IP OR TOWN.

INTRODUCTION.--We have learned that in the Southern States the civil
unit under various names may be described under the common name of the
civil district; that in the New England States it is called the town,
and in many of the Western States it is known as the township. As the
powers and functions of the town and the township are the same in kind,
differing only in extent, and as the two names are so often used, the
one for the other, we shall consider both under the head of the
township.

As a rule, the township possesses more extensive governmental functions
in the Eastern than in the Western States, and in the West it possesses
functions much more extensive than those of the civil district in the
South. Many of the most important powers that belong to the county in
the Southern States belong to the township in the Eastern and the
Western States.

FORMATION.--In the Eastern States the townships were formed in the
first settlement of the country, and afterward a number of townships
were combined to form the county. In the Western States the townships
were surveyed, and their boundaries marked, by agents of the general
government, before the Territories became States of the Union. As a
natural result, the townships of the Eastern States are irregular in
shape and size, while those of the Western States have a regular form,
each being about six miles square. In the Western States the township
is usually composed of thirty-six sections, each section being one mile
square, and containing six hundred and forty acres of land.

PURPOSES.--It is an old and true maxim that government should be
brought as near the people as possible. This the township system does.
In our country all power resides in the people, and the township
provides a convenient means of ascertaining their wishes and of
executing their will. The farther away the government, the less will
be the people's power; the nearer the government, the greater will be
the people's power. The township system enables each community to
attend to its own local affairs--a work which no other agency can do so
well--to remove readily and speedily its local public grievances, and
to obtain readily and speedily its local public needs.

CITIZENS.

The citizens of the township are the people living in it, whether
native or foreigners who have become citizens. It exists for their
benefit, to afford them a means of securing their rights and of
red