County

“ And so, county government everywhere was conceived in a spirit of negation. The people elect their boards of supervisors or county commissioners, hoping thereby to keep their fingers on the public purse through direct agents. The supervisors, in their turn, undertake to regulate the finances of the sheriff, the district attorney, the county clerk and the rest. But, lo, these officers are no subordinates of theirs; they are the people’s humble servants. The supervisors may set out upon a program of economy and efficiency, including, let us say, the standardization of supplies. ”

“ The county can make no such appeal, and it is a political fact to be reckoned with that however you may urge that the county is an essential part of city government, that the city electorate is almost equivalent to the county electorate, and should assert an equal proprietorship, it is almost impossible to overcome the obsession that the county is an alien thing. ”

“ What a chance for the exercise of the arts of persuasion in procuring a contract, all the advantages of which should be on one side, but which must affect the interests of the county after it should have become well populated.
But we are not left to surmise on this subject. This small population was divided into seven civil townships, each one of which had a supervisor; and these supervisors, when assembled at the county seat, constituted the governing body of the county. ”

“ If a county is to administer justice it needs a judge, a sheriff, a prosecutor and a court clerk. And each of these officers in the several counties should follow as closely as possible an identical or similar procedure. Every county must have a fiscal agency, a governing board, and be required to observe certain minimum standards in the handling of the funds entrusted to its care. ”

“ PURPOSES.--The county organization brings justice near the people, enables them to attend to local affairs too extensive for a smaller community, and affords a medium by which they may transact business with the State. It serves as a convenient basis of apportioning members of the legislature among the people. It maintains local officers, such as sheriff and prosecuting attorney, whose duties would be too narrow if confined to a township. It secures a competent and higher tribunal than the justice's court for the trial of suits at law. ”

“ American counties, as a rule, have been more honestly and more economically governed than American cities. The fundamental objection to the existing system of county government is that it places in the hands of an elective body, the members of which are usually chosen for purely political reasons, the performance of many difficult executive functions. The management of finances, construction of roads, bridges, and public buildings, the proper treatment of the poor, the sick, and the insane are all 170tasks which require ability, skill, and experience. ”

“ But there are also the county offices. Besides the judicial positions, altogether honorable, held by long terms of election and receiving liberal compensation, there are in each county an average of fifteen other officials, making in the State, in round numbers, one thousand. These, again, may be multiplied by four: there are certainly three waiting aspirants for each place. But ascend now to the State system, with its several executive departments, the legislature, the charitable and penal institutions and the appointments in the gift of the governor. ”

“ The laws underlying the organization of the county government have not been changed; but there has grown up, quite outside the statute books and outside the court house itself, a second government that has supplied the great lack in the official, legal one, the lack of a definite head. The new factor in the county’s affairs has come to exercise the powers of an executive. Theoretically the people have elected his heads of departments; practically he has chosen them himself. The people have retained the forms while he has arrogated to himself the substance of political power. ”

“ The county is a more appropriate police unit than the town. Town custodianship of records means duplication, lack of standards and waste. Town commitment of paupers to the county almshouse or poor farm is a temptation on the part of the smaller locality to shift its burdens on to the shoulders of the whole county.
When it comes to highway construction, the high technical skill which needs to go into the work is a commodity which comes too high for a town and even, as we have pointed out, for the county. ”

“ In our northern country there are no occasions upon which the whole population of a county, even as represented by its leading freeholders, convenes at one spot. County courts are attended by functionaries, litigants, and very near neighbors, but not, as in the south, by the gentry and yeomanry of a whole district. ”

“ Members of the county board of supervisors must be elected, but not necessarily by districts. All other county officers, except the superior court judges, may be either elective or appointive in a manner set forth in a county charter. ”

“ Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 3,882,328 acres. Its population in 1891 was 3,208,521, and in 1901, 3,584,762. The population increased over fivefold between 1801 and 1901; the increase in the W. Riding exceeding sevenfold. The manner in which the population is distributed may be inferred from the following statement of the parliamentary divisions, parliamentary, county and municipal boroughs, and urban districts in the three ridings. ”

“ A primary assembly of all the inhabitants of a county, for purposes of local government, is out of the question. There must be representative government, for this purpose the county system, an inheritance from the ancient English shire, has furnished the needful machinery. Our county government is near enough to the people to be kept in general from gross abuses of power. There are many points which can be much better decided in small representative bodies than in large miscellaneous meetings. The responsibility of our local boards has been fairly well preserved. ”

“ No new county shall be formed or established by the legislature which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them to a less area than four hundred square miles, nor shall any county be formed of a less area. ”

“ You are the favored citizens of a favored county. Your county has been conspicuous among the counties of this State for its enterprise and intelligence. You have been favored with a kindly and generous soil, cultivated by an intelligent and educated class of farmers. Hitherto you have chiefly drawn your wealth from the soil. You have had in the city of Kokomo an enterprising and [51] thrifty county town. You have been conspicuous for your interest and devotion to the cause of education—for your interest in bringing forward the coming generations well equipped for the duties of citizenship. ”

