Author Description

Excerpt from Notes on U. S. Government and Administration The necessity that American youths should be made acquainted not only with the leading events connected with the history of their country, but also be taught something in regard to the nature and workings of the Government under which they live, is now well recognized. In the Grammy Schools (8th grades) of Washington, to meet such a want, there has been introduced a course in history of political parties and forms of central and local government in the United States. As a teacher in one of these schools, one of the authors has found himself considerably handicapped by the impossibility of obtaining a text-book covering the ground of the course prescribed, and suitable either for his own use or for use by the scholars. He has been obliged to collect information from various sources, and give it to his class largely by dictation. The only attempts which have been made to supply this want have been text-books on Civil Government, which have been merely expositions of the Constitution, and in which no effort has been made to give, what is still more important, a description of the actual workings of the machine of government, its divisions and organization. Especially here in Washington, in the very heart of government, in the midst of its practical workings, and surrounded by the great Departments, and Congress and the Supreme Court, is it important that the working features or administration of government should be known and understood. These notes are intended as an aid to teacher and scholar, and for use in a class, the members of which are already familiar with the leading events and names in United States history. They are a collection of notes on various subjects in United States history, government and administration, and give supplementary information which can be obtained only with great difficulty by most teachers, and which cannot be obtained at all by the scholars. It is intended