. 10. What disadvantage is due to this great size? II. What was the earliest form of civil community in Maryland, and from what source did it come? 12. Trace the development of the hundred in accordance with the following outline :— a. Intermediate groups between clans and tribes. b. Illustrations from Greece and the North American Indians. c. The Roman century and the German hundred. 13. Describe the English hundred in the tenth century. 14. Describe the hundred court. 15. Describe the Maryland hundred and its decay. 16. What is the relation of the Delaware hundred to the county ? 17. Describe the Delaware levy court. 18. What were the prominent features of the Pennsylvania county? 19. Compare the town-meetings of New York with those of New England. 20. What was the government of the New York county ? 21. How did this government compare with that of the Virginia county? § 2. Settlement of the Public Domain. Westward population. The westward movement of population in the United States has for the most part followed the parallels of latitude. Thus Virginians and North Carolinians, crossing the Alleghanies, settled Kentucky and Tennessee; thus people from New England filled up the central and northern parts of New York, and passed on into Michigan and Wisconsin; movement of thus Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois received many settlers from New York and Pennsylvania. In the early times when Kentucky was settled, the pioneer would select a piece of land wherever he liked, and after having a rude survey made, and the limits marked by "blazing" the trees with a hatchet, the survey would be put on record in the state land-office. So little care was taken that "half a dozen patents would sometimes be given for the same tract. Pieces of land, of all shapes and sizes, lay between the patents. Such a system naturally begat no end of litigation, and there remain in Kentucky curious vestiges of it" to this day.1 In order to avoid such confusion in the settlement of the territory north of the Ohio river, Congress passed the land-ordinance of 1785, which was based chiefly upon the suggestions of Thomas Jefferson, and laid the foundation of our simple and excellent system for surveying national lands. According to this system as gradually perfected, the government surveyors first mark out a north and south line which is called the principal meridian. Twenty- Method of four such meridians have been established. surveying the public The first was the dividing line between Ohio lands. and Indiana; the last one runs through Oregon a lit1 Hinsdale, Old Northwest, p. 261. |