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FOR

IOWA SCHOOLS

BY

JESSE MACY, A.M.

PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

IN IOWA COLLEGE

REVISED EDITION

BOSTON, U.S.A.

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS

1897

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by

JESSE MACY,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A

PRESSWORK BY GINN & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.

PREFACE.

SIX years ago, in response to a request of some of the county superintendents of the state, a pamphlet on Civil Government in Iowa was prepared, the object of which was to assist teachers in giving oral instruction in local government in the state. Several thousand copies of the pamphlet have gone into the hands of the teachers of the state. Teachers have given oral instruction in local government; some have had marked success in carrying out the line of instruction indicated. But from the time the pamphlet was published the author has been met by the objection, coming from the best educators in all parts of the state, that the plan requires more than the average teacher can be expected to do. It is not to be expected. that the teacher can have a Code of the state at hand all the time and use it with ease and efficiency. There is need of a book containing more information, which may be used by both teacher and pupil.

In response to this demand the following Text-Book has been prepared. The author is still of the opinion that the best teaching in civil government may be done by those who learn directly from the actual government about them the lessons which they teach. No text-book can be made which can serve as a substitute for this direct observation and study. Wise teachers will illustrate the text by examples and incidents drawn from actual observations. They will encourage their pupils to observe for themselves the business and the methods of local governments about them.

A text-book may be of great value if used simply to furnish texts for original study and observation.

When Edward A. Freeman, England's great historian, visited America, he desired above all things to attend a New England town-meeting. In his opinion, the township is more important in the government and history of America than is the Congress of the United States and the Departments at Washington. Advanced scholarship is giving more attention to local government. The Federal Government is never understood by one who is not familiar with the government of a state. To attempt to give a knowledge of the Federal Government to one who is ignorant of the local government of a state, is to attempt an impossibility. In such an attempt more error than truth is likely to be taught. But both state and Federal Government are easily understood when the facts are presented in their true historical order.

Two years ago a trial edition of this Text-Book was published in pamphlet form, and a promise was made at that time that if the book should be found to meet the needs of the schools it would be put into a more permanent and convenient form. This edition is now published in fulfilment of the promise. The work has been revised and

errors corrected.

IOWA COLLEGE, April, 1887.

The destruction by fire of the plates of this book has furnished an opportunity of again revising the work and of making such changes as recent legislation has made desirable. Since there is a permanent demand for the book in many of the schools of the state, it has seemed best to provide for its publication by a well-known publishing house. I have, therefore, arranged with Ginn & Company for its future publication.

IOWA COLLEGE, March, 1891.

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