Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1910. Reprinted Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. THE several excellent manuals on American Government now available are written primarily for high schools, and there seems to be room for a volume, not too elementary nor yet too technical, designed for college students and for citizens wishing a general survey of our political system. This volume, taken in conjunction with the companion work, Readings in American Government and Politics (cited in the footnotes as Readings), is intended to fill this gap. It is not a contribution to political literature, but is frankly based upon the best authorities of recent times. I have many personal debts to acknowledge. My colleagues, Professors Dunning, Goodnow, Munroe Smith, Shepherd, and G. W. Scott, and Mr. Sait have read portions of the manuscript or proof, and have given firmness to every page they have touched. Dr. Howard McBain has read the parts on Federal and State Government, and through his extensive knowledge of practical politics and administration I have been saved many slips. I am also indebted to him for innumerable corrections in perspective and interpretation. Professor A. R. Hatton has read the chapters on Municipal Government and, in addition to making a number of rectifications, he has shown me how much better they could have been done. Mr. Arthur Crosby Ludington has aided me materially with ballot and primary legislation. Mr. Alexander Holtzoff has helped me at every point in the making of the volume; two chapters, on National Resources and the State Judicial System, were drafted by him under my direction; and I owe him a debt which no mere line in a preface can pay. In planning and executing the work, I have had the constant and discriminating assistance of my wife. Notwithstanding all this coöperation, I must take the burden of responsibility for errors and shortcomings. Only one who has gone over the same ground can appreciate how many there are; but I trust they will be viewed with charity by those who know how difficult a thing it is to describe a complex political organism which is swiftly changing under our very eyes. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, CHARLES A. BEARD. I. COLONIAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS II. INDEPENDENCE, UNION, ANd Self-governmENT III. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION IV. THE EVOLUTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. V. THE EVOLUTION OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS 21 78 99 VIII. THE GENERAL FEATURES of the Federal SYSTEM OF GOV. |