Excerpt from The Government of the United States: National, State, and Local My aim in the preparation of this book has been to provide a general survey of the principles and practice of American government as exemplified in the nation, in the states, and in the several areas of local administration. I have endeavored, so far as the limits of a single volume would permit, not only to explain the form and functions of the American political system, but to indicate the origin and purpose of the various institutions, to show how they have been developed by law or by usage, to discuss their present-day workings, merits, and defects, and to contrast the political institutions of the United States with analogous institutions in other lands. Surprisingly little has been written on the history of American political institutions, and not much more on the principles which these institutions are assumed to exemplify. Text-books, in the main, have emphasized the practical workings of governmental agencies to the neglect of these other things. The plan, scope, content, and temper of this book are in large measure the outgrowth of my experience as a teacher. My students, by the drift of their questions and discussions, have moulded my ideas of what a text-book ought to contain. This book is theirs as much as it is mine. That fact may help to explain why some features of American government are dilated upon at considerable length, while others are left as self-evident propositions to the perception of the reader. It explains, moreover, why the same problem is occasionally discussed from different angles, even though this has involved some degree of repetition. And if the general tone of the book betrays an optimist, my sufficient answer is that no man can be for many years associated with the American undergraduate and remain anything else. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.