“ By the 3d section of the act of 1777, entries are permitted within any county of the State, and the creation of counties has always, in that State, been held to bring the vacant lands within the county under the operation of that act. ”

“ In apportioning the Senators among the different counties, the fraction that may be lost by any county or counties, in the apportionment of members to the House of Representatives shall be made up to such county or counties in the Senate as near as may be practicable. When a district is composed of two or more counties, they shall be adjoining, and no county shall be divided in forming a district . ”

“ Where the township government is strong, as in New England, it takes the place of county government. Where people live in cities, they look to the city government to serve them rather than to the county government. In rural districts the people have come more and more to look to the state and national governments for such service as they expect government to give. ”

“ Through their officers, the people of the township act freely together within the lawful sphere of the township. The common wants of the township are attended to by the people through their officers, who compose the centre around which all township action revolves.
A number of townships, having common wants, are erected into a county. The county officers and county court form the harmonizing centre of this larger organization.
A number of counties, having common wants, are erected into a State, with a State government. ”

“ Either the county magistrates or representatives may give to the senator of the county the copy of a law to be proposed to the senate; and if five counties concur in the same order, the law, though refused by the senate, must come either to the county magistrates or representatives, as is contained in the order of the five counties.
Any twenty counties, by a vote either of their magistrates or representatives, may throw any man out of all public offices for a year. ”

“ In 1683, these ridings developed into counties; afterwards (1703) , it was arranged that a supervisor was to be elected by the freeholders in each town, to represent it in a county board whose duties were chiefly to levy, collect, and apportion taxes. Thus we see the genesis in the middle colonies of the mixed system of local government,—town and county being of equal importance, with elective executive officers in each: it was a compromise between the town system of New England and the county system of Virginia; and this mixed system now prevails in perhaps most of the States of the Union. ”

“ An officer of the county is one by whom the county performs its usual political functions; its functions of government. Any other persons appointed by the legislature and the people of the county, would be as competent to execute the bonds of the corporation as the supervisors. They are the lawful agents of the people for this special purpose, and though nominated by the legislature, they cannot act without the assent of the citizens of the county, ascertained in the manner directed by law ”

“ The county system has had no mean share in keeping alive the spirit of local independence and self-government among our people. As regards efficiency of administration, it has achieved commendable success, except in the matter of rural highways ”

“ In November 1797, when the government proclaimed a number of parishes in the county, he was one of the first to take the oath of allegiance, and when in April 1798 the whole county was proclaimed he was very active in inducing the catholic peasantry to surrender their arms. ”

“ Striking out the provision authorizing county treasurer to appoint an attorney. Regulating tax collection procedure. Fixing compensation of unskilled laborers. Correcting 1915 tax roll. Creating a county auditor. Increasing salary of sheriff, etc. Levy of taxes to meet cost of sanitary trunk sewer. Regulating management of penitentiary and workhouse. Creating commissioner of charities.
Too often the motive of the legislators has not [Pg 117] been to make the county the state’s more obedient servant, but to “bleed” it to the utmost for political purposes. ”

“ In general, each county has from three to seven commissioners—the number is fixed by county laws—elected on a general ticket of each county for a term of from two to six years, entrusted with the charge and control of property owned by the county, empowered to appoint constables, judges of elections, collectors of taxes, trustees of the poor, and road supervisors, to levy taxes, to revise taxable valuations of real property, and open or close public roads. ”

“ A delegation from township 16, range 1, in this county, has just left me, who came to represent that there are at this time twenty-eight families in that township who are in actual need of the necessaries of life, and they give it as their opinion that their township is not an exception, and that in the very near future a large proportion of the settlers of this Territory will have to have assistance. ”

“ And the county in its turn, is pretty well rooted in the good graces of human nature. When American counties had been formed and their legal status as subordinates of the state had been established, the people throughout the length and breadth of each of the states were pretty much of one mind in the fundamental standards of personal conduct. A tradition of strict morality dominated New England. ”

“ To appoint all county officers whose election by the electors is not required by the constitution, except county supervisors and the county auditor or comptroller, and for such terms of office as are provided by law. ”

“ This power over the value and convenience of our lands is of much too high a character to be placed at the will of a county court, and that of a county, too, which has not a common interest in the preservation of the navigation for those above them. ”

“ A county may elect a magistrate for the execution of its administrative affairs and elect representatives for the deliberation and making of its laws in order to become a completely self-governed county, when a census of the whole county has been properly taken ”

“ PURPOSES.--The division of the county into districts, each with its own court of law, brings justice to the people's doors. It secures officers to every part of the county, thus affording better means for the punishment of crimes. It provides a speedy trial for minor offences and minor suits. It aids the higher courts by relieving them of a multitude of small cases. As each district has one or more polling-places, it secures convenience to the electors in casting their votes.
GOVERNMENT.--The functions of the civil district arc judicial and executive, and lie within a narrow range. ”