OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT FAMILIARLY ILLUSTRATED; INCLUDING A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF VERMONT, AND AN ABSTRACT OF THE LAWS, SHOWING THE RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENS AN OUTLINE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ADAPTED TO THE CAPACITIES OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH, AND DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS. BY ANDREW W. YOUNG, SYRACUSE, N. Y.: PUBLISHED BY STODDARD & BABCOCK. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1848, by ANDREW W. YOUNG, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York. PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED BY BARNS & SMITH. PREFACE. NOTWITHSTANDING the number and variety of class books that have sought and gained admittance into our public schools, the study of our civil polity has not yet been encumbered with treatises on this most important science While much has been done, during the last quarter of a century, by voluntary effort as well as by legislation, to diffuse the benefits of a practical education, it is remarkable that the science of government has hitherto received so little attention. To secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, was the leading object of the people of the United States in ordaining and establishing the constitution. That this constitution is fully adequate to the objects of its formation. has been satisfactorily proved by the experience of more than half a century. Whether the blessings of civil and religious freedom which our system of government is so happily adapted to secure shall be enjoyed by our posterity, will depend essentially upon what shall be done to qualify the rising generation of American youth for the duties and responsibilities of free men. The destinies of this great and growing republic will, in a few years, be committed to those who are now receiving instruction in our public schools How important, then, that the course of education pursued in these institutions, should embrace the study of the principles of civil government, especially of that government in which our youth will so soon be called to take a part! Our government is in theory a government of the people; to be such in fact, the people must know how to govern. The right of self-government can be valuable only as it is exercised intelligently. Questions of public policy involving constitutional principles, and even liberty itself, are not unfrequently decided by popular suffrage; and without a thorough knowledge of our constitutional jurisprudence, the very object